A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 01
English drama
Come to this pardon, if ye will be in bliss--
FRIAR.
Certes, we poor friars are the same--
PARDONER.
This is the pardon, which ye cannot miss--
FRIAR.
We friars daily take pain, I say--
PARDONER.
This is the pardon, which shall men's souls win--
FRIAR.
We friars daily do both fast and pray--
PARDONER.
This is the pardon, the ridder of your sin--
FRIAR.
We friars travail and labour every hour--
PARDONER.
This is the pardon that purchaseth all grace--
FRIAR.
We friars take pain for the love of our Saviour--
PARDONER.
This is a pardon for all manner of trespass--
FRIAR.
We friars also go on limitation[174]--
PARDONER.
This is the pardon, of which all mercy doth spring--
FRIAR.
For to preach to every Christian nation--
PARDONER.
This is the pardon, that to heaven shall ye bring--
FRIAR.
But I say, thou Pardoner, thou wilt keep silence soon!--
PARDONER.
Yea, it is like to be, when I have done!--
FRIAR.
Marry, therefore the more knave art thou, I say,
That perturbest the Word of God, I say;
For neither thyself wilt hear God's doctrine,
Ne suffer other their ears to incline,
Wherefore our Saviour, in His holy Scripture,
Giveth thee thy judgment, thou cursed creature,
Speaking to thee after this manner:
"Maledictus qui audit verbum Dei negligenter"--
Woe be that man, saith our Lord, that giveth no audience,
Or heareth the Word of God with negligence.
PARDONER.
Now thou hast spoken all, sir daw,
I care not for thee an old straw;
I had liever thou were hanged up with a rope,
Than I, that am come from the Pope,
And thereby God's minister, while thou standest and prate,
Should be fain to knock without the gate.
Therefore preach hardly thy bellyful,
But I nevertheless will declare the Pope's bull.
FRIAR.
Now, my friends, I have afore showed ye--
PARDONER.
Now, my masters, as I have afore declared--
FRIAR.
That good it is to give your charity--
PARDONER.
That pardoners from you may not be spared--
FRIAR.
And further I have at length to you told--
PARDONER.
Now hereafter shall follow and ensue--
FRIAR.
Who be these people that ye receive should--
PARDONER.
That followeth of pardons the great virtue--
FRIAR.
That is to say us friars poor--
PARDONER.
We pardoners for your souls be as necessary--
FRIAR.
That for our living must beg fro door to door--
PARDONER.
As is the meat for our bodies hungry--
FRIAR.
For of our own proper we have no proper thing--
PARDONER.
For pardons is the thing that bringeth men to heaven--
FRIAR.
But that we get of devout people's giving--
PARDONER.
Pardons delivereth them fro the sins seven--
FRIAR.
And in our place be friars three score and three--
PARDONER.
Pardons for every crime may dispense--
FRIAR.
Which only live on men's charity--
PARDONER.
Pardon purchaseth grace for all offence--
FRIAR.
For we friars wilful charity profess--
PARDONER.
Yea, though ye had slain both father and mother--
FRIAR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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