A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 02
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 02
English drama
HYPOCRISY.
What, and it were known? it is no deadly[136] sin:
As for my part, I do not greatly care,
So that they find not your proper buttocks bare.
ABHOMINABLE LIVING.
Now much fie upon you! how bawdy[137] you are!
I-wis, Friendship, it mought[138] have been spoken at twice:
What think you, for your saying that the people will surmise?
JUVENTUS.
Who dare be so bold us to despise?
And if I may hear a knave speak one word,
I will run thorough his cheeks with my sword.
FELLOWSHIP.
This is an earnest fellow, of God's Word!
See, I pray you, how he is disposed to fight!
JUVENTUS.
Why should I not, and if my cause be right?
What, and if a knave do me beguile,
Shall I stand crouching like an owl?
No, no; then you might count me a very cow;
I know what belongeth to God's law as well as you.
ABHOMINABLE LIVING.
Your wit therein greatly I do allow;
For, and if I were a man, as you are,
I would not stick to give a blow,
To teach other knaves to beware,
I beshrew you twice, and if you do spare,
But lay load on the flesh, whatsoever befall,
You have strength enough to do it with all.
FELLOWSHIP.
Let us depart, and if that we shall;
Come on, masters, we twain will go before.
JUVENTUS.
Nay, nay, my friend, stop there;
It is not you, that shall have her away,
She shall go with me, and if she go to-day--
HYPOCRISY.
She shall go with none of you, I dare well say;
ABHOMINABLE LIVING.
To forsake any of your company I would be very loth;
Therefore I will follow you all three.
HYPOCRISY.
Now I beshrew his heart, that to that will not agree;
But yet because the time shall not seem very long,
Ere we depart, let us have a merry song.
_They sing as followeth_:
Why should not youth fulfil his own mind,
As the course of nature doth him bind?
Is not everything ordained to do his kind?
_Report me to you, report me to you_.
Do not the flowers spring fresh and gay,
Pleasant and sweet in the month of[139] May?
And when their time cometh, they fade away.
_Report me to you, report me to you_.
Be not the trees in winter bare?
Like unto their kind, such they are;
And when they spring, their fruits declare.
_Report me to you, report me to you_.
What should youth do with the fruits of age,
But live in pleasure in his[140] passage?
For when age cometh, his lusts will suage.
_Report me to you, report me to you_.
Why should not youth fulfil his own mind,
As the course of nature doth him bind? &c.
[_They go forth_.
_Here entereth_ GOOD COUNSEL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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