A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 02
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 02
English drama
JACK JUGGLER.
How now, art thou Careaway or not?
CAREAWAY.
By the Lord, I doubt, but sayest thou nay to that?
JACK JUGGLER.
Yea, marry, I tell thee, Care-away is my name.
CAREAWAY.
And, by these ten bones, mine is the same!
Or else tell me, if I be not he,
What my name from henceforth shall be?
JACK JUGGLER.
By my faith, the same that it was before,
When I lust to be Careaway no more:
Look well upon me, and thou shalt see as now,
That I am Jenkin Careaway, and not thou:
Look well upon me, and by every thing
Thou shalt well know that I am not lesing.
CAREAWAY.
I see it is so without any doubt;
But how the devil came it about?
Whoso in England looketh on him steadily,
Shall perceive plainly that he is I:
I have seen myself a thousand times in a glass;
But so like myself, as he is, never was;
He hath in every point my clothing and my gear;
My head, my cap, my shirt, and knotted hair,
And of the same colour: my eyes, nose, and lips:
My cheeks, chin, neck, feet, legs, and hips:
Of the same stature, and height, and age:
And is in every point Master Bongrace page,
That if he have a hole in his tail,
He is even I mine own self without any fail!
And yet when I remember, I wot not how,
The same man that I have ever been me thinketh I am now:
I know my master and his house, and my five wits I have:
Why then should I give credence to this foolish knave,
That nothing intendeth but me delude and mock?
For whom should I fear at my master's gate to knock?
JACK JUGGLER.
Thinkest thou I have said all this in game?
Go, or I shall send thee hence in the devil's name!
Avoid, thou lousy lurden and precious stinking slave,
That neither thy name knowest nor canst any master have!
Wine-shaken pillory-peeper,[191] of lice not without a peck,
Hence, or by Gods precious,[192] I shall break thy neck!
CAREAWAY.
Then, master, I beseech you heartily take the pain,
If I be found in any place, to bring me to me again.
Now is not this a wonderful case,
That no man shall lese himself so in any place?
Have any of you heard of such a thing heretofore?
No, nor never shall, I daresay, from henceforth any more.
JACK JUGGLER [_Aside_.]
While he museth and judgeth himself upon,
I will steal away for a while, and let him alone.
[_Exit Jack Juggler_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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