A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 02
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 02
English drama
ISMAEL. Come on, but first let us have a song.
DALILAH. I am content, so that it be not long.
[_Iniquity and Dalilah sing_:
INIQUITY. _Gold locks,
She must have knocks,
Or else I do her wrong_.
DALILAH. _When ye have your will
Ye were best lie still,
The winter nights be long_.
INIQUITY. _When I ne may,
Another assay;
I will take it for no wrong_:
DALILAH. _Then, by the rood,
A bone in your hood
I shall put, ere it be long_.
ISMAEL. She matcheth you, sirrah!
INIQUITY. By Gog's blood, she is the best whore in England.
DALILAH. It is knavishly praised; give me your hand.
INIQUITY. I would thou hadst such another.
ISMAEL. By the mass, rather than forty pound, brother.
INIQUITY. Here, sirs, come on; seven--[_They set him_.
Eleven[225] at all[226]--
ISMAEL. Do ye nick us?[227] beknave your noly!--
INIQUITY. Ten mine--
ISMAEL (_casteth dice_). Six mine,
Have at it, and it were for all my father's kine.
It is lost by his wounds,[228] and ten to one!
INIQUITY. Take the dice, Dalilah, cast on--
[_She casteth, and they set_.
DALILAH. Come on; five!
Thrive at fairest--
ISMAEL. Gup, whore, and I at rest [_he loseth_].
By Gog's blood, I ween God and the devil be against me--
INIQUITY. If th' one forsake thee, th' other will take thee!
ISMAEL. Then is he a good fellow; I would not pass,[229]
So that I might bear a rule in hell, by the mass:
To toss firebrands at these pennyfathers'[230] pates;
I would be porter, and receive them at the gates.
In boiling lead and brimstone I would seeth them each one:
The knaves have all the money, good fellows have none.
DALILAH. Play, brother, have ye lost all your money now?
ISMAEL. Yea, I thank that knave and such a whore as thou.
'Tis no matter, I will have money, or I will sweat;
By Gog's blood, I will rob the next I meet--
Yea, and it be my father.
[_He goeth out_.
INIQUITY. Thou boy, by the mass, ye will climb the ladder,
Ah, sirrah, I love a wench that can be wily,
She perceived my mind with a twink of mine eye,
If we two play boody on any man,
We will make him as bare as Job anon,
Well, Dalilah, let see what ye have won.
[_They tell_.
DALILAH. Sir, I had ten shillings when I begon,
And here is all--every farthing.
INIQUITY. Ye lie like a whore, ye have won a pound!
DALILAH. Then the devil strike me to the ground!
INIQUITY. I will feel your pocket, by your leave, mistress--
DALILAH. Away, knave, not mine, by the mass--
INIQUITY. Yes, by God, and give you this to boot--
[_He giveth her a box_.
DALILAH. Out, whoreson knave, I beshrew thy heart-root!
Wilt thou rob me and beat me too?
INIQUITY. In the way of correction, but a blow or two!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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