A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 03
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 03
English drama
C. CUSTANCE. Good wenches would not so ramp abroad idly,
But keep within doors, and ply their work earnestly.
If one would speak with me, that is a man likely,
Ye shall have right good thank to bring me word quickly;
But otherwise with messages to come in post,
From henceforth I promise you shall be to your cost.
Get you into your work.
TIB. AND ANNOT. Yes, forsooth.
C. CUSTANCE. Hence, both twain.
And let me see you play me such a part again!
[_Ex. Tib. and Annot._
TRUEPENNY (_re-entering_). Mistress, I have run past the far end of
the street,
Yet can I not yonder crafty boy see nor meet.
C. CUSTANCE. No!
TRUEPENNY. Yet I looked as far beyond the people
As one may see out of the top of Paul's steeple.
C. CUSTANCE. Hence, in at doors, and let me no more be vext!
TRUEPENNY. Forgive me this one fault, and lay on for the next.[102]
C. CUSTANCE. Now will I in too, for I think, so God me mend,
This will prove some foolish matter in the end. [_Exeat._
FOOTNOTES:
[87] The idea is borrowed from Alexander's celebrated reply to
Parmenio.--_Cooper._
[88] A night has passed between the first and second acts.--_Cooper._
[89] A tune: generally a mournful one.
[90] A flageolet.
[91] A lute, or guitar.
[92]
"What have ye of the Lord Dakers?
He maketh vs _Jacke Rakers_;
He says we are but crakers."
--Skelton's _Why come ye not to Court?_
See also the same author's "Speke Parrot."--_Cooper._
[93] _Passe-temps_, pastime, sport. So in act iv., sc. vi.--
"Do ye think, Dame Custance,
That in this wooing I have meant ought but _pastance_?"
Again, act v., scene 2--
"Truly, most dear spouse, nought was done but for _pastance_."
--_Cooper._
[94] [Shaken.]
[95] [In the original, D. Doughty is made to go out.]
[96] [Perhaps a sort of allusion to the proverb, To go to Rome with a
mortar on one's head.]
[97] A Lombard's touchstone, to try gold and silver. See "Richard
III.," act iv., sc. 2.--_Cooper._
[98] A proverbial expression, relating to a still common
practice.--_Cooper._
[99] Tib and Annot would seem to enter here.--_Cooper._
[100] A fit usually means the division of a ballad, but here it is to
be understood as a song.--_Cooper._
[101] _i.e._, _Abide_ the consequences, rue, or suffer for. See "A
Midsummer Night's Dream," act iii., sc. 2.--_Cooper._
ACTUS III., SCÆNA 1.
MATTHEW MERRYGREEK.
M. MERRY. Now say this again: he hath somewhat to doing
Which followeth the trace of one that is wooing;
Specially that hath no more wit in his head,
Than my cousin Roister Doister withal is led.
I am sent in all haste to espy and to mark,
How our letters and tokens are likely to wark.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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