A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 06
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 06
English drama
SIMPLICITY.
Adieu, mounsier. Adieu, fool: sell such gold buttons and rings for so
little money. Good Lord! what pennyworths these strangers can afford.
Now, wife, let me see: ten pound! when we have ten pound, we'll have
a large shop, and sell all manner of wares, and buy more of these,
and get ten pound more, and then ten pound, and ten pound, and twenty
pound. Then thou shalt have a taffata hat and a guarded gown, and I a
gown and a new cap, and a silk doublet, and a fair hose[260].
PENURY.
I thank ye, husband. Well, till then look well to your wares, and I'll
ply my waterbearing, and save and get, and get and save, till we be
rich. But bring these wares home every night with ye.
SIMPLICITY.
Tush! I shall sell them afore night for ten pounds. Gow, wife, gow;
I may tell you[261], I am glad this French fellow came with these
wares: we had fall'n to examining the ale-score else, and then we had
fall'n out, and the ale-wife and my wife had scolded. [_Aside_.] Well,
a man may see, he that's ordained to be rich shall be rich: gow, woman.
[_Exeunt_.
_Enter_ NEMO _and the three_ LORDS _as though they had been chiding_.
NEMO.
From whence, good lords, grew this hot argument?
POLICY.
Thou knowest already; yet, if thou wilt hear,
For this we strive: fond Pleasure makes account,
Summing his bills without an auditor[262],
That Lady Lucre ought of right be his.
PLEASURE.
So I affirm, and so I will maintain,
That Pleasure ought by right Dame Lucre have,
To bear the charge of sports and of delights.
POMP.
Nay, to support the haughty magnificence
And lordly Pomp of London's excellence
Befits it rather Lucre join with me,
By whom her honour shall be more advanced.
POLICY.
More fit for Pomp than Pleasure; but most fit
That Policy with Lucre should be matched,
As guerdon of my studies and my cares,
And high employments in the commonwealth.
PLEASURE.
What pleasure can be fostered without cost?
POMP.
What pomp or port without respect of gain?
POLICY.
What policy without preferment lives?
PLEASURE.
Pleasure must have Lucre.
POMP.
Pomp hath need of Lucre.
POLICY.
Policy merits Lucre.
PLEASURE.
Pleasure dies without Lucre.
POMP.
Pomp decays without Lucre.
POLICY.
Policy droops without Lucre.
NEMO.
Thus, lords, you show your imperfections,
Subject to passions, straining honour's bounds.
Be well-advis'd: you promised to be rul'd,
And have those dames by me disposed to you,
But since I see that human humours oft
Makes men forgetful of their greater good,
Be here a while: Dame Lucre shall be brought
By me to choose which lord she liketh best,
So you allow her choice with patience.
PLEASURE.
Go: we abide thy doom till thy return. [_Exit_.
POMP.
If Lucre be not mad, she will be mine.
POLICY.
If she regard her good, she will be mine.
PLEASURE.
If she love happy life, she will be mine:
Women love Pleasure.
POMP.
Women love Pomp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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