A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 06
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 06
English drama
FRAUD.
Not if thou be wise: thou wilt not tarry the reckoning, for seest
thou not us three, Dissimulation, Simony, and myself?
USURY.
Yes: what means these canvas suits? Will ye be sailors?
FRAUD.
Usury, make one: this is our intent. Let's see that none hear us now.
The Spaniards are coming, thou hearest, with great power: here is no
living for us in London; men are growen so full of conscience and
religion, that Fraud, Dissimulation, and Simony are deciphered, and
being deciphered are also despised, and therefore we will slip to the
sea, and meet and join with the enemy; and if they conquer, as they may,
for they are a great army by report, our credit may rise again with
them: if they fail and retire, we may either go with them and live in
Spain, where we and such good fellows are tolerated and used, or come
slyly again hither, so long as none knows but friends.
USURY.
But will you do thus, you two?
DISSIMULATION.
And thou too, I hope: why, what should we do?
USURY.
Whatsoever ye do, be not traitors to your native country.
SIMONY.
'Tis not our native country, thou knowest. I, Simony, am a Roman:
Dissimulation, a mongrel--half an Italian, half a Dutchman: Fraud so,
too--half French and half Scotish; and thy parents were both Jews,
though thou wert born in London, and here, Usury, thou art cried out
against by the preachers. Join with us, man, to better thy state, for
in Spain preaching toucheth us not.
USURY.
To better my state? Nay, to alter my state, for here, where I am,
I know the government: here I can live for all their threat'ning.
If strangers prevail, I know not their laws nor their usage: they
may be oppressors, and take all I have; and it is like they are so,
for they seek that's not their own. Therefore here will I stay,
sure to keep what I have, rather than be a traitor upon hap and
had-I-wist: and stay you, if ye be wise, and pray as I pray, that
the preachers and all other good men may die, and then we shall
flourish; but never trust to strangers' courtesy.
FRAUD.
We shall trust but to our friends and kin. You'll not go with us, yet
for old acquaintance keep counsel; betray us not, for we'll be gone to
sea. I am afraid yon foolish knave have belaid the streets for us.
USURY.
Let me go afore ye: if any such thing be, I'll give ye inkling.
[_Exit_.
FRAUD.
Do: farewell, Usury: and as he goes one way, we'll go another.
Follow, sirs: never trust a shrinker, if he be your own brother.
[_Exeunt omnes_.
_Enter the three Lords with their Pages and_ FEALTY, _a Herald,
before them, his coat having the arms of London before, and an
olive tree behind_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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