A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 09
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 09
English drama
BUT. Ride with more men, good knight.
HAR. It shall teach me wit.
[_Exit_. HARCOP _with followers_.
BUT. So, if this be not played a weapon beyond a scholar's prize, let me
be hissed at. Now to the next. Come out, you hedgehogs!
THOM. O butler! thou deserv'st to be chronicled for this.
BUT. Do not belie me, if I had any right, I deserve to be hanged for't.
But come, down with your dust, our morning's purchase.[402]
THOM. Here 'tis; thou hast played well; thou deserv'st two shares in it.
BUT. Three hundred pound! a pretty breakfast: many a man works hard all
his days, and never sees half the money. But come, though it be badly
got, it shall be better bestowed. But do ye hear, gallants? I have not
taught you this trade to get your livings by. Use it not; for if you
do, though I 'scaped by the nut-tree, be sure you'll speed by the rope.
But for your pains at this time, there's a hundred pounds for you; how
you shall bestow it, I'll give you instructions. But do you hear? look
ye, go not to your gills, your punks, and your cock-tricks with it. If I
hear you do, as I am an honest thief, though I helped you now out of the
briars, I'll be a means yet to help you to the gallows. How the rest
shall be employed, I have determined, and by the way I'll make you
acquainted with it.
To steal is bad, but taken, where is store;
The fault's the less, being done to help the poor.
[_Exeunt_.
_Enter_ WENTLOE, BARTLEY, _and_ ILFORD _with a letter in his hand_.
ILF. Sure, I have said my prayers, and lived virtuously o' late, that
this good fortune's befallen me. Look, gallants, I am sent for to come
down to my father's burial.
WEN. But dost mean to go?
ILF. Troth, no; I'll go down to take possession of his land: let the
country bury him, and they will. I'll stay here a while, to save charge
at his funeral.
BAR. And how dost feel thyself, Frank, now thy father is dead?
ILF. As I did before, with my hands; how should I feel myself else? but
I'll tell you news, gallants.
WEN. What's that? dost mean now to serve God?
ILF. Faith, partly; for I intend shortly to go to church, and from
thence do faithful service to one woman.
_Enter_ BUTLER.
BUT. Good! I have met my flesh-hooks together. [_Aside_.]
BAR. What, dost mean to be married?
ILF. Ay, mongrel, married.
BUT. That's a bait for me. [_Aside_.]
ILF. I will now be honestly married.
WEN. It's impossible, for thou hast been a whoremaster this seven year.
ILF. 'Tis no matter; I will now marry, and to some honest woman too; and
so from hence her virtues shall be a countenance to my vices.
BAR. What shall she be, prythee?
ILF. No lady, no widow, nor no waiting gentlewoman, for under protection
Ladies may lard their husbands' heads,
Widows will woodcocks make,
And chambermaids of servingmen
Learn that they'll never forsake.
WEN. Who wilt thou wed then, prythee?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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