A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
English drama
SIR JOHN. No oaths, no oaths, good neighbour Smug. We'll wet
our lips together, and hug; Carouse in private, and elevate
the heart, and the liver, and the lights--and the lights, mark
you me--within us: for, hem! grass and hay! we are all mortal;
let's live till we die, and be merry; and there's an end.
BANKS. But to our former motion about stealing some venison;
whither go we?
SIR JOHN. Into the forest, neighbour Banks: into Brian's walk,
the mad-keeper.
SMUG. Blood! I'll tickle your keeper.
BANKS. I' faith, thou art always drunk when we have need of
thee.
SMUG. Need of me! heart! you shall have need of me always,
while there is iron in an anvil.
BANKS. Master Parson, may the smith go (think you), being in
this taking?
SMUG. Go! I'll go, in spite of all the bells in Waltham.
SIR JOHN. The question is good, neighbour Banks--let me see:
the moon shines to-night,--there's not a narrow bridge betwixt
this and the forest,--his brain may be settled ere night: he
may go, he may go, neighbour Banks. Now we want none but the
company of mine host Blague, of the George at Waltham: if he
were here, our consort were full. Look where comes my good
host, the Duke of Norfolk's man! And how? and how? Ahem! grass
and hay! we are not yet mortal; let us live till we die, and be
merry; and there's an end.
_Enter_ HOST.
HOST. Ha! my Castilian dialogues; and art thou in breath still,
boy? Miller, doth the match hold? Smith, I see by thy eyes
thou hast been reading a little Geneva print: but wend[272]
we merrily to the forest, to steal some of the king's deer?
I'll meet you at the time appointed. Away, I have knights and
colonels at my house, and must tend the Hungarians.[273] If
we be scared in the forest, we'll meet in the church-porch at
Enfield: is't correspondent?
BANKS. 'Tis well; but how, if any of us should be taken?
SMUG. He shall have ransom, by my sword.
HOST. Tush, the knave keepers are my bona socias[274] and my
pensioners. Nine o'clock! Be valiant, my little Gogmagogs;
I'll fence with all the justices in Hertfordshire. I'll have a
buck, till I die; I'll slay a doe, while I live. Hold your bow
straight and steady: I serve the good Duke of Norfolk.
SMUG. O rare! who-ho-ho, boy!
SIR JOHN. Peace, neighbour Smug. You see this boor, a boor
of the country, an illiterate boor, and yet the citizen of
good-fellows. Come, let's provide: ahem! grass and hay! we are
not yet all mortal; we'll live till we die, and be merry; and
there's an end. Come, Smug.
SMUG. Good night, Waltham--who-ho-ho, boy! [_Exeunt._
_Enter the Knights and Gentlemen from breakfast again._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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