A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
English drama
THROAT. Ask the butler else.
Therefore, widow, release me; for by no law,
Statute, or book-case of _Vicesimo_
_Edwardi secundi_, nor by the statute
Of _Tricesimo Henrici sexti_,
Nor by any book-case of _decimo_
Of the late queen, am I accessory,
Part, or party-confederate, abettor,
Helper, seconder, persuader, forwarder,
Principal, or maintainer of this late theft,
But by law. I forward, and she willing,
Clapp'd up the match, and by a good statute
Of _Decimo tertio Richardi quarti_,
She is my leeful, lawful, and my true
Married wife, _teste_ Lieutenant Beard.
W. SMALL. Who lives would think that you could prate so fast,
Your hands being bound behind you? foot, he talks
With as much ease, as if he were in's shirt.
OLIVER. I am witness thou hadst the heir.
JUS. TUT. So am I.
THROAT. And so is my man Dash.
BOUT. Hear me but speak;
Sit you as judges. Undo the lawyer's hands,
That he may freely act, and I'll be bound
That William Small-shanks shall put your throat to silence,
And overthrow him at his own weapon.
JUS. TUT. Agreed: take each his place, and hear the case
Argued betwixt them two.
OMNES. Agreed, agreed.
JUS. TUT. Now, Throat, or never, stretch yourself.
THROAT. Fear not.
W. SMALL. Here stand I for my client this gentleman.
THROAT. I for the widow.
W. SMALL. Begin.
THROAT. Right worshipful,
I say that William Small-shanks, madman,
Is by a statute made in Octavo
Of Richard Cordelion guilty to the law
Of felony for stealing this lady's heir.
That he stole her, the proof is most pregnant--
He brought her to my house, confessed himself
He made great means to steal her. I lik'd her,
And finding him a novice (truth to tell),
Married her myself, and (as I said),
By a statute Richardi Quarti,
She is my lawful wife.
W. SMALL. For my client
I say, the wench I brought unto your house
Was not the daughter to rich Sommerfield.
OLIVER. What proof of that?
W. SMALL. This gentleman.
THROAT. Tut, tut,
He is a party in the cause. But, sir,
If't were not the daughter to this good widow,
Who was it? answer that.
W. SMALL. An arrant whore,
Which you have married, and she is run
Away with all your jewels--this is true;
And this Lieutenant Beard can testify:
It was the wench I kept in Hosier Lane.
BEARD. What, was it she?
W. SMALL. The very same.
JUS. TUT. Speak, sirrah Beard, if all he says be true?
BEARD. She said she was a punk, a rampant whore,
Which in her time had been the cause of parting
Some fourteen bawds; he kept her in the suburbs.
Yet I do think this wench was not the same.
BOUT. The case is clear with me.
OMNES. O strange!
THROAT. Sir, sir.
This is not true: how liv'd you in the suburbs,
And scap'd so many searches?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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