A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10
English drama
WAL. Prythee me no prythees.
Here is my wife! 'sblood, touch her, if thou dar'st.
Hear'st thou, I'll lie with her before thy face
Against the Cross in Cheap--here--anywhere,
What, you old crafty fox, you--
HEIGH. Ned, stop there.
PIS. Nay, nay, speak out; bear witness, gentlemen.
Where's Mouche? charge my musket! bring me my bill!
For here are some that mean to rob thy master.
_Enter_ ANTHONY.
I am a fox with you; well, Jack-sauce,
Beware, lest for a goose I prey on you.
[_Exeunt_ PISARO _and daughters_.
In, baggages! Mouche, make fast the door.
WAL. A vengeance on ill luck!
ANTH. What, never storm,
But bridle anger with wise government.
HEIGH. Whom? Anthony, our friend! Ah, now our hopes
Are found too light to balance our ill-haps.
ANTH. Tut, ne'er say so, for Anthony
Is not devoid of means to help his friends.
WAL. 'Swounds! what a devil made he forth so late?
I'll lay my life, 'twas he that feigned to sleep,
And we, all unsuspicious, term'd a rogue.
O God! had I but known him, if I had,
I would have writ such letters with my sword
Upon the bald skin of his parching pate,
That he should ne'er have liv'd to cross us more.
ANTH. These menaces are vain, and helpeth nought;
But I have, in the depth of my conceit,
Found out a more material stratagem.
Hark, Master Walgrave, your's craves quick despatch,
About it straight, stay not to say farewell.
[_Exit_ WALGRAVE.
You, Master Heigham, hie you to your chamber,
And stir not forth: my shadow, or myself,
Will in the morning early visit you.
Build on my promise, sir, and so good night.
[_Exit_ HEIGHAM.
Last, yet as great in love as to the first,
If you remember, once I told a jest
How, feigning to be sick, a friend of mine
Possess'd the happy issue of his love.
That counterfeited humour must you play;
I need not to instruct, you can conceive,
Use Master Brown, your host, as chief in this:
But first, to make the matter seem more true,
Sickly and sadly bid the churl good night.
I hear him at the window: there he is.
_Enter_ PISARO _above_.
Now for a trick to overreach the devil.
I tell you, sir, you wrong my master much,
And then to make amends, you give hard words:
H' hath been a friend to you; nay, more, a father.
I promise you, 'tis most ungently done.
PIS. Ay, well said, Mouche; now I see thy love,
And thou shalt see mine one day, if I live.--
None but my daughter, sir, hangs for your tooth:
[_Aside._
I'd rather see them hang'd first, ere you get them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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