A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
English drama
Y. LORD W. I thought he was a cheater, e'er since I heard two or three
Templars[400] swear at dice, the last Christmas, that the devil had got
all.
_Enter_ HADDIT _and_ LIGHTFOOT.
HAD. My kind acquaintance, joy to thy good success.
CAR. Noble and freeborn Haddit, welcome.
LIGHT. Master Hog, good day.
HOG. [Good day], for I have had a bad night on't.
LIGHT. Sickness is incident to age: what, be the writings ready to be
sealed we entreated last day?
HOG. Yes, I think they are; would the scrivener were paid for making
them.
LIGHT. He shall be so, though I do't myself. Is the money put up, as I
appointed?
HOG. Yes, 'tis put up: confusion seize the receivers!
LIGHT. Heaven bless us all! what mean you, sir?
HOG. O sir, I was robb'd this night of all I had;
My daughter too is lost, and I undone.
LIGHT. Marry, God forbid! after what manner, I pray?
HOG. O, to recount, sir, will breed more ruth
Than did the tale of that high Trojan duke[401]
To the sad-fated Carthaginian queen.
HAD. What exclamation's that?
LIGHT. What you will grieve at, coz;
Your worshipful friend, Master Hog, is robb'd.
HAD. Robb'd! by whom, or how?
LIGHT. O, there's the grief: he knows not whom to suspect.
HAD. The fear of hell o'ertake them, whosoe'er they be. But where's your
daughter? I hope she is safe.
_Enter_ REBECCA.
HOG. Thank heaven, I see she's now so. Where hast thou been, my girl?
REB. Alas! sir, carried by amazement I know not where; pursued by the
robbers, forced to fly amazed, affrighted, through the city streets, to
seek redress; but that lay fast asleep in all men's houses, nor would
lend an ear to the distressed.
HAD. O heavy accident! but see, you grieve too much,
Being your daughter's found, for th' other loss,
Since 'tis the will of heaven to give and take,
Value it as nothing: you have yet sufficient
To live in bless'd content, had you no more
But my small mortgage for your daughter here,
Whom I have ever lov'd in dear'st affection.
If so you please so much to favour me,
I will accept her, spite of poverty,
And make her jointure of some store of land,
Which, by the loss of a good aged friend,
Late fell to me: what, is't a match or no?
HOG. It is.
HAD. Then I'll have witness on't: my lord and gentlemen,
Please you draw near to be here witnesses
To a wish'd contract 'twixt this maid and I.
OMNES. We are all willing.
HOG. Then, in the presence of you all, I give my daughter freely to this
gentleman as wife; and to show how much I stand affected to him, for
dowry with her, I do back restore his mortgaged lands; and, for their
loves, I vow ever hereafter to detest, renounce, loathe, and abhor all
slavish avarice,
Which doth ascend from hell, sent by the devil,
To be 'mongst men the actor of all evil.
OMNES. A bless'd conversion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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