A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
English drama
DRAWER. Why, what d'ye think of me? am I an infidel, a Turk, a pagan, a
Saracen? I have been at Bess Turnup's, and she swears all the
gentlewomen went to see a play at the Fortune,[104] and are not come in
yet, and she believes they sup with the players.
TEAR. Damn me, we must kill all those rogues: we shall never keep a
whore honest for them.
BOTS. Go your ways, sirrah. We'll have but a gallon apiece, and an ounce
of tobacco.
DRAWER. I beseech you, let it be but pottles.[105]
SPILL. 'Sheart! you rogue. [_Exit_ DRAWER.
_Enter_ WELLTRIED _and_ LORD FEESIMPLE.
WHORE. Master Welltried! welcome as my soul.
_Enter_ DRAWER, _with wine, plate and tobacco_.
BOTS. Noble lad, how dost thou?
SPILL. As welcome as the tobacco and the wine, boy.
TEAR. Damn me, thou art.
FEE. Bless me (save you, gentlemen), they have not one face among 'em! I
could wish myself well from them: from them: I would I had put out
something upon my return; I had as lief be at Barmuthoes.[106]
WELL. Pray, welcome this gentleman.
SPILL. Is he valiant? [_Aside._
WELL. Faith, he's a little faulty that way; somewhat of a bashful and
backward nature, yet I have brought him amongst you, because he hath a
great desire to be fleshed.
[_Aside._
FEE. Yes, faith, sir, I have a great desire to be fleshed; now Master
Welltried said he would bring me to the only fleshmongers in the town.
WELL. Sir, he cannot endure the sight of steel. [_Aside._
WHORE. Not steel? zounds! [_Claps his sword over the table._
FEE. Now I am going! [_Faints._
BOTS. Here's to you, sir. I'll fetch you again with a cup of sack.
FEE. I pledge you, sir, and begin to you in a cup of claret.
WELL. Hark you, my lord: what will you say if I make you beat all these
out of the room?
[_Aside._
FEE. What will I say? why, I say it is impossible; 'tis not in mortal
man.
[_Aside._]
WELL. Well, drink apace: if any brave you, outbrave him; I'll second
you. They are a company of cowards, believe me.
[_Aside._]
FEE. By this light, I would they were else: if I thought so, I would be
upon the jack[107] of one of 'em instantly, that same little Damn me.
But, Master Welltried, if they be not very valiant, or dare not fight,
how came they by such cuts and gashes, and such broken faces? [_Aside._]
WELL. Why, their whores strike 'em with cans and glasses, and
quart-pots: if they have nothing by 'em, they strike 'em with the pox,
and you know that will lay one's nose as flat as a basket-hilt dagger.
[_Aside._]
FEE. Well, let me alone. [_Aside._]
TEAR. This bully dares not drink.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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