A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
English drama
"Rise, madam, rise and give me light,
Whom darkness still will cover,
And ignorance, darker than night,
Till thou smile on thy lover.
All want day, till thy beauty rise,
For the grey morn breaks from thine eyes!"[119]
Now sing it, sirrah. [_The song sung by the_ BOY.
SUB. 'Sfoot, who's this? young Master Bold! God save you; you are an
early stirrer.
BOLD. You say true, Master Subtle, I have been early up,
But, as God help me, I was never the near.[120]
SUB. Where have you been, sir?
BOLD. What's that to you, sir? at a woman's labour?
SUB. Very good: I ne'er took you for a man-midwife[121] before.
BOLD. The truth is, I have been up all night at dice, and lost my
clothes. Good morrow, Master Subtle. Pray God the watch be broke up: I
thank you for my music.
[_Exit._
SUB. 'Tis palpable, by this air: her husband being abroad, Bold has lain
with her, and is now conveyed out of doors. Is this the Lady Perfect,
with a pox? The truth is, her virtuous chastity began to make me make a
miracle of her still holding out to me, notwithstanding her husband's
most barbarous usage of her; but now, indeed, 'tis no marvel, since
another possesses her.
Well, madam, I will go find out your cuckold;
I'll be reveng'd on you, and tell a tale
Shall tickle him. This is a cheat in love
Not to be borne: another to beguile
Me of the game I play'd for all this while. [_Exit._
SCENE II.
_Enter_ WELLTRIED, _and_ BOLD _putting on his doublet;_ FEESIMPLE
_asleep on a bed, as in_ BOLD'S _chamber_.
WELL. You see, we made bold with your lodging: indeed, I did assure
myself you were fast for this night.
BOLD. But how the devil came this fool in your company?
WELL. 'Sfoot, man, I carried him last night among the roarers to flesh
him; and, by this light, he got drunk, and beat 'em all.
BOLD. Why, then he can endure the sight of a drawn sword now?
WELL. O God, sir, I think in my conscience he will eat steel shortly. I
know not how his conversion will hold after this sleep; but, in an hour
or two last night, he was grown such a little damn-me, that I protest I
was afraid of the spirit that I myself had raised in him. But this
other matter--of your expulsion thus, mads me to the heart. Were you in
bed with her?
BOLD. In bed, by heaven.
WELL. I'll be hanged, if you were not busy too soon: you should have let
her slept first.
BOLD. Zounds! man, she put her hand to my breasts, and swore I was no
maid: now I, being eager to prove her words true, took that hint, and
would violently have thrust her hand lower, when her thought, being
swifter than my strength, made her no sooner imagine that she was
betrayed, but she leaps out of the bed, whips me down a sword that hung
by, and, as if fortitude and justice had met to assist her, spite of all
argument, fair or foul, she forced me away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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