A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
English drama
BOLD. Not to your coughing[138] gear,
My lord. Though I be not so old or rich
As your lordship, yet I love a young wench as well.
WELL. As well as my lord? nay by my faith,
That you do not love a young wench as well as he:
I wonder you will be unmannerly to say so.
COUNT. Faith, Master Welltried, troth is I love them well, but they love
not me, um, um. You see what ill-luck I have with them, um, um. A pox o'
this cold, still say I.
WELL. Where got you this cold, my lord? it can get in nowhere, that I
can see, but at your nostrils or eyes; all the other parts are so
barricadoed with fur.
FEE. It got
In at his eyes, and made that birdlime there,
Where Cupid's wings do hang entangled.
COUNT. Is this your wife, that, um, um, um--shall be?
Master Bold, I'll be so bold as kiss her.
[WIDOW _and_ BOLD _whisper aside_.
FEE. Sir, forbear: I have one bold enough to kiss my lips. O old
coxcomb! kiss thine own natural son: 'tis worse than a Justice's lying
with his own daughter. But, Master Welltried, when will the widow break
this matter to me? [COUNT _sits in a chair, and falls asleep_.
WELL. Not till the very close of all: she dissembles it yet, because my
lord, your father, is here, and her other suitor Bold.
FEE. That's all one; he's o' th' plot o' my side.
WID. 'Tis needless, Master Bold; but I will do
Anything you require to satisfy you.
Why should you doubt I will forbid the banns,
For so your friend here told me? I should rather
Doubt that you will not marry.
BOLD. Madam, by heaven,
As fully I am resolv'd to marry now,
And will too, if you do not hinder it,
As ever lover was; only because
The world has taken notice of some passage
'Twixt you and me, and then to satisfy
My sweetheart here, who (poor soul!) is afraid,
To have some public disgrace put upon her,
I do require some small thing at your hands.
WID. Well, I will do it; and this profess besides;
Married, you shall as welcome be to me
As mine own brother; and yourself, fair lady,
Even as myself, both to my board and bed.
WELL. Ah, ah! how like you that?
FEE. Now she begins.
Abundant thanks unto your widowhood.
Zounds! my father's asleep on's wedding-day:
I wonder'd, where his cough was all this while.
_Enter_ INGEN, _like a doctor: a_ PARSON, BROTHER, LORD PROUDLY, SELDOM,
MISTRESS SELDOM, HUSBAND, WIFE, _and_ SUBTLE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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