A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 12Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 12
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
HEATH. Move forward; we'll be contracted at the next alehouse,
be married to-morrow, and have half a dozen children the next
day. [_Exeunt._
SCENE V.
_Enter_ WELCOME, _a host_.
WEL. Sure, I have slept myself into an owl, and mistake night
for day? Can light dawn, and none see the way to my house for a
morning's draught? No groats due? Did all my mad lads go sober
to bed last night? Such a crime forfeits the city charter. What
ho! speak here, sirrah Bung.
_Enter_ BUNG.
BUNG. By and by! Who calls? O master, good morrow to you.
WEL. Why, it is day with thee too, Bung, and I no owl. Speak,
prythee; how long is't since thou couldst grope the tap out?
BUNG. O sir, this two hours. I have cut two dozen of toasts,
broached a new barrel of ale, washed all the cups and flagons,
made a fire i' th' George,[240] drained all the beer out of th'
Half-Moon the company left o' the floor last night, wiped down
all the tables, and have swept every room. The sun has been up
this hour almost.
WEL. Ay, there's an honest soaker; the old blade swills himself
i' th' sea all night, and quaffs from th' earth all day, and
that makes him have such a ruby face. But what, no customers
yet?
BUNG. Not one, sir; our old charwoman, Mary, has not called for
her morning's draught yet--she that's the tub for all men's
snuffs, and devours me more tappings than would serve to make
strong waters for an army.
WEL. Sure, all the beer that was drunk yesterday had poppy in't
instead of malt; and people are not yet awake, or else they
mistake my house for a prison, and my old lattice for grates.
Come, Bung, we'll give ourselves handsel; go, fill's a lusty
pot of ale. [_Exit_ BUNG.] This is a precious varlet, and has
tricks enou' to furnish all the tapsters between Charing Cross
and Fleet Bridge. The sleights of nicking and frothing he
scorns as too common, but supplies that defect with little jugs
and great glasses, and where he fears a dissolution, brings up
his flagon, begins the king's health, and with that decoy draws
on another dozen or two, till the whole royal progeny is gone
over. He wished it once as numerous as old Priam's was, and
another time had like to have been hanged for praying treason,
that there were a hundred kings i' th' land, that men might be
forced to drink all their healths for fear of displeasing any.
_Re-enter_ BUNG.
BUNG. Here, sir, here's a cup of stinging liquor; it is so
thick that you may slice it, and came drivelling out as if the
loving vessel had been loth to part with it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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