A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
+Dor.+ Why, like a lady; for I do mean
To have you knighted.
+Ware.+ I shall rise to honour.
+Dor.+ D'you think I'll have your factor move before me,
Like a device stirr'd by a wire, or like
Some grave clock wound up to a regular pace?
+Ware.+ No, you shall have your usher, dame, to stalk
Before you, like a buskin'd prologue,[259] in
A stately, high, majestic motion, bare.
+Dor.+ I do expect it: yes, sir, and my coach,
Six horses and postillion; four are fit
For them that have a charge of children: you
And I shall never have any.
+Ware.+ If we have,
All Middlesex is father.
+Dor.+ Then I'll have
My footman to run by me when I visit,
Or take the air sometimes in Hyde Park.
+Ware.+ You,
Besides being chaste, are good at races too:
You can be a jockey for a need?
+Dor.+ Y' are pleasant, sir.
+Ware.+ Why, hark you, hark you, mistress; you told me
You lov'd retirement, loved not visits, and bargain'd
I should not carry you abroad.
+Dor.+ You! no.
Is't fit I should be seen at court with you?
Such an odd sight as you would make the ladies
Have melancholy thoughts.
+Ware.+ You bound me, too,
I should not go to sea: you lov'd me so,
You could not be without me.
+Dor.+ Not if you stay'd
Above a year; for should I, in a long voyage,
Prove fruitful, I should want a father to
The infant.
+Ware.+ Most politicly kind,
And, like a whore, perfect i' th' mystery!
It is beyond my sufferance.
+Dor.+ Pray, sir, vex [not]:
I'll in and see your jewels, and make choice
Of some for every day; and some to wear
At masques. [_Exit._
+Ware.+ 'Tis very good. Two days
Of this I shall grow mad; or, to redeem
Myself, commit some outrage. O--O--O!
SCENE III.
_Enter +Plotwell+ and +Roseclap+._
+Plot.+ Sir, I am sorry such a light offence
Should make such deep impressions in you: but that
Which more afflicts me than the loss of my
Great hopes, is that y' are likely to be abused, sir;
Strangely abused, sir, by one Bannswright. I hear
You are to marry----
+Ware.+ Did you hear so?
+Plot.+ Madam Aurelia's woman.
+Ware.+ What of her, sir?
+Plot.+ Why, sir, I thought it duty to inform you,
That you would better match a ruin'd bawd;
One ten times cured by sweating and the tub,[260]
Or pain'd now with her fiftieth ache, whom not
The pow'r of usquebaugh, or heat of fevers
Quickens enough to wish; one of such looks,
The judges of assize, without more proof,
Suspect, arraign, and burn for witchcraft.
+Ware.+ Why, pray?
+Plot.+ For she being pass'd all motions, impotence will be a
kind of chastity, and you
Might have her to yourself: but here is one
Knows this to be----
+Ware.+ An arrant whore?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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