A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
+Cyph.+ Good your worship, give
A poor seafaring man your charity
To carry me back again. I'm come above
A hundred mile to tell you this.
+Ware.+ Go in,
And let my factor, if he be come in,
Reward thee: stay and sup, too.
+Cyph.+ Thank your worship. [_Exit +Cypher+._
+Ware.+ Why should I not now hang myself? Or, if
It be a fate that will more hide itself,
And keep me from discredit, tie some weight
About my neck to sink me to the bottom
O' th' Thames, not to be found, [and so] to keep my body
From rising up and telling tales. Two wrecks,
And both worth forty thousand pound there! Why,
That landed here were worth an hundred. I
Will drown myself. I nothing have to do
Now in this world but drown myself.
+Plot.+ Fie! these
Are desperate resolutions. Take heart, sir;
There may be ways yet to relieve you.
+Ware.+ How?
+Plot.+ Why, for your lost ships, say, sir, I should bring
Two o' th' Assurance Office that should warrant
Their safe return? 'Tis not known yet: would you
Give three parts to secure the fourth?
+Ware.+ I'd give ten to secure one.
+Plot.+ Well, sir, and for your wife,
Say I should prove it were no lawful match,
And that she is another man's--you'd take
The piece of service well?
+Ware.+ Yes, and repent
That when I had so good an heir begot
Unto my hand, I was so rash to aim
At one of my own dotage.
+Plot.+ Say no more, sir;
But keep the sailor, that he stir not. We'll
About it straight. [_Exeunt +Plotwell+ and +Roseclap+._
+Ware.+ How much I was deceiv'd
To think ill of my nephew, in whose revenge
I see the heavens frown on me! Seas and winds
Swell and rage for him against me; but I will
Appease their furies, and be reconciled.
SCENE V.
[_Manet +Warehouse+._] _Enter +Seathrift+, +Mistress
Seathrift+, +Mistress Holland+, +Mistress
Scruple+._
+Mis. Sea.+ Much joy to you, sir; you have made quick despatch.
I like a man that can love, woo, and wed,
All in an hour. My husband was so long
A-getting me; so many friends' consents
Were to be ask'd, that when we came to church,
'Twas not a marriage, but our times were out,
And we were there made free of one another.
+Mis. Hol.+ I look'd to find you abed and a young sheriff
Begot by this. My husband, when I came
From church, by this time had his caudle: I
Had not a garter left, nor he a point.
+Mis. Scr.+ Surely, all that my husband did the first
Night we were married, was to call for one
Of his wrought caps more to allay his rheum.
+Mis. Hol.+ We hear y' have match'd a courtier, sir: a gallant:
One that can spring fire in your blood, and dart
Fresh flames into you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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