A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 13
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
+Mis. Sea.+ Sir, you are not merry:
Methinks you do not look as you were married.
+Mis. Hol.+ You rather look as you had lost your love.
+Mis. Scr.+ Or else, as if your spouse, sir, had rebuk'd you.
+Sea.+ How is it, sir? You see I have brought along
My fiddlers with me; my wife and Mistress Holland
Are good wind-instruments. 'Tis enough for me
To put on sadness.
+Ware.+ You, sir, have no cause.
+Sea.+ Not I! Ask Mistress Scruple. I have lost
My daughter, sir: she's stol'n. Then, sir, I have
A spendthrift to my son.
+Ware.+ These are felicities
Compar'd to me. You have not match'd a whore, sir,
Nor lost two ships at sea.
+Sea.+ Nor you, I hope?
+Ware.+ Truth is, you are my friends; I am abus'd,
Grossly fetch'd over. I have match'd a stew,
The notedst woman o' th' town.
+Mis. Sea.+ Indeed, I heard
She was a chambermaid.
+Mis. Hol.+ And they by their place
Do wait upon the lady, but belong
Unto the lord.
+Sea.+ But is this true?
+Ware.+ Here was
My nephew just now, and one Roseclap, who tell me
She has three children living; one dapple-grey,
Half Moor, half English: knows as many men
As she that sinned by th' calendar, and divided
The nights o' th' year with several men.
+Sea.+ Bless me, goodness!
+Ware.+ Then, like a man condemned to all misfortunes,
I have estated her in all I have.
+Sea.+ How!
+Ware.+ Under hand and seal, sir, irrecoverably.
SCENE VI.
_Enter +Salewit+._
+Mis. Hol.+ Look, Mistress Scruple, here's your husband.
+Sale.+ Be the leave of the fair companée.
+Mis. Scr.+ My husband!
His cold keeps him at home. Surely I take
This to be some Dutch elder.
+Sale.+ Where is
The breed an breedgroom? O monsieur, I'm com't
To give you zhoy, and bless your capòn; where
Is your fair breed?
+Ware.+ O Monsieur, you have join'd me
To a chaste virgin. Would, when I came to you,
Y' had used your ceremonies about my funeral.
+Sale.+ Fooneral? Is your breed dead?
+Ware.+ Would she were,
I'd double your fee, Monsieur, to bury her.
+Sale.+ Ee can but leetle English.
+Ware.+ No, I see you are but new come over.
+Sale.+ Dover! Tere Ee landed.
+Ware.+ Ay, sir, pray walk in; that door
Will land you in my dining-room.
+Sale.+ Ee tank you. [_Exit._
+Ware.+ This is the priest that married us.
+Sea.+ This is a Frenchman, is't not?
+Ware.+ 'Twas at the French church.
SCENE VII.
_Enter two +Footmen+, bearing the frame of a great
picture. Curtains drawn._
+1st Foot.+ Set 'em down gently; so.
+2d Foot.+ They make me sweat.
Pictures, quoth you; 'slight, they have weight enough
To be the parties.
+1st Foot.+ My lady, sir, has sent
A present to your wife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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