A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
English drama
I know he'll take it kindly that you take
So long a journey only to see him.
INO. It was the devil struck, sure,
A woman could not do it.--Plangus, O!
[_Dies._
SCENE VI.
_Enter_ RINATUS, EUBULUS, ANAMEDES.
RIN. Heav'n defend us! what a sight is here? The king,
The prince, both slain? what, and my son too?
Only this woman living? Speak out, [thou]
Screech-owl, witch, how came they by their deaths!
AND. By me; how else?
RIN. Let's torture her.
AND. I can
Prevent you; I wouldn't live a minute longer
Unless to act my ills again, for all Iberia.
[_Stabs herself._
I have lived long enough to boast an act,
After which no mischief shall be new----
[_Dies._
RIN. Let's in, and weep our weary lives away;
When this is told, let after-ages say,
But Andromana none could have begun it,
And none but Andromana could have done it.
[_Exeunt._
* * * * *
LADY ALIMONY.
_EDITION._
_Lady Alimony; or, The Alimony Lady. An Excellent Pleasant New
Comedy. Duly Authorized, daily Acted, and frequently Followed._
Nolumus amplexus sponsales; æra novellos
Nocte parent Socios, qui placuere magis.
LUCRET.
_London, Printed by Tho. Vere and William Gilbertson, and are
to be sold at the Angel without New-gate, and at the Bible in
Gilt-spur-street._ 1659. 4^o.
This piece is now first reprinted from the original edition. It
is a curious and peculiar production, and was perhaps written
twenty or twenty-five years before the date which appears on the
title-page. Its attribution jointly to Thomas Lodge and Robert
Greene is one of those alike silly and capricious affiliations of
our earlier bibliographers, which sometimes scarcely seem as if
they were seriously intended. From a passage at p. 281, it is
readily apparent that it was not in existence till after 1633.
The interest and point of the present play principally depend on
a vivid description of the doings of certain ladies of pleasure,
or _bona-robas_, who are styled Ladies Alimony. The peculiarity
of the piece in point of structure and character may be thought,
perhaps, to go some way in atoning for its occasional
licentiousness.
A considerable number of uncommon phrases are scattered through
"Lady Alimony;" some of them are not noticed by our
glossographers.
THE ACTORS PERSONATED IN THIS DRAMATIC.
EUGENIO, _the duke_.
SIR AMADIN PUNY, }
SIR JASPER SIMPLETON, }
SIR ARTHUR HEARTLESS, } _cashiered consorts_.
SIR GREGORY SHAPELESS, }
SIR TRISTRAM SHORTTOOL, }
SIR REUBEN SCATTERGOOD, }
MADAM FRICASE, }
MADAM CAVEARE, }
MADAM JULIPPE, } _alimony ladies_.
MADAM JOCULETTE, }
MADAM MEDLER, }
MADAM TINDER, }
FLORELLO, }
CARANTO, }
PALISADO, } _the ladies' Platonic confidants_.
SALIBRAND, }
MORISCO, }
TILLYVALLY, }
GALLERIUS, _ghost_.
TIMON, _the composer_.
TRILLO, _the censor_.
SIPARIUS, _the book-holder_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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