A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
English drama
3D TRE. 'Slid, bullies, I think the duke has done us a pleasure.
1ST TRE. Pray thee, how, boy?
3D TRE. I'll tell thee the short and long on't. Before, if any of
us had been so valiant (as few of us were) as to borrow money on
the highway, we were sometimes forced to repay it at the gibbet:
but the world is turned upside down; if we get it, we may keep
it, and never answer for it.
1ST TRE. Hey, boy, art thou in that lock?[148] But, noble
lance-presado,[149] let us have a sea-sonnet, before we launch
forth in our adventure-frigate. They say the syrens love singing.
CAPT. Agreed, wags. But which shall we have?
1ST TRE. That old catch of Tunis and Argiers; good captain, it
suits best with our voyage.
CAPT. To't then, my Hectors; and keep your _elas_[150] as you do
your march. The syrens will not relish you, if you sing out o'
tune.[151]
THE SEA-SONG.[152]
CAPT. _To Tunis and to Argiers, boys!
Great is our want, small be our joys.
Let's then some voyage take in hand
To get us means by sea or land.
Come, follow me, my boys, come follow me,
And if thou die, I'll die with thee._
[_They join in the close._
_Hast thou a wife? I have one too,
And children some, as well as thou;
Yet who can see his brats to starve
So long as he has strength to serve?
Come, follow me, my cubs, come follow me,
And if thou die, I'll die with thee._
[_He fixeth his eyes as upon objects in a landskip._
_Methinks, my boys, I see the store
Of precious gems and golden ore;
Arabian silks and sables pure
Would make an haggard stoop to th' lure.
Come, follow me, &c._
_No worthless mind e'er honour sought;
Let's fight as if we feared nought.
If bullets fly about our ears,
Let's laugh at death, and banish fears.
Come, follow me, &c._
_And if thou canst not live so stench,[153]
But thou must needs enjoy thy wench,
If thou, my boy, such pleasure crave,
A dainty doxy thou shalt have.
Come, follow me, &c._
_Courage, my sparks, my knights o' th' sun;
Let Seville fame what we have done.
We'd better ten times fight a foe
Than once for all to Tyburn go.
Come, follow me, &c._
_Come, let's away, mount, march away;
This calm portends a prosperous day.
When we return, it shall be said
That by our voyage we are made.
Come, follow me, &c._
_But if we ne'er again return,
Enclose our ashes in an urn,
And with them spice a wassal-cup,
And to Good Fellows drink it up.
Come, follow me, &c._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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