A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
English drama
SIR REU. It will admit no delay, Sir Amadin, I assure you. We
have not overwatched this night to no purpose. This very morning
by times we must be fitted with our properties, and with a
scornful neglect pass by that rendezvous where our gamesome
ladies expect their youthful Platonics.
SIR GRE. Revenge to me 's far sweeter than to live.
ALL. To't, to't; for love's sake, let us to't.
SIR REU. The plot is laid with such industrious skill, If this
take not, I do not know what will.
[_Exeunt._
ACT IV., SCENE 1.
_Enter_ MADAM FRICASE, MADAM CAVEARE, MADAM JULIPPE, MADAM
JOCULETTE, MADAM MEDLAR, MADAM TINDER.
FRI. How tedious morns these be in our expectance
Of what we tender most?
CAV. Credit me, madam,
My marriage-day from th' rising sun to night
Seem'd not so long, though it was long enough--
As the slow-running course of this morn's visit.
JUL. Desires cannot endure protractive hours;
The poet has confirm'd our thoughts in this,
Placing our action far below our wish:
"Sooner quenched is love's fire
With fruition than desire."
JOC. That poet surely was neither Mantuan, Lucian, nor Claudian.
MED. No, sister; nor Alcæus, Eubæus, nor Apuleius; but some cold
cucumber-spirit--Xenocrates, who never actually knew how to hug
his mistress.
TIN. This is the hour and place.
FRI. It is so; and no doubt but our feathered favourites have
overflown us.
SCENE II.
_Enter_ VINTRESS _and_ DRAWERS.
VIN. What do you lack, my princely beauties?
CAV. What your sex cannot furnish us with, my dainty Dabrides.
Did you entertain no gallants lately?
VIN. Not any, madam; but gallants are men of their words; they
will stand to their tacking upon occasion: will you be pleased,
noble ladies, in their absence to bestow yourselves in a room;
or, to procreate yourselves, take a turn in the garden?
MED. 'Slid, does she hold us for Andalusian studs,[163] that can
breed by the air, or procreate of ourselves?
FRI. Well, her meaning is good; we will accept her offer, and
take a walk or a cheerful repose at our pleasure: and in it let
each of us, for want of more real objects, entertain an imaginary
apprehension of their absent lover.
[_Knocking within._
DRAW. Anon, anon, sir; quick, quick as Erebus, good Jeremy! Uds
so, what a chattering they make? I verily think our old Tityre
Tu's and Bugle Blews are come to town, they keep such a damnable
quarter.
2D DRAW. They knock as they were madmen in the percullis. Quick,
quick; more attendants in the _Unicorn_. There goes none to the
_Antwerp_. The _Lion_ and the _Roebuck_[164] have not one drawer
to attend them. Who goes into the Ladies' Garden?[165]
1ST DRAW. We shall have a brave term, if we stir not our stumps
better.
[_Exeunt._
_The Ladies' Garden._--JULLIPPE, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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