A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
English drama
CAPT. O, do you rage? nay, I'll put the cause in print too: I am
but a scurvy poet, yet I'll make a ballad shall tell how like a
faithful disciple you followed your poor whore till her martyrdom
in the suburbs.
PAR. I'll be revenged for this scandal.
CAPT. Then shall succeed thy flight from the university,
disguised into captain, only the outside was worse buff, and the
inside more atheist than they; furnished with an insolent faith,
uncharitable heart, envious as old women, cruel and bloody as
cowards: thus armed at all points, thou went'st out, threatening
God, and trembling at men.
PAR. I'll be revenged, thou poor man of war, I'll be revenged.
_Enter_ WANTON.
WAN. And why so bitter? Whose house is this? Who dares tell this
story?
CAPT. Why, sweet, hath he not treacherously broke into our
cabinet, and would have stol'n thee thence? by these hilts, I'll
hang him; and then I can conclude my ballad with _take warning,
all Christian people, by the same_: I will, you lean slave; I'll
prosecute thee, till thou art fain to hide in a servitor's gown
again, and live upon crumbs with the robin redbreasts that haunt
the hall (your old messmates). Do you snarl? I'll do't, I will,
and put thee to fight with the dogs for the bones that but smell
of meat--those that your hungry students have polished with their
teeth.
WAN. If you do this, good captain, lieutenant, and company (for
all your command, I think, is within your reach)--I say, if you
dare do this, I shall sing a song of one that bad stand,[196] and
made a carrier pay a dear rent for a little ground upon his
majesty's highway.
CAPT. How now, Mistress Wanton! what's this? what's this?
PAR. This! 'tis matter for a jury; I'll swear, and positively.
I'll hang thee, I'll do't, by this hand: let me alone to swear
the jury out of doubt.
CAPT. But you are in jest, Mistress Wanton, and will confess (I
hope) this is no truth.
WAN. Yes, sir, as great a truth as that you are in your
unpaid-for scarlet. Fool! didst think I'd quit such a friend and
his staid fortune, to rely upon thy dead pay and hopes of a
second covenant?
CAPT. His fortune! what is't? th' advowson of Tyburn deanery?
PAR. No, nor rents brought in by long staff-speeches, that ask
alms with frowns, till thy looks and speech have laid violent
hands upon men's charity.
WAN. Let him alone; I'll warrant, he'll never be indicted of
drawing anything but his tongue against a man.
CAPT. Very good.
PAR. Dear Mistress Wanton, you have won my heart, and I shall
live to doat upon you for abusing this impetuous captain. Will
you listen to my old suit? will you marry me, and vex him? say,
dare you do't without more dispute?
CAPT. 'Twas a good question; she that dares marry thee, dares do
anything: she may as safely lie with the great bell upon her, and
his clapper is less dangerous than thine.
WAN. Why, I pray?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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