A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
English drama
WILD. Then you shall ask the captain pardon, and your wife. To
him you shall allow half your parsonage to maintain her. The
deeds are ready within: if you'll sign them, and deliver your
wife to our use, she shall discharge you.
PAR. I submit, sir; but I hope your worship will desire no
witness to the use of my wife. The sumner, and the watch too, I
hope your worship will enjoin them silence.
WAN. You shall not need to fear; I'll have a care of your credit.
Call in the watch. Do you know these faces?
[_She discovers them._
PAR. Ha! abused.
JOLLY. Nay, no flinching: if you do, I betake me to master sumner
again.
CAPT. And I become severe master constable in a trice.
PAR. No, no, I submit; and I hope we are all friends. I'm sure I
have the hardest part to forgive.
WAN. And I, before all this company, promise to forget, and
forgive thee, and am content to take thee again for my dear and
mortal husband, now you are tame; but you must see you do so no
more; and give yourself to be blind when it is not fit for you to
see; and practise to be deaf, and learn to sleep in time, and
find business to call you away, when gentlemen come that would be
private.
CAPT. Why so; now things are as they should be; and when you will
obey, you shall command; but when you would be imperious, then I
betake me to my constable's staff till you subscribe, _Cedunt
armis togæ_: and if it be false Latin, parson, you must pardon
that too.
JOLLY. By this hand, I must have my tithe-night with thee, thou
art such a wag. Say when? When wilt thou give me leave, ha?
WAN. Never.
JOLLY. Never!
WAN. No, never.
JOLLY. D'ye hear? I am none of them that work for charity. Either
resolve to pay, or I kick down all my milk again.
WAN. What would you have?
JOLLY. Give me leave to lie with you.
WAN. No indeed.
JOLLY. No!
WAN. No; but rather than quarrel, as I said before, I will give
you leave to say you have lain with me.
WILD. I am of opinion she owes you nothing now. So, Mistress
Wanton, take your husband; and, to remove all doubts, this night
I'll be at the charge of a wedding-supper.
PAR. This is better than Newgate-hole yet, Bridewell hemp, brown
bread, and whipcord.
[_Exeunt omnes._
SCENE III.
_Enter the_ WIDOW _and_ MISTRESS PLEASANT, MASTER SAD, _and_
MASTER CONSTANT.
WID. By my troth, it was a good play.
PLEA. And I'm glad I'm come home, for I am e'en a-weary with this
walking. For God's sake, whereabouts does the pleasure of walking
lie? I swear I have often sought it till I was weary, and yet I
ne'er could find it.
SAD. What do these halberds at your door?
[_A_ WATCH _at the_ WIDOW'S _door_.
WID. Halberds! Where?
SAD. There, at your lodging.
CON. Friend, what would those watchmen have?
WATCH. The house is shut up for the sickness[264] this afternoon.
PLEA. The sickness!
WATCH. Yes, forsooth; there's a coachman dead, full of the
tokens.
SAD. Where's the officer?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account