A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 14
English drama
ANT. Yes, and it like your grace; the apothecary
Call'd it a strong provocative to madness.
KING. Did not he question what you us'd it for?
ANT. O, my disguise sav'd him that labour, sir;
My habit, that was more physician than myself,
Told him 'twas to despatch some property,[41]
That had been tortur'd with five thousand drugs
To try experiment: another man
Shan't buy the quantity of so much ratsbane
Shall kill a flea, but shall be had, forsooth,
Before a justice, be question'd; nay, perhaps
Confin'd to peep through an iron grate:
When your physician may poison who [pleaseth him],
Not, _cum privilegio_: it is his trade.
_Enter_ GIOVANNO.
EVAD. O my Sebastiano!
GIO. Peace, my Evadne, the king must not yet know me.
EVAD. My brother has already made you known.
GIO. Will't please your highness?
KING. What, Sebastiano, to be still a king
Of universal Spain without a rival?
Yes, it does please me, and you ministers
Of my still growing greatness shall ere long
Find I am pleas'd with you, that boldly durst
Pluck from the fixed arm of sleeping justice.
Her long-sheath'd sword, and whet the rusty blade
Upon the bones of Mach'vel, and his
Confederate rebels.
GIO. That, my lord, is yet
To do: let him mount higher, that
His fall may be too deep for resurrection;[42]
They're gone to the great hall, whither will't please
Your grace disguis'd to go? your person by
Our care shall be secure. Their French troops I
Have sent as useless into France, by virtue
Of Raymond's ring, which he gave me to bid
The general by that token to march
To this city.
KING. What say the colonels?
Will they assist me?
ANT. Doubt not, my lord.
KING. Come, then, let's go guarded, with such as you
'Twere sin to fear, were all the world untrue.
[_Exeunt._
_Enter_ TAILORS.
O. TAI. Now for the credit of tailors.
3D TAI. Nay, master, and we do not act, as they say, with any
players in the globe of the world, let us be baited like a bull
for a company of strutting coxcombs: nay, we can act, I can tell
you.
O TAI. Well, I must to the king; see you be perfect. I'll move it
to his highness.
[_Exit._
1ST TAI. Now, my masters, are we to do; d'ye mark me? do--
3D TAI.[43] Do! what do?--Act, act, you fool you: do, said you,
what do? you a player, you a plasterer, a mere dirt-dauber, and
not worthy to be mentioned with Vermin, that exact actor: do, I
am asham'd on't, fie!
2D TAI. Well said, Vermin, thou ticklest him, faith.
4TH TAI. Do, pah!
1ST TAI. Well, play; we are to play a play.
3D TAI. Play a play a play, ha, ha, ha! O egredious
nonsensensical widgeon, thou shame to our cross-legged
corporation; thou fellow of a sound, play a play! why
forty-pound Golding of the beggars' theatre speaks better, yet
has a mark for the sage audience to exercise their dexterity, in
throwing of rotten apples, whilst my stout actor pockets, and
then eats up, the injury: play a play! it makes my worship laugh,
i' faith.
2D TAI. To him, Vermin; thou bitt'st him, i' faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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