A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 15Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 15
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
+Phil.+ They shall be extremely paid for their pains.
Again, if any can bring tidings of this
Master Pinguister to Mistress Mirida,
She will be very bountiful in her
Reward: the poor soul weeps most bitterly
For him.
+Ping.+ Does she so, poor wretch? [_Cries aloud._] Prythee, good
Crier, go tell her I am not dead, though
I have been buried a great while in the
Vault.
Mercy of my bum-gut, my purge again?
+Omnes.+ You nasty rogue, turn your breech out of the
Gate then.
[_Goes to do so, +Philidor+ kicks him down, he
roars out._
+Mir.+ Philidor, I have broke a vein
With laughing, to hear thy rogueries. I'll call
To Pinguister. Master Pinguister? My
Love, my dear, sure, I hear thy voice?
+Ping.+ Who's that,
My dear female?
+Mir.+ The same, fat love.
+Ping.+ O, prythee raise me from the dead.
+Phil.+ Well, ladies and gentlewomen, how d'ye
Like your crier now?
+Omnes.+ The devil take thee, was it you?
+Phil.+ The very same.
+2d Lady.+ Well, won't you let us out? pray howsoever,
Take away this fat gentleman from us;
For he has such a coming looseness, and
'Tis so dark here, that he has
Shit upon every one of us.
+Omnes.+ Well, but won't you let us out?
+Phil.+ Yes, if you ladies would set your hands
To this paper, to quit me as to all promises,
I will; and also, my reverend nurses,
You must set your hands to this discharge,
To quit me from all arrears of nursing:
Else farewell t'ye--
+Omnes.+ Well, well, stay; we will. [_Set their hands._
+Phil.+ So, now you may go take the air
Again; there's the key to let yourselves out.
+Omnes.+ A cheating rogue!
+Phil.+ Come, Mirida, let's run away, for if
They catch us, murder is the best we can
Hope for. [_Exit, with +Mirida+._
+1st Nurse.+ They went this way; let's run after
Them, some one way and some t'other. [_Exeunt +Women+._
+Ping.+ So you may, but if I run away, then
Hang me; I am glad of my resurrection
Howsoever. On my conscience, no green
Carcase ever stunk as I did; to my best
Remembrance I went to stool some
Threescore times in the vault, _ergo_
I was beaten threescore times; the
Unmerciful nurses, with their huge
Palm'd hands, every time I went to't,
Play'd at hot-cockles[76] all the while upon
My buttocks. Well, I hope I shall ne'er be
Buried again whilst I live, and so with
That prayer I'll go to bed.
_Enter +Mirida+._
+Mir.+ My dear fat love, little dost thou think how many
Tears I have shed for all thy sufferings; that rogue
Philidor put a trick upon us all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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