_Mayor._ To speedy execution with them all! [_Exeunt._
V. v. 30. ‘For the charges of brenning Mistress Arden and
execution of George Bradshaw, XLIII S.’--_Canterbury Records._
SCENE VI
_Here enters Franklin._
_Franklin._ Thus have you seen the truth of Arden’s death.
As for the ruffians, Shakebag and Black Will,
The one took sanctuary, and, being sent for out,
Was murdered in Southwark as he passed
To Greenwich, where the Lord Protector lay.
Black Will was burned in Flushing on a stage;
Greene was hanged at Osbridge in Kent;
The painter fled and how he died we know not.
But this above the rest is to be noted:
Arden lay murdered in that plot of ground 10
Which he by force and violence held from Reede;
And in the grass his body’s print was seen
Two years and more after the deed was done.
Gentlemen, we hope you’ll pardon this naked tragedy,
Wherein no filèd points are foisted in
To make it gracious to the ear or eye;
For simple truth is gracious enough,
And needs no other points of glosing stuff. [_Exit._
V. vi. 2. By the _Wardmote Book_, ‘George Loosebagg, _i.e._
Shakebag, escaped at that time.’ John Green, who like Mosbie
was a tailor, was taken in July in Cornwall and brought to Faversham
and hanged in chains within the liberties. Susan, in the
play, combines the characters of Cecily Pounder, Mosbie’s sister,
and of Elizabeth Stafford, the maid-servant. Morsby and his
sister were hanged in Smithfield; Michael Saunderson was ‘drawn
and hanged in chains’ in Faversham, where Elizabeth was burnt.
By the _Wardmote Book_ Alice Arden did not stab her husband.
GLOSSARY
ABHORS FROM, differs entirely from; I. 54; an uncommon use. Dr. Murray
quotes _Fox, A. and M._; II. 357, ‘It did nothing at all abhor from
nature.’
ANGEL, the coin of that name; II. i. 89, etc.
ARMING SWORD, a large two-handed sword, V. i. 72.
BASILISK, a fabulous serpent supposed to kill by its look, a
cockatrice; I. 215. Cf. ‘Would they were basilisks to strike thee
dead.’--_Richard III._, III. ii. 151.
BEDEEM, forbode, ‘doom me to’; III. iii. 31; not quoted by Dr. Murray.
BEDESMAN, one who says prayers for another, ‘humble servant’; III. vi.
120.
BERAYED, befouled; IV. iii. 58. Cf. ‘Was ever man so rayed.’--_Shrew_,
IV. i. 3.
BEWRAYED, betrayed; III. ii. 27.
BLAB, talk; I. 135. Used both as a noun and a verb.
BLOCK, obstacle; I. 137.
BODKIN, a tailor’s awl; I. 313.
BOLSTERED, matted with blood; III. i. 73. Cf. ‘Blood-bolstered
Banquo.’--_Macbeth_, IV. i. 123.
BOTCHER, a jobbing tailor; I. 25, 316. Cf. Huloet, ‘A tailor, bodger,
botcher, mender or patcher of old garments.’
BRABLE, quarrel; IV. i. 77.
BROKAGE, petty dealing; here especially dealing in old clothes; I. 26.
BUGS, hobgoblins: III. ii. 19.
CAUSELESS, adv., without cause, I. 358.
CHOPS ME IN, interrupts suddenly; III. vi. 130; ‘me’ is a dative; chop
is used in the sense of doing quickly. Cf. _Richard III._, I. iv. 160,
‘Then we will chop him in the malmsey butt.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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