Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 05 of 10Fletcher, John
General
Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 05 of 10
Fletcher, John
English drama
_Get._ Ye are right, Master,
Right as a Gun; For we the vertuous,
Though we be Kennel-rakers, Scabs, and Scoundrels,
We the discreet and bold; and yet, now I remember it,
We Tilers may deserve to be Senators;
And there we step before you thick-skin'd Tanners,
For we are born three stories high; no base ones,
None of your groundlings, master.
_Dio._ I like thee well,
Thou hast a good mind, as I have, to this Honour.
_Get._ As good a mind, Sir, of a simple plaisterer--
And when I come to execute my office,
Then you shall see.
_Max._ What?
_Get._ An Officer in fury;
An Officer as he ought to be; do you laugh at it?
Is a Senator (in hope) worth no more reverence?
By these hands I'll clap you by th' heels the first hour of it.
_Max._ O' my Conscience, the fellow believes.
_Dio._ I, do, do, _Geta_,
For if I once be Emperour--
_Get._ Then will I
(For wise men must be had to prop the Republick)
Not bate ye a single ace of a sound Senator.
_Dio._ But what shall we do the whilst?
_Get._ Kill Swine, and sowse 'em,
And eat 'em when we have bread.
_Max._ Why didst thou run away
When the Boar made toward thee? art thou not valiant?
_Get._ No indeed am I not; and 'tis for mine honour too;
I took a Tree, 'tis true, gave way to the Monster;
Hark what discretion says, let fury pass;
From the tooth of a mad Beast, and the tongue of a Slanderer
Preserve thine honour.
_Dio._ He talks like a full Senator:
Go, take it up, and carry it in, 'tis a huge one,
We never kill'd so large a Swine, so fierce too,
I never met with yet.
_Max._ Take heed, it stirs again;
How nimbly the Rogue runs up! he climbs like a Squirrel.
_Dio._ Come down, ye Dunce, is it not dead?
_Get._ I know not.
_Dio._ His throat is cut, and his bowels out.
_Get._ That's all one,
_I_ am sure his teeth are in; and for any thing I know,
He may have Pigs of his own nature in's Belly.
_Dio._ Come, take him up I say, and see him drest,
He is fat, and will be lusty meat: away with him,
And get some of him ready for our Dinner.
_Get._ Shall he be roasted whole,
And serv'd up in a souce-tub? a portly service,
I'll run i'th' wheel my self.
_Max._ Sirrah, leave your prating,
And get some piece of him ready presently,
We are weary both, and hungry.
_Get._ I'll about it.
What an inundation of Brewiss shall I swim in! [_Exit._
_Dio._ Thou art ever dull and melancholy, Cousin,
Distrustful of my hopes.
_Max._ Why, can you blame me?
Do men give credit to a Jugler?
_Dio._ Thou knowst she is a Prophetess.
_Max._ A small one,
And as small profit to be hop'd for by her.
_Dio._ Thou art the strangest man; how does thy hurt?
The Boar came near you, Sir.
_Max._ A scratch, a scratch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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