Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 06 of 10Fletcher, John
General
Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 06 of 10
Fletcher, John
English drama
_Petill._ To th' purpose? what's that? half a Cow and Garlick?
Ye Rogues, my company eat Turf, and talk not;
Timber they can digest, and fight upon't;
Old matts, and mud with spoons, rare meats. Your shooes slaves?
Dare ye cry out for hunger, and those extant?
Suck your Sword-hilts, ye slaves, if ye be valiant,
Honor will make 'em march-pain: _to the purpose_?
A grievous penance. Dost thou see that Gentleman,
That melancholly Monsieur?
_Jun._ Pray ye, _Petillius_.
_Pet._ He has not eat these three weeks.
_2 Sold._ 'Has drunk the more then.
_3 Sold._ And that's all one.
_Petill._ Nor drunk nor slept these two months.
_Jud._ Captain, we do beseech yo[u] as poor Soldiers,
Men that have seen good days, whose mortal stomachs
May sometime feel afflictions.
_Jun._ This, _Petillius_,
Is not so nobly done.
_Petill._ 'Tis common profit;
Urge him to th' point, he'll find you out a food
That needs no teeth nor stomach; a strange furmity
Will feed ye up as fat as hens i'th' foreheads,
And make ye fight like _Fichocks_, to him.
_Jud._ Captain.
_Jun._ Do you long to have your throats cut?
_Petill._ See what metal
It makes in him: two meals more of this melancholly,
And there lies _Caratach_.
_Jud._ We do beseech ye.
_2 Sold._ Humbly beseech your valour.
_Jun._ Am I only
Become your sport _Petillius_?
_Jud._ But to render
In way of general good, in preservation.
_Jun._ Out of my thoughts, ye slaves.
_4 Sold._ Or rather pity.
_3 Sold._ Your warlike remedy against the maw-worms.
_Jud._ Or notable receipt to live by nothing.
_Petill._ Out with your Table-books.
_Jun._ Is this true friendship?
And must my killing-griefs make others _May_-games?
Stand from my swords point, slaves, your poor starv'd spirits
Can make me no oblations; else, O love,
Thou proudly blind destruction, I would send thee
Whole _Hecatom[b]s_ of hearts, to bleed my sorrows.
_Jud._ Alas, he lives by love, Sir. [_Exit_ Junius.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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