Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10Fletcher, John
General
Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10
Fletcher, John
English drama
_Orl._ Put her out of dores; but that I fear my land
May go again to _Montague_, I would kill thee, I am loth,
To make a beggar of him that way; or else--
Go now you have the liberty of flesh,
And you may put it to a double use,
One for your pleasure, th'other to maintain
Your wellbeloved, he will want. [_Exit Lady._
In such a charitable exercise
The virtue will excuse you for the vice. [_Exit Orleans._
_Enter Amiens drawn, Montague, Veramor meeting._
_Mont._ What means your Lordship?
_Ver._ For the love of [God].
_Am._ Thou hast advantage of me, cast away this buckler.
_Mont._ So he is Sir, for he lives
With one that is undone--avoyd us boy.
_Ver._ I'll first avoid my safety,
Your Rapier shall be button'd with my head, before it touch
my Master.
_Am. Montague?_
_Mont._ Sir.
_Am._ You know my sister?
_Mont._ Yes Sir.
_Am._ For a whore?
_Mont._ You lye, and shall lie lower if you dare abuse her honor.
_Enter Lady._
_La._ I am honest.
_Am._ Honest!
_La._ Upon my faith I am.
_Am._ What did then p[e]rsuade thee to condemn thy self?
_La._ Your safety.
_Am._ I had rather be expos'd
To danger, than dishonor; th'ast betray'd
The reputation of my familie
More basely by the falseness of that word,
Than if thou hadst delivered me asleep
Into the hands of base enemies.
Relief will never make thee sensible
Of thy disgraces; let thy wants compell thee to it. [_Exit._
_La._ O I am a miserable woman.
_Mont._ Why Madam? are you utterly without means to relieve you?
_La._ I have nothing Sir, unless by changing of these cloaths for
worse, and then at last the worst for nakedness.
_Mont._ Stand off boy, nakedness would be a change
To please us Madam, to delight us both.
_La._ What nakedness Sir?
_Mont._ Why the nakedness of body Madam, we were Lovers once.
_La._ Never dishonest Lovers.
_Mont._ Honestie has no allowance now to give our selves.
_La._ Nor you allowance against honestie.
_Mont._ I'll send my Boy hence, opportunitie
Shall be our servant, come and meet me first
With kisses like a stranger at the door,
And then invite me nearer to receive
A more familiar inward wellcome; where,
Instead of tapers made of Virgins wax
Th'increasing flames of our desires shall light
Us to a banquet: and before the taste
Be dull with satisfaction, I'll prepare
A nourishment compos'd of every thing
That bears a naturall friendship to the blood,
And that shall set another edge upon 't,
Or else between the courses of the feast
We'll dallie out an exercise of time,
That ever as one appetite expires another may succeed it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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