Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10 — John Shaqi
Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10Fletcher, John
General
Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10
Fletcher, John
English drama
_Count._ Exceeding apt[, apt] to be drawn to.
_Oria._ To what?
_Count._ To that you should not be, 'tis no dispraise,
She is not bad that hath desire to ill,
But she that hath no power to rule that Will:
For there you shall be wooed in other kinds
Than yet your years have known, the chiefest men
Will seem to throw themselves
As vassals at your [service], kiss your hand,
Prepare [you] Banquets, Masques, Shews, all inticements
That Wit and Lust together can devise,
To draw a Lady from the state of Grace
To an old Lady widdows Gallery;
And they will praise your virtues, beware that,
The only way to turn a Woman whore,
Is to commend her chastity: you'll goe?
_Oria._ I would go, if it were but only to shew you, that I could
be there, and be mov'd with none of these tricks.
_Count._ Your servants are ready?
_Oria._ An hour since.
_Count._ Well, if you come off clear from this hot service, Your
praise shall be the greater. Farewel Sister.
_Oria._ Farewel Brother.
_Count._ Once more, if you stay in the presence till candle-light,
keep on the foreside o'th' Curtain; and do you hear, take heed
of the old Bawd, in the cloth of Tissue sleeves, and the knit
Mittines. Farewel Sister. [_Exit_ Oria.
Now am I idle, I would I had been a Scholar, that I might a studied
now: the punishment of meaner men is, they have too much to do;
our only misery is, that without company we know not what to do;
I must take some of the common courses of our Nobility; which is
thus: if I can find no company that likes me, pluck off my Hatband,
throw an old Cloak over my face, and as if I would not be known,
walk hastily through the streets, till I be discovered; then there
goes Count such a one, says one; there goes Count such a one, says
another: Look how fast he goes, says a third; there's some great
matters in hand questionless, says a fourth; when all my business
is to hav[e] them say so: this hath been used; or if I can find any
company, I'll after dinner to the Stage, to see a Play; where, when
I first enter, you shall have a murmure in the house, every one
that does not know cries, What Nobleman is that? all the Gallants
on the Stage rise, vail to me, kiss their hand, offer me their
places: then I pick out some one, whom I please to grace among the
rest, take his seat, use it, throw my cloak over my face, and laugh
at him: the poor Gentleman imagines himself most highly grac'd,
thinks all the Auditors esteem him one of my bosom friends; and
in right special regard with me. But here comes a Gentleman, that
I hope will make me better sport, than either street and stage
fooleries.
_Enter_ Lazarello _and Boy_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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