Recently Recovered "Lost" Tudor Plays with some others
History
Recently Recovered "Lost" Tudor Plays with some others
English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600; Interludes, English; Moralities, English
_Avar._ And when thou art in place, see thou play well thy part.
When ye claw her elbow, remember your best friend;
And let my commendations be ever at one end.
_Adul._ I warrant you!
_Insol._ And what! shall [I] be left clean out?
_Avar._ No, sir! ye shall be chief to bring all things about;
Ye shall among us have the chief pre-eminence;
And we to you, as it were, owe obedience:
Ye shall be our leader, our captain, and our guide;
Then must ye look aloft, with hands under the side.
I shall tell Respublica ye can best govern:
Be not ye, then, squeamish to take in hand the stern.
Then shall we assist you, as friends of perfect trust,
To do and to undo, and command what ye lust,
And, when you have all at your own will and pleasure,
Part of your livings to your friends ye may measure;
And punish the proudest of them that will resist.
_Oppr._ He that once winceth shall feel the weight of my fist.
_Adul._ Yea! we must all hold and cleave together like burrs.
_Avar._ Yea! see ye three hang and draw together like furze.
_Oppr._ And so shall we be sure to get store of money
Sweeter than sugar!
_Avar._ Sweeter than any honey!
_Insol._ Very well spoken! this gear will right well accord.
_Adul._ Did not I say ye were worthy to be a lord?
_Avar._ I will make Insolence a lord of high estate.
_Insol._ And I will take upon me well, both early and late.
_Oppr._ But, Insolence! when ye come to the encroaching of lands,
Ye may not take all alone into your hands;
I will look to have part of goods, lands, and plate.
_Insol._ Ye shall have enough, each body after his rate.
_Adul._ I must have part, too; ye must not have all alone.
_Insol._ Thou shalt be laden till thy shoulders shall crack and groan.
_Adul._ I pray you, let me have a good lordship or two.
_Insol._ Respublica shall feed thee till thou wilt say, ho!
_Adul._ And I must have good manor places, two or three.
_Insol._ But the chief and best lordship must remain to me.
_Oppr._ Mass! and I will look to be served of the best;
Or else some folk, somewhere, shall sit but in small rest.
_Insol._ I must have castles and towns in every shire.
_Adul._ And I, change of houses--one here, and another there.
_Insol._ And I must have pastures, and townships, and woods.
_Oppr._ And I must needs have store of gold and other goods.
_Insol._ And I must have change of farms, and pastures for sheep;
With daily revenues my lusty port for to keep.
_Avar._ I would have a bone here, rather than a groat,
To make these snarling curs gnaw out each other's throat!
Here! be eager, whelps! lo! to it Boy! box him Ball!
Poor I may pick straws; these hungry dogs will snatch all.
_Oppr._ Each man snatch for himself; by gosse! I will be sped.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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