English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600; Greene, Robert, 1558-1592
_Orl._ No, then he will be afraid, and not be at home. [_Exit_ ORGALIO.
_Enter_ TOM _and_ RALPH.
_Tom._ Sirrah Ralph, an thou'lt go with me, I'll let thee see the
bravest madman that ever thou sawest.
_Ralph._ Sirrah Tom, I believe 'twas he that was at our town a' Sunday:
I'll tell thee what he did, sirrah. He came to our house, when all our
folks were gone to church, and there was nobody at home but I, and I
was turning of the spit, and he comes in, and bade me fetch him some
drink. Now, I went and fetched him some; and ere I came again, by my
troth, he ran away with the roast-meat, spit and all, and so we had
nothing but porridge to dinner.
_Tom._ By my troth, that was brave: but, sirrah, he did so course the
boys, last Sunday; and if ye call him madman, he'll run after you,
and tickle your ribs so with his flap of leather that he hath, as it
passeth.[156] [_They spy_ ORLANDO.
_Ralph._ O, Tom, look where he is! call him madman.
_Tom._ Madman, madman.
_Ralph._ Madman, madman.
_Orl._ What say'st thou, villain? [_Beats them._
So, now you shall be both my soldiers.
_Tom._ Your soldiers! we shall have a mad captain, then.
_Orl._ You must fight against Medor.
_Ralph._ Yes, let me alone with him for a bloody nose.
_Orl._ Come, then, and I will give you weapons straight. [_Exeunt._
SCENE II.--_An Open Place in the Woods._
_Enter_ ANGELICA, _like a poor woman._
_Ang._ Thus causeless banish'd from thy native home,
Here sit, Angelica, and rest a while,
For to bewail the fortunes of thy love.
_Enter_ RODOMONT _and_ BRANDIMART, _with_ Soldiers.
_Rod._ This way she went, and far she cannot be.
_Brand._ See where she is, my lord: speak as if you knew her not.
_Rod._ Fair shepherdess, for so thy sitting seems,
Or nymph, for less thy beauty cannot be,
What, feed you sheep upon these downs?
_Ang._ Daughter I am unto a bordering swain,
That tend my flocks within these shady groves.
_Rod._ Fond girl, thou liest; thou art Angelica.
_Brand._ Ay, thou art she that wrong'd the Palatine.
_Ang._ For I am known, albeit I am disguis'd,
Yet dare I turn the lie into thy throat,
Sith thou report'st I wrong'd the Palatine.
_Brand._ Nay, then, thou shalt be used according to thy deserts.--Come,
bring her to our tents.
_Rod._ But stay, what drum is this?
_Enter_ ORLANDO _with a drum_; ORGALIO; TOM, RALPH, _and others as_
Soldiers, _with spits and dripping-pans._
_Brand._ Now see, Angelica, the fruits of all your love.
_Orl._ Soldiers, this is the city of great Babylon,
Where proud Darius was rebated from:
Play but the men, and I will lay my head,
We'll sack and raze it ere the sun be set.
_Tom._ Yea, and scratch it too.--March fair, fellow frying-pan.
_Orl._ Orgalio, knowest thou the cause of my laughter?
_Org._ No, by my troth, nor no wise man else.
_Orl._ Why, sirrah, to think that if the enemy were fled ere we come,
we'll not leave one of our own soldiers alive, for we two will kill
them with our fists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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