Rule a Wife, and Have a Wife: Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10)Fletcher, John
General
Rule a Wife, and Have a Wife: Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10)
Fletcher, John
Comedy plays; Drama
Has brought her coach to wait upon your Ladiship,
And to be inform'd if you will take the air this morning.
Leon:
The neat air of her nunnery.
Margarita:
Tell her no, i'th' afternoon I'le call on her.
2 Lady:
I will Madam.
[Exit.
Margarita:
Why are not you gone to prepare your self,
May be you shall be sewer to the fire course,
A portly presence, _Altea_ he looks lean,
'Tis a wash knave, he will not keep his flesh well.
Altea:
A willing, Madam, one that needs no spurring.
Leon:
Faith madam, in my little understanding,
You had better entertain your honest neighbours,
Your friends about ye, that may speak well of ye,
And give a worthy mention of your bounty.
Margarita:
How now, what's this?
Leon:
'Tis only to perswade ye,
Courtiers are but tickle things to deal withal,
A kind of march-pane men that will not last Madam,
An egge and pepper goes farther than their potions,
And in a well built body, a poor parsnip
Will play his prize above their strong potabiles.
Margarita:
The fellow's mad.
Leon:
He that shall counsel Ladies,
That have both liquorish and ambitious eyes,
Is either mad, or drunk, let him speak Gospel.
Altea:
He breaks out modestly.
Leon:
Pray ye be not angry,
My indiscretion has made bold to tell ye,
What you'l find true.
195]
Margarita:
Thou darest not talk.
Leon:
Not much Madam,
You have a tye upon your servants tongue,
He dares not be so bold as reason bids him,
'Twere fit there were a stronger on your temper.
Ne're look so stern upon me, I am your Husband,
But what are Husbands? read the new worlds wonders,
Such Husbands as this monstrous world produces,
And you will scarce find such deformities,
They are shadows to conceal your venial vertues,
Sails to your mills, that grind with all occasions,
Balls that lye by you, to wash out your stains,
And bills nail'd up with horn before your stories,
To rent out last.
Margarita:
Do you hear him talk?
Leon:
I have done Madam,
An oxe once spoke, as learned men deliver,
Shortly I shall be such, then I'le speak wonders,
Till when I tye my self to my obedience.
[Exit.
Margarita:
First I'le unty my self, did you mark the Gentleman,
How boldly and how sawcily he talk'd,
And how unlike the lump I took him for,
The piece of ignorant dow, he stood up to me
And mated my commands, this was your providence,
Your wisdom, to elect this Gentleman,
Your excellent forecast in the man, your knowledge,
What think ye now?
Altea:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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