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
I observe ye.
[Exeunt.
[Enter _Juan de Castro_, _Sancho_, and _Cacafogo_.]
Sanchio:
Thou art very brave.
Cacafogo:
I have reason, I have mony.
Sanchio:
Is mony reason?
Cacafogo:
Yes and rime too Captain,
If ye have no mony y'are an Asse.
Sanchio:
I thank ye.
Cacafogo:
Ye have manners, ever thank him that has mony.
Sanchio:
Wilt thou lend me any?
Cacafogo:
Not a farthing Captain,
Captains are casual things.
Sanchio:
Why so are all men, thou shalt have my bond.
Cacafogo:
Nor bonds nor fetters Captain,
My mony is mine, I make no doubt on't.
Juan de Castro:
What dost thou do with it?
199]
Cacafogo:
Put it to pious uses,
Buy Wine and Wenches, and undo young Coxcombs
That would undo me.
Juan de Castro:
Are those Hospitals?
Cacafogo:
I first provide to fill my Hospitals
With Creatures of mine own, that I know wretched,
And then I build: those are more bound to pray for me:
Besides, I keep th' inheritance in my Name still.
Juan de Castro:
A provident Charity; are you for the Wars, Sir?
Cacafogo:
I am not poor enough to be a Souldier,
Nor have I faith enough to ward a Bullet;
This is no lining for a trench, I take it.
Juan de Castro:
Ye have said wisely.
Cacafogo:
Had you but my money,
You would swear it Colonel, I had rather drill at home
A hundred thousand Crowns, and with more honour,
Than exercise ten thousand Fools with nothing,
A wise Man safely feeds, Fools cut their fingers.
Sanchio:
A right State Usurer; why dost thou not marry,
And live a reverend Justice?
Cacafogo:
Is't not nobler to command a reverend Justice, than to be one?
And for a Wife, what need I marry, Captain,
When every courteous Fool that owes me money,
Owes me his Wife too, to appease my fury?
Juan de Castro:
Wilt thou go to dinner with us?
Cacafogo:
I will go, and view the Pearl of _Spain_, the Orient
Fair One, the rich One too, and I will be respected,
I bear my Patent here, I will talk to her,
And when your Captain's Ships shall stand aloof,
And pick your Noses, I will pick the purse
Of her affection.
Juan de Castro:
The Duke dines there to day too, the Duke of _Medina_.
Cacafogo:
Let the King dine there,
He owes me money, and so far's my Creature,
And certainly I may make bold with mine own, Captain?
Sanchio:
Thou wilt eat monstrously.
Cacafogo:
Like a true born _Spaniard_,
Eat as I were in _England_ where the Beef grows,
And I will drink abundantly, and then
Talk ye as wantonly as _Ovid_ did,
200] To stir the Intellectuals of the Ladies;
I learnt it of my Father's amorous Scrivener.
Juan de Castro:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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