Swetnam, the Woman-hater, arraigned by women: A new comedie, acted at the Red Bull, by the late Queenes seruants.Anonymous
General
Swetnam, the Woman-hater, arraigned by women: A new comedie, acted at the Red Bull, by the late Queenes seruants.
Anonymous
Swetnam, Joseph, active 1617 -- Drama
_Scan._ Me thinks you are too generall: some, no doubt,
As many men, are bad: condemne not all for some.
What thinke you, Sir, of those that haue good wiues?
I hope, you will confesse a difference.
_Mis._ And Reason too: and here’s the difference,
Those that haue good wiues, ride to Hell
Vpon ambling Hackneyes, and all the rest
Vpon trotting Iades to the Deuill.
_Scan._ Is that the difference? Ile not marrie sure,
Ile rather turne Whore-master,
And goe a-foot to the Deuill.
_Clow._ You’l hardly doe that, if you loue whoring, Sir.
For many lose a Legge in such seruice.
_Scan._ But doe you heare, Sir? how long is’t since you became such a
bitter Enemie to women?
_Mis._ Since I had wisdome. When I was a Foole,
I doted on such Follies, but now I haue left vm, and doe vow to be the
euerlasting scourge to all their Sex: What the reason is, Ile tell
you, Sir, hereafter: reade but that,
I haue arraign’d vm all, and painted forth
Those Furies to the life,
That all the World may know that doth it read,
I was a true Mysogenist indeed. _Exeunt._
SCEN. III.
_Enter_ IAGO, _and_ LORENZO _disguised_.
_Iag._ You haue not seene the Court then?
_Lor._ Not as yet.
But I desire to obserue the Fashions there.
How doe you stile your King of Sicilie?
_Iag._ Men call him, Sir, The iust King _Atticus_;
And truly too: for with an equall Scale
He waighes the offences betwixt man and man,
He is not sooth’d with adulation,
Nor mou’d with teares, to wrest the course of Iustice
Into an vniust current, to oppresse the Innocent,
Nor do’s he make the Lawes
Punish the man, but in the man the cause.
Shall I in briefe giue you his Character?
_Lor._ A thing I couet much.
_Iag._ Attend mee then.
His state is full of maiestie and grace,
Whose basis is true Pietie and Vertue,
Where, vnderneath a rich triumphant Arch,
That does resemble the Tribunall Seat,
Garded with Angels, borne vpon two Columnes,
Iuftice and Clemencie, he sits inthron’d,
His subiects serue him freely, not perforce,
And doe obey him more for loue, then feare;
Being a King not of themselues alone,
And their estates, but their affections:
A soueraigntie that farre more safetie brings,
Then do’s an Armie to the guard of Kings.
_Lor._ You haue describ’d, Sir, such a worthy Prince,
That well I cannot say, who is most happie;
Either the King for hauing so good subiects,
Or else the subiects for so good a King.
But pray proceed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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