The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 06Dryden, John
General
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 06
Dryden, John
English literature
_Lor._ Nay, if you talk of considering, let us consider why we are
alone. Do you think the friar left us together to tell beads? Love is
a kind of penurious god, very niggardly of his opportunities: he must
be watched like a hard-hearted treasurer; for he bolts out on the
sudden, and, if you take him not in the nick, he vanishes in a
twinkling.
_Elv._ Why do you make such haste to have done loving me? You men are
all like watches, wound up for striking twelve immediately; but after
you are satisfied, the very next that follows, is the solitary sound
of a single--one!
_Lor._ How, madam! do you invite me to a feast, and then preach
abstinence?
_Elv._ No, I invite you to a feast where the dishes are served up in
order: you are for making a hasty meal, and for chopping up your
entertainment, like a hungry clown. Trust my management, good colonel,
and call not for your desert too soon: believe me, that which comes
last, as it is the sweetest, so it cloys the soonest.
_Lor._ I perceive, madam, by your holding me at this distance, that
there is somewhat you expect from me: what am I to undertake, or
suffer, ere I can be happy?
_Elv._ I must first be satisfied, that you love me.
_Lor._ By all that's holy! by these dear eyes!--
_Elv._ Spare your oaths and protestations; I know you gallants of the
time have a mint at your tongue's end to coin them.
_Lor._ You know you cannot marry me; but, by heavens, if you were in a
condition--
_Elv._ Then you would not be so prodigal of your promises, but have
the fear of matrimony before your eyes. In few words, if you love me,
as you profess, deliver me from this bondage, take me out of Egypt,
and I'll wander with you as far as earth, and seas, and love, can
carry us.
_Lor._ I never was out at a mad frolic, though this is the maddest I
ever undertook. Have with you, lady mine; I take you at your word; and
if you are for a merry jaunt, I'll try for once who can foot it
farthest. There are hedges in summer, and barns in winter, to be
found; I with my knapsack, and you with your bottle at your back: we
will leave honour to madmen, and riches to knaves; and travel till we
come to' the ridge of the world, and then drop together into the next.
_Elv._ Give me your hand, and strike a bargain.
[_He takes her hand, and kisses it._
_Lor._ In sign and token whereof, the parties interchangeably, and so
forth.--When should I be weary of sealing upon this soft wax?
_Elv._ O heavens! I hear my husband's voice.
_Enter_ GOMEZ.
_Gom._ Where are you, gentlewoman? there's something in the wind, I'm
sure, because your woman would have run up stairs before me; but I
have secured her below, with a gag in her chaps.--Now, in the devil's
name, what makes this friar here again? I do not like these frequent
conjunctions of the flesh and spirit; they are boding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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