A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Ii Part 18

CAREAWAY.

Yea, marry, sir, you have beaten them down into my tail; But, sir, might I be bold to say one thing Without any blows and without any beating?

JACK JUGGLER.

Truce for a while; say on what thee l.u.s.t:

CAREAWAY.

May a man to your honesty by your word trust?

I pray you swear by the ma.s.s you woll do me no ill--

JACK JUGGLER.

By my faith, I promise pardon thee I will--

CAREAWAY.

What, and you keep no promise?

JACK JUGGLER.

Then upon Careaway[189]

I pray G.o.d light as much or more as hath on thee to-day.

CAREAWAY.

Now dare I speak, so mote I the, Master Bongrace is my master, and the name of me Is Jenkin Careaway!

JACK JUGGLER.

What, sayest thou so?

CAREAWAY.

And if thou wilt strike me, and break thy promise, do, And beat on me, till I stink, and till I die; And yet woll I still say that I am I!

JACK JUGGLER.

This Bedlam knave without doubt is mad--

CAREAWAY.

No, by G.o.d, for all that I am a wise lad, And can call to remembrance every thing That I did this day sith my uprising; For went not I with my master to-day Early in the morning to the tennis-play?

At noon, while my master at his dinner sat, Played not I at dice at the gentleman's gate?

Did not I wait on my master to supper-ward?

And I think I was not changed the way homeward!

Or else, if thou think I lie, Ask in the street of them that I came by; And sith that I came hither into your presence, What man living could carry me hence?

I remember I was sent to fetch my mistress, And what I devised to save me harmless; Do not I speak now? [is] not this my hand?

Be not these my feet that on this ground stand?

Did not this other knave here knock me about the head?

And beat me, till I was almost dead?

How may it then be, that he should be I?

Or I not myself?--it is a shameful lie.

I woll home to our house, whosoever say nay, For surely my name is Jenkin Careaway.

JACK JUGGLER.

I woll make thee say otherwise, ere we depart, if we can--

JENKIN CAREAWAY.

Nay that woll I not in faith for no man, Except thou tell me what thou hast done[190]

Ever sith five of the clock this afternoon: Rehea.r.s.e me all that without any lie, And then I woll confess that thou art I.

JACK JUGGLER.

When my master came to the gentleman's place, He commanded me to run home a great pace, To fet thither my mistress; and by the way I did a good while at the bucklers play; Then came I by a wife, that did costards sell, And cast down her basket fair and well, And gathered as many as I could get, And put them in my sleeve: here they be yet!

CAREAWAY.

How the devil should they come there, For I did them all in my own sleeve bear?

He lieth not a word in all this, Nor doth in any one point miss.

For ought I see yet between earnest and game I must go seek me another name; But thou mightest see all this:--tell the rest that is behind, And there I know I shall thee a liar find.

JACK JUGGLER.

I ran thence homeward a contrary way, And whether I stopped there or nay, I could tell, if me l.u.s.teth, a good token; But it may not very well be spoken.

JENKIN CAREAWAY.

Now, may I pray thee, let no man that hear, But tell it me privily in mine ear.

JACK JUGGLER.

Ay, thou lost all thy money at dice, Christ give it his curse, Well and truly picked before out of another man's purse!

JENKIN CAREAWAY.

G.o.d's body, wh.o.r.eson thief, who told thee that same?

Some cunning devil is within thee, pain of shame!

_In nomine patris_, G.o.d and our blessed lady, Now and evermore save me from thy company!

JACK JUGGLER.

How now, art thou Careaway or not?

CAREAWAY.

By the Lord, I doubt, but sayest thou nay to that?

JACK JUGGLER.

Yea, marry, I tell thee, Care-away is my name.

CAREAWAY.

And, by these ten bones, mine is the same!

Or else tell me, if I be not he, What my name from henceforth shall be?

JACK JUGGLER.

By my faith, the same that it was before, When I l.u.s.t to be Careaway no more: Look well upon me, and thou shalt see as now, That I am Jenkin Careaway, and not thou: Look well upon me, and by every thing Thou shalt well know that I am not lesing.

CAREAWAY.

I see it is so without any doubt; But how the devil came it about?

Whoso in England looketh on him steadily, Shall perceive plainly that he is I: I have seen myself a thousand times in a gla.s.s; But so like myself, as he is, never was; He hath in every point my clothing and my gear; My head, my cap, my shirt, and knotted hair, And of the same colour: my eyes, nose, and lips: My cheeks, chin, neck, feet, legs, and hips: Of the same stature, and height, and age: And is in every point Master Bongrace page, That if he have a hole in his tail, He is even I mine own self without any fail!

And yet when I remember, I wot not how, The same man that I have ever been me thinketh I am now: I know my master and his house, and my five wits I have: Why then should I give credence to this foolish knave, That nothing intendeth but me delude and mock?

For whom should I fear at my master's gate to knock?

JACK JUGGLER.

Thinkest thou I have said all this in game?