A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Ii Part 60

WIT.

Thou shalt be what thou wilt, all in all.

WILL.

Promise me faithfully that, if your wife brawl, Or set her father to check me out of measure, You will not see me abused to their pleasure.

WIT.

Give me thy hand, take here my faith and troth, I will maintain thee, howsoever the world goeth.

ACT III., SCAENA 2.

_The house of_ SCIENCE. WILL, WIT; _also_ REASON _and_ SCIENCE _behind_.

WIT.

What shall we do? Shall we stand lingering here?

WILL.

If you be a man, press in and go near.

WIT.

What, if there be some other suitor there?

WILL.

And if there be, yet need you not to fear; Until I bring his head to you upon a spear.

I will not look you in the face, nor in your sight appear.

REASON.

Nay, Wit, advise yourself, and pause a while, Or else this haste of yours will you beguile.

SCIENCE.

No haste but good, take time and learn to fight, Learn to a.s.sault, learn to defend a right: Your match[393] is monstrous to behold and full of might, Whom you must vanquish, not by force, but by sleight.

WIT.

Madam, stand to your promise; if I win, I am sped, Am I not?

SCIENCE.

Yea, truly.

WILL.

Good enough, if we fight not, I would we were dead, No man shall stay us, that bears a head.

EXPERIENCE.

Young man, a word or twain, and then adieu: Your years are few, your practice green and new; Mark what I say, and ye shall find it true: You are the first that shall this rashness rue.

Be ruled here: our counsel do thereafter.

Lay good ground, your work shall be the faster.

This headlong haste may sooner miss than hit; Take heed both of witless[394] Will and wilful Wit.

We have within a gentleman, our retainer and our friend, With servants twain, that do on him attend-- Instruction, Study, Diligence: these three At your commandment in this attempt shall be.

Hear them instead of us, and as they shall devise, So hardily cast your[395] cards in this enterprise.

I will send them to you, and leave you for now.

WIT.

The more company the merrier; boy, what say'st thou?

WILL.

It is a good fault to have more than enou': I care not, so as we may put the knaves down, I would we were at it, I pa.s.s not how soon.

WIT.

If it shall please you to send those three hither, We will follow your counsel, and go together.

WILL.

I warrant her a shrew, whosoever be another, G.o.d make the daughter good, I like not the mother. [_Aside_.

WIT.[396]

Yet would not I for no good to have forgone her. [_Aside_.

WILL.

Marry, sir, indeed she talks and takes on her, Like a dame, nay, like a d.u.c.h.ess or a queen, With such a solemnity as I have not seen.

REASON.

She is a queen, I tell thee, in her degree.

WILL.

Let her be what she list, with a vengeance, for me!

I will keep me out of her reach, if I can. [_Aside_.

REASON.

If this marriage go forward, thou must be her man.

WILL.

Marriage or marriage not, beshrew me then, I have but one master, and I will serve no mo, And if he anger me, I will forsake him too.

REASON.

She shall not hurt thee, unless her cause be juster.

WILL.

By the faith of my body, sir, I intend not to trust her.

REASON.

Why?

WILL.

Take[397] me this woman, that talks so roundly, That be so wise, that reason so soundly: That look so narrow, that speak so shrill: Their words are not so cursed, but their deeds are ill.

REASON.

It is but thy fancy, I see no such thing in her.

WILL.