A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vi Part 71

That pray with faith, and with unfeign'd remorse, For true belief and tears make prayer of force.

CONSCIENCE.

Then veil ourselves, and silent let us stay, Till heaven shall please to send some friends this way.

[_Sit all down_.

[_Enter_ FRAUD, DISSIMULATION, &c.]

FRAUD.

Ladies, unmask[253]! blush not for base attire: Here are none but friends and servants all. Dear Lady Lucre, Dearer unto us than daily breath we draw from sweetest air, Dearer than life, dearer than heaven itself, Deign to discover those alluring lamps, Those lovely eyes more clear than Venus' star, Whose bright aspects world's wonder do produce.

Unveil, I say, that beauty more divine Than Nature (save in thee) did ever paint, That we, sworn slaves unto our mistress, may Once more behold those stately lovely looks, And do those duties which us well beseems, Such duties as we all desire to do.

CONSCIENCE.

I know that tongue. Lucre, beware of Fraud.

LUCRE.

Of Fraud! Indeed by speech it should be he.

Fraud, what seekest thou?

FRAUD.

Lucre, to honour thee with wit, with worth, with all I have; To be thy servant, as I was before, To get thee clothes, and what thou wantest else.

LUCRE.

No, Fraud, farewell: I must be won no more To keep such servants as I kept before.

SIMONY.

Sweet Lady Lucre, me thou mayest accept.

LUCRE.

How art thou called?

SIMONY.

Simony.

LUCRE.

Aye? No, sir; Conscience saith.

CONSCIENCE.

No; Lucre now beware, false not thy faith, For Simony's subject to perpetual curse.

DISSIMULATION.

As you two have sped, I would desire to speed no worse.

FRAUD.

Make you a suit: you may chance to speed better.

DISSIMULATION.

Not I, for of all my tongue is best known; But if I speak, it shall be to her that was once mine own.

Good Lady Love, thou little knowest the grief That I, thy friend, sustain for thy distress, And less believest what care I have of thee.

Look up, good Love, and to supply thy wants Ask what thou wilt, and thou shalt have of me, Of me, that joy more in thy liberty Than in this life or[254] light that comforts me.

LOVE.

O gall in honey, serpent in the gra.s.s!

O bifold fountain of two bitter streams, Dissimulation fed with viper's flesh, Whose words are oil, whose deeds, the darts of death!

Thy tongue I know, that tongue that me beguil'd, Thyself a devil mad'st me a monster vild.

From the[e] well known well may I bless myself: Dear-bought repentance bids me shun thy snare.

CONSCIENCE.

O happy Love, if now thou can beware.

SIMPLICITY.

Marry, but hear ye, motley-beard. I think this blindfold buzzardly hedge-wench spoke to ye; she knows ye, though she see thee not.

Hark ye, you women, if you'll go to the alehouse, I'll bestow two pots on ye, and we'll get a pair of cards[255] and some company, and win twenty pots more; for you play the best at a game, call'd smelling of the four knaves, that ever I saw.

USURY.

Four! soft, yet they have not smell'd thee.

SIMPLICITY.

No? I am one more than is in the deck, but you'll be smell'd as soon as ye begin to speak. I'll see what they'll say to me. Hear ye, you women, wives, widows, maids, men's daughters, what shall I call ye?

These four fellows (hark ye, shall I call ye crafty knaves?) make me believe that you are the three that were the three fair ladies of London.

CONSCIENCE.

Gentle Simplicity, we are unhappy they.

SIMPLICITY.

Now, ye bad fellows, which of ye had such a word as gentle Sim?

USURY.

Bad fellows, ye rascal! If e'er you bring me p.a.w.n, I'll pinch ye for that word.

SIMPLICITY.

I cry you mercy, Master Inquiry--Master Usury: I meant not you.

FRAUD.

If you mean us, we may be even with ye too.

SIMPLICITY.

Tut! I knew ye an ostler, and a thief beside: You have rubb'd my horse-heels ere now for all your pride. But, ladies, if ye be the three ladies, which of ye dwelt in Kent Street? One of you did, but I know not which is she, ye look all so like broom-wenches. I was once her servant: I'll ne'er be ashamed of her, though I be rich and she be poor; yet if she that hath been my dame, or he that hath been my master, come in place, I'll speak to them, sure: I'll do my duty.

Which is Lady Conscience?

CONSCIENCE.

Even I am she, Simplicity.

SIMPLICITY.

I am glad ye are out of prison. I thought ye had forgot me: I went a-begging for[256] you, till the beadles snapp'd me up: now I am free, and keep a stall of ballads. I may buy and sell. I would you had as good a gown now, as I carried once of yours to p.a.w.n to Usury here.

CONSCIENCE.

Gramercy, good Simplicity. Wilt thou be with me now?