A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 41

AMADINE. This is too big; I cannot wield it in my arm.

BREMO. Is't so, we'll have a knotty crabtree staff for thee: But, sirrah, tell me, what say'st thou?

MUCEDORUS. With all my heart I willing am to learn.

BREMO. Then take my staff, and see how thou canst wield it.

MUCEDORUS. First teach me how to hold it in my hand.

BREMO. Thou hold'st it well. [To _Amadine_.]

Look how he doth; Thou mayest the sooner learn.

MUCEDORUS. Next tell me how and when 'tis best to strike.

BREMO. 'Tis best to strike when time doth serve, 'Tis best to lose no time.

MUCEDORUS. Then now or never is my time to strike.

BREMO. And when thou strikest, be sure to hit the head.

MUCEDORUS. The head?

BREMO. The very head.

MUCEDORUS. Then have at thine, So lie there and die; [_He strikes him down dead_.

A death, no doubt, according to desert, Or else a worse, as thou deservest a worse.

AMADINE. It glads my heart this tyrant's death to see.

MUCEDORUS. Now, lady, it remains in you To end the tale you lately had begun, Being interrupted by this wicked wight-- You said you loved a shepherd?

AMADINE. Ay, so I do, and none but only him; And will do still, as long as life shall last.

MUCEDORUS. But tell me, lady, sith I set you free, What course of life do you intend to take?

AMADINE. I will (disguised) wander through the world Till I have found him out.

MUCEDORUS. How, if you find your shepherd in these woods?

AMADINE. Ah! none so happy then as Amadine.[191]

MUCEDORUS. In tract of time a man may alter much: Say, lady, do you know your shepherd well?

[_He discovers himself_.

AMADINE. My Mucedorus, hath he set me free?

MUCEDORUS. He hath set thee free.

AMADINE. And lived so long Unknown to Amadine?

MUCEDORUS. Ay, that's a question Whereof you may not be resolved.

You know that I am banish'd from the court, I know likewise each pa.s.sage is beset, So that we cannot long escape unknown, Therefore my will is this, that we return, Right through the thickets, to the wild man's cave, And there a while live on his provision, Until the search and narrow watch be past: This is my counsel, and I think it best.

AMADINE. I think the very same.

MUCEDORUS. Come, let's begone.

_Enter the_ CLOWN, _who searches and falls over the wild man, and so carries him away_.

CLOWN. Nay, soft, sir, are you here? a bots on you!

I was like to be hanged for not finding you, We would borrow a certain stray king's daughter of you; A wench, a wench, sir, we would have.

MUCEDORUS. A wench of me? I'll make thee eat my sword.

CLOWN. O Lord, nay, and you are so l.u.s.ty, I'll call a cooling card for you: Ho, master, master, come away quickly!

_Enter_ SEGASTO.

SEGASTO. What's the matter?

CLOWN. Look, master, Amandine and the shepherd! O brave!

SEGASTO. What, minion, have I found you out?

CLOWN. Nay, that's a lie, I found her out myself.

SEGASTO. Thou gadding huswife, What cause hadst thou to gad abroad, When as thou knowest our wedding-day so nigh?

AMADINE. Not so, Segasto; no such thing in hand.

Show your a.s.surance, then I'll answer you?

SEGASTO. Thy father's promise my a.s.surance is.

AMADINE. But what he promis'd he hath not perform'd.

SEGASTO. It rests in thee to perform the same.

AMADINE. Not I.

SEGASTO. And why?

AMADINE. So is my will, and therefore even so.

CLOWN. Master, with a nonny, nonny, no.[192]

SEGASTO. Ah, wicked villain! art thou here?

MUCEDORUS. What needs these words? we weigh them not.