A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Xi Part 6

SIR J. WOR. These are impossibilities. Come, Sir Abraham.

A little time will wear out this rash vow.

ABRA. Shall I but hope?

LUC. O, by no means. I cannot endure these round breeches: I am ready to swoon at them.

KATE. The hose are comely.

LUC. And then his left leg: I never see it, but I think on a plum-tree.

ABRA. Indeed, there's reason there should be some difference in my legs, for one cost me twenty pounds more than the other.

LUC. In troth, both are not worth half the money.

C. FRED. I hold my life, one of them was broke, and cost so much the healing.

ABRA. Right hath your lordship said; 'twas broke indeed At foot-ball in the university.

PEN. I know he is in love by his verse-vein.

STRANGE. He cannot hold out on't: you shall hear.

ABRA. Well, since I am disdain'd, off garters blue!

Which signify Sir Abram's love was true; Off, cypress black! for thou befits not me; Thou art not cypress of the cypress-tree, Befitting lovers. Out, green shoe-strings, out!

Wither in pocket, since my Luce doth pout.

Gush, eyes; thump, hand; swell, heart; b.u.t.tons, fly open!

Thanks, gentle doublet, else my heart had broken.

Now to thy father's country house at Babram Hide post; there pine and die, poor, poor Sir Abram.

OMNES. O doleful dump! [_Music plays._

SIR J. WOR. Nay, you shall stay the wedding. Hark, the music!

Your bride is ready.

C. FRED. Put spirit in your fingers! louder still, And the vast air with your enchantments fill. [_Exeunt omnes._

FOOTNOTES:

[10] An allusion (one out of hundreds in our old plays) to "The Spanish Tragedy," act iii., where Hieronimo finds a letter, and taking it up, exclaims--

"What's here? A letter! Tush, it is not so-- A letter written to Hieronimo."

--[v. 68.]

[11] [Advice.]

[12] [Old copy, _again_.]

[13] [Old copy, _doubt on_.]

[14] [Old copy, _as_.]

[15] Cotgrave tells us that "_piccadilles_ are the several divisions or pieces fastened together about the brim of the collar of a doublet." They are mentioned over and over again in old plays, as by Field himself (probably) in "The Fatal Dowry," act iv. sc. 1: "There's a shoulder-piece cut, and the base of a _pickadille_ in _puncto_." A _pickadel_ is spoken of in "Northward Ho!" sig. D 3, as part of the dress of a female. See Gifford's Ben Jonson, v. 55, for the origin and application of the word.

[16] A place notorious for prost.i.tutes, often mentioned.

[17] [Ordered them to be made, not being a poet or verse writer himself. Old copy, _commend_.]

[18] [Usually, a kind of sausage; but here it seems to have an indelicate sense, which may be readily conjectured.]

[19] From this pa.s.sage it should seem that Italian tailors in Field's time wore peculiarly wide and stiff ruffs, like a _wheel_ of lace round their necks. Nothing on the point is to be found in R. Armin's "Italian Taylor and his Boy," 1609. The Tailor in "Northward Ho!"

1607, sig. D 3, speaks of "a Cathern (Katherine) _wheel_ farthingale,"

but the farthing-gale was a hoop for the petticoats.

[20] [_Backyard_ usually, but here the phrase seems to mean rather a house in the rear.]

[21] The old stage direction here is only _Exit Inno_.

[22] _Bombard_ strictly means a piece of artillery, but it was metaphorically applied to large vessels containing liquor: in this sense it may be frequently found in Shakespeare and other dramatists of his day.

[23] _i.e._, The gunpowder treason of 5th Nov. 1605.

[24] [Meaning, a character. _Old_ is frequently used in this sort of sense.]

[25] Sir Abraham quotes from "The Spanish Tragedy," and Kate detects his plagiarism; [but the pa.s.sage in that drama is itself a quotation.

See vol. v.p. 36.]

ACT II., SCENE 1.

_Enter_ NEVILL, _like a parson_.

NEV. Thus for my friend's sake have I taken orders, And with my reason and some hire beside Won the known priest, that was to celebrate This marriage, to let me a.s.sume his place; And here's the character of his face and beard.

By this means, when my friend confronts the maid At the church-door (where I appointed him To meet him like myself; for this strange shape He altogether is unwitting of), If she (as one vice in that s.e.x alone Were a great virtue) to inconstancy past Join impudency, and slight him to his face, Showing a resolution to this match, By this attempt it will be frustrate, And so we have more time, though but 'till night, To work, to speak with her, or use violence; For both my blood and means are at his service.

The reason, too, I do this past his knowledge Is, that his joy may be the more complete; When being resolv'd she's married and gone, I can resolve him otherwise. Thus I know Good deeds show double that are timely done, And joy that comes past expectation.

_Enter_ SCUDMORE _in tawny_.

Yonder he comes, dead in his melancholy.

I'll question him, and see if I can raise His spirit from that it restless rests upon: He cannot know me. Ho! good morrow, sir.

SCUD. Good morrow to no living thing but one, And that is Nevill. O, the vows, the vows, The protestations and becoming oaths, Which she has utter'd to me!--so sweet, so many,-- As if she had been covetous not to leave One word for other lovers, which I pitied: She said indeed I did deserve 'em all.

Her lips made swearings sound of piety, So sweet and prettily they came from her; And yet this morn she's married to a lord.

Lord! lord! how often has she kiss'd this hand, Lost herself in my eyes, play'd with my hair, And made me (a sin I am not subject to) Go away proud, improved by her favours; And yet this morn she's married to a lord-- The bells were ringing as I came along.