A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Xi Part 111

ALB. 'Tis wronged Carracus by Albert's baseness: I have no power now to reveal myself.

CAR. The horses stand at the appointed place, And night's dark coverture makes firm our safety.

My friend is surely fall'n into a slumber On some bank hereabouts; I will call him.

Friend Albert, Albert!

ALB. Whate'er you are that call, you know my name.

CAR. Ay, and thy heart, dear friend.

ALB. O Carracus, you are a slow-pac'd lover!

Your credit had been touch'd, had I not been.

CAR. As how, I prythee, Albert?

ALB. Why, I excus'd you to the fair Maria; Who would have thought you else a slack performer.

For coming first under her chamber-window, She heard me tread, and call'd upon your name; To which I answer'd with a tongue like yours, And told her I would go to seek for Albert, And straight return.

CAR. Whom I have found; thanks to thy faith and heav'n.

But had not she a light when you came first?

ALB. Yes, but hearing of some company, She at my warning was forc'd to put it out.

And had I been so too, you and I too Had still been happy. [_Aside._

CAR. See, we are now come to the chamber-window.

ALB. Then you must call, for so I said I would.

CAR. Maria.

MARIA. My Carracus, are you so soon return'd?

I see you'll keep your promise.

CAR. Who would not do so, having pa.s.s'd it thee, Cannot be fram'd of aught but treachery: Fairest, descend, that by our hence departing We may make firm the bliss of our content.

MARIA. Is your friend Albert with you?

ALB. Yes, and your servant, honoured lady.

MARIA. Hold me from falling, Carracus. [_She descends._

CAR. I will do now so, but not at other times.

MARIA. You are merry, sir: But what d' y' intend with this your scaling-ladder, To leave it thus, or put it forth of sight?

CAR. Faith, 'tis no great matter which: Yet we will take it hence, that it may breed Many confus'd opinions in the house Of your escape. Here, Albert, you shall bear it; It may be you may chance to practise that way; Which when you do, may your attempts so prove, As mine have done--most fortunate in love.

ALB. May you continue ever so!

But it's time now to make some haste to horse; Night soon will vanish. O, that it had power For ever to exclude day from our eyes, For my looks, then, will show my villany. [_Aside._

CAR. Come, fair Maria, the troubles of this night Are as forerunners to ensuing pleasures.

And, n.o.ble friend, although now Carracus Seems, in the gaining of this beauteous prize, To keep from you so much of his lov'd treasure, Which ought not to be mixed; yet this heart Shall so far strive in your wish'd happiness, That if the loss and ruin of itself Can but avail your good----

ALB. O friend! no more; come, you are slow in haste; Friendship ought never be discuss'd in words, Till all her deeds be finish'd. Who, looking in a book, And reads but some part only, cannot judge What praise the whole deserves, because his knowledge Is grounded but on part. As thine, friend, is Ignorant of that black mischief I have done thee. [_Aside._

MAR. Carracus, I am weary; are the horses far?

CAR. No, fairest, we are now even at them: Come, do you follow, Albert?

ALB. Yes, I do follow; would I had done so ever, And ne'er had gone before. [_Aside. Exeunt._

FOOTNOTES:

[364] The p.r.o.noun _he_ seems wanting here, but the old 4 omits it.--_Collier._

[365] If this be not a corrupted, it must be an affected, word, coined from the Latin word _niteo_, to shine or be splendid. He was admired by those who _shone_ most in the article of dress.--_Steevens._

So in Marston's "Satires," printed with "Pygmalion," 1598--

"O dapper, rare, compleat, sweet _nittie_ youth!

Jesu Maria! how his clothes appeare Crost and re-crost with lace," &c.

_Niters_, however, may be a corruption of _niflers_. Chaucer uses _nifles_ for _trifles_. See "Sompnour's Tale," Tyrwhitt's edit. v.

7342--

"He served him with _nifles_ and with fables."

[_Knights_ would be a bold emendation, and perhaps not very successful.]

[366] "Pa.s.sage is a game at dice to be played at but by two, and it is performed with three dice. The caster throws continually till he hath thrown dubblets under ten, and then he is out and loseth; or dubblets above ten, and then he _pa.s.seth_ and wins."--_Compleat Gamester_, 1680, p. 119.

[367] A play called "Long Meg of Westminster," according to Henslowe, was performed at Newington by the Lord Admiral's and Lord Chamberlain's men, the 14th February 1594; and a ballad on the same subject was entered on the Stationers' books in the same year. Meg of Westminster is mentioned in "The Roaring Girl."--_Gilchrist._

The play of "Long Meg" is mentioned in Field's "Amends for Ladies,"

1618, with another called "The Ship," as being played at the Fortune theatre. Feesimple says, "Faith, I have a great mind to see 'Long Meg'

and 'The Ship' at the Fortune," which would seem to show in opposition to Mr Malone's opinion (see Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, iii.

304), that more than one piece was played on the same occasion. Long Meg of Westminster's "pranks" were detailed in a tract published in [1582], and reprinted in the "Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana." The introduction contains some further notices of this conspicuous damsel.--_Collier._

[368] Perhaps this was the t.i.tle of some play or ballad that was very successful, though it is not easy to explain the allusion. Dekker, in his "If it be not good, the Devil is in it," seems to refer to the same piece to nearly the same purpose. Sc.u.mbroth observes, "No, no, if fortune favoured me, I should be full; but fortune favours n.o.body but garlick, nor garlick neither now, yet she hath strong reason to love it; for though garlick made her smell abominably in the nostrils of the gallants, yet she had smelt and stunk worse but for garlick." It may be, that such a play was produced at the Fortune theatre, and met with general approbation.

This conjecture is supported by the following pa.s.sage from "The World's Folly; or, A Warning-Peece Discharged upon the Wickedness thereof," by I.H., 1615: "I will not particularize those _blitea dramata_, (as Laberius tearmes another sort), those _Fortune_-fatted fooles and Times Ideots, whose garbe is the Tootheache of witte, the Plague-sore of Judgement, the Common-sewer of Obscoenities, and the very Traine-powder that dischargeth the roaring _Meg_ (not _Mol_) of all scurrile villainies upon the Cities face; who are faine to produce blinde * _Impudence_ ['Garlicke' inserted in the margin, against the asterisk] to personate himselfe upon their stage, behung with chaynes of garlicke, as an antidote against their owne infectious breaths, lest it should kill their Oyster-crying Audience."--_Collier._

[369] [So in old copy, but query, _addle-headed_.]

[370] This was one of the cries of London at the time: "_Buy my rope of onions--white Sir Thomas's onions_." It was also liable to the hypercriticism of the player. What St Thomas had to do with onions does not appear; but the saint here meant was perhaps St Thomas of Trunnions--

"Nay, softe, my maisters, by _Saincte Thomas of Trunions_, I am not disposed to buy of your _onions_."