A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Xiv Part 63

EPH. Can this be true, Andromana?

AND. Do you believe it?

EPH. I wish I had not cause----

AND. Sir, every syllable was true he told you; Whose words I thus confirm.

[_She takes_ PLANGUS'S _dagger, flings it at_ EPHORBAS, _and kills him_.

EPH. I'm slain! mercy, Heaven!

_Enter_ INOPHILUS.

AND. You should have come a little sooner.

INO. Do I see well? or is the prince here slain?

AND. He is, and 'cause you love him, Carry that token of my love to him.

[_Stabs_ INOPHILUS.

I know he'll take it kindly that you take So long a journey only to see him.

INO. It was the devil struck, sure, A woman could not do it.--Plangus, O!

[_Dies._

SCENE VI.

_Enter_ RINATUS, EUBULUS, ANAMEDES.

RIN. Heav'n defend us! what a sight is here? The king, The prince, both slain? what, and my son too?

Only this woman living? Speak out, [thou]

Screech-owl, witch, how came they by their deaths!

AND. By me; how else?

RIN. Let's torture her.

AND. I can Prevent you; I wouldn't live a minute longer Unless to act my ills again, for all Iberia.

[_Stabs herself._

I have lived long enough to boast an act, After which no mischief shall be new----

[_Dies._

RIN. Let's in, and weep our weary lives away; When this is told, let after-ages say, But Andromana none could have begun it, And none but Andromana could have done it.

[_Exeunt._

LADY ALIMONY.

_EDITION._

_Lady Alimony; or, The Alimony Lady. An Excellent Pleasant New Comedy. Duly Authorized, daily Acted, and frequently Followed._

Nolumus amplexus sponsales; aera novellos Nocte parent Socios, qui placuere magis.

LUCRET.

_London, Printed by Tho. Vere and William Gilbertson, and are to be sold at the Angel without New-gate, and at the Bible in Gilt-spur-street._ 1659. 4^o.

This piece is now first reprinted from the original edition. It is a curious and peculiar production, and was perhaps written twenty or twenty-five years before the date which appears on the t.i.tle-page. Its attribution jointly to Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene is one of those alike silly and capricious affiliations of our earlier bibliographers, which sometimes scarcely seem as if they were seriously intended. From a pa.s.sage at p. 281, it is readily apparent that it was not in existence till after 1633.

The interest and point of the present play princ.i.p.ally depend on a vivid description of the doings of certain ladies of pleasure, or _bona-robas_, who are styled Ladies Alimony. The peculiarity of the piece in point of structure and character may be thought, perhaps, to go some way in atoning for its occasional licentiousness.

A considerable number of uncommon phrases are scattered through "Lady Alimony;" some of them are not noticed by our glossographers.

THE ACTORS PERSONATED IN THIS DRAMATIC.

EUGENIO, _the duke_.

SIR AMADIN PUNY, } SIR JASPER SIMPLETON, } SIR ARTHUR HEARTLESS, } _cashiered consorts_.

SIR GREGORY SHAPELESS, } SIR TRISTRAM SHORTTOOL, } SIR REUBEN SCATTERGOOD, }

MADAM FRICASE, } MADAM CAVEARE, } MADAM JULIPPE, } _alimony ladies_.

MADAM JOCULETTE, } MADAM MEDLER, } MADAM TINDER, }

FLORELLO, } CARANTO, } PALISADO, } _the ladies' Platonic confidants_.

SALIBRAND, } MORISCO, } TILLYVALLY, }

GALLERIUS, _ghost_.

TIMON, _the composer_.

TRILLO, _the censor_.

SIPARIUS, _the book-holder_.