A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Xi Part 29

INGEN. Wife, wife, come forth! now, gentle boy, be judge,

_Enter_ INGEN'S BROTHER, _like a woman, masked_. INGEN _kisses her_.

If such a face as this, being paid with scorn By her I did adore, had not full power To make me marry.

MAID. By the G.o.d of love, She's a fair creature, but faith, should be fairer.

My lady, gentle mistress, one that thought She had some interest in this gentleman, (Who now is only yours) commanded me To kiss your white hand, and to sigh and weep, And wish you that content she should have had In the fruition of her love you hold.

She bad me say, G.o.d give you joy, to both; Yet this withal (if ye were married): No one her footsteps ever more should meet, Nor see her face but in a winding-sheet.

BRO. Alas, poor lady! faith, I pity her, And, but to be i' th' same state, could forego Anything I possess to ease her woe.

MAID. Love's blessing light upon thy gentle soul!

Men rail at women, mistress, but 'tis we Are false and cruel, ten times more unkind; You are smoother far and of a softer mind.

Sir, I have one request more.

INGEN. Gentle lad, It must be one of a strange quality That I deny thee: both thy form and mind Inform me that thy nurture hath been better, Than to betray thee to this present life.

MAID. 'Tis, that you would vouchsafe to entertain me.

My feet do tremble under me to bear My body back unto my uncouth lady, To a.s.sure her grief. What heart so hard would owe A tongue to tell so sad a tale to her?

Alas! I dare not look upon her eyes, Where wronged love sits like the basilisk.

And, sure, would kill me for my dire report: Or rather should not I appear like death, [_Holding up his dart._ When every word I spake shot through her heart More mortally than his unsparing dart.

BRO. Let me speak for the boy.

INGEN. To what end, love?

No, I will sue to him to follow me.

In troth, I love thy sweet condition, And may live to inform thy lady of thee.

Come in; dry, dry thine eyes, respite thy woe; The effects of causes[95] crown or overthrow.

SCENE IV.

_Enter_ LORD PROUDLY, LORD FEESIMPLE, WELLTRIED, SELDOM, WIDOW, BOLD _pinning in a ruff_, WIFE.

PROUDLY. 'Slight, what should be become of her? you swear She pa.s.s'd not forth of doors, and i' th' house she is not?

WID. Did you not see her, Princ.o.x?

PROUDLY. This same bawd Has brought her letters from some younger brother, And she is stolen away.

BOLD. Bawd! I defy you.

Indeed, your lords.h.i.+p thinks you may make bawds Of whom you please. I'll take my oath upon a book, Since I met her in the necessary house i' th' morning, I ne'er set eye on her.

GRACE. She went not out of doors.

PROUDLY. Sure, she has an invisible ring.

FEE. Marry, she's the honester woman, for some of their rings are visible enough, the more shame for them, still say I. Let the pond at Islington be searched: go to, there's more have drowned themselves for love this year than you are aware of.

PROUDLY. Pis.h.!.+ you are a fool.

WELL. 'Sheart! call him fool again.

FEE. By this light, and I will, as soon as ever you have showed me the Swaggerers.[96]

WIFE. Her clothes are all yonder, my lord.

GRACE. And even those same she had on to-day.

PROUDLY. Madam, where is your husband?

WIFE. Rid into the country.

FEE. O' my conscience, rid into France with your sister.

OMNES. Away, away; for shame!

FEE. Why, I hope she is not the first lady that has ran away with other women's husbands.

WELL. It may be she's stolen out to see a play.

PROUDLY. Who should go with her, man?

WID. Upon my life, you'll hear of her at Master Ingen's house: some love pa.s.s'd betwixt them, and we heard that he was married to-day to another.

PROUDLY. 'Sheart! I'll go see. [_Exit_ LORD PROUDLY.

WELL. Come to the Swaggerers.

FEE. Mercy upon me! a man or a--Lord now?

[_Exeunt_ LORD FEESIMPLE, WELLTRIED.

OMNES. Here's a coil with a lord and his sister.

WID. Princ.o.x, hast not thou pinned in that ruff yet? ha! how thou fumblest!

BOLD. Troth, madam, I was ne'er brought up to it; 'tis chambermaid's work, and I have ever lived gentlewoman, and been used accordingly.

[_Exeunt._

FOOTNOTES:

[87] In reference to her female s.e.x and male attire.

[88] These words contain an allusion to Blackfriars as a common residence of the Puritans. The Widow subsequently refers to the same circ.u.mstance, when in act iii. she asks Bold: "Precise and learned Princ.o.x, dost thou not go to Blackfriars." That Blackfriars, although the play-house was there, was crowded with Puritans may be proved by many authorities.

[89] Two celebrated English heroines. The achievements of Mary Ambree at the siege of Ghent, in 1584, are celebrated in a ballad which goes by her name in Percy's "Reliques," ii. 239, edit. 1812. She is mentioned by Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and many other dramatists; some of whom were her contemporaries. Dr Percy conjectured that the "English Mall" of Butler was the same female soldier, but he probably alluded to Mall or Moll Cut-purse who forms a character in this play. Long Meg is Long Meg of Westminster, also a masculine lady of great notoriety, and after whom a cannon in Dover Castle, and a large flagstone in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey are still called. Her life and "merry pranks" were detailed in a pamphlet dated in [1582], and reprinted [from a later edition] in 1816. It is conjectured that she was dead in 1594, but she is often spoken of in our old writers. It will be seen by a subsequent note that Long Meg was the heroine of a play which has not survived.