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Read Ebook: A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume 07 by Dodsley Robert Compiler
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Most sacred Majesty, whose great deserts Thy subject England, nay, the world, admires: Which heaven grant still increase! O, may your praise Multiplying with your hours, your fame still raise. Embrace your Council: love with faith them guide, That both at one bench, by each other's side. So may your life pass on, and run so even, That your firm zeal plant you a throne in heaven, Where smiling angels shall your guardians be From blemish'd traitors, stain'd with perjury. And, as the night's inferior to the day, So be all earthly regions to your sway! Be as the sun to day, the day to night, For from your beams Europe shall borrow light. Mirth drown your bosom, fair delight your mind, And may our pastime your contentment find. persons may easily play it.
MUCEDORUS.
Why so; thus do I hope to please: Music revives, and mirth is tolerable, Comedy, play thy part, and please; Make merry them that come to joy with thee. Joy, then, good gentles; I hope to make you laugh. Sound forth Bellona's silver-tuned strings. Time fits us well, the day and place is ours.
ENVY. Nay, stay, minion; there lies a block! What, all on mirth? I'll interrupt your tale, And mix your music with a tragic end.
COMEDY. What monstrous ugly hag is this, That dares control the pleasures of our will? Vaunt, churlish cur, besmear'd with gory blood, That seem'st to check the blossoms of delight, And stifle the sound of sweet Bellona's breath, Blush, monster, blush, and post away with shame, That seekest disturbance of a goddess' deeds.
ENVY. Post hence thyself, thou counterchecking trull; I will possess this habit, spite of thee, And gain the glory of thy wished port. I'll thunder music shall appal the nymphs, And make them shiver their clattering strings: Flying for succour to their Danish caves.
Hearken, thou shalt hear a noise Shall fill the air with a shrilling sound, And thunder music to the gods above: Mars shall himself breathe down A peerless crown upon brave Envy's head, And raise his chival with a lasting fame. In this brave music Envy takes delight, Where I may see them wallow in their blood, To spurn at arms and legs quite shivered off, And hear the cry of many thousand slain, How lik'st thou this, my trull? this sport alone for me!
COMEDY. Vaunt, bloody cur, nurs'd up with tigers' sap, That so dost seek to quail a woman's mind. Comedy is mild, gentle, willing for to please, And seeks to gain the love of all estates. Delighting in mirth, mix'd all with lovely tales, And bringeth things with treble joy to pass. Thou bloody envious disdainer of men's joys, Whose name is fraught with bloody stratagems, Delights in nothing but in spoil and death, Where thou may'st trample in their lukewarm blood, And grasp their hearts within thy cursed paws. Yet veil thy mind; revenge thou not on me; A silly woman begs it at thy hands. Give me the leave to utter out my play; Forbear this place; I humbly crave thee, hence! And mix not death 'mongst pleasing comedies, That treat nought else but pleasure and delight. If any spark of human rests in thee, Forbear; begone; tender the suit of me.
ENVY. Why, so I will; forbearance shall be such, As treble death shall cross thee with despite, And make thee mourn, where most thou joyest, Turning thy mirth into a deadly dole: Whirling thy pleasures with a peal of death, And drench thy methods in a sea of blood. This will I do; thus shall I bear with thee; And, more to vex thee with a deeper spite, I will with threats of blood begin thy play: Favouring thee with envy and with hate.
COMEDY. Then, ugly monster, do thy worst; I will defend them in despite of thee: And though thou think'st with tragic fumes To brave my play unto my deep disgrace, I force it not, I scorn what thou canst do; I'll grace it so, thyself shall it confess, From tragic stuff to be a pleasant comedy.
ENVY. Why then, Comedy, send thy actors forth, And I will cross the first steps of their tread, Making them fear the very dart of death.
COMEDY. And I'll defend them, maugre all thy spite. So, ugly fiend, farewell, till time shall serve, That we may meet to parley for the best.
MUCEDORUS. Anselmo.
ANSELMO. My lord and friend.
MUCEDORUS. True, my Anselmo, both thy lord and friend, Whose dear affections bosom with my heart, And keep their domination in one orb.
ANSELMO. Whence ne'er disloyalty shall root it forth, But faith plant firmer in your choice respect.
MUCEDORUS. Much blame were mine, if I should other deem, Nor can coy Fortune contrary allow. But, my Anselmo, loth I am to say, I must estrange that friendship. Misconstrue not; 'tis from the realm, not thee: Though lands part bodies, hearts keep company. Thou know'st that I imparted often have Private relations with my royal sire, Had as concerning beauteous Amadine, Rich Arragon's blight jewel, whose face That blooming lilies never shone so gay, Excelling, not excell'd: yet, lest report Does mangle verity, boasting of what is not, Wing'd with desire, thither I'll straight repair, And be my fortunes, as my thoughts are, fair!
ANSELMO. Will you forsake Valencia, leave the court, Absent you from the eye of sovereignty? Do not, sweet prince, adventure on that task, Since danger lurks each where; be won from it.
MUCEDORUS. Desist dissuasion, My resolution brooks no battery, Therefore, if thou retain thy wonted form, Assist what I intend.
ANSELMO. Your miss will breed a blemish in the court, And throw a frosty dew upon that beard, Whose front Valencia stoops to.
MUCEDORUS. If thou my welfare tender, then no more; Let love's strong magic charm thy trivial phrase, Wasted as vainly as to gripe the sun. Augment not then more answers; lock thy lips, Unless thy wisdom suit me with disguise, According to my purpose.
ANSELMO. That action craves no counsel, Since what you rightly are, will more command, Than best usurped shape.
MUCEDORUS. Thou still art opposite in disposition; A more obscure servile habiliment Beseems this enterprise.
ANSELMO. Then like a Florentine or mountebank!
MUCEDORUS. 'Tis much too tedious; I dislike thy judgment, My mind is grafted on an humbler stock.
ANSELMO. Within my closet does there hang a cassock-- Though base the weed is, 'twas a shepherd's-- Which I presented in Lord Julio's masque.
MUCEDORUS. That, my Anselmo, and none else but that, Mask Mucedorus from the vulgar view. That habit suits my mind; fetch me that weed.
SEGASTO. O, fly, madam, fly, or else we are but dead!
AMADINE. Help, Segasto! help, help, sweet Segasto, or else I die!
the spring, In that it yields great store of rare delights; And, passing farther than our wonted walks, Scarce ent'red were within these luckless woods. But right before us down a steep-fall hill, A monstrous ugly bear did hie him fast To meet us both--I faint to tell the rest, Good shepherd--but suppose the ghastly looks, The hideous fears, the thousand hundred woes, Which at this instant Amadine sustained.
MUCEDORUS. Yet, worthy princess, let thy sorrow cease, And let this sight your former joys revive.
AMADINE. Believe me, shepherd, so it doth no less.
MUCEDORUS. Long may they last unto your heart's content. But tell me, lady, what is become of him, Segasto call'd, what is become of him?
AMADINE. I know not, I; that know the powers divine; But God grant this, that sweet Segasto live!
MUCEDORUS. Yet hard-hearted he, in such a case, So cowardly to save himself by flight, And leave so brave a princess to the spoil.
AMADINE. Well, shepherd, for thy worthy valour tried, Endangering thyself to set me free, Unrecompensed, sure, thou shalt not be. In court thy courage shall be plainly known; Throughout the kingdom will I spread thy name. To thy renown and never-dying fame; And that thy courage may be better known, Bear thou the head of this most monstrous beast In open sight to every courtier's view. So will the king, my father, thee reward: Come, let's away and guard me to the court.
MOUSE. Clubs, prongs, pitchforks, bills! O help! A bear, a bear, a bear!
SEGASTO. Still bears, and nothing else but bears? Tell me, sirrah, where she is.
CLOWN. O sir, she is run down the woods: I see her white head and her white belly.
SEGASTO. Thou talkest of wonders, to tell me of white bears; But, sirrah, didst thou ever see any such?
CLOWN. No, faith, I never saw any such; But I remember my father's words, He bad me take heed I was not caught with a white bear.
SEGASTO. A lamentable tale, no doubt.
CLOWN. I tell you what, sir; as I was going afield to serve my father's great horse, and carried a bottle of hay upon my head--now, do you see, sir?--I, fast hoodwinked, that I could see nothing, perceiving the bear coming, I threw my hay into the hedge and ran away.
SEGASTO. What, from nothing?
CLOWN. I warrant you, yes; I saw something; for there was two load of thorns besides my bottle of hay, and that made three.
SEGASTO. But tell me, sirrah; the bear that thou didst see, Did she not bear a bucket on her arm?
CLOWN. Ha, ha, ha! I never saw bear go a-milking in all my life. But hark you, sir, I did not look so high as her arm; I saw nothing but her white head and her white belly.
SEGASTO. But tell me, sirrah, where dost thou dwell?
CLOWN. Why, do you not know me?
SEGASTO. Why, no; how should I know thee?
CLOWN. Why then you know nobody, and you know not me. I tell you, sir, I am the goodman Rat's son, of the next parish over the hill.
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