A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume I Part 71

PALMER. Then would some master perhaps clout ye, But, as for me, ye need not doubt ye; For I had liever[550] be without ye, Than have such business about ye.

'POTHECARY. So help me G.o.d, so were ye better; What, should a beggar be a jetter?[551]

It were no whit your honesty To have us twain jet after ye.

PARDONER. Sir, be your sure he telleth you true, If we should wait, this would ensue: It would be said, trust me at a word, Two knaves made[552] courtesy to the third.

PEDLAR. Now, by my troth, to speak my mind, Since they be so both to be a.s.signed,[553]

To let them lose I think it best.

And so shall ye live the better[554] in rest.

PALMER. Sir, I am not on them so fond, To compel them to keep their bond; And since ye list not to wait on me, I clearly of waiting do discharge ye.

PARDONER. Marry, sir, I heartily thank you.

'POTHECARY. And likewise I, to G.o.d I vow.[555]

PEDLAR. Now be ye all even as ye began; No man hath lost, nor no man hath wan.

Yet in the debate wherewith ye began, By way of advice I will speak as I can.

I do perceive that pilgrimage Is chief[556] the thing ye have in usage; Whereto in effect, for the love of Christ, Ye have, or should have been enticed: And who so doth with such intent, Doth well declare his time well-spent.

And so do ye in your pretence, If ye procure thus[557] indulgence Unto your neighbours charitably, For love of them in G.o.d only.

All this may be right well applied To show[558] you both well occupied: For though ye walk not both one way, Yet walking thus, this dare I say, That both your walks come to one[559] end; And so for all that do pretend By aid of G.o.d's grace to ensue Any manner kind of virtue; As some great alms for to give: Some, in wilful poverty to live: Some, to make highways and such like[560] works, And some to maintain priests and clerks To sing and pray for soul departed: These, with all other virtues well marked, Although they be of sundry kinds, Yet be they not used with sundry minds.

But as G.o.d only doth all those move, So every man only for his love, With love and dread obediently Worketh in these virtues uniformly.

Thus every virtue, if we list to scan, Is pleasant to G.o.d and thankful to man.

And who that, by grace of the Holy Ghost, To any one virtue is moved most, That man by that grace that one apply, And therein serve G.o.d most plentifully,[561]

Yet not that one so far wide to wrest: So liking the same, to mislike the rest.

For who so wresteth, his work is in vain; And even in that case I perceive you twain: Liking your virtue in such wise, That each other's virtue ye do despise.

Who walketh this way for G.o.d, would find him, The farther they seek him, the farther behind him.

One kind of virtue to despise another, Is like as the sister might hang the brother.

'POTHECARY. For fear lest such perils[562] to me might fall, I thank G.o.d I use no virtue at all.

PEDLAR. That is of all the very worst way; For more hard it is, as I have heard say, To begin virtue where none is pretended, Than where it is begun, th' abuse to be mended.

How be it, ye be[563] not all to begin, One sign of virtue ye are entered in: As this, I suppose ye did say true, In that ye said ye use no virtue.

In the which words I dare well report, You are well beloved of all this sort, By your railing here openly At pardons and relics so lewdly.

'POTHECARY. In that I think my fault not great; For all that he hath I know counterfeit.

PEDLAR. For his and all other that ye know feigned, You be not[564] counselled nor constrained To any such thing in any such case, To give any reverence in any such place.

But where ye doubt, the truth not knowing.

Believing the best, good may be growing, In judging the best, no harm at the least; In judging the worst, no good at the best.

But best in these things it seemeth to me, To make[565] no judgment upon ye; But as the church doth judge or take them, So do ye receive or forsake them.

And so be you sure ye cannot err, But may be a fruitful follower.

'POTHECARY. Go ye before, and as I am true man, I will follow as fast as I can.

PARDONER. And so will I, for he hath said so well, Reason would we should follow his counsel.

PALMER. Then to our reason G.o.d give us his grace, That we may follow with faith so firmly His commandments, that we may purchase His love, and so consequently To believe his church fast and faithfully; So that we may, according to his promise, Be kept out of error in any wise.

And all that hath scaped[566] us here by negligence, We clearly revoke and forsake it; To pa.s.s the time in this without offence, Was the cause why the Maker did make it; And so we humbly beseech you to take it, Beseeching our Lord to prosper you all In the faith of his Church Universal.[567]

A NEW INTERLUDE, CALLED THERSITES.

EDITION

_A new Enterlude called Thersytes. This Enterlude followynge dothe declare howe that the greatest boesters are not the greatest doers_.

THE NAMES OF THE PLAYERS.

THERSITES, _a boster_. MATER, _a mother_.

MULCIBER, _a smyth_. MILES, _a knyght_.

TELEMACHUS, _a childe_.

[Col.] Imprinted at London, by John Tysdale and are to be solde at hys shop in the vpper ende of Lvmbard streete, in Alhallowes Churche yarde neare vntoo grace church. 4. Black letter.

HASLEWOOD'S PREFACE.[568]

In the comic movements of life, the chief dependence of society will ever be upon the drama; still the history of the English stage remains very imperfect, obscure, and unsatisfactory. Perhaps of no period are fewer particulars known than that in, which a struggle for precedence arose between "the moral new interlude" and "the merry new interlude;" or when common sense, being partially relieved from bigotry and cold superst.i.tion, gave licence to the infant votaries of the drama to drive from thespian scaffolds old _Vice_, the prosing, loquacious hero of "Mysteries and Moralities." Somewhere near that period, the two following pieces, written for "buskined boys," were performed, and being undoubtedly esteemed popular, both printed, but without dates. An entry was made of the first as "Jack Juggeler and Mrs Boundgrace," in the stationers' book, by William Copland, in 1562-63. In "Thersites," the author, by the epilogue, has noted the precise time of its being written, in mentioning the birth of Prince Edward (afterwards King Edward VI.), which happened the 12th of August 1537, and invoking the Almighty to save the "Queen, lovely Lady Jane," who is supposed to have died the second day after that event. If then acted, it was probably revived on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and printed by Tysdale, whose typographical labours did not commence in All-Hallows' Churchyard until 1561. So rare were both interludes, that their existence had long been doubted, when, in 1810, they were discovered in a private collection of ancient plays.[569] That collection was so large, and contained specimens of the early drama so little known, as to induce a spirited bibliopolist to purchase the whole, projecting a republication of "Old English Mysteries, Moralities, Interludes, Pageants, and Plays." It was to have extended to twenty octavo volumes. Unfortunately, an announcement of a similar nature, although upon a smaller scale (and afterwards meagrely executed), deterred the intended proprietors from the venture of the large capital necessary to complete so extensive an undertaking. Hence the whole collection was promiscuously dispersed, and so widely, as to prevent a reference to these interludes, when needed, to ascertain the character and size of the black letter type used. That circ.u.mstance has occasioned a deviation from the strict rule of a facsimile, followed in all other respects, except adding, for convenience, a pagination. By the use of modern type, however, another specimen is secured from the valuable private press of an absent member. At the same time, convinced such a deviation can seldom be tolerated, there can only be pleaded the opportunity of extending some knowledge of two unique copies: the now almost "olden" venial transgression of him who will, probably, continue sinning, until the forced guest to banquet with the doctor and his a.s.sociate.

_May_ 29, 1820.

Mr Child observes:[570] "The play does not require particular notice. Its lively absurdity could not have failed to be entertaining to an easy audience, and is not tiresome now. _Thersites_ indulges plentifully in one of the privileges of the old _Vice_--that of talking incoherent nonsense. There is a vigour in some parts quite unusual in these things, and many of the lines in Skelton's metre have some of his power, together with all his coa.r.s.eness. The pa.s.sage, pp. 84-86, may remind the reader of that remarkable poem, 'Elynour Rummyng.'"

THERSITES.