A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vi Part 28

BOMELIO.

Come, son, content thee now within a cave to dwell.

I will provide for thy redress, and all things shall be well.

A darksome den must be thy lofty lodging now.

HERMIONE.

Father, I am well content to take such part as you.

Here is a breathing-fit[101] after hard mischance.

O gracious Venus! once vouchsafe thy servants to advance.

_Strike up a noise of viols_: VENUS' _triumph_.

[_Enter_ VENUS.]

VENUS.

Behold what Love can work for their delight That put affiance in her deity.

Though heaven and earth against them bend their might, Yet in the end theirs is the victory: I will in them, and they triumph in me.

Let Fortune frown, I will uphold their state, Yea, seem they never so unfortunate.

FORTUNE.

Brag not too much: what, think'st thou I have done?

Nay, soft, not yet: my sport is not begun.

[_Music, Music_.

THE FOURTH ACT.

_Enter_ PENULO _and_ LENTULO.

PENULO.

Come away with thy basket, thou loggerheaded jack.

I think thy basket be cloven to thy back.

LENTULO.

My back and my basket; look, dost thou not see, When my basket is on my back, then my back is under me?

And, O this basket, wott'st thou wherefore I keep it so close?

For all the love of my heart within this basket goes.

PENULO.

Thy love, with a wanion![102] are you in love, sir, then, with your leave?

LENTULO.

What an a.s.s art thou: couldst thou not all this time perceive, That I never sleep but when I am not awake, And I eat and I eat till my belly would ache?

And I fall away like a gammon of bacon.

Am I not in love when I am in this tacon?[103]

Call'st thou this the court? would I had ne'er come thither To be caught in Cupido. I faint, I faint! O, gather me, gather me!

[_Pretends to swoon_.

PENULO.

Come up, and be hang'd. Alack, poor Lentulo! [_Aside_.

Tell me with whom thou art in love so.

LENTULO.

You kill me, and you make me tell her name. No, no.

O terrible torments, that trounce in my toe!

Love, my masters, is a parlous matter! how it runs out of my nose!

It's now in my back, now in my belly; O, now in the bottom of my hose.

PENULO.

The pestilence! there, what is she, my boy?

I'll make her love thee again, be she never so coy.

LENTULO.

Wilt thou so? O G.o.ds of love! that word plucks up my heart, I'll tell thee, sirrah--even as we two at the court-gate did wait, Did'st thou not mark a goodly lady, O lady, lady![104]

Why should not I as well as he, my dear lady?

Did'st thou not see her come in with a golden lock?

She had a fine gown on her back, and a pa.s.sing nether-stock.

PENULO.

Well, sir, proceed: I remember her very well.

It's the Duke's daughter the sot means, I can tell. [_Aside_.

LENTULO.

Now, sirrah, there was a little dappard[105] a.s.s with her, that went before: When I saw him, I came in sneaking more and more.

To have heard them talk; ah! crouching on is good; For when he had talk['d] awhile, I had come in with, ay forsooth, no forsooth, that I would, And she would have look'd upon me: then more 'quaintance we should have.

PENULO.

An excellent device. Ah, sirrah! you are an excellent knave.

LENTULO.

_Tu autem, tu[106] autem_: I have it in me. But, sirrah, wott'st thou what now?

As G.o.d juggle me, when I came near them, I tell thee true, The same squall[107] did nothing but thus: I know what's what; And I ran before him, and did thus too.

[_Strikes_ PENULO.

PENULO.

A pox upon you, what meant you by that?

LENTULO.

What mean I? marry, sir, he meant to give her a box on the ear, if she spake to me, And I meant to give him another box on the ear, sir, he should see.

PENULO.

You should have bestow'd it where you meant it, then.

Must you strike me, and mean other men?

LENTULO.