A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Ii Part 36

ACTUS SECUNDI, SCAENA QUINTA.

JACOB. MIDO. REBECCA. ABRA, _the handmaid_.

JACOB. Thou knowest, little Mido, where my mother is.

MIDO. I can go to her as straight as a thread, and not miss.

JACOB. Go call her, and come again with her thine own self.

MIDO. Yes, ye shall see me scud like a little elf.

JACOB. Where I have, by the enticement of my mother, Bargained and bought the birthright of my brother.

Turn it all to good, O Lord, if it be thy will: Thou knowest my heart, Lord, I did it for no ill.

And whatever shall please thee to work or to do, Thou shalt find me prest and obedient thereto.

But here is my mother Rebecca now in place.

MIDO. How say you, master Jacob, ran not I apace?

JACOB. Yes, and a good son to go quick on your errand.

REBECCA. Son, how goeth the matter? let me understand.

JACOB. Forsooth, mother, I did so, as ye me bad, Esau to sell me all his birthright persuade.

REBECCA. Hast thou bought it indeed, and he therewith content?

JACOB. Yea, and have his promise, that he will never repent.

REBECCA. Is the bargain through? hast thou paid him his price?

JACOB. Yea, that I have, a mess of red pottage of rice, And he ate it up every whit, well I wot.

MIDO. When he had supp'd up all, I saw him lick the pot; Thus he licked, and thus he licked, and this way: I thought to have lick'd the pot myself once to-day; But Esau beguil'd me, I shrew him for that, And left not so much as a lick for puss our cat.

REBECCA. Son Jacob, forasmuch as thou hast so well sped, With an hymn or psalm let the Lord be praised.

Sing we all together, and give thanks to the Lord, Whose promise and performance do so well accord.

MIDO. Shall we sing the same hymn, that all our house doth sing?

For Abraham and his seed to give G.o.d praising.

REBECCA, Yea, the very same.

MIDO. Then must we all kneel down thus, And Abra, our maid, here must also sing with us, Kneel down, Abra; what, I say, will ye not kneel down?

Kneel, when I bid you, the slackest wench in this town!

[_Here they kneel down to sing all four, saving that Abra is slackest, and Mido is quickest_.]

THE FIRST SONG.

_Blessed be thou, O the G.o.d of Abraham, For thou art the Lord our G.o.d, and none but thou: What thou workest to the glory of thy name, Pa.s.seth man's reason to search what way or how.

Thy promise it was Abraham should have seed More than the stars of the sky to be told; He believed, and had Isaac indeed, When both he and Sara seemed very old.

Isaac many years longed for a son, Rebecca, thy handmaid, long time was barren, By prayer in thy sight such favour he won, That at one birth she brought him forth sons twain, Wherefore, O Lord, we do confess and believe, That both thou canst and wilt thy promise fulfil: But how it shall come, we can no reason give, Save all to be wrought according to thy will.

Blessed be thou, O G.o.d of Abraham, &c_.

REBECCA. Now, doubt not, Jacob, but G.o.d hath appointed thee As the eldest son unto Isaac to be: And now have no doubt, but thou art sure elected, And that unthrift Esau of G.o.d is rejected.

And to sell thee his birthright since he was so mad, I warrant thee the blessing that he should have had.

JACOB. Yea? how may that be wrought?

REBECCA. Yes, yes, let me alone.

Our[270] good old Isaac is blind, and cannot see, So that by policy he may beguiled be, I shall devise how for no ill intent ne thought, But to bring to pa.s.s that I know G.o.d will have wrought, And I charge you twain, Abra and little Mido.

MIDO. Nay, ye should have set Mido before Abra, I trow, For I am a man toward, and so is not she.

ABRA. No, but yet I am more woman toward than ye.

REBECCA. I charge you both that, whatever hath been spoken, Ye do not to any living body open.

ABRA. For my part it shall to no body uttered be.

MIDO. And slit my tongue, if ever it come out for me: But if any tell, Abra here will be prattling.

For they say, women will ever be clattering.

ABRA. There is none here that prattleth so much as you.

REBECCA. No mo words, but hence we altogether now.

[_Exeunt omnes_.

ACTUS TERTIJ, SCAENA PRIMA.

ESAU. ISAAC. MIDO.

ESAU. Now, since I last saw mine old father Isaac, Both I do think it long, and he will judge me slack, But he cometh forth; I will here listen and see, Whether he shall chance to speak any word of me.

[_Steps aside_.

ISAAC. On, lead me forth, Mido, to the bench on this hand, That I may sit me down, for I cannot long stand.

MIDO. Here, sir, this same way, and ye be at the bench now, Where ye may sit down in G.o.d's name, if please you.

ISAAC. I marvel, where Esau my son doth become, That he doth now of days visit me so seldom.

But it is oft seen, whom fathers do best favour, Of them they have least love again for their labour.