A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Ii Part 70

WIT.

Have hold, here is a morsel for thee to eat. [_Strikes_.

STUDY, INSTRUCTION.

Here is a pelt to make your knave's heart fret.

DILIGENCE.

There is a blow able to fell a hog.

WIT.

And here is a foin behind for a mad dog!

[_Let Will trip you[440] down_.

Hold, hold, hold, the lubber is down!

TEDIOUSNESS.

O!

WILL.

Strike off his head, while I hold him by the crown.

WIT.

Thou monstrous wretch, thou mortal foe to me and mine, Which evermore at my good luck and fortune did'st repine, Take here thy just desert and payment for thy hire.

Thy head this day shall me prefer unto my heart's desire.

INSTRUCTION.

O n.o.ble Wit, the praise, the game is thine.

STUDY.

Hove up his head upon your spear, lo, here a joyful sign!

DILIGENCE.

O valiant knight, O conquest full of praise!

WILL.

O bliss[441] of G.o.d to see these happy days!

WIT.

You, you, my faithful squires, deserve no less, Whose tried trust, well-known to me in my distress.

And certain hope of your fix'd faith and fast good-will, Made me attempt this famous fact, most needful to fulfil: To you I yield great thanks, to me redounds the gain, Now home apace, and ring it out, that Tediousness is slain.

Say all at once, _Tediousness is slain_.

ACT V., SCAENA 6.

SCIENCE, WIT.

SCIENCE.

I hear and see the joyful news, wherein I take delight, That Tediousness, our mortal foe, is overcome in fight: I see the sign of victory, the sign of manliness: The heap of happy haps: the joy that tongue cannot express.

Our[442] welcome fame from day to day for ever shall arise.

WIT.

Avaunt, ye griping cares, and lodge no more in me, For you have lost, and I have won continual joys and fee.

Now let me freely touch, and freely you embrace, And let my friends with open mouth proclaim my blissful case.

SCIENCE.

The world shall know, doubt not, and shall blow out your fame, Then true report shall send abroad your everlasting name.

Now let our parents dear be certified of this, So that our marriage may forthwith proceed, as meet it is.

Come after me, all five, and I will lead you in.

WIT.

My pain is pa.s.s'd, my gladness to begin, My task is done, my heart is set at rest; My foe subdued, my lady's love possess'd.

I thank my friends, whose help I had[443] at need, And thus you see, how Wit and Science are agreed, We twain henceforth one soul in bodies twain must dwell: Rejoice, I pray you all with me, my friends, and fare ye well.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The "Interlude of Youth." From the rare black-letter edition, printed by Waley about the year 1554. Edited by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq. ... Brixton Hill, 1849, 4to. 75 copies privately printed.

[2] Apparently of an otherwise undescribed edition. See Hazlitt's "Handbook," p. 464.

[3] Part asunder.

[4] _hearte_, Waley's ed.

[5] [Waley's and Copland's eds., _fair_.]

[6] Hinder.

[7] Regret.

[8] A line, rhyming with this, seems to have dropped out.

[9] Solve.

[10] [Old copies, _Sir_.]

[11] [Old copies, _i-wis_.]

[12] See Hazlitt's "Popular Poetry," iv., 239.