A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vi Part 33

PENULO.

c.o.c.k's blood, you villain! what do you here, you slave?

Swounds! hath robb'd the Duke of a suit of apparel, Why speak you not, sirrah? yea, will you not tell?

Lay him on, my masters: spare him not, I say.

Speak you by signs? One of you pull the ring away.

SERJEANT.

c.o.c.k's blood, my finger! a bites as pestilence[119] there.

LENTULO.

What mean you, my masters; what mean ye here?

PENULO.

Have you found your tongue, sir! O, very well.

I pray you, sir, where had you this suit of apparel?

LENTULO.

This 'parel? what, and I stole it: what's that to thee?

PENULO.

Marry, sir, no more but that hang'd you shall be.

LENTULO.

Then, all the world shall see there is somewhat in me.

When I am hang'd, O, I shall swing l.u.s.tily.

Ma.s.s, I shall do him great credit that hangs me.

But if I may be hanged by an attorney, I will desire thee the place to supply.

PENULO.

Yes, marry will I, for courtesy sake.

Come on your way, sir: the pains I will take To bring you before the Duke, that he may see, What a proper man in his apparel you be.

LENTULO.

Wilt thou, faith? ma.s.s, I thank thee heartily; But I must talk a little with our uplandish here, And then I'll go with thee, faith, anywhere.

PENULO.

Uplandish, you rascal! where is he now?

He's gone, and stole away the Duke's daughter with him too.

LENTULO.

O my heart! what do you say?

PENULO.

Marry, that together they be both run away.

LENTULO.

Nay, then, have after ye; behind I'll not stay.

PENULO.

What! no such haste with you, sir, I pray.

LENTULO.

And is my lady gone and fled? O, take me up, for I am dead.

Farewell, my marigold; O villain, caitiff, he!

By bones and stones, and all the moons, I will avenged be.

PENULO.

You shall be revenged, sir, that shall you presently.

Away, away with him to the Duke by and by.

LENTULO.

I can go by myself, and you will let me alone.

Now as I walk, alas! I make to me my moan.

When I in prison strong, poor soul, shall live and die, Then will I make my loving song upon mine own pigsny.

PENULO.

Away with him, sirs: why do ye tarry?

LENTULO.

And thou wert in my case, thou wouldst not be so hasty.

[_Exit in custody of _SERJEANT.

PENULO.

Fie upon it! what a stir have we here?

Never was n.o.bleman's house in such fear.

Such hurrying and stirring, such running every way; Such howling, such crying, such accursing the day.

That ever the villain could counterfeit so, [And] when we least thought of it, away with her to go.

But the world is so full of knavery now, That we know not whom to trust, I may say to you.

If my wife fall sick, as she may, I'll make a condition, She shall never take counsel of an uplandish physician.

Hang them, knaves; But what a prating keep I, When I should have been seven miles of mine errand; for why I must go set all the country up in a watch, If it be possible, this physician to catch.

[_Exit_ PENULO.[120]

_Enter_ BOMELIO _and_ FIDELIA.

BOMELIO.

Stay, daughter, stay: forbear thy posting haste.

Thou need'st not fear; all perils now are past.

Thanks to the G.o.ds that such success they gave, Thus happily to bring us to my cave.

FIDELIA.

O father! still I fear mishap behind: Suspect is natural unto our kind, And perils that import a man's decay Can never be eschewed too soon, they say.

Had I [but] sight of mine Hermione, I care not then what did become of me.

BOMELIO.

I will herein accomplish thy desire, So grant the G.o.ds the rest that I require.

Hermione! Hermione! my son, I say, Come forth and see thy friends that for thee stay.

_Enter_ HERMIONE.

HERMIONE.