A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vi Part 50

O help, help, help for G.o.d's sake!

_Enter_ CONSCIENCE, _running apace_.

CONSCIENCE.

What lamentable cry was that I heard one make?

HOSPITALITY.

O Lady Conscience! now or never help me.

CONSCIENCE.

Why, what wilt thou do with him, Usury?

USURY.

What will I do with him? marry, cut his throat, and then no more.

CONSCIENCE.

O, dost thou not consider, that thou shalt dearly answer For Hospitality, that good member? refrain it therefore.

USURY.

Refrain me no refraining, nor answer me no answering: The matter is answered well enough in this thing.

CONSCIENCE.

For G.o.d's sake, spare him! for country-sake, spare him; for pity-sake, spare him; For love-sake, spare him; for Conscience-sake, forbear him!

USURY.

Let country, pity, love, Conscience, and all go in respect of myself, He shall die. Come, ye feeble wretch, I'll dress ye like an elf.

CONSCIENCE.

But yet, Usury, consider the lamentable cry of the poor: For lack of Hospitality fatherless children are turned out of door.

Consider again the complaint of the sick, blind, and lame, That will cry unto the Lord for vengeance on thy head in his name.

Is the fear of G.o.d so far from thee that thou hast no feeling at all?

O, repent, Usury! leave Hospitality, and for mercy at the Lord's hand call.

USURY.

Leave prating, Conscience: thou canst not mollify my heart.

He shall, in spite of thee and all other, feel his deadly smart.

Yet I'll not commit the murder openly, But hale the villain into a corner, and so kill him secretly.

Come, ye miserable drudge, and receive thy death.

HOSPITALITY.

Help, good lady, help! he will stop my breath.

CONSCIENCE.

Alas! I would help thee, but I have not the power.

HOSPITALITY.

Farewell, Lady Conscience: you shall have Hospitality in London nor England no more.

[_Hale him in_.[194]

CONSCIENCE.

O help! help, help, some good body!

_Enter_ DISSIMULATION _and_ SIMPLICITY _hastily_.

DISSIMULATION.

Who is that calls for help so l.u.s.tily?[195]

CONSCIENCE.

Out, alas! thy fellow Usury hath killed Hospitality.

SIMPLICITY.

Now, G.o.d's blessing on his heart: why, 'twas time that he was dead: He was an old churl, with never a good tooth in his head.

And he ne'er kept no good cheer that I could see; For if one had not come at dinner-time, he should have gone away hungry.

I could never get my belly-full of meat; He had nothing but beef, bread, and cheese for me to eat.

Now I would have had some pies, or bag-puddings with great lumps of fat; But, I warrant ye,[196] he did keep my mouth well enough from that.

Faith, and he be dead, he is dead: let him go to the devil, and he will; Or if he will not go thither, let him even lie there still.

I'll ne'er make wamentation for an old churl, For he has been a great while, and now 'tis time that he were out of the worl'.

_Enter_ LUCRE.

LUCRE.

What, Conscience, thou look'st like a poor pigeon, pull'd of late.

CONSCIENCE.

What, Lucre, thou lookest like a wh.o.r.e, full of deadly hate.

LUCRE.

Alas! Lucre, I am sorry for thee, but I cannot weep.[197]

CONSCIENCE.

Alas! Lucre, I am sorry for thee that thou canst no honesty keep: But such as thou art, such are the[198] attenders on thee, As appears by thy servant Usury, that hath killed that good member Hospitality.

SIMPLICITY.

Faith, Hospitality is killed, and hath made his will, And hath given Dissimulation three trees upon an high hill.

LUCRE.

Come hither, Dissimulation, and hie you hence, so fast as you may, And help thy fellow Usury to convey himself out of the way: Further will the justices, if they chance to see him, not to know him, Or know[ing] him, not by any means to hinder him; And they shall command thrice so much at my hand.

Go trudge, run; out, away: how? dost thou stand!

DISSIMULATION.

Nay, good lady, send my fellow Simony; For I have an earnest suit to ye.

LUCRE.

Then, Simony, go, do what I have will'd.

SIMONY.

I run, Madam: your mind shall be fulfilled.

[_Exit_.