A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vi Part 106

[_Enter_ HONESTY.]

HONESTY.

A prize! though it be long, I have found him at last; But I could not bring him with me, And therefore I pinn'd a paper on his shoulder, Meaning thereby to mark him for the gallows.

But husht, here he comes.

_Enter_ PERIN.

KING.

What, Perin? I cannot think that Perin will be false to me.

HONESTY.

Why no, for he is false to himself: look in his pocket and see.

This is but a false writ that he hath used, Unknown to your majesty, and levied great sums of money, And bribed upon your poor Commons extremely.

How say you, my lord, is this true or no?

KING.

Honesty, thou sayest true. Why, impious wretch!

Ingrateful wretch that thou art, To injure him that always held thee dear.

Believe me, Dunstan, I durst well have sworn That Perin had not hatch'd so base a thought.

HONESTY.

Ay, but your grace sees you are deceived.

But will your grace grant me one boon?

KING.

What's that, Honesty?

HONESTY.

That I may have the punis.h.i.+ng of them, Whom I have so laboured to find.

KING.

With all my heart, Honesty: use them as thou wilt.

HONESTY.

I thank your grace. Go fetch the other two.[322]

Now to you, Cutbert Cutpurse the Coneycatcher: Thy judgment is to stand at the market-cross, And have thy cursed tongue pinn'd to thy breast, And there to stand for men to wonder at, Till owls and night ravens pick out thy cursed eyes.

CONEYCATCHER.

Good Honesty, be more merciful.

HONESTY.

You know my mind, O Walter that-would-have-more, and you shall have judgment I mean, which is: to be carried into a corn-field, and there have your legs and hands cut off, because you loved corn so well, and there rest till the crows pick out thine eyes.-- But now to you, that will do nothing, Except the Spirit move you thereunto.

You shall, for abusing the blessed word of G.o.d, And mocking the divine order of ministry, Whereby you have led the ignorant into errors, You, I say, As you were shameless in your shameful dealing, Shall, to your shame, and the utter shame of all Bad-minded men, that live as thou hast done, Stand in Finsbury fields, near London, And there, as a dissembling hypocrite, be shot to death.

PRIEST.

Good Honesty, be more favourable than so.

HONESTY.

Truly, no; the Spirit doth not move me thereunto.-- But who is next? what, Perin, a courtier and a cosener too!

I have a judgment yet in store for thee: And for because I will use thee favourably, I'faith, thy judgment is to be but hanged.

But where? even at Tyburn, in a good twopenny halter: And though you could never abide the seas, Yet now, against your will, you must bear your sail, namely, your sheet, And in a cart be tow'd up Holborn-hill.

Would all men living, like these, in this land, Might be judged so at Honesty's hand.

KING.

Well, Honesty, come, follow us to court, Where thou shalt be rewarded for thy pain.

HONESTY.

I thank your grace. You that will d.a.m.n yourselves for lucre's sake, And make no conscience to deceive the poor; You that be enemies of the commonwealth, To send corn over to enrich the enemy; And you that do abuse the word of G.o.d, And send over wool and tin, broad-cloth and lead; And you that counterfeit kings' privy-seals, And thereby rob the willing-minded commonalty; I warn you all that use such subtle villainy, Beware lest you, like these, be found by Honesty.

Take heed, I say, for if I catch you once, Your bodies shall be meat for crows, And the devil shall have your bones.

And thus, though long, at last we make an end, Desiring you to pardon what's amiss, And weigh the work, though it be grossly penn'd.

Laugh at the faults, and weigh it as it is, And Honesty will pray upon his knee, G.o.d cut them off, that wrong the prince or commonalty.

And may her days of bliss never have end, Upon whose life so many lives depend.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is one of the six additional dramas which the Editor of the present volume caused to be [first] inserted in the impression which came out between the years 1825 and 1827. It may be here stated that his duties, from various circ.u.mstances, were almost solely confined to these six dramas, four of them by Robert Greene, by George Peele, by Thomas Lodge, and by Thomas Nash, no specimens of whose works had been previously included: the two other plays, then new to the collection, were "The World and the Child," and "Appius and Virginia."

[2] See "Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company"

(printed for the Shakespeare Society), vol. ii. p. 230.

[3] [The orthography has now been modernised in conformity with the principle adopted with regard to the rest of the collection.]

[4] "Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court." by Peter Cunningham, Esq. (printed for the Shakespeare Society), p. 176.

[5] Ibid. p. 36.

[6] Printed for the Shakespeare Society, in 1845, from the original most valuable MS. preserved in Dulwich College.

[7] Hardly so, perhaps, as scarcely any drama of this date occurs without such a prayer. The earliest in which we have seen the prayer for Elizabeth is the interlude of "Nice Wanton," 1560.

[8] It seems more than probable that "Tarlton's Jig of the Horse-load of Fools" (inserted in the introduction to the reprint of his "Jests" by the Shakespeare Society, from a MS. belonging to the Editor of this volume), was written for his humorous recitation by some popular author.

[9] "Palladis Tamia. Wits Treasury, &c., by Francis Meres, Maister of Artes of both Universities." 8vo. 1598, fol. 286.

[10] "Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage," i. 255.

[11] See "Memoirs of the Princ.i.p.al Actors in the Plays of Shakespeare"

(printed for the Shakespeare Society), p. 131. If Bucke were a young actor in 1584, he had a natural son buried in 1599, but it is not stated how old that son then was.

[12] See the entry of it by Henry Kirkham in the "Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company" (printed for the Shakespeare Society), vol. ii. p. 61.