University of Virginia Library

Scene IX.

Compasse. Pleasance. Lady. Ironside. Practise. Polish. Chaire. Keepe. &c.
Com.
Was ever any Gentlewoman us'd
So barbarously by a malitious Gossip,
Pretending to be Mother to her too?

Pol.
Pretending! Sir, I am her Mother, and challenge
A right, and power for what I have done.

Com.
Out, Hag.
Thou that hast put all nature off, and woman:
For sordid gaine, betray'd the trust committed
Vnto thee by the dead, as from the living:
Chang'd the poore innocent Infants in their Cradles:
Defrauded them o' their parents, chang'd their names,
Calling Placentia, Pleasance; Pleasance, Placentia.

Pol.
How knowes he this?

Com.
Abus'd the neighbour-hood;
But most this Lady. Did'st enforce an oath,
To this poore woman, on a pious booke,
To keepe close thy impiety.

Pol.
Ha' you told this?

Kee.
I told it? no, he knowes it, and much more,
As he's a cunning man.

Pol.
A cunning foole,
If that be all.

Com.
But now to your true daughter,
That had the Child, and is the proper Pleasance,
Wee must have an account of that too, Gossip;

Pol.
This's like all the rest of Mr. Compasse.