 | Fortune by Land and Sea |  |
Act. 2.
Scen. 1.
Enter Old Harding, William, John, Anne.Will.
Tis true upon my life.
Old. Hard,
Say what thou wilt Ile not beleeve it boy.
Will,
Do you beleeve me to be your Son William.
Old Ha.
Wel.
Will.
Do you beleeve I stand here?
Old Hard.
On.
Will.
That this Gentlewoman is your wife?
Old Hard.
So.
Will.
That Iack Harding here is my brother?
Old Hard.
Good.
Will.
That I speak to you, that you list to me? Do you believe any
think that is to be believed?
Old Hard.
What of all this?
Will.
Then beleeve my brother Phillip has married Mistresse Susan.
I saw them in the Church together; I heard them pronounce the words
together, whether it be better or worse for them I know not, but they
are in for better and worse, that I am sure.
Old Hard.
As sure as thou art certain this is true, so sure He disinherit
the proud boy: and all the Magazin that I enjoy, devide 'tween you
my sons.
John
Not all Father, alass allow him some smal legacy to live on.
Will:
If't be but a cast Farm, or some poor Cottage rather then nothing,
it may be hee'l content himself with a little, you know somewhat
hath some favour.
Old Hard:
He that hath set me and my love at nothing Ile leave him
worth as little.
Anne
Chide him you may, but yet not cast him off; For Fathers
ought most chastise where they love; Parents as I have read, their
rage should hide where children fall through weaknesse, not through
pride.
Old Hard:
They are none such to me, my vow is past,
My life may fade, but yet my will shall last.
Enter Philip and Susan.
Will.
See where the four bare legs that belong to a bed come, I could
almost pity him.
Jack
And why pity him, all the while that marriage is the first step
to our making?
Phil:
See Sir 'tis done
Old Hard.
And thou undone.
Phil:
In losing your kind favour more undone then in your casual
wealth.
Old Hard.
By all that I enjoy.
Phil.
Oh swear not, spare that oath, Ile credit you, although you
speak but mildely.
So thrive I, if for this marriage made in dispight of me I
make thee partner of any substance that's accounted mine.
Phil:
Not made in spight of you, unsay that language, and then you
chide me truely as I live. And though on earth by your disherited hope
to be heir to heaven; I matcht with her in sincere love, but in no spleen
to you, though you have sworn to give my fortunes from me; you have
not sworn to reave me of your love, that let me have, let others take
the land.
Old Hart.
My love goes with my land, and in this marriage thou hast
lost both.
Phil.
Your substance I despise, but to lose that draws rivers from my
eyes.
Anne
Oh bear a soft and more relenting soul, and look upon the
vertues of your sonne, this Gentlewomans birth.
Old Hard.
Wife, wife, if he have married her for birth, then let her
birth maintain him.
Anne
My kind sons speak to your fath.
Will:
Alass Mother, you hear my Father hath sworn, and do you
love him, and would make him break's oath.
John
Ingage his soul, that were a wives part indeed.
Will:
As I live I would not wish him now he has sworn to alter his
minde in the least circumstance, for more then Ile speak.
Phil:
I am a kinder son then you be brothers, have you renounc't me
for your son?
Old Hard.
I have.
John
You see he has.
Phil:
You have not yet renounc't me for your servant, that title let
me bear, Ile be your man, and wear your Livery, since my poverty inforces
me to serve, let it be you.
Will.
Grant him that good Father, when you want imployment for
him, I may sometimes have occasion to use him my selfe.
John
A reasonable motion, you want a serving-man, since you must
hire one on force, as good him as another.
Phil:
He wants a Maid too, let him hire this woman, his servant not
his daughter, give us but as you would do to strangers we are pleased.
Will.
The motion's not amisse, can you milk sweet heart.
Susan
I can.
Will:
And sweep a house, serve a hog, grope a hen, feel a duck, wash
and wring.
Susan
what I have used, my soft hand best can shew, but what I cannot
Ile be glad to learn.
A good willing mind in troth, and can you bake and brew?
Susan
I shal be easily taught.
John.
Y'ad best look too't, for as you brew, so y'are like to drink.
Old Hard.
Sirrah, sirrah, can you hold the plough and thrash, sow,
reap, load a cart, drive a Teem.
Phil.
These or what else Ile practice.
Old Hard.
Come then of with these gay cloaths, no habit's fit for
hyndes; help boys to suit them as their fortunes are; go search in the
clowns wardrobe.
Will.
Fear not wee'l fit 'em as wel as if we had tane measure of 'em.
Anne
To see this misery with such patience born, makes me to pity
where these others scorn.
John
Here Sir is that wil serve the turn if you employ him in the corn
fields, Ile warrant him fright the birds, here's that wil make him look
like a scarecrow.
Will.
And here's that will change the coppy of her case, though not
of her countenance.
Old Hard.
Too good for drudges, live now by your sweat, and at
your labour make account to eat.
Phil.
Here's but a sorry wedding day.
Susan
My sweet Philip that thou shouldst suffer these extreams for
me, onely for me.
Phil.
Let that betwixt my soule and thine be witnesse of my constant
love; Alass for thee that thou must drudge and toyl, and having been
a Mistress all thy life, must now become a servant.
Ent. Clown.
Clow.
This being the wedding day of my Masters eldest Son, I expect
rare cheer. As first, the great spic'd Cake to go in, Cake-bread
fashion, drawn out with Currans, the Jealious Formety must put on his
yellow hose agen, and hot Pies come mincing after, the boyl'd Mutton
must swim in a River of stew'h broth, where the channel's made of
Prunes. Instead of peables, and prime reasons, and Currans in the
stead of checker stones and gravel, to omit Geese and Guls, Ducks and
Dotterels, Widgins and Woodcocks, of which there will be plenty. At
our wedding dinner we shall have the Bride in her tiffety taffeties most
sumptuous, and the Bridegroom as wel in brancht Sattin as brancht
Rosemary most couragious. Ile in and see them in all their beauty,
and give them the Joy, the boon Jour, the Besilus Manus, or to be more
vulgar to the Incpaable, the God give you good morrow.
Phil.
Good morrow fellow simkin.
Clow.
'Tis he, no, no, 'tis not he.
Good simkin.
Clow.
Her face, the trick of her eye, her leer, her blink, her askue,
but to say it is she, Proh deum atque hominum fidem.
Phil.
Art thou amazed to see me thus transformed, or her thus alterd,
none but such a Father, such a remorseless and hard hearted Father,
could so translated his children.
Clown.
Oh Mr. Philip, I see your Father is no Scholer, but a meer
Dunce, I protest I never red a more vilde translation.
Sus.
Nor see so suddain and unmeet a change.
Clow.
O young Mistris, Ovids Metamorphosis could never show the
the like; but how comes this to passe, the manner, the manner, my heart
begins to condole, and my conduit pipes to open, we shall have a showre
presently; the manner?
Phil.
This morning having married my betrothed, for could I less do
having vowed so much? I came to him and most submissively entreated
pardon for my self and her.
Clow.
Kind young man—hold good heart.
Phil:
He presently reviles us, then renounc'd us, nor would he give
us, should he see us starve and famish at his gate, no not a crust of his
hindes bread, or of his smallest beer not a bare crusful should we dye for
thirst.
Clow:
'Twil out, 'twil out, but now for the apparel.
Sus:
When he renounc'd us for his children, we had no meanes reserved
unless with baseness to beg our victuals, were resolved to work,
so he at our entreaty hired us both to be his hindes and drudges.
Clow:
Your apron good Mistris, and so and so, you were stript out of
your silks and sattens, and forc'd to put on these russets and sheepskins.
Phil:
Even so.
Clow:
O most tyrannical old Fornicator (old Master I would say)
Well since 'tis so, no more young Master, but fellow servant; no more
Master Philip but Phil; here's my hand Ile do two mens la bours in one
to save you a labour, and to spare your shoulders Ile help at many a
dead lift: Come Ile go teach ye hayte and ree, gee and whoe, and which
is to which hand; next Ile learn you the name of all our Teeme, and
acquaint you with Jocke the fore-horse, and Fibb the fil-horse, and with
all the godamercy fraternity.
Sus:
Succeed it as heaven please.
Phil.
What must be, must be, heaven hath set it down,
At which they smile, why should we mortals frown?
Clow:
To see so brave a Gentleman turn Clown.
Exeunt.
Scen. 1.
Enter Goodwin and Foster.Fost.
Are we not somwhat too early think you?
Goodw.
It appears so, for neither challenger nor defendant are yet in
field.
Fost:
Which way doe you think the day will goe? or whether of them
do you hold to be the better man?
Goodw:
That I am not able to judge, but if the opinion of the world
hold currant, he that kild one brother, is thought will be the death of
the other, but these things are beyond us: lye close for being seen.
Enter Rainsforth and Forrest the younger.
Rains.
Your resolution holds then?
young For:
Men that are easily moved, are soon removed from resolution,
but when with advice and with foresight we purpose, our intents
are not without considerate reasons altered.
Rains:
Thou art resolved, and I prepared for thee, yet thus much
know, thy state is desperate, and thou art now in dangers throat already
even half devoured; if I subdue thee, know thou art a dead man; for
this fatal steel that searcht thy brothers entrails is prepared to doe as
much to thee; if thou survivest, and I be slain, th'art dead too, my alliance
and greatness in the world will not endure my slaughter unrevenged.
Come, I am for thee.
young For:
I would my brother liv'd that this our difference might end
in an embrace of folded love; but 'twas heavens will that for some guilt
of his he should be scourged by thee, and for that guilt in scourging him
thou by my vengeance punisht, come I am both waies armed against
thy steel, if I be pierc'd by it, or against thy greatness mine pierce thee.
Rains.
Have at thee.
[Fight and pause.
For:
I will not bid thee hold, but if thy breath be as much short as mine
look to thy weakness.
Rains.
The breath thou drawst but weakly, thou now shalt draw no
more.
[Fight, Forrest looseth his weapon.
For.
That heaven knows, he guard my body that my spirit ows.
[He guards himself, and puts by with his hat, slips, the other running fals over him. and Forrest kils him.
Goodw.
My Cosens faln, persue the murderer.
Fost.
But not too near I pray, you see he's armed, and in this deep amazement
may commit some desperate outrage.
For.
Had I but known the terrour of this deed, I would have left it
done imperfectly, rather then in this guilt of conscience laboured so far,
oversway'd by his Allies and friends, and I have now no safety but by
flight.
And see where my pursuers come, away,
Certain destruction hovers o'r my stay.
Exit.
Goodw:
Come follow, see he takes towards the City, you bear the body
of my Cosen hence unto the neighbour village: Ile still keep
He shall not scape our pursuit though he fly.
Exeunt.
Enter William and Philip.
Will:
now will trusse me that point Phil, I could find in my heart to
beg thee of my Father to wait upon me, but that I am afraid he cannot
spare thee from the plough: besides I heard him say but the last day,
thou wast more fit to make a hind then a serving man.
Phil:
Sir, you were once my brother.
Wil:
True, but that was when you were a son to my father.
Phil:
I and my younger brother, I had then priority of birth.
Wil:
But now it seems we have got the start of you, for being but a
servant you are taken a button-hole lower.
Phil:
When wil this tedious night give place to day?
Wil:
I hope I may command.
Phil.
I must obey.
Enter Joh. & Sus.
Joh:
My string Sue, are these shooes well mundified, down a your maribones
good Sue, I hope you are not so straight lac'd but you can stoop:
you acknowledg me one of your young Masters, if not, 'tis not unknown
to you that I know the way to my father.
Sus:
Yes Sir, and can tell tales, I know you can, and I have felt the
smart on't.
Joh:
Whip me if you shall not if you begin once to grow stubborn:
why when?
Sus.
As humble as your feet.
Enter Mrs. Anne.
Anne:
Why how now naid is this work fitting you? and you Sir,
you are lookt for in the stable, and should not loyter here, will you be
gone?
Phil.
I am for any service.
Exit.
Sus.
And I too.
Exit.
Anne:
We shall find other things for you to doe.
Wil:
If you cannot here be they that can, a drudge, a groom, Ile
send him of my errand.
Joh:
And if I do not find work for her, Ile doe nothing but take Tobacco
house the.
Exeunt.
Anne:
These think because I am their Stepmother, their chiefest
torture is most my content, when I protest, to see them thus afflicted it
grates my very heart-strings every hour: For though before their Fathers
rathless eye, and their remorsless brothers, I seem stern, yet privately
they taste of my best bounty,
Hired to overcome their chiefest drudgery.
Within.
Follow, follow, follow.
[Ent. young For. with his weapon drawn
young For.
I am pursued, and there is no place of refuge left to my desperate
life, but here's a woman, oh if she harbour soft effeminate pitty
she may redeem me from a shameful death.
Anne:
A man thus arm'd to leap my garden wall; help, help.
young For:
As you are fair, and should be pittifull, a woman therefore
to be moved; a Christian, and therefore one that should be
charitable, pitty a poor distressed Gentleman, who gives his desperate
fortune, life and freedom into your hand.
Anne:
What are you Sir, that with your weapon drawn affright me
thus?
young For.
If you protect my life, fair creature, I am a free
Gentleman, but if betray me, then a poor man doomed unto a shameful
death.
Anne:
What's your offence that such suspitious fear, and timerous
doubts waits on your guilty steps?
young For:
I have kild a man, but fairly as I am a Gentleman, without
all base advantage in even tryal of both our desperate fortunes.
Anne:
Fairly?
young For:
And though I say it, valiantly.
Anne:
And hand to hand?
young For.
In single opposition.
Anne:
In a good quarrel?
young For.
Else let the hope I have in
you of safety turn to my base confusion.
A cry within
follow, &c.
Gentle creature
I cannot now stand to expostulate; for hark the breath
of my pursuers blow a fearful air upon my flying heel, and I am almost
in their fatal gripe. Say will you save me?
Anne:
I will, then climb into that hovel.
young For.
Oh any where.
Anne:
Nay quickly then.
young For:
Your hand fair Lady.
Anne:
Away, leave me to answer for you.
Enter old Harding, Goodwin, Foster, and Offcers;.
old Hard:
Over my garden wall, is't possible?
Goodw:
Over this wall I see him leap it lightly.
That shall we quickly know, see here's my wife, she can
inform us best.
Fost.
Saw you not Mistris Harding, a young man mount o'r this garden
wall with his sword drawn?
Anne:
My eyes were stedfast on my work in hand, and trust me I saw
none.
old Hard:
Perhaps he took down to the neighbour village,
and when he saw my wife, altered his course.
Anne:
'Tis very like so, for I heard a bustling about that hedge, besides
a sudden noise of some that swiftly ran towards your fields, make
haste, 'twas now, he cannot be far off.
old Hard:
Gentlemen, take my word, I am high Constable; it is part
of my office, Ile be no shelter for any man that shall offend the Law: if
we surprise him, I will send him bound to the next Justice, follow you
your search.
Good.
Farewel good Mr. Harding.
Fost.
Your word's sufficient without further Warrant,
Continue our pursuit, all ways are layd
And ere he reach the City, shall be stayd.
Exit. Good. & Fost.
old Hard.
Adew good friends.
Anne.
Pray what's the business Sir?
old Hard.
Two Gentlemen, went into the fields to fight,
And one hath slain another.
Anne.
On what quarrel?
old Hard.
I had smal leisure to importune that, onely this much I
learnt, the man that's dead was great in fault, and he that now survives,
subject unto the danger of this search, bare himself fairly, and his fortune
being to kill a man Ally'd to Noble men, and greatly friended:
is much pittyed. But Law mest have his course.
Anne.
If this be true.
I thank my fate, and bless this happy hour
To save a life within Laws griping power.
old Hard.
Come then the mornings bleak, and sharp the Ayr
Into the fire my girle, there's wholesome heat:
Ile in and see my servants set at meat.
Anne.
Sir, ile but end this flower and follow you, I this should be
some bloody murderer, great were my guilt to shrowd him from the
Law; but if a gentleman by fortune crost, 'tis pitty one so vallient and
so young should be given up into his enemies hands, whilst greatness
may perhaps weigh down his cause and ballance him to death, who
thus escaping may when he hath, by means obtain his peace, Redeem his
desperate fortunes, and make good th' forfeit made unto th' offended
'Tis charity to succor the distrest.
Ent. Forrest above.
Fair Mistress, are they gon, may I descend?
Anne.
No safety lives abroad, then pray forbear.
To speak of scaping hence,
young For.
Oh but I fear
Anne.
My life for yours.
young For.
However poor I fare
May you of this your charitable care
Tast happy fruit.
Anne.
You did not kill him foully.
young For.
No I protest.
Anne.
Nor willingly.
young For.
I willingly fought with him, but unwillingly
Did I become his death's man.
Anne.
Could you now wish him
alive agen.
young For.
With his hands loose, and yet he slew my
brother.
Anne.
Heaven hath sent this gentleman because hee's penitent,
to me for succor, therefore till the violence of all his search be
past, Ile shrowd him here, and bring you meat and wine to comfort
you, free I protest from all unchast pretence, till by some means I may
conveigh you hence.
young For.
The life you saw if I orecome this plunge shall be for
ever yours, all my endeavours to your devoted service I will store, and
carefully hoard up.
Anne:
Sir, now no more.
Exeunt.
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