 | The Goblins |  |
Act IV.
Enter Samorat, Nashorat, Pellegris.Na.
Ggod faith 'tis wondrous well,
We have ee'n done like eager disputers;
And with much adoe
Are got to be just where we were.
This is the corner of the wood.
Sa.
Ha! 'tis indeed.—
Pell.
Had we no walking fire,
Nor sawcer-ey'd Devill of these woods that led us?
Now am I as weary
36
And have no more desire to move forwards,
Then a Post-horse that has past his Stage.
Na.
'Sfoot yonder's the night too, stealing away
With her blacke gowne about her:
Like a kind wench, that had staid out the
Last minute with a man.
Pel.
What shall we doe, Gentlemen?
I apprehend falling into this Jaylors
Hands strangely; hee'd use us worse
Then we did him.
Na.
And that was ill enough of Conscience:
What thinke you of turning Beggars?
Many good Gentlemen have don't: or Theeves?
Pel.
That's the same thing at Court:
Begging is but a kind of robbing th'Exchequer.
Na.
Looke foure fathome and a halfe OOS—
In contemplation of his Mistres:
There's a Feast, you and I are out now Pellegrin;
'Tis a pretty tricke, this enjoyning in absence.
What a rare invention 'twood be,
If a man could find out a way to make it reall.
Pel.
Dost thinke there's nothing in't as tis?
Na.
Nothing, nothing.
Did'st never heare of a dead Alexander,
Rais'd to talke with a man?
Love's a learned Conjurer,
And with the glasse of Fancie will doe as strange things?
You thrust out a hand,
Your Mistresse thrusts out another:
You shake that hand that shakes you agen:
You put out a lip; she puts out hers:
Talke to her, she shall answer you;
Marrie, when you come to graspe all this,
It is but ayer.
(As out of his Study.
Sam.
It was unluckie,—
Gentlemen, the day appeares,
37
Let's to some neighbouring Cottage,
May be the Searchers will neglect
The neerer places,
And this will but advance unto our safety.
Enter Fidlers.
Na.
Who are there?
Fid. 1.
Now if the spirit of melancholy should possesse them.
F. 2.
Why if it should,
An honourable retreate.
N.
I have the rarest fancie in my head,—
Whether are you bound my friends so early?
Fid.
To a Wedding Sir.
N.
A Wedding?
I told you so.
Whose?
Fid.
A Country wenches here hard by,
One Erblins daughter.
N.
Good: Erblin: the very place.
To see how things fall out.
Hold, here's money for you.
Harke you, you must assist me in a small designe.
Fid.
Any thing.
Sam.
What do'st meane?
N.
Let me alone,
I have a plot upon a wench.—
Fid.
Your Worship is merry.
Na.
Yes faith, to see her only.
Looke you, some of you shall go back to'th' Towne,
And leave us your Coats,
My friend and I am excellent at a little Instrument,
And then wee'l sing catches.
P.
I understand thee not;
Thou hast no more forecast then a Squirrell,
And hast lesse wise consideration about thee.
Is there a way safer then this!
Dost thinke what we have done
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Should we now enter any house
Thus near the Towne, and stay all day,
'Twould be suspitious: What pretence have we?
P.
He speaks reason Samorat.
Sa.
I doe not like it.
Should any thing fall out 'twould not looke well,
I'de not be found so much out of my selfe,
So far from home as this disguise would make me,
Almost for certainty of safety.
N.
Certainty? Why, this will give it us,
Pray let me governe once.
Sa.
Well, you suffered first with me,
Now 'tis my turne.
P.
Prethee name not suffering.
N.
Come, come, your Coats,
Our Beards will suite rarely to them:
There's more money,
Not a word of any thing as you tender—
Fid.
O Sir.
N.
And see you carry't gravely too.—
Now afore me Pellagrins rarely translated.
'Sfoot they'l apprehend the head of the Base Violl
As soone as thee;
Thou art so likely,
Only I must confesse, that has a little the better face.
P.
Has it so?—
Pox on thee, thou look'st like I cannot tell what.
N.
Why, so I would foole,
Th'end of my disguise is to have none
Know what I am:
Looke, looke, a Devill ayring himself.
(Enter a Divell.
I'le catch him like a Mole ere he can get under ground.
P.
Nashorat, Nashorat.—
N.
Pox on that noise, hee's earth't.
Prethee let's watch him and see
Whether hee'le heave agen.
39
Ar't madde?—
N.
By this light, three or foure of their skins
And wee'd robbe.
'Twould be the better way.—
Come, come, let's go.—
Exeunt.
Enter Captain and Souldiers.
Cap.
Let the Horse skirt about this place,
Wee'le make a search within.—
Ex.
Enter agen.
Now disperse
I'th hollow of the wood,
Wee'le meet agen.
Enter Na. Pe. Sa. Fid.
Sol.
Who goes there?
Speake,—Oh! th'are Fidlers.—
Sawe you no Men nor Horse
I'th wood to day,—as you came along,
(Nashorat puls one of the Fidlers by the skirt)
Na.
Speake, speake Rogue.
Fid.
None Sir,—
Sol.
Passe on.—
Ex.
N.
Gentlemen what say you to th'invention now,
I'm a Rogue if I do not think
I was design'd for the Helme of State,
I am so full of nimble Stratagems:
That I should have ordered affaires, and
Carried it against the streame of a Faction,
With as much ease as a Skippar,
Would laver against the wind.—
Ex.
Enter Captaine and Soldiers meet agen.
Cap.
What, no newes of any?
Sol.
No,—not a man stirring;
Enter other Souldiers.
Sa how, away,—away.—
Cap.
What, any discovery?
1. Sol.
Yes, the Horse has staid three fellowes,
Fidlers they call themselves;
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One of them has offer'd at confession once or twice,
Like a weake stomacke at vomiting,
But 'twould not out—
Ca.
A little cold Iron thrust downe his throat
Will fetch it up.
I am excellent at discoverie,
And can draw a secret out of a Knave,
With as much dexterity as a Barber-Surgeon
Woo'd a hollow tooth.
Let's joyne forces with them.—
Exeunt.
Enter Orsabrin.
Or.
Sure 'tis eternall night with me;
Would this were all too—
For I begin to thinke the rest is true,
Which I have read in books,
And that there's more to follow.—
Enter Reginella.
Re.
Sure this is he.—
(She unbinds him.
Or.
The pure and first created Light
Broke through the Chaos thus.—
Keep off, keep off thou brighter Excellence,
Thou faire Divinity: If thou com'st neere,
(So tempting is the shape thou now assum'st)
I shall grow sawcy in desire agen,
And entertaine bold hopes which will but draw
More, and fresh punishment upon me.—
Re.
I see y' are angry Sir:
But if you kill me too, I meant no ill:
That which brought me hither,
With a desire I have to be with you,
Rather then those I live with: This is all
Beleeve't.—
Or.
With me? Oh thou kind Innocence!
Witnesse all that can punish falshood,
That I could live with thee,
Even in this darke and narrow prison:
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Oh, hadst thou but as much of Love as I.
Re.
Of Love? What's that?
Or.
Why 'tis a thing that's had before 'tis knowne:
A gentle flame that steales into a heart,
And makes it like one object so, that it scarce cares
For any other delights, when that is present:
And is in paine when 't's gone; thinks of that alone,
And quarrels with all other thoughts that would
Intrude and so divert it.—
Re.
If this be Love, sure I have some of it,
It is no ill thing, is it Sir?
Or.
Oh most Divine,
The best of all the gods strangely abound in't,
And Mortals could not live without it:
It is the soule of vertue, and the life of life.
Re.
Sure I should learne it Sir, if you would teach it.
Or.
Alas, thou taught'st it me;
It came with looking thus.—
(They gaze upon one another.
Enter Per.
Per.
I will no longer be conceal'd,
But tell her what I am,
Before this smooth fac'd youth
Hath taken all the roome
Up in her heart,
Ha! unbound! and sure by her!
Hell and Furies.
P.
What ho—within there—
Enter other Theeves.
Practise escapes?
Get me new yrons to load him unto death.
Or.
I am so us'd to this,
It takes away the sense of it:
I cannot thinke it strange.
Re.
Alas, he never did intend to goe.
Use him for my sake kindly:
I was not wont to be deny'd.
Ah me! they are hard hearted all.
42
Hee'l not be thus cruell.—
Exeunt.
Enter Samorat, Nashorat, Pelegrin.
Nas.
'Tis a rare wench, she 'ith blew stockings:
What a complexion she had when she was warme—
'Tis a hard question of these Country wenches,
Which are simpler, their beauties or themselves.
There's as much difference betwixt
A Towne-Lady, and one of these,
As there is betwixt a wilde Pheasant and a tame.
Pell.
Right:—
There goes such essensing, washing, perfuming,
Dawbing, to th'other that they are the least part
Of themselves.
Indeed there's so much sauce, a man cannot taste the meat.
N.
Let me kisse thee for that;
By this light I hate a woman drest up to her height,
Worse then I doe Sugar with Muskadine:
It leaves no roome for me to imagine:
I could improve her if she were mine:
It looks like a Jade with his tayle tyed up with ribbons,
Going to a Fayre to be sold.
Pell.
No, no, thou hatest it out of another reason, Nashorat.
Nas.
Prethee what's that?
Pell.
Why th'are so fine, th'are of no use that day.
Na.
Pellegrin is in good feeling.
Sirra, did'st marke the Lasse 'ith green upon yellow,
How she bridled in her head,
And danc't a stroake in, and a stroake out,
Like a young Fillet training to a pace.
Pel.
And how she kist,
As if she had been sealing and delivering her self up
To the use of him that came last,
Parted with her sweet-hearts lips still
As unwillingly, and untowardly,
As soft Wax from a dry Seale.
N.
True; and when she kisses a Gentleman,
43
The favour was on his side.
What dull fooles are we to besiege a face
Three moneths for that trifle.
Sometimes it holds out longer,—
And then this is the sweeter flesh too,—
Enter Fidlers.
Fid.
You shall have horses ready at the time,
And good ones too (if there be truth in drinke)
And for your letters, they are there by this.—
Sa.
An excellent Officer.—
Enter Wedding.
Clowne.
Tut, tut, tut,
That's a good one y'faith, not dance?
Come, come, strike up.
(Enter souldiers mufled up in their cloaks.
Sa.
Who are those that eye us so severely?
Belong they to the wedding?
Fid.
I know 'em not.
Clo.
Gentlemen, wil't please you dance.—
(Offer their women.
Sol.
No, keep your women, wee'l take out others here.
Samorat, if I mistake not.
Sa.
Ha! betraid?—
(A bussle.
Clo.
How now! what's the matter? abuse our Fidlers?
2 Sol.
These are no Fidlers, fools obey the Princes officers,
Unlesse you desire to goe to prison too.
Sa.
The thought of what must follow disquiets not at all:
But tamely thus to be surpriz'd
In so unhandsome a disguise?—
(They carry him away.
Pel.
I'st ee'n so? Why then,
Farewell the plumed Troops, and the big Wars,
Which made ambition vertue.—
Nas.
I, I, Let them goe, let them goe.
Pel.
Have you ever a stratagem Nasharot?
'Twood be very seasonable. What thinke you now?
Are you design'd for the helme of State?
Can you laver against this Tempest?
Na.
Prethee let me alone, I am thinking for life.
44
Yes, 'tis for life indeed, would 'twere not.
Cl.
This is very strange; Let's follow after,
And see if we can understand it.—
Exeunt.
Enter Peridor, Orsabrin.
Per.
A meere Phantasme
Rais'd by Art to trie thee.
Or.
Good kind Devill,
Trie me once more.
Help me to the sight of this Phantasme agen.
Per.
Thou art undone,
Wer't thou not amorous
In th'other world?
Did'st not love women?
Or.
Who did hate them?
Per.
Why there's it;
Thou thought'st there was no danger in the sinne,
Because 'twas common.
Above the halfe of that vast multitude
Which fils this place, Women sent hither:
And they are highliest punisht still,
That love the handsomest.
Or.
A very lying Devill this
Certainly.—
P.
All that had their women with you,
Suffer with us.
Or.
By your friendships favour though,
There's no justice in that:
Some of them suffered enough
In all conscience by 'em there.—
P.
Oh, this is now your mirth:
But when you shall be pinch't
Into a gellie,
Or made into a crampe all over,
These will be sad truths.
Or.
He talkes odly now, I doe not like it.
Do'st heare?—
Prethee exchange some of thy good counsell
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If thou bee'st an honest Devill,
(As thou seem'st to be)
Put a sword into my hand,
And help me to the sight of this
Apparition agen.—
P.
Well, some thing I'le doe for thee,
Or rather for my selfe.—
Exeunt.
Enter two other Devils.
1. D.
Come, let's goe relieve our Poet.
2. D.
How, relieve him? hee's releas't; is he not?
1. D.
No, no;
Bersat bethought himselfe at the mouth of the Cave,
And found he would be necessary to our Masque too night.
We have set him with his feet in a great tub of water,
In which he dabbles and beleeves it to be Helicon:
There hee's contriving i'th honour of Mercury,
Who I have told him comes this night of a message
From Jupiter to Pluto, and is feasted here by him.
Th.
Oh, they have fetcht him off.
Enter Poet and Theeves.
Po.
Carer per so lo carer,
Or he that made the fairie Queene.
1 Th.
No, none of these:
They are by themselves in some other place;
But here's he that writ Tamerlane.
P.
I beseech you bring me to him,
There's something in his Scene
Betwixt the Empresses a little high and clowdie,
I would resolve my selfe.
1 Th.
You shall Sir.
Let me see—the Author of the bold Beauchams,
And Englands Joy.
Po.
The last was a well writ peice, I assure you,
A Brittane I take it; and Shakespeares very way:
I desire to see the man,
1 Th.
Excuse me, no seeing here.
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Doe make all Poets poore above,
And we all blind below.
But you shall confesse Sir.
Follow.—
Ex.
Enter Peridor, Orsabrin.
Or.
Ha! light and fresh aire agen?
(Peridor unbinds him and slips away.
The place I know too.—
The very same I fought the Duell in.
The Devill was in the right;
This was a meere Aparition:
But 'twas a handsome one, it left impressions here,
Such as the fairest substance I shall ere behold,
Will scarse deface.
Well I must resolve, but what, or where?
I, that's the question.
The Towne's unsafe, there's no returning thither,
And then the Port.—
(Enter some to passe over.
Ha! What means the busie haste of these.—
Honest friend.—No—
(Passe's hastily.
Do'st heare,—
(To another.
What's the matter pray?
Clo.
Gentlemen, gentlemen,
That's good satisfaction indeed.
Ors.
Prethee good fellow tell me.
(Enter another.
What causes all this hurry?—
(To another.
Clo.
One Samorat is led to prison Sir,
And other Gentlemen about Lord Torcular.
Ha! Samorat!
There is no meane nor end of fortunes malice:
Oh! 'tis insufferable:
I'm made a boy whipt on anothers backe:
Cruell, I'le not endure't by heaven,
He shall not dye for me:
I will not hold a wretched life upon such wretched termes.
Ex.
Enter Tamoren, Peridor, and others.
Tam.
Flie; flie abroad, search every place, and
47
Thou hast undone us all with thy neglect,
Destroi'd the hopes we had to be our selves agen;
I shall run mad with Anger;
Fly, be gone.—
Exeunt all but Tam.
Enter Reginella.
My Reginella, what brings you abroad?
Re.
Deare Governour? I have a sute to you.
Ta.
To me my pretty sweetnesse, what?
Re.
You will deny me Sir I feare,
Pray let me have the stranger that came last in keeping.
Ta.
Stranger? Alas hee's gone, made an escape
Re.
I fear'd he would not stay they us'd him so unkindly.
Indeed I would have us'd him better,
(weeps.
And then he had been here still.
Tam.
Come, doe not weep my girle:
Forget him pretty pensivenesse, there will
Come others every day as good as he.
Re.
Oh! never: I'le close my ey's to all now hee's gone.
Tam.
How catching are the sparkes of love? Still this
Mischance showes more and more unfortunate.
I was too curious.—
Come indeed, you must forget him,
The gallant'st and the godli'st to the eye are not the best,
Such handsome and fine shapes as those
Are ever false and foule within.
Re.
Why Governour d'you then put
Your finest things still in your finest Cabinets?
Tam.
Pretty Innocence: no, I doe not;
You see I place not you there,
Come no more teares:
Lets in and have a Mate at Chesse,
“Diversion cures a losse, or makes it selfe.—
Exeunt.
| The Goblins | |