 | The Chances |  |
SCENE. VI.
Enter Don John.John.
Was ever man so paid for being curious?
Ever so bob'd for searching out Adventures,
As I am? did the Devil lead me? must I needs be peeping
Into mens Houses where I had no business,
And make my self a mischief? 'tis well carry'd;
I must take other mens occasions on me,
And be I know not whom: most finely handled:
What have I got by this now? what's the purchase?
A piece of evening Arras work, a Child,
Indeed an Infidel: this comes of peeping:
A lump got out of laziness; good white bread,
Let's have no bawling with ye: 's death, have I
Known Wenches thus long, all the ways of Wenches,
Their Snares and Subtilties? have I read over
All their School-learning, div'd into their Quiddits
And am I now bumfidled with a Bastard?
Fetch't over with a card of five, and in my old daies,
After the dire Massacre of a Million
Of maidenheads? caught the common way, ith'night too
Under anothers name, to make the matter
Carry more weight about it? well Don John,
You will be wiser one day, when ye've purchas'd
A Beavy of those Butter-prints together,
With searching out concealed Iniquities,
Without commission: why, it would never grieve me,
If I had got this Ginger-bread: never stirr'd me,
So I had a stroke for't: 't had been justice,
Then to have kept it; but to raise a Dayry
For other mens Adulteries, consume my self in Candles,
And scouring work, in Nurses, Bells, and Babies,
Only for Charity, for Meer I thank you,
A little troubles me: the least Touch for it,
Had but my Breeches got it, had contented me.
8
For 'tis well cloath'd, and if I be not cozen'd,
Well lin'd within: to leave it here were barbarous,
And ten to one would kill it: a worse sin
Than his that got it: well, I will dispose on't,
And keep it, as they keep deaths Heads in rings,
To cry Memento to me; no more Peeping:
Now all the danger is, to qualify
The good old Gentlewoman, at whose House we live,
For she will fall upon me with a Catechism
Of four hours long: I must endure all;
For I will know this mother: come good wonder,
Let you and I be jogging: your starv'd trebble
Will waken the rude Watch else: all that be
Curious night walkers, may they find my fee.
[Exit.
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