 | The Casket |  |
SCENE II.
Bawd.I am, for all the world, like half the sex
That keep our trade—Soon as we've got our load,
We prate away, and chatter more than need.
This very girl, that's now gone off in tears,
Did I take up an infant, and expos'd
In a lone lane, and bred her up as mine.
Here is a certain youth, nobly allied—
(Why should not I, now I have eat my fill,
And got my skin full freely, free my tongue—
I cannot keep it, tho' so great a secret.)
His father lives at Sicyon, of a family
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Lost in the love of her you saw in tears,
And she of him—I made a present of her
To this Melænis, a good friend of mine;
Who oft had ask'd me for some boy or girl,
An infant, whom she might pretend her own.
Soon as I could, I granted her request,
And gave her this.—When she had got the girl,
She was directly brought to bed of her,
Without a midwife, or child-bearing throes;
Unlike those fools, who bring it on themselves.
And then, to make a fair pretence for having
A child supposititious, 'twas, forsooth,
To flatter her gallant, some foreigner.
We two alone are in the secret; I,
Who gave the girl, and she, who took her of me.
Except yourselves, indeed. [to the spectators.]
This is the story.
If any thing comes of it, you'll remember—
I must trot homeward—
[Exit.
| The Casket | |