A Select Collection of Old English Plays is a Webnovel created by Dodsley and Hazlitt.
This lightnovel is currently completed.
If any, but in conference, name the king, Inform his majesty they envy him; And if the king but move, or speak to thee, Kneel on both knees, and say, G.o.d save your majesty.
If any man be favoured by the king, Speak thou him fair, although in heart thou envy him, But who is next?
PRIEST.
That am I, father, that use the word of G.o.d, And live only by the heavenly manna.
BAILIFF.
Who? the Priest? Give ear, my son, I have a lesson yet in store for thee.
Thou must, my son, make show of holiness; And blind the world with thy hypocrisy; And sometime give a penny to the poor, But let it be in the church or market-place, That men may praise thy liberality.
Speak against usury, yet forsake no p.a.w.ns, So thou may’st gain three shillings in the pound.
Warn thou the world from sin and vile excess, And now and then speak against drunkenness: So by this means thou shalt be termed wise, And with thy pureness blind the people’s eyes.
But now, my sons, discourse to me in brief How you have lived, and how you mean to die.
CONEYCATCHER.
Then, father, thus I live that use my wit: Unto myself I love still to be wise; For when I am driven to shift for meat or coin, Or gay apparel to maintain me brave, Then do I flaunt it out about the ‘Change, As if I were some landed gentleman; And, falling in with some rich merchant there, I take commodities for six months’ day: The bill being made, I must set to my hand; Then, if I pay not, they may burn the band.[296]
FARMER.
Then, father, hark how I have profited– Walter, your son that keeps the country– I have raised the markets and oppress’d the poor, And made a thousand go from door to door.
And why did I, think you, use this extremity?
Because I would have corn enough to feed the enemy.
Father, you know we have but a while to live, Then, while we live, let each man shift for one; For he that cannot make shift in the world, They say he’s unworthy to live in it: And he that lives must still increase his store, For he that hath most wealth of all desireth more.
PERIN.
Brethren, you have spoken well, I must needs say; But now give ear to me, that keeps the court.
Father, I live as Aristippus did, And use my wits to flatter with the king.
If any in private conference name the king, I straight inform his grace they envy him.
Did Sinon live, with all his subtlety He could not tell a flattering tale more cunningly.
Sometime I move the king to be effeminate, And spend his time with some coy courtesan.
Thus with the king I curry favour still, Though with my heart I wish him any ill: And sometime I can counterfeit his hand And seal, and borrow money of the commonalty; And thus I live and flaunt it with the best, And dice and card inferior unto none: And none dares speak against me in the court, Because they know the king doth favour me.
PRIEST.
And I, among my brethren and my friends, Do still instruct ’em with my doctrine, And Yea and Nay goes through the world with us.
Fie, not an oath we swear for twenty pound: Brethren, say we, take heed by Adam’s fall; For by his sins we are condemned all.
Thus preach we still unto our brethren, Though in our heart we never mean the thing: Thus do we blind the world with holiness, And so by that are termed pure Precisians.
BAILIFF.
Full well and wisely have you said, my sons, And I commend you for your forward minds, That in your lives bewray whose sons ye are.
Here have I been a bailiff threescore years, And us’d exaction on the dwellers-by; For if a man were brought before my face For cosenage, theft, or living on his wit: For counterfeiting any hand or seals, The matter heard, the witness brought to me, I took a bribe, and set the prisoners free: So by such dealings I have got the wealth, Which I would have disburs’d among you all, With this proviso, that you all shall live, And lead such lives as I have set you down.
Carve to yourselves, and care not what they say, That bid you fear the fearful judgment-day.
Live to yourselves, while you have time to live: Get what you can, but see ye nothing give.
But hark, my sons: me thinks I hear a noise, And ghastly visions make me timorous.
Ah! see, my sons, where death, pale Death, appears, To summon me before a fearful Judge.
Methinks Revenge stands with an iron whip, And cries, Repent, or I will punish thee.
My heart is hardened, I cannot repent, And I am d.a.m.ned to ever-burning fire.
Soul, be thou safe, and body fly to h.e.l.l. [_He dieth_.
_Enter_ DEVIL, _and carry him away_.
CONEYCATCHER.
Brother, why do you not read to my father?
PRIEST.
Truly, my book of exhortation is At my place of exercise, and without it I can do nothing. G.o.d’s peace be with him!
[_Exeunt_.
_Enter the_ KING, PHILARCHUS _and his_ FATHER, DUNSTAN _and attendants_.
KING.
Father, say on; for now my leisure serves, And Edgar gives thee leave to tell thy mind; For I perceive thine eyes are full of tears, Which shows that many inward pa.s.sions trouble thee.
If any here have wrong’d thine aged years, In keeping that from thee that is thy due, Name but the man, and, as I am England’s king, Thou shalt have all the favour I can show.
FATHER.
Then, virtuous prince, mirror of courtesy, Whose judgments, and whose laws for government, And punishing of every foul abuse, Is like the judgment of great Alexander, Third of that name, whom some termed the Severe; Or like Vespasian, Rome’s virtuous governor, Who, for a blow his son did give a swain, Did straight command that he should lose his hand.
Then, virtuous Edgar, be Vespasian once, In giving sentence on a graceless child.
Know, virtuous prince, that in my pride of years, When l.u.s.tful pleasure p.r.i.c.k’d my wanton mind, Even in the April of my flourishing time, I was betroth’d and wedded to a wife, By whom too soon I had that unkind boy, Whose disobedience to his aged sire The Lord will plague with torments worse than death.
This disobedient child, nay, base extravagant,[297]
Whom I with care did nourish to this state, Puff’d with a pride that upstart courtiers use, And seeing that I was brought to poverty, He did refuse to know me for his sire; And when I challenged him by nature’s laws To yield obedience to his father’s age, He told me straight he took it in great scorn To be begot by one so base as I.
My age, that ill could brook this sharp reply, Did with this wand, my lord, reach him a blow; But he, contrary laws of G.o.d and men, Did strike me such a blow in vild disdain, That with the stroke I fell to earth again.
KING.
Unkind Philarchus, how hast thou misdone, In wilful disobedience to thy sire!
Art thou grown proud, because I favoured thee?
Why, I can quickly make thee bare again, And then, I think, being in thy former state, Thou wilt remember who thy father was.
And, gentle Sophocles, in good time I recount Thy ancient saying, not so old as true, For saith [he], He that hath many children, Shall never be without some mirth, Nor die without some sorrow; for if they Be virtuous, he shall have cause to rejoice, But if vicious, stubborn, or disobedient, Ever to live in continual sadness.
I am sorry, Philarchus, that my favours Have made thee insolent: well, I will see now if My frowns will make thee penitent.
Now, father, see how Nature ‘gins to work, And how salt tears, like drops of pearly[298] dew, Falls from his eyes, as sorrowing his amiss.
PHILARCHUS.
Most gracious prince, vouchsafe to hear me speak.
I cannot but confess, most gracious sovereign, That I have err’d in being obstinate In wilful disobedience to my sire Wherein I have wrong’d nature and your majesty.
But I am not the first, whom oversight Hath made forgetful of a father’s love.
But father’s love shall never be forgot, If he but deign to pardon my amiss: But if your wrath will noways be appeased, Rip up this breast, where is enclos’d that heart, That bleeds with grief to think on my amiss.
Ah, father! pardon, sweet father, pardon me.
FATHER.
No, graceless imp, degenerate and unkind, Thou art no son of mine, but tiger’s whelp, That hast been fost’red by some lion’s pap: But as the tall’st ash is cut down, because It yields no fruit, and an unprofitable cow, Yielding no milk, is slaughtered, and the idle drone, Gathering no honey, is contemned; So ungrateful children, that Will yield no natural obedience, must be Cut off, as unfit to bear the name [of] Christians, Whose lives digress both from reason and humanity.
But as thou hast dealt unnaturally with me, So I resolve to pull my heart from thee.
Therefore, dread prince, vouchsafe to pity me, And grant I may have justice on my son.
KING.
Dunstan, how counsellest thou the king in this?
I promise thee, I am sorry for the youth, Because in heart I ever wish’d him well.
DUNSTAN.
My gracious lord, if I might counsel you, I would counsel you to judge as he deserves.
He that disdains his father in his want, And wilfully will disobey his sire, Deserves, my lord, by G.o.d’s and nature’s laws, To be rewarded with extremest ills: Then, as your grace hath ‘stablish’d laws for government, So let offenders feel the penalties.
KING.
Ay, Dunstan; now thou speakest as fits a councillor, But not as friend to him whom Edgar loves.