Read Ebook: A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume 14 by Dodsley Robert Compiler Hazlitt William Carew Editor

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your free assent Has here engraven. Palisado's zeal Shall merit your affection, if endeavours May mount to such a pitch as they may cheer My hopes in retribution. Secrecy, Or what may most suit with a lady's honour, Shall in this breast keep constant sentry.

SAL. If Salibrand fall short, may he be forc'd To sue his own divorce. Dear Joculette, May your estrangement from a loathed bed Complete your choice with a delightful change.

MOR. Balls, treats, rear-banquets, theatral receipts To solace tedious hours, shall entertain My mellow Medlar; and when evening pleasure Shall with enlivening vigour summon more Duly-reserved offices, which Love In her arrival, her desir'd repose, Shall pay his loyal tribute, only due To crowns and nuptial rites: or as pure times Make these divisions legal, to supply Defects by abler farmers, which defray'd, Proves man to be himself. I'll vow no more: Only give leave to your devoted servant, Whose purest victim is a constant heart, To make this tender good. Before I fail In acting your content, may youthful heat Disclaim its interest in me, and this spirit, Active and sprightly, lose his native strength-- Nay, thaw itself to atoms, and resolve To ophic powder, juice of cucumber, Or what may show most chilness in the blood.

TIL. Like brave Platonic, you profess much love, Which, you enamel with gilt promises; But my affection's conscious of no guilt, Nor a rhetoric tincture. Some can speak, And call the heavens to record, when their fancy, Mere planet-struck, has fix'd their influence On various objects: this deludes poor wenches, And makes them melt like ceruse! Heav'ns forgive them! I'm none of that light leaven; nor, Florello, Caranto, Palisado, Salibrand, Nor you, Morisco. Moments of delight May prompt unmanag'd youths to damn'd protests And vows which they intend not: whereas, madams, Your choice has made you happy in your change. This shall my dear affianc'd Tinder find In her embraces; and in those conclude Stol'n waters be the sweetest.

ALL. Excellent; Thou shalt be styl'd th' Platonic Pythias.

JUL. Treasure like esteem In thy Julippe's choice, brave Palisado.

JOC. In Joculette, active Salibrand.

MED. Thy sprightliest revels, may they be reserv'd For thy endear??d Medlar, my Morisco.

TIN. So may thy hopes be crown??d in thy Tinder, My valiant Tilly; and rest thus resolv'd: That th' tender tinder of my tried affection Shall ne'er obscure its lustre, if neglect Extinguish not that heat.

TIL. May th' frigid zone Sooner contract my sinews!

MOR. And love's grove Become an hermit's cell!

SAL. And our revels A sullen stoic dream.

PAL. And this exchange A period to our joys.

CAR. And our protests Affrighting shadows.

FLO. Or May those contents, which you expect from us, Discover our defects, and make you wish Your nuptial beds untouch'd.

ALL. May all these fall, And crush us with their grandeur.

LADIES. Be it so, And if our levity disvalue vows, Or what may most oblige us: may like censure Impeach our perish'd honours.

and cordials, not only to facilitate, but expedite, their production.

in us An active fire. Now I appeal to you, Judicious consuls.

the grounds Of sad succeeding stories.

that lesson-- Never to fix my fancy on a person Who had no sage in's pate, lest progeny of fools Should make my race unhappy: this has made My thoughts mere strangers to his weak embraces; Nor shall I e'er affect him.

FLO. Madam, no law Would in the Spartan state enjoin a lady So nobly accomplished to confine Her fancy to such fury.

PAL. This objection Admits no long debate.

SAL. Her rich deserts, Adorn'd with such choice native faculties, And grac'd with art to make them more complete, In humane reason should exempt her youth From such a servile yoke.

MOR. In ancient times, When wisdom guarded senates, a decree, Confirmed by public vote, enacted was, That none should marry till he had observ'd Domestic discipline; and first to bear With a composed garb th' indignities Of a Xantippe, if his fortune were To cope with such a fury: and to calm Her passion with his patience. Now, grave colleagues, What comfort might this injur'd lady drain, In these punctilios which import her state, From this insensate sot?

Deep wounds, like griefs, require contracted lines; Few words, long sighs: accents that want express. First give me leave one beamling to bestow On my obscur'd, once glorious, family.

ALL. Madam, proceed; Fame made it eminent.

JUL. But now contemptive--by marrying one Who bears the shape of man, and that is all: A base, white-liver'd coward, whose regard To his lost honour stamps him with that brand, That hateful stigma, which humanity Scorns as the basest complice.

PAL. Style it, madam.

JUL. Pusillanimity. That ranter breathes not, Who with his peek'd mouchatoes may not brave him, Baffle, nay baste him out of his possessions. His fortunes he esteems not, so his person May be secur'd from beating.

ALL. Matchless coward!

JUL. Nor is this all. 'Has sought t' engage my bed, My nuptial bed and honour--nay, those sheets Where, I may safely vow, ne'er man lay in, Beside my husband.

were those friends of yours To value fortunes more than your content!

PAL. To prostitute your honour to a clod Of mould'red earth!

SAL. And in an icy bed To starve your blooming comforts?

TIL. This exceeds All spousal suffering, which preceding times In our Italian stories ever read, Or in their sable annals register'd.

for fodder, and too rank for pasture, Would generate more fatal maladies Than a whole college of state empirics Or country farriers had art to cure?

FLO. Such bullocks, madam, well deserve a baiting.

TIL. And beating too!

TIN. Yet this is my condition: For marrying one Sir Reuben Scattergood, A person in appearance like enough, And well-dispos'd for aught my watchful eyes Could long discover; but, his father dead, And his revenues by his death swol'n great, His nuptial bed he leaves, and entertains Such mercenary prostitutes as fancy-- His loose-exposed fancy--lur'd him to.

CAR. Injurious ribald!

PAL. Hateful libertine!

TIL. Had she been old, or crook'd, or any way Deform'd.

SAL. Or ill-condition'd.

MOR. Or averse, When he was active.

FLO. Or run retrograde To his just pleasures: these might have abridg'd And weaken'd his affection. But when beauty, Composed temper, and a graceful presence, Cloth'd both with majesty and a sweet smile Of such attractive quality, as the adamant Cannot more virtually enforce its object, Than these impressive motives of content: He merits not the title of a man, Much less the embraces of so choice a spouse, Who violates his faith, deceives her trust.

CAR. I am directly, sir, of your opinion.

ALL. So all of us concur, To make our judgments more unanimous.

TIN. And, to confirm't, may you be pleas'd to give Attention to a story I shall tell, As true as strange, to manifest th' affronts My patience has endur'd, and to what height His luxury ascended.

ALL. Madam, do; We shall lend ready ears to your discourse.

TIN. It chanc'd one day,--and ofttimes so it chanc'd, For doubtful thoughts have ever jealous eyes,-- That my suspicion had begot a fear That my neglectful husband had a kindness, And more than usual, unto my maid-- A proper maid, if so she might be call'd: Now, to possess myself whether those grounds Whereon I built might just inducements be Of my late-hatch'd fears, I made pretence, To go from home. But this was no recede, But a retire: for in the ev'ning-time, When these two amorous pair expected least Such an unwelcome visit, I repair'd To a close arbour set with sycamores, The tamarisk, and sweet-breath'd eglantine, That local object which I fix'd upon, Not of myself, but by direction, Where I found out what I suspected long: Such wanton dalliance as the Lemnian smith Never discover'd more, when he prepar'd His artful net t' enwreath his Eriena Impal'd in Mars his arms.

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