Let seas intomb their fury, And earth conspire their slaughter. By the vervain, &c. We'll praise then your great power, Another, to the Moon. Thou Queen of Heav'n, Commandress of the deep, 1 [Three lines omitted.] "["With garments blue and rushy garlands dressed."] 3 [Should be "contract ".] So may'st thou shun the Dragon's head and tail! [Act ii., Sc. 6.1] THE TWINS. A COMEDY [PUBLISHED 1655). BY W. RIDER, A.M. My noble mind has not yet lost all shame. To thy pure robe. I'll keep my ermine honour [Act i., Sc. 1.] SIR GILES GOOSECAP. A COMEDY. AUTHOR Friendship in a Lord; modesty in a Gentleman. Clarence (to some musicians). Thanks, gentle friends; Is your good lord, and mine, gone up to bed yet? Momford. I do assure you not, Sir, not yet, nor yet, my deep and studious friend, not yet, musical Clarence. Clar. My Lord Mom. Nor yet, thou sole divider of my Lordship. 1[Dodsley, ed. Hazlitt, vol. xii.] 2[Ed. of 1655.] [A line omitted.] Clar. That were a most unfit division, And far above the pitch of my low plumes. I am your bold and constant guest, my Lord. Mom. Far, far from bold, for thou hast known me long, As our acquaintance sprung but yesterday; Clar. My Lord, my want of courtship makes me fear Such misconstructions and resolv'd misdooms That all things tending to my grace and good And must not think of any place with men. [Act i., Sc. 4.1] THE ENGLISH MONSIEUR. A COMEDY [ACTED 1666 : PUBLISHED 1674]. BY THE HON. JAMES HOWARD [FLOURISHED 1674] The humour of a conceited Traveller, who is taken with every thing that is French. English Monsieur. Gentlemen, if you please, let] us dine together. Vaine. I know a cook's shop, has the best boiled and roast beef in town. 1[Bullen, Old English Plays, vol. iii.] Eng. Mons. Sir, since you are a stranger to me, I only ask you what you mean; but, were you acquainted with me, I should take your greasy proposition as an affront to my palate. Vaine. Sir, I only meant, by the consent of this company, to dine well together. Eng. Mons. Do you call dining well, to eat out of a French house? 1 Vaine. Sir, I understand you as little as you do beef. Eng. Mons. Why then, to interpret my meaning plainly, if ever you make me such offer again, expect to hear from me next morning Vaine. What, that you would not dine with me— Eng. Mons. No, Sir; that I will fight with you.2 In short, Sir, I can only tell you, that I had once a dispute with a certain person in this kind, who defended the English way of eating; whereupon I sent him a challenge, as any man that has been in France would have done. We fought; I killed him: and whereabouts do you think I hit him? Vaine. I warrant you, in the small guts Eng. Mons. I run him through his mistaken palate; which made me think the hand of justice guided my sword. [Act iii., Sc. 1.3] Eng. Mons. Madam, leading your Ladyship, puts me in mind of France. Lady. Why, Sir? Eng. Mons. Because you lead so like French ladies.* Lady. Sir, why look you so earnestly on the ground? Eng. Mons. I'll lay a hundred pounds, here has been three English ladies walking up before us. Crafty. How can you tell, Sir? Eng. Mons. By being in France. Eng. Mons. I have often in France observed in gardens, when the company used to walk after a small shower of rain, the impression of the French ladies' feet. I have seen such bon mien in their footsteps, that the King of France's Maitre de Daunce could not have found fault with any one tread amongst them all. In this walk I find the toes of the English ladies ready to tread one upon another. [Act ii., Sc. 1.] Vaine. Monsieur Frenchlove, well metEng. Mons. I cannot say the like to you, Sir, since I'm told you've done a damn'd' English trick. [Sentence omitted.] [Six lines omitted.] 2[Nine lines omitted.] "[Word omitted.] [Ed. of 1674.] Vaine. In what? Eng. Mons. In finding fault with a pair of tops I wore yesterday; and, upon my parol, I never had a pair sat better in my life. My leg look'd in 'em not at all like an English leg. Vaine. Sir, all that I said of your tops was, that they made such a rushing noise as you walk'd, that my mistress could not hear one word of the love I made to her. Eng. Mons. Sir, I cannot help that; for I shall justify my tops in the noise they were guilty of, since 'twas Alamode of France. Can you say 'twas an English noise? Vaine. I can say, though your tops were made in France, they made a noise in England. Eng. Mons. But still, Sir, 'twas a French noise Vaine. But cannot a French noise hinder a man from hearing? Eng. Mons. No, certainly, that's a demonstration; for, look you, Sir, a French noise is agreeable to the air, and therefore not unagreeable, and therefore not prejudicial, to the hearing; that is to say, to a person that has seen the world. [Act iv., Sc. 3.2] The Monsieur comforts himself, when his mistress rejects him, that "'twas a denial with a French tone of voice, so that 'twas agreeable:" and, at her final departure, "Do you see, Sir, how she leaves us? she walks away with a French step." A THE HECTORS [OR THE FALSE CHALLENGE]. COMEDY [PUBLISHED 1656]. BY EDMUND PŘESTWICK, 1641 A Waiting Maid wheedles an old Justice into a belief, that her Lady is in love with him. 3 Maid. I think there never was Woman of so strange a humour as she is for the world; for from her infancy she ever doted on old men. I have heard her say, that in these her late law troubles, it has been no small comfort to her, that she has been conversant with grave counsellors and serjeants; and what a happiness she had sometimes to look an hour together upon the judges. She will go and walk a whole afternoon in Charter-House Garden, on purpose to view the ancient Gentlemen there. Not long ago there was a young Gentleman here about the town who, hearing of her riches, and knowing this her humour, had almost got her, by counterfeiting himself to be an old man.5 Justice. And how came he to miss her? |