You’re welcome; but our plot I dare not tell ye,
For fear I fright a lady with great belly: 
Or should a scold be ’mong you, I dare say
She’d make more work than the devil in the play. 
Heard you not never how an actor’s wife,
Whom he (fond fool) lov’d dearly as his life,
Coming in’s way did chance to get a jape,[421]
As he was ’tired in his devil’s shape;
And how equivocal a generation
Was then begot, and brought forth thereupon? 
Let it not fright you; this I dare to say,
Here is no lecherous devil in our play. 
He will not rumple Peg, nor Joan, nor Nan,
But has enough at home to do with Marian,
Whom he so little pleases, she in scorn
Does teach his devilship to wind the horn;
But if your children cry when Robin comes,
You may to still them buy here pears or plums. 
Then sit you quiet all who are come in,
St Dunstan will soon enter and begin.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

ST DUNSTAN, Abbot of Glastonbury. 
MORGAN, Earl of London. 
LACY, Earl of Kent. 
HONOREA, Morgan’s daughter. 
MARIAN, her Waiting-maid. 
NAN, Marian’s maid. 
MUSGRAVE, a young Gentleman. 
CAPTAIN CLINTON. 
MILES FORREST, a Gentleman. 
RALPH HARVEY, an Apothecary. 
GRIM, the Collier of Croydon. 
PARSON SHORTHOSE. 
CLACK, a Miller. 
JOAN, a Country Maid. 
PLUTO, |
MINOS, |
AEACUS | Devils. 
RHADAMANTHUS, |
BELPHEGOR, |
AKERCOCK, or Robin Goodfellow, |
MALBECCO’S Ghost, Officers, Attendants, &c.

The Stage is England_.

GRIM[422] THE COLLIER OF CROYDON.

ACT I., SCENE I.

    A place being provided for the devil’s consistory, enter
    ST DUNSTAN, with his beads, book, and crosier-staff, &c.

ST. DUN.  Envy, that always waits on virtue’s train,
And tears the graves of quiet sleeping souls,
Hath brought me after many hundred years
To show myself again upon the earth. 
Know then (who list) that I am English born,
My name is Dunstan; whilst I liv’d with men,
Chief primate of the holy English church. 
I was begotten in West Saxony:[423]
My father’s name was Heorstan, my mother’s Cinifred. 
Endowed with my merit’s legacy,
I flourish’d in the reign of seven great kings: 
The first was Athelstane, whose niece Elfleda
Malicious tongues reported I defiled: 
Next him came Edmond, then Edred, and Edwy. 
And after him reign’d Edgar, a great prince. 
But full of many crimes, which I restrain’d: 
Edward his son, and lastly Ethelred. 
With all these kings was I in high esteem,