Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (1 of 10) - the Custom of the Country eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 94 pages of information about Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (1 of 10).

Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (1 of 10) - the Custom of the Country eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 94 pages of information about Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (1 of 10).

Hip. If chastity
In a young man, and tempted to the height too
Did ere deserve reward, or admiration,
He justly may claim both.  Love to his person
(Or if you please give it a fouler name)
Compel’d me first to train him to my house,
All engines I rais’d there to shake his vertue,
Which in the assault were useless; he unmov’d still
As if he had no part of humane frailty. 
Against the nature of my Sex, almost
I plaid the Ravisher.  You might have seen
In our contention, young Apollo fly
And love-sick Daphne follow, all arts failing,
By flight he wan the victory, breaking from
My scorn’d embraces:  the repulse (in women
Unsufferable) invited me to practise
A means to be reveng’d:  and from this grew
His Accusation, and the abuse
Of your still equall justice:  My rage ever
Thanks heaven, though wanton, I found not my self
So far engag’d to Hell, to prosecute
To the death what I had plotted, for that love
That made me first desire him, then accuse him,
Commands me with the hazard of my self
First to entreat his pardon, then acquit him.

Man. What ere you are, so much I love your vertue, That I desire your friendship:  do you unloose him From those bonds, you are worthy of:  your repentance Makes part of satisfaction; yet I must Severely reprehend you.

Leo. I am made A stale on all parts:  But this fellow shall Pay dearly for her favour.

Arn. My life’s so full
Of various changes, that I now despair
Of any certain port; one trouble ending,
A new, and worse succeeds it:  what should Zenocia
Do in this womans house?  Can chastity
And hot Lust dwell together without infection? 
I would not be or jealous, or secure,
Yet something must be done, to sound the depth on’t: 
That she lives is my bliss, but living there,
A hell of torments; there’s no way to her
In whom I live, but by this door, through which
To me ’tis death to enter, yet I must,
And will make tryal.

Man. Let me hear no more
Of these devices, Lady:  this I pardon,
And at your intercession I forgive
Your instrument the Jew too:  get you home. 
The hundred thousand crowns you lent the City
Towards the setting forth of the last Navy
Bound for the Islands, was a good then, which
I ballance with your ill now.

Char. Now Sir, to him, You know my Daughter needs it.

Hip. Let me take
A farewell with mine eye, Sir, though my lip
Be barr’d the Ceremonie, courtesie
And Custom too allows of.

Arn. Gentle Madam,
I neither am so cold, nor so ill bred
But that I dare receive it:  you are unguarded,
And let me tell you that I am asham’d
Of my late rudeness, and would gladly therefore
If you please to accept my ready service
Wait on you to your house.

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Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (1 of 10) - the Custom of the Country from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.