The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 170 pages of information about The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.

The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 170 pages of information about The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.

Bri.  Open the doors; will ye imprison me? are ye my Judges?

Mir.  The man raves! this is not judicious Brisac:  yet now I think on’t, h’has a kind of Dog look like my Brother, a guilty hanging face.

Bri.  I’ll suffer bravely, do your worst, do, do.

Mir.  Why, it’s manly in you.

Bri.  Nor will I rail nor curse, you slave, you whore, I will not meddle with you; but all the torments that e’re fell on men, that fed on mischief, fall heavily on you all. [Exit.

Lil.  You have given him a heat, Sir.

Mir.  He will ride you the better, Lilly.

And.  We’ll teach him to meddle with Scholars.

Mir.  He shall make good his promise t’increase thy Farm, Andrew, or I’ll jeer him to death.  Fear nothing, Lilly, I am thy Champion.  This jeast goes to Charles, and then I’ll hunt him out, and Monsieur Eustace the gallant Courtier, and laugh heartily to see ’em mourn together.

And.  ’Twill be rare, Sir. [Exeunt.

ACTUS QUINTUS.  SCENA PRIMA.

Enter Eustace, Egremont, Cowsy.

Eust.  Turn’d out of doors and baffled!

Egre.  We share with you in the affront.

Cow.  Yet bear it not like you with such dejection.

Eust.  My Coach and Horses made the ransom of our Cowardize!

Cow.  Pish, that’s nothing, ’tis damnum reparabile, and soon recover’d.

Egre.  It is but feeding a Suitor with false hopes, and after squeeze him with a dozen of Oaths, You are new rigg’d, and this no more remembred.

Eust.  And does the Court, that should be the Example and Oracle of the Kingdom, read to us no other Doctrine?

Egre.  None that thrives so well as that, within my knowledge.

Cow.  Flattery rubs out; but since great men learn to admire themselves, ’tis something crest-faln.

Egre.  To be of no Religion, argues a subtle, moral understanding, and it is often cherish’d.

Eust.  Piety then, and valour, nor to do and suffer wrong, are they no virtues?

Egre.  Rather vices, Eustace; Fighting! what’s fighting? it may be in fashion among provant swords, and Buff-jerkin men:  But w’us that swim in choice of Silks and Tissues; though in defence of that word Reputation, which is indeed a kind of glorious nothing, to lose a dram of blood must needs appear as coarse as to be honest.

Eust.  And all this you seriously believe?

Cow.  It is a faith that we will die in, since from the black Guard to the grim Sir in Office, there are few hold other Tenets.

Eust.  Now my eyes are open, and I behold a strong necessity that keeps me knave and coward.

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The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.