Volume Ii Part 22 (1/2)

Therefore happy are they, that can beware Into whose hands they fall by any such chance; Which if they do, they hardly escape care, Trouble, misery, and woeful grievance, And thus I make an end, committing you to his guidance, That made and redeemed us all, and to you that be now here I pray G.o.d grant and send many a good new year!

FINIS.[211]

A PRETTY INTERLUDE CALLED NICE WANTON.

[Of this interlude only two copies have hitherto been discovered, one in the Devons.h.i.+re collection, the second in the King's Library, British Museum, from the Roxburghe sale. An account of the piece, which has never been reprinted before, is given by Collier (”History of Dramatic Poetry,” ii. 381-3). Considering its rarity, early date, and curiosity, it is remarkable that ”Nice Wanton” should have escaped Dodsley and his editors.]

A PRETTY INTERLUDE, CALLED NICE WANTON.

Wherein ye may see Three branches of an ill tree: The mother and her children three, Two naught, and one G.o.dly.

Early sharp, that will be thorn, Soon ill, that will be naught: To be naught, better unborn, Better unfed than naughtily taught.

_Ut magnum magnos, pueros puerilia doctus_.

PERSONAGES.

_The Messenger.

Barnabas. Iniquity.

Ismael. Baily errand.

Dalilah. Xantippe.

Eulalia. Worldly Shame.

Daniel the Judge_.

Anno Domini, M.D.LX.

THE PROLOGUE.

THE MESSENGER. The prudent Prince Solomon doth say, He that spareth the rod, the child doth hate, He would youth should be kept in awe alway By correction in time at reasonable rate:

To be taught to fear G.o.d, and their parents obey, To get learning and qualities, thereby to maintain An honest quiet life, correspondent alway To G.o.d's law and the king's, for it is certain,

If children be noseled[212] in idleness and ill, And brought up therein, it is hard to restrain, And draw them from natural wont evil, As here in this interlude ye shall see plain:

By two children brought up wantonly in play, Whom the mother doth excuse, when she should chastise; They delight in dalliance and mischief alway, At last they end their lives in miserable wise.

The mother persuaded by worldly shame, That she was the cause of their wretched life, So pensive, so sorrowful, for their death she became, That in despair she would sle herself with a knife.

Then her son Barnabas (by interpretation The son of comfort), her ill-purpose do[th] stay, By the scriptures he giveth her G.o.dly consolation, And so concludeth; all these parts will we play.

BARNABAS _cometh_.

BARNABAS. My master, in my lesson yesterday, Did recite this text of Ecclesiasticus: Man is p.r.o.ne to evil from his youth, did he say, Which sentence may well be verified in us.

Myself, my brother, and sister Dalilah, Whom our parents to their cost to school do find.