Volume Ii Part 36 (1/2)

ACTUS SECUNDI, SCAENA QUINTA.

JACOB. MIDO. REBECCA. ABRA, _the handmaid_.

JACOB. Thou knowest, little Mido, where my mother is.

MIDO. I can go to her as straight as a thread, and not miss.

JACOB. Go call her, and come again with her thine own self.

MIDO. Yes, ye shall see me scud like a little elf.

JACOB. Where I have, by the enticement of my mother, Bargained and bought the birthright of my brother.

Turn it all to good, O Lord, if it be thy will: Thou knowest my heart, Lord, I did it for no ill.

And whatever shall please thee to work or to do, Thou shalt find me prest and obedient thereto.

But here is my mother Rebecca now in place.

MIDO. How say you, master Jacob, ran not I apace?

JACOB. Yes, and a good son to go quick on your errand.

REBECCA. Son, how goeth the matter? let me understand.

JACOB. Forsooth, mother, I did so, as ye me bad, Esau to sell me all his birthright persuade.

REBECCA. Hast thou bought it indeed, and he therewith content?

JACOB. Yea, and have his promise, that he will never repent.

REBECCA. Is the bargain through? hast thou paid him his price?

JACOB. Yea, that I have, a mess of red pottage of rice, And he ate it up every whit, well I wot.

MIDO. When he had supp'd up all, I saw him lick the pot; Thus he licked, and thus he licked, and this way: I thought to have lick'd the pot myself once to-day; But Esau beguil'd me, I shrew him for that, And left not so much as a lick for puss our cat.

REBECCA. Son Jacob, forasmuch as thou hast so well sped, With an hymn or psalm let the Lord be praised.

Sing we all together, and give thanks to the Lord, Whose promise and performance do so well accord.

MIDO. Shall we sing the same hymn, that all our house doth sing?

For Abraham and his seed to give G.o.d praising.

REBECCA, Yea, the very same.

MIDO. Then must we all kneel down thus, And Abra, our maid, here must also sing with us, Kneel down, Abra; what, I say, will ye not kneel down?

Kneel, when I bid you, the slackest wench in this town!

[_Here they kneel down to sing all four, saving that Abra is slackest, and Mido is quickest_.]

THE FIRST SONG.