Volume Xi Part 31 (1/2)

PROUDLY. To-morrow noon thou shalt not be at all.

INGEN. Pis.h.!.+ why should you think so? have not I arms, A soul as bold as yours, a sword as true?

I do not think your honour in the field, Without your lords.h.i.+p's liveries, will have odds.

PROUDLY. Farewell, and let's have no excuses, pray.

[_Exit_ PROUDLY.

INGEN. I warrant you. Pray, say your prayers to-night, And bring an[98] inkhorn w' ye, to set your hand to A satisfactory recantation. [_Exit._

MAID. O wretched maid! whose sword can I pray for?

But by the other's loss I must find death.

O odious brother, if he kill my love!

O b.l.o.o.d.y love, if he should kill my brother!

Despair on both sides of my discontent Tells me no safety rests but to prevent. [_Exit._

SCENE III.

_Enter_ WIDOW _and_ BOLD _like_ PRINc.o.x.

WID. What's o'clock, Princ.o.x?

BOLD. Bedtime, an't please you, madam.

WID. Come, undress me. Would G.o.d had made me a man!

BOLD. Why, madam?

WID. Because I would have been in bed as soon as they.

We are so long unpinning and unlacing.

BOLD. Yet many of us, madam, are quickly undone sometime: but herein we have the advantage of men, though they can be abed sooner than we, it's a great while, when they are abed, ere they can get up.

WID. Indeed, if they be well-laid, Princ.o.x, one cannot get them up again in haste.

BOLD. O G.o.d! madam, how mean you that? I hope you know, ill things taken into a gentlewoman's ears are the quick corrupters of maiden modesty. I would be loth to continue in any service unfit for my virgin estate, or where the world should take any notice of light behaviour in the lady I follow; for, madam, the main point of chast.i.ty in a lady is to build the rock of a good opinion amongst the people by circ.u.mstances, and a fair show she must make. _Si non caste, tamen caute_, madam; and though wit be a wanton, madam, yet I beseech your ladys.h.i.+p, for your own credit and mine, let the bridle of judgment be always in the chaps of it, to give it head or restrain it, according as time and place shall be convenient.

WID. Precise and learned Princ.o.x, dost not thou go to Blackfriars?

BOLD. Most frequently, madam, unworthy vessel that I am to partake or retain any of the delicious dew that is there distilled.

WID. But why shouldst thou ask me, what I meant e'en now? I tell thee, there's nothing uttered but carries a double sense,[99] one good, one bad; but if the hearer apply it to the worst, the fault lies in his or her corrupt understanding, not in the speaker; for to answer your Latin, _pravis omnia prava_. Believe me, wench, if ill come into my fancy, I will purge it by speech: the less will remain within. A pox of these nice-mouthed creatures! I have seen a narrow pair of lips utter as broad a tale as can be bought for money. Indeed, an ill tale unuttered is like a maggot in a nut, it spoils the whitest kernel.

BOLD. You speak most intelligently, madam.

WID. Hast not done yet? Thou art an old fumbler, I perceive. Methinks thou dost not do things like a woman.

BOLD. Madam, I do my endeavour, and the best can do no more; they that could do better, it may be would not, and then 'twere all one. But rather than be a burthen to your ladys.h.i.+p, I protest sincerely, I would beg my bread; therefore I beseech you, madam, to hold me excused, and let my goodwill stand for the action.