Doubly beset with enemies, wrath and fire? | Another fetch her to her sense again; Flames crown her now a most triumphant whore. And that end crown them all! [He falls. In Aur. Our peace is full yon usurper's fall; nor have I known A judgment meet more fearfully. Here, take this ring, deliver the good queen, And those grave pledges of her murder'd honour, (Her worthy father, and her noble uncle.) How now! the meaning of these sounds? Enter HENGIST, DEVONSHIRE, STAFFORD, and Soldiers. Hen. The consumer has been here; she's gone, she's lost, In glowing cinders now lie all my joys. Aur. Her father and her uncle! 1st Lord. They are indeed, my lord. Aur. Part of my wishes. What fortunate power has prevented me, And ere my love came, brought them victory? 1st Lord. My wonder sticks in Hengist, king The rankness of whose insolence and treason battle: Whom, as our fame's redemption, on our knees Aur. Had it needed reason, You richly came provided. I understood Not Hen. Had but my fate directed this bold arm Aur. A strange draught! EDITION. The Mayor of Quinborough: a Comedy. As it hath been often acted with much applause at Black Fryars, by his Majesty's servants. Written by Tho. Middleton. London: Printed for Henry Herringman; and are to be sold at his shop, at the Sign of the Blew Anchor, in the lower walk of the New Exchange. 1661. 4to. GRIM, THE COLLIER OF CROYDON. ̧ B The initial letters J. T. are placed before this play, as those belonging to the author of it. What his name was, or what his condition, are alike unknown. It was printed in 12mo. 1662, with two others, Thorny Abby, or The London Maid, and The Marriage Broker, in a volume entitled Gratiæ Theatrales, or A Choice Ternary of English Plays. Chetwood says, it was printed in 1599, and Whincop, in the year 1606. I cannot but suspect the fidelity of both these writers in this particular. PROLOGUE. You're welcome: but our plot I dare not tell ye, Was then begot, and brought forth thereupon? Let it not fright you; this I dare to say, 'GRIM, THE COLLIER OF CROYDON. SCENE I. ACT I. A place being provided for the Devils' Consistory, enter St DUNSTAN with his beads, book, and crosier-staff, &c. St Dun. Envy, that always waits on virtue's And tears the graves of quiet sleeping souls, Know then (who list) that I am English born, My father's name was Heorston, my mother's Endowed with my merit's legacy, I flourish'd in the reign of seven great kings; And after him reign'd Edgar, a great prince, But now I purpose that the world shall see Plu. You ever-dreaded judges of black hell, + Mal. Infernal Jove, great prince of Tartary, I was (with thanks to your great bounty) bred 2 The story of this play is taken in part from Machiavel's Belphegor. S. P. 3 The golden legend. Legenda Aurea, or The Golden Legend, translated out of the French, and printed by Caxton in folio, 1483. 4 Malbecco's ghost.-See the story of Malbecco in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. 3. c. 9, &c. To reckon up a thousand of her pranks, Her pride, her wasteful spending, her unkindness, Her false dissembling, seeming sanctity, Her scolding, pouting, prating, meddling, And twenty hundred more of the same stamp, Were but to reap an endless catalogue Of what the world is plagu'd with every day. But for the main of that I have to tell, It chanced thus: Late in a rainy night A crew of gallants came unto my house, And (will I, nill I) would forsooth be lodg'd: I brought them in, and made them all good cheer, (Such as I had in store) and lodg'd them soft. Amongst them one, 5 ycleped Paridell, (The falsest thief that ever trod on ground) Robb'd me; and with him stole away my wife. I (for I lov'd her dear) pursu'd the thief; And after many days in travel spent, Found her amongst a crew of satyrs wild, "Kissing and colling all the live-long night. I spake her fair, and pray'd her to return; But she in scorn commands me to be gone, And glad I was to fly, to save my life; But when I backward came unto my house, I find it spoil'd, and all my treasure gone. Desp'rate and mad, I ran, I knew not whither, Calling and crying out on Heaven and fate; Till seeing none to pity my distress, I threw myself down headlong on a rock, And so concluded all my ills at once. Now, judge you, justice benchers, if my wife Were not the instrument to end my life. Plu. Can it be possible (you lords of hell) Malbecco's tale of women should be true? Is marriage now become so great a curse, That whilome was the comfort of the world? Min. Women, it seems, have lost their native shame, And here he comes; Belphagor, so it is, 5 Yeleped.-Cleped is called, named. Milton's L'Allegro, l. 11. "But come, thou goddess fair and free, The letter y is added, to lengthen it a syllable. 6 Kissing and colling.-Colling is embracing round the neck. Dare brachia cervici, as Barret explains it in his Alvearie voce colle. The word is frequently to be found in ancient writers. Erasmus Praise of Folie, 1549. Sign. B 2. -for els, what is it in younge babes that we dooe kysse so, we doe colle so; we do cheryshe so, that a very enemie is moved to spare and succour this age." Wily beguiled. 1606. "I'll clasp thee, and clip thee; coll thee, and kiss thee; till I be better than naught, and worse than nothing." The Witch, by Middleton. MSS. "When hundred leagues in aire we feast and sing, Daunce, kysse, and coll, use every thing." : The Woorkes of a Young Wit. 1577. P. 37. "Then for God's sake, let young folkes coll and kisse, |