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Whose blood is hotter then ours is,

Which, being stird, might make us both repent

Sir Rich. Brave thee, base Churle! Were't not for man-hood1 I say no more, but that there be some by

[sake45

This foolish meeting. But, Harry3 Clare,

Although thy father have abused my friendship,
Yet I love thee, I doe, my noble boy,

I doe, yfaith.

L. Dor. I, doe, do,

50

Fill all the world with talke of us, man, man ;

I never lookt for better at your hands.

Fab. I hoped your great experience and your yeeres

Would have prov'de patience rather to your soule,

55

Then with this frantique and untamed passion

To whet their5 skeens. And, but that

I hope their friendships are too well confirmd,

And their minds temperd with more kindly heat
Then for their froward parents soares?

60

That they should breake forth into publique brawles.

Howere the rough hand of th' untoward world
Hath moulded your proceedings in this matter,
Yet I am sure the first intent was love.

Then since the first spring was so sweet and warme,
Let it die gently; ne're kill it with a scorne.

65

Ray. O thou base world, how leprous is that soule
That is once lim'd in that polluted mudde!

Oh, sir Arthur, you have startled his free active spirits
With a too sharpe spur for his minde to beare.

Have patience, sir; the remedy to woe

Is to leave what of force we must forgoe.

bad.

Mil. And I must take a twelve moneths approbation,

1 Were it not that I am a man instead of a hot-headed boy.

70

[To SIR R.]

[Aside.]

2 W. P. insert 'youthful' before 'blood,' to mend the metre; but the metre is often

3 Early eds., Raph'; corr. by Q 6.

5 Their' refers to the young men.

4 Q 1, Q 2, Q 3, 'hope'; corr. by Q 4. 6 Q 4, etc., read 'for that.'

7 W. P. and Walker take this to mean soaring flights, high words; it is just as likely to be sores.'

That in meane time this sole and private life
At the yeares end may fashion me a wife.

75

But, sweet Mounchensey, ere this yeare be done,
Thou'st be a frier, if that I be a Nun.

And, father, ere young Jerninghams Ile bee,

I will turne mad to spight both him and thee.

Sir Ar. Wife, come, to horse, and, huswife, make you ready, For, if I live, I sweare by this good light,1

1

Ile see you lodgde in Chesson house2 to night.

80

[Exeunt.]3

Sir Rich. Raymond, away! Thou seest how matters fall.

Churle, hell consume thee and thy pelfe and all !
Fab. Now, M. Clare, you see how matters fadge;

85

Your Milliscent must needes be made a Nun.

Well, sir, we are the men must plie this match.
Hold you your peace, and be a looker on;
And send her unto Chesson, where he will,
Ile send mee fellowes of a handfull hie
Into the Cloysters where the Nuns frequent,
Shall make them skip like Does about the Dale
And make the Lady prioresse of the house

To play at leape-frogge, naked in their smockes,
Untill the merry wenches at their masse
Cry "teehee weehee!"

And tickling these mad Lasses in their flanckes,

Shall sprawle, and squeake, and pinch their fellow Nunnes.

Be lively, boyes, before the Wench we lose,

Ile make the Abbas' weare the Cannons hose.8

90

95

99

Exeunt.

1 A common oath.

2 Chesson, Cheston, (now Cheshunt) Nunnery was near Enfield and not far from

Waltham Abbey.

3 Inserted in Q4.

4 four inches, a ‘hand,' cf. N. E. D.

5 'make' seems to have slipped in from the line above instead of 'with'; 'their' in seems to support this suggestion.

6 In Q 1, Q 2, Q 3, these two words are in the preceding line.

1.

94

Abbess.

8 Alluding to a well-known indecent story.

[Act II. Scene III. The Same.]

Enter HARRY CLARE, FRANKE JERNINGHAM, PETER FABELL, and

MILLESCENT.

r. Cla. Spight now hath done her worst; sister, be patient ! r. Jer. Forewarnd poore Raymonds company! O heaven! When the composure of weake frailtie meete

Upon this mart of durt, o, then weake love

Must in hir owne unhappines be silent,

And winck on1 all deformities.

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Whers Raymond, Brother? Whers my deere Mounchensey?
Would wee might weepe together and then part;

Our sighing parle2 would much ease my heart.

Fab. Sweete beautie, fould your sorrowes in the thought Of future reconcilement. Let your teares

Shew

you a woman, but be no farther spent Then from the eyes; for, sweet, experience sayes That love is firme thats flatterd with delayes.3

Mil. Alas, sir, thinke you I shall ere be his ?
Fab. As sure as parting smiles on future blisse.
Yond comes my friend! See, he hath doted
So long upon your beautie, that your want
Will with a pale retirement wast his blood;
For in true love Musicke doth sweetly dwell:
Severd, these lesse worlds beare within them hell.
Enter RAYMOND MOUNCHENSEY.

Ray. Harry and Francke, you are enjoynd to waine?

1 shut her eyes to.

2 Here dissyllabic, as it usually is when not a book-word.

3 Cf. The course of true love never did run smooth.'

4 Q1, Q 2, Q 3, 'panting.'

5 the want of you.

Our author's thought is not very consecutive in these lines, and often elsewhere.

7 wean.

5

10

15

20

]

you;

Your friendship from mee; we must part; the breath
Of all advised corruption-pardon mee!1
Faith, I must say so; you may thinke I love
I breath not, rougher spight do sever us ;2
Weele meete by stealth,3 sweet friend ; by stealth you twaine ;
Kisses are sweetest got with strugling paine.

r. Jer. Our friendship dies not, Raymond.
Ray.

I am busied; I have lost my faculties,

And buried them in Milliscents cleere eyes.

25

30

Pardon mee:

Mil. Alas, sweete Love, what shall become of me?

I must to Chesson to the Nunery,

I shall nere see thee more.

Ray.

How, sweete?

Ile be thy votary, weele often meete:

This kisse divides us, and breathes soft adiew;

35

This be a double charme to keepe both true. [Kisses her again.] 40 Fab. Have done: your fathers may chance spie your parting. Refuse not you by any meanes, good sweetnes,

To goe unto the Nunnery; farre from hence

Must wee beget your loves sweete happines.

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1 Ll. 23-25 prose in first five eds. None of these eds. has any punctuation between 'we' and 'corruption,' after which there is a comma. W. P. have we must part the breath. Of all advised corruption pardon me!' But their first clause could hardly mean anything but we must die'; their other sentence is intelligible enough but does not suit the context. Walker punctuates as I do, except that he has only a comma after 'corruption'; I do not know whether he regards 'all' as the subject of advised' or not. I take 'all' as adj. and advised' as adj. and the remark as broken off and apologized for. Hazlitt reads 'ill-advised.'

2 W. P. have 'you may think I loue you; I breath not, rougher spite do seuer vs,' and have no explanatory note. Walker punctuates as I do, but adopts 'to' for 'do' from Hazlitt. I understand it to mean: You may think I love you, inasmuch as I do not declare a rougher spite doth sever us.'

3 Misprinted steale,' Q 1, Q 2, Q 3.

4 W. P. and Walker 'friends,' but all the early eds. 'friend'; see next note.

5 If this line and the next are rightly assigned to Raymond, you twaine' must be vocative and should be preceded by a comma; but I cannot resist the conviction that the two lines should be ascribed to Harry. If so, he first addresses Raymond as 'sweet friend' in regard to their own future meetings and then, referring to Raymond and his sister as 'you twaine,' speaks of their meetings. It is to be noted that if this assignment is not made, Harry takes no part in this conversation. It may also be added that the intervention of this speech makes Raymond's reply in lines 31 to 33 less absurd.

You shall not stay there long; your harder bed
Shall be more soft when Nun and Maide are dead.

Enter BILBO.

r. Cla.1 Now, sirra, whats the matter?

45

Bil. Marry, you must to horse presently; that villanous old gowty churle, Sir Arthur2 Clare, longs till he bee at the Nunry.

r. Cla. How, sir?

50

Bil. O, I cry you mercy, he is your father, sir, indeed; but I am sure that theres lesse affinitie betwixt your two natures then there is betweene a broker1 and a Cutpurse.

r. Cla.5 Bring my gelding, sirra.

Bil. Well, nothing greeves me, but for the poore wench; she must now cry vale to Lobster pies, hartichokes, and all such meates of mortalitie. Poore gentlewoman, the signe must not be in Virgo any longer with her, and that me grieves ful wel.

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Exeunt.

70

No joy enjoyes my hearte till wee next meete.
Fab. Well, Raymond, now the tide of discontent
Beats in thy face; but, er't be long, the wind

Shall turne the flood. Wee must to Waltham Abby,'
And as faire Milliscent in Cheston lives,

1 All eds. 'Ray.'

2 Old eds. Richard'; corr. by W. P.

3 Early eds. omit speaker's name.

4 A receiver of stolen goods and consequently of great affinity with a cutpurse. All eds. 'Ray?'

6 Possibly because she is to be no longer a woman of this world, cf. III, i, 12 and Much Ado, II, i, 331, All's Well, I, iii, 20, A. Y. L., V, iii, 5, (with a difference). Bilbo is not yet supposed to know anything of the plot for the marriage.

7 Cf. note on II, ii, 82.

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