ARKCODEX
Induction
1Before an alehouse on a heath.
2Enter Hostess and Sly.
3SlyI’ll pheeze you, in faith.
4HostessA pair of stocks, you rogue!
5SlyYe are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues; look in the chronicles; we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore paucas pallabris; let the world slide: sessa!
6HostessYou will not pay for the glasses you have burst?
7SlyNo, not a denier. Go by, Jeronimy: go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.
8HostessI know my remedy; I must go fetch the third-borough. Exit.
9SlyThird, or fourth, or fifth borough, I’ll answer him by law: I’ll not budge an inch, boy: let him come, and kindly. Falls asleep.
10Horns winded. Enter a Lord from hunting, with his train.
11LordHuntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds:
Brach Merriman, the poor cur is emboss’d;
And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth’d brach.
Saw’st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good
At the hedge-corner, in the coldest fault?
I would not lose the dog for twenty pound.
12First HuntsmanWhy, Belman is as good as he, my lord;
He cried upon it at the merest loss
And twice to-day pick’d out the dullest scent:
Trust me, I take him for the better dog.
13LordThou art a fool: if Echo were as fleet,
I would esteem him worth a dozen such.
But sup them well and look unto them all:
To-morrow I intend to hunt again.
14First HuntsmanI will, my lord.
15LordWhat’s here? one dead, or drunk? See, doth he breathe?
16Second HuntsmanHe breathes, my lord. Were he not warm’d with ale,
This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly.
17LordO monstrous beast! how like a swine he lies!
Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image!
Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man.
What think you, if he were convey’d to bed,
Wrapp’d in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers,
A most delicious banquet by his bed,
And brave attendants near him when he wakes,
Would not the beggar then forget himself?
18First HuntsmanBelieve me, lord, I think he cannot choose.
19Second HuntsmanIt would seem strange unto him when he waked.
20LordEven as a flattering dream or worthless fancy.
Then take him up and manage well the jest:
Carry him gently to my fairest chamber
And hang it round with all my wanton pictures:
Balm his foul head in warm distilled waters
And burn sweet wood to make the lodging sweet:
Procure me music ready when he wakes,
To make a dulcet and a heavenly sound;
And if he chance to speak, be ready straight
And with a low submissive reverence
Say “What is it your honour will command?”
Let one attend him with a silver basin
Full of rose-water and bestrew’d with flowers;
Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper,
And say “Will’t please your lordship cool your hands?”
Some one be ready with a costly suit
And ask him what apparel he will wear;
Another tell him of his hounds and horse,
And that his lady mourns at his disease:
Persuade him that he hath been lunatic;
And when he says he is, say that he dreams,
For he is nothing but a mighty lord.
This do and do it kindly, gentle sirs:
It will be pastime passing excellent,
If it be husbanded with modesty.
21First HuntsmanMy lord, I warrant you we will play our part,
As he shall think by our true diligence
He is no less than what we say he is.
22LordTake him up gently and to bed with him;
And each one to his office when he wakes, Some bear out Sly. A trumpet sounds.
Sirrah, go see what trumpet ’tis that sounds: Exit Servingman.
Belike, some noble gentleman that means,
Travelling some journey, to repose him here.
23Reenter Servingman.
24How now! who is it?
25ServantAn’t please your honour, players
That offer service to your lordship.
26LordBid them come near.
27Enter Players.
28Now, fellows, you are welcome.
29PlayersWe thank your honour.
30LordDo you intend to stay with me to-night?
31A PlayerSo please your lordship to accept our duty.
32LordWith all my heart. This fellow I remember,
Since once he play’d a farmer’s eldest son:
’Twas where you woo’d the gentlewoman so well:
I have forgot your name; but, sure, that part
Was aptly fitted and naturally perform’d.
33A PlayerI think ’twas Soto that your honour means.
34Lord’Tis very true: thou didst it excellent.
Well, you are come to me in a happy time;
The rather for I have some sport in hand
Wherein your cunning can assist me much.
There is a lord will hear you play to-night:
But I am doubtful of your modesties;
Lest over-eyeing of his odd behavior—
For yet his honour never heard a play—
You break into some merry passion
And so offend him; for I tell you, sirs,
If you should smile he grows impatient.
35A PlayerFear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves,
Were he the veriest antic in the world.
36LordGo, sirrah, take them to the buttery,
And give them friendly welcome every one:
Let them want nothing that my house affords. Exit one with the Players.
Sirrah, go you to Barthol’mew my page,
And see him dress’d in all suits like a lady:
That done, conduct him to the drunkard’s chamber;
And call him “madam,” do him obeisance.
Tell him from me, as he will win my love,
He bear himself with honourable action,
Such as he hath observed in noble ladies
Unto their lords, by them accomplished:
Such duty to the drunkard let him do
With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy,
And say “What is’t your honour will command,
Wherein your lady and your humble wife
May show her duty and make known her love?”
And then with kind embracements, tempting kisses,
And with declining head into his bosom,
Bid him shed tears, as being overjoy’d
To see her noble lord restored to health,
Who for this seven years hath esteemed him
No better than a poor and loathsome beggar:
And if the boy have not a woman’s gift
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for such a shift,
Which in a napkin being close convey’d
Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.
See this dispatch’d with all the haste thou canst:
Anon I’ll give thee more instructions. Exit a Servingman.
I know the boy will well usurp the grace,
Voice, gait and action of a gentlewoman:
I long to hear him call the drunkard husband,
And how my men will stay themselves from laughter
When they do homage to this simple peasant.
I’ll in to counsel them; haply my presence
May well abate the over-merry spleen
Which otherwise would grow into extremes. Exeunt.
37A bedchamber in the Lord’s house.
38Enter aloft Sly, with Attendants; some with apparel, others with basin and ewer and other appurtenances; and Lord.
39SlyFor God’s sake, a pot of small ale.
40First ServantWill’t please your lordship drink a cup of sack?
41Second ServantWill’t please your honour taste of these conserves?
42Third ServantWhat raiment will your honour wear to-day?
43SlyI am Christophero Sly; call not me “honour” nor “lordship:” I ne’er drank sack in my life; and if you give me any conserves, give me conserves of beef: ne’er ask me what raiment I’ll wear; for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet; nay, sometimes more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the over-leather.
44LordHeaven cease this idle humour in your honour!
O, that a mighty man of such descent,
Of such possessions and so high esteem,
Should be infused with so foul a spirit!
45SlyWhat, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher Sly, old Sly’s son of Burton-heath, by birth a pedlar, by education a card-maker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom. What! I am not bestraught: here’s—
46Third ServantO, this it is that makes your lady mourn!
47Second ServantO, this is it that makes your servants droop!
48LordHence comes it that your kindred shuns your house,
As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.
O noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth,
Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment
And banish hence these abject lowly dreams.
Look how thy servants do attend on thee,
Each in his office ready at thy beck.
Wilt thou have music? hark! Apollo plays Music.
And twenty caged nightingales do sing:
Or wilt thou sleep? we’ll have thee to a couch
Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed
On purpose trimm’d up for Semiramis.
Say thou wilt walk; we will bestrew the ground:
Or wilt thou ride? thy horses shall be trapp’d,
Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
Dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar
Above the morning lark: or wilt thou hunt?
Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them
And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.
49First ServantSay thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift
As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.
50Second ServantDost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight
Adonis painted by a running brook,
And Cytherea all in sedges hid,
Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,
Even as the waving sedges play with wind.
51LordWe’ll show thee Io as she was a maid,
And how she was beguiled and surprised,
As lively painted as the deed was done.
52Third ServantOr Daphne roaming through a thorny wood,
Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds,
And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.
53LordThou art a lord and nothing but a lord:
Thou hast a lady far more beautiful
Than any woman in this waning age.
54First ServantAnd till the tears that she hath shed for thee
Like envious floods o’er-run her lovely face,
She was the fairest creature in the world;
And yet she is inferior to none.
55SlyAm I a lord? and have I such a lady?
Or do I dream? or have I dream’d till now?
I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak;
I smell sweet savours and I feel soft things:
Upon my life, I am a lord indeed
And not a tinker nor Christophero Sly.
Well, bring our lady hither to our sight;
And once again, a pot o’ the smallest ale.
56Second ServantWill’t please your mightiness to wash your hands?
O, how we joy to see your wit restored!
O, that once more you knew but what you are!
These fifteen years you have been in a dream;
Or when you waked, so waked as if you slept.
57SlyThese fifteen years! by my fay, a goodly nap.
But did I never speak of all that time?
58First ServantO, yes, my lord, but very idle words:
For though you lay here in this goodly chamber,
Yet would you say ye were beaten out of door;
And rail upon the hostess of the house;
And say you would present her at the leet,
Because she brought stone jugs and no seal’d quarts:
Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket.
59SlyAy, the woman’s maid of the house.
60Third ServantWhy, sir, you know no house nor no such maid,
Nor no such men as you have reckon’d up,
As Stephen Sly and did John Naps of Greece
And Peter Turph and Henry Pimpernell
And twenty more such names and men as these
Which never were nor no man ever saw.
61SlyNow Lord be thanked for my good amends!
62AllAmen.
63SlyI thank thee: thou shalt not lose by it.
64Enter the Page as a lady, with attendants.
65PageHow fares my noble lord?
66SlyMarry, I fare well; for here is cheer enough.
Where is my wife?
67PageHere, noble lord: what is thy will with her?
68SlyAre you my wife and will not call me husband?
My men should call me “lord:” I am your goodman.
69PageMy husband and my lord, my lord and husband;
I am your wife in all obedience.
70SlyI know it well. What must I call her?
71LordMadam.
72SlyAl’ce madam, or Joan madam?
73Lord“Madam,” and nothing else: so lords call ladies.
74SlyMadam wife, they say that I have dream’d
And slept above some fifteen year or more.
75PageAy, and the time seems thirty unto me,
Being all this time abandon’d from your bed.
76Sly’Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone.
Madam, undress you and come now to bed.
77PageThrice-noble lord, let me entreat of you
To pardon me yet for a night or two,
Or, if not so, until the sun be set:
For your physicians have expressly charged,
In peril to incur your former malady,
That I should yet absent me from your bed:
I hope this reason stands for my excuse.
78SlyAy, it stands so that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loath to fall into my dreams again: I will therefore tarry in despite of the flesh and the blood.
79Enter a Messenger.
80MessengerYour honour’s players, heating your amendment,
Are come to play a pleasant comedy;
For so your doctors hold it very meet,
Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood,
And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:
Therefore they thought it good you hear a play
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.
81SlyMarry, I will, let them play it. Is not a comonty a Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?
82PageNo, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.
83SlyWhat, household stuff?
84PageIt is a kind of history.
85SlyWell, we’ll see’t. Come, madam wife, sit by my side and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger. Flourish.