2nd Fellow. Help him up higher on the ladder. Now you are above us all.

Footpad. Truly I desire you were all equal with me; I have no pride in this world.

1st Fellow. Will you not sing, Sir, before you are hanged?
Footpad. No, I thank you; I am not so merrily disposed.
Hangman. Come, are you ready?

Footpad. Yes, I have been preparing for you these many years.
1st Woman. Mercy on him and save his better part.
2nd Woman. You see what we must all come to.1
(Horn blows a reprieve.)

Officer. A reprieve! how came that?
Post. My Lady Haughty procured it.

Footpad. I will always say, while I live, that her Ladyship is a civil person.

1st Fellow. Pish, what must he not be hanged now?

2nd Fellow. What did we come all this way for this?
1st Woman. Take all this pains to see nothing?

Footpad. Very pious good people, I shall shew you no sport this day.2

[Act v.3]

MAMAMOUCHI. A COMEDY [PUBLISHED 1675: PROBY EDWARD RAVENSCROFT.

DUCED

1671].

[FLOURISHED 1671-1697]

Foolish Lender.

Debtor. As to my affairs, you know I stand indebted to you.
Creditor. A few dribbling sums, Sir.

Debt. You lent 'em me very frankly, and with a great deal of generosity, and much like a gentleman.

Cred. You are pleased to say so.

Debt. But I know how to receive kindnesses, and to make returns according to the merits of the person that obliges me.

Cred. No man better.

Debt. Therefore pray

let's see how our accounts stand.

Cred. They are down here in my table book.

Debt. I am a man that love to acquit myself of all obligations as

Cred. All.

1

[Slight omissions and alterations throughout this scene.]

[See also "Facetiæ,” page 562.]

3[Ed. of 1677, pp. 91-94.]

Debt. Pray read

Cred. Lent, the second time I saw you, one hundred guineas. Debt. Right.

Cred. Another time fifty.

Debt. Yes.

Cred. Lent for a certain occasion, which I did not tell you, one hundred and fifty.

Debt. Did I not? that I should conceal any thing from my friend! Cred. No matter.

Debt. It looks like mistrust, which is a wrong to friendship— Cred. O Lord!

I

Debt. I am so ashamed!-for I dare trust my soul with you. borrowed it, to lend a person of quality, whom I employed to introduce me to the King, and recommend to his particular favour, that I might be able to do you service in your affairs.

Cred. O did you so? then that debt is as it were paid; I'll cross it out.

Debt. By no means; you shall have it, or I vow

Cred. Well, Sir, as you please.

Debt. I vow I would ne'er have borrowed of you again, as long as you1 lived-but proceed

Cred. Another time one hundred

Debt. O, that was to send into France to my wife to bring her over, but the Queen would not part with her then; and since, she is fallen sick.

Cred. Alas!

Debt. But pretty well recovered—

Cred. These four sums make up four hundred guineas-
Debt. Just as can be; a very good account.

Put down two hundred more, which I will borrow of you now; and then it will be just six hundred: that is, if it will be no inconvenience to you— Cred. Euh, not in the least

Debt. It is to make up a sum of two thousand pounds, which I am about to lay up in houses I have bought; but if it incommode you, I can have it elsewhere

Cred. O, by no means—

Debt. You need but tell me, if it will be any trouble

Cred. Lord, Sir, that you will think so

Debt. I know some will be glad of the occasion to serve me; but these are favours only to be asked of special friends. I thought you, being my most esteemed friend, would take it ill, if you should come to hear of it, that I did not ask you first

Cred. It is a great honour.

1[Should be "I had ".]

[Act ii., Sc. 1.3]

[Should be "lay out".]

Ed. of 1675. Verbal omissions, the names of the two speakers omitted.]

VOL. IV.-33

LOVE'S METAMORPHOSIS. A COMEDY [PUBLISHED 1601]. BY JOHN LILY, M.A [1554 P-1606]

Love half-denied is Love half-confest.

NISA. NIOBE, her maid.

Nisa. I fear Niobe is in love.

Niobe. Not I, madam; yet must I confess, that oftentimes I have had sweet thoughts, sometimes hard conceits; betwixt both, a kind of yielding; I know not what; but certainly I think it is not love: sigh I can, and find ease in melancholy: smile I do, and take pleasure in imagination: I feel in myself a pleasing pain, a chill heat, a delicate bitterness; how to term it I know not; without doubt it may be Love; sure I am it is not Hate.

[Act ii., Sc. 1.3]

SAPHO AND PHAO. A COMEDY [PUBLISHED 1584]. BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Phao, a poor Ferryman, praises his condition.-He ferries over Venus; who inflames Sapho and him with a mutual passion.

Phao. Thou art a ferryman, Phao, yet a freeman; possessing for riches content, and for honours quiet. Thy thoughts are no higher than thy fortunes, nor thy desires greater than thy calling. Who climbeth, standeth on glass, and falleth on thorn. Thy heart's thirst is satisfied with thy hand's thrift, and thy gentle labours in the day turn to sweet slumbers in the night. As much doth it delight thee to rule thy oar in a calm stream, as it doth Sapho to sway the sceptre in her brave court. Envy never casteth her eye low, ambition pointeth always upward, and revenge barketh only at stars. Thou farest delicately, if thou have a fare to buy any thing. Thine angle is ready, when thy oar is idle; and as sweet is the fish which thou gettest in the river, as the fowl which others buy in the market. Thou needest not fear poison in thy glass, nor treason in thy guard. The wind is thy greatest enemy, whose might is withstood by policy. O sweet life! seldom found under a golden covert, often under a thatcht cottage. But here cometh one; I will withdraw myself aside; it may be a passenger.*

VENUS, PHAO: She, as a mortal.

Ven. Pretty youth, do you keep the ferry, that conducteth to Syracusa ?

1 [Lamb has changed the words.] [The opening of the play.]

[Works, ed. Warwick Bond, 1902, vol. iii.] [Three quarters of a page omitted.]

Phao. The ferry, fair lady, that conducteth to Syracusa.

Ven. I fear, if the water should begin to swell, thou wilt want cunning to guide.

Phao. These waters are commonly as the passengers are; and therefore, carrying one so fair in show, there is no cause to fear a rough sea.

Ven. To pass the time in thy boat, canst thou devise any pastime? Phao. If the wind be with me, I can angle, or tell tales: if against me, it will be pleasure for you to see me take pains. Ven. I like not fishing; yet was I born of the sea.

Phao. But he may bless fishing, that caught such an one in the

sea.

Ven. It was not with an angle, my boy, but with a net.

Phao. So, was it said, that Vulcan caught Mars with Venus.
Ven. Did'st thou hear so? it was some tale.

Phao. Yea, Madam; and that in the boat did I mean to make my tale.

Ven. It is not for a ferryman to talk of the Gods' Loves: but to tell how thy father could dig, and thy mother spin. But come, let

us away.

Phao. I am ready to wait

[Act i., Sc. 1.1]

Sapho, sleepless for love of Phao, who loves her as much, consults with him about some medicinal herb: She, a great Lady; He, the poor Ferryman, but now promoted to be her Gardener.

Sapho. What herbs have you brought, Phao?

Phao. Such as will make you sleep, Madam; though they can

not make me slumber.

Sapho. Why, how can you cure me, when you cannot remedy yourself?

Phao. Yes, madam; the causes are contrary. dryness in your brains, that keepeth you from rest.

Sapho. But what?

Phao. Nothing: but mine is not so

For it is only a

But

Sapho. Nay then, I despair of help, if our disease be not all one. Phao. I would our diseases were all one!

Sapho. It goes hard with the patient, when the physician is desperate.

Phao. Yet Medea made the ever-waking dragon to snort, when she (poor soul) could not wink.

Sapho. Medea was in love, and nothing could cause her rest but Jason.

[Lyly's Works, ed, Warwick Bond, 1902, vol. ii.]

Phao. Indeed I know no herb to make lovers sleep but Heart's Ease which, because it groweth so high I cannot reach, forSapho. For whom?

Phao. For such as love

Sapho. It stoopeth very low, and I can never stoop to it, thatPhao. That what?

Sapho. That I may gather it. But why do you sigh so, Phao? Phao. It is mine use, Madam.

Sapho. It will do you harm, and me too: for I never hear one sigh, but I must sigh also.

Phao. It were best then that your Ladyship give me leave to be gone: for I can but sigh—

Sapho. Nay, stay; for now I begin to sigh, I shall not leave, though you be gone. But what do you think best for your sighing, to take it away?

Phao. Yew, Madam.

Sapho. Me!

Phao. No, Madam; Yew of the tree.

Sapho. Then will I love Yew the better. And indeed I think it would make me sleep too; therefore, all other simples set aside, I will simply use only Yew.

Phao. Do, Madam; for I think nothing in the world so good as Yew.

Sapho. Farewell, for this time.

[Act iii., Sc. 4.]

Sapho questions her low-placed Affection.

Sapho. Into the nest of an Alcyon no bird can enter but the Alcyon and into the heart of so great a Lady can any creep a great Lord?

[Act iii., Sc. 3.]

Cupid. Sapho cured of her love by the pity of Venus.

Cupid. But what will you do for Phao?

but

Sapho. I will wish him fortunate. This will I do for Phao, because I once loved Phao: for never shall it be said, that Sapho loved to hate or that out of love she could not be as courteous, as she was in love passionate.

Phao's final resolution.

[Act v., Sc. 2.]

Phao. O Sapho, thou hast Cupid in thy arms, I in my heart; thou kissest him for sport, I must curse him for spite; yet will This shall be my I not curse him, Sapho, whom thou kissest.