Rob. I was going, Sir, To buy meat for a poor bird I have, That sits so sadly in the cage of late, I think he'll die for sorrow. Step. So, Sir: Your pity will not quit your pains, I fear me. I shall find that bird (I think) to be that churlish wretch Shelter here in Ludgate. Go to, Sir; urge me not, Rob. 'Las, Sir; that lamb Were most unnatural that should hate the dam. Step. Lamb me no lambs, Sir. Rob. Good uncle, 'las, you know, when you lay here, I succor'd you: so let me now help him. Step. Yes, as he did me; To laugh and triumph at my misery. You freed me with his gold, but 'gainst his will: For him I might have rotted, and lain still. So shall he now. Rob. Alack the day! Step. If him thou pity, 'tis thine own decay. Fos. Bread, bread, some charitable man remember the poor Prisoners, bread for the tender mercy, one penny. Rob. O listen, uncle, that's my poor father's voice. Step. There let him howl. Get you gone, and come not near him. Rob. Oh my soul, What tortures dost thou feel! earth ne'er shall find A son so true, yet forc'd to be unkind. Robert disobeys his Uncle's Injunctions, and again visits his Father. FOSTER. WIFE. ROBERT. Fos. Ha! what art thou? Call for the keeper there, And thrust him out of doors, or lock me up. Wife. O 'tis your son. Fos. I know him not. I am no king, unless of scorn and wo, Why kneel'st thou then, why dost thou mock me so ? Not like a threatening storm to increase your wrack, To lay them all on my own. Fos. Rise, mischief, rise; away, and get thee gone. Rob. O if I be thus hateful to your eye, I will depart, and wish I soon may die; Yet let your blessing, Sir, but fall on me. Fos. My heart still hates thee. Wife. Sweet husband. Fos. Get you both gone; That misery takes some rest that dwells alone. Rob. Heaven can tell; Ake but your finger, I to make it well Would cut my hand off. Fos. Hang thee, hang thee. Wife. Husband. Fos. Destruction meet thee. Turn the key there, ho. Rob. Good Sir, I'm gone, I will not stay to grieve you. Oh, knew you, for your woes what pains I feel, You would not scorn me so. See, Sir, to cool, Whilst thus you live in moan. Fos. Stay. Rob. Good truth, Sir, I'll have none of it back, Could but one penny of it save my life. Wife. Yet stay, and hear him: Oh unnatural strife Fos. I see mine error now: Oh, can there grow And lead a father's love out of the way: Thou bring'st this golden rubbish; which I spurn:. Rob. Gladness o'erwhelms My heart with joy: I cannot speak. Did never grieve my heart with torments more With joy and comfort of this happy sight. [The old play-writers are distinguished by an honest boldness of exhibi. tion, they show everything without being ashamed. If a reverse in fortune be the thing to be personified, they fairly bring us to the prison-gate and the almsbasket. A poor man on our stage is always a gentleman, he may be known by a peculiar neatness of apparel, and by wearing black. Our delicacy, in fact, forbids the dramatizing of Distress at all. It is never shown in its essential properties ;* it appears but as the adjunct to some virtue, as some * Guzman de Alfarache in that good old book, "The Spanish Rogue," has summed up a few of the properties of poverty-" that poverty, which is not the daughter of the spirit, is but the mother of shame and reproach; it is a disreputation that drowns all the other good parts that are in man; it is a disposition to all kind of evil; it is man's most foe; it is a leprosy full of anguish; it is a way that leads unto hell; it is a sea wherein our patience is overwhelmed, our honor is consumed, our lives are ended, and our souls are utterly lost and cast away for ever. The poor man is a kind of money that is not current; the subject of every idle huswife's chat; the offscum of the people; the dust of the street, first trampled under foot and then thrown on the dunghill; in conclusion, the poor man is the rich man's ass. He dineth with the last, fareth of the worst, and payeth dearest: his sixpence will not go so far as a rich man's threepence; his opinion is ignorance; his discretion, foolishness; his suffrage, scorn; his stock upon the common, abused by many and abhorred of all. If he come in company, he is not heard; if any chance to meet him, they seek to shun him; if he advise, though never so wisely, they grudge and murmur at him; if he work miracles, they say he is a witch: if virtuous, that he goeth about to deceive; his venial sin is a blasphemy; his thought is made treason; his cause, be it thing which is to be relieved, from the approbation of which relief the spectators are to derive a certain soothing of self-referred satisfaction. We turn away from the real fessences of things to hunt after their relative shadows, moral duties: whereas if the truth of things were fairly represented, the relative duties might be safely trusted to themselves, and moral philosophy lose the name of a science.] WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN; A TRAGEDY. BY THOMAS MIDDLETON. Livia, the Duke's creature, cajoles a poor Widow with the appearance of Hospitality and neighborly Attentions, that she may get her Daughterin-Law (who is left in the Mother's care in the Son's absence) into her trains, to serve the Duke's pleasure. LIVIA. WIDOW. A Gentleman, Livia's Guest. Liv. Widow, come, come, I have a great quarrel to you, And yet so near a neighbor, and so unkind; Troth, you're to blame; you cannot be more welcome Wid. My thanks must needs acknowledge so much, madam. Which I so well affect as that of yours. I know you 're alone too; why should not we never so just, it is not regarded; and, to have his wrongs righted, he must appeal to that other life. All men crush him; no man favoreth him; there is no man that will relieve his wants; no man that will comfort him in his miseries; nor no man that will bear him company, when he is all alone, and oppressed with grief. None help him; all hinder him; none give him, all take from him; he is debtor to none, and yet must make payment to all. O the unfortunate and poor condition of him that is poor, to whom even the very hours are sold, which the clock striketh, and pays custom for the sunshine in August." Of one another, having tongue-discourse, Wid. Age, madam! you speak mirth: 'tis at my door, Liv. My faith, I'm nine and thirty, every stroke, wench; And 'tis a general observation 'Mongst knights; wives, or widows, we account ourselves Then old, when young men's eyes leave looking at us. Come, now I have thy company, I'll not part with it Till after supper. Wid. Yes, I must crave pardon, madam. Liv. I swear you shall stay supper; we have no strangers, woman, None but my sojourners and I, this gentleman And the young heir his ward; you know your company. Wid. Some other time I will make bold with you, Do you think I'll be forsworn? Wid. 'Tis a great while madam. Till supper time; I'll take my leave then now, madam, Will have it so. Liv. In the evening! by my troth, wench, I'll keep you while I have you; you've great business sure, To sit alone at home; I wonder strangely What pleasure you take in 't. Were 't to me now, Or other all day long; having no charge, Or none to chide you, if you go, or stay, Who may live merrier, aye, or more at heart's ease? Come, we'll to chess or draughts, there are a hundred tricks To drive out time till supper, never fear 't, wench. [A Chess-board is set. Wid. I'll but make one step home, and return straight, madam. Liv. Come, I'll not trust you, you make more excuses To your kind friends than ever I knew any. What business can you have, if you be sure |