Pard. And what helpeth skyll, where is no wil ?108 Pot. For wyll or skyll what helpeth it, Where frowarde knaves be lackynge wit ?109 Leve off thys curiositie; And who that lyste, synge after me. [Here they synge. But when I harde hym so farre wyde, With muche more profyt then this pretence. I wys this is nat very great coste, Pot. By God! men say so now and then. Ped. And I thought ye wolde nat have myst, To make them lyve as longe as ye lyste. Pot. As longe as we lyste? nay, as longe as Ped. So myght we lyve without you than. For, when ye fele your conscyens redy, I am content; you, and no mo Shal be our judge, as in thys case, Whiche of us thre shall take the best place. Ped. I neyther wyll judge the beste nor worste; To worke for soule helthe, ye be well met; That soules towarde heven by you doe growe. To contynue togyther all thre; Who shulde goo pylgrymage 118 more then he can! May clerely dyscharde hym, parde. And for all other syns ones had contryssyon, May sende hym to heven by and by. Pot. Yf he taste this boxe nye aboute the pryme, For yf we thre may be as one, For bothe you twayne shall wayt on me. Pard. What chaunce is this, that suche an elf Commaund two knaves beside himself? Nay, nay, my frende, that wyll nat be; I am to good to wayt on the. Palm. By our Lady, and I wolde be loth To wayt on the better of you both! 122 Ped. Yet, be ye sewer, for all thys dout, This waytynge must be brought about. Men cannat prosper wylfully ledde; All things decay where is no hedde. Wherfore, doubtlesse, marke what I say, To one of you thre twayne must obey. And, synes ye cannat agree in voyce, Who shall be hed, there is no choyce, But to devyse some maner of thynge, Wherin ye all be lyke connynge: And in the same who can do bestc, The other twayne to make them preste, In every thynge of hys entente, Holy to be at commaundement. And now have I founde one mastry, That ye can do indyfferently; 123 And is nother sellynge nor byenge, 124 And though, afore, ye harde me grudge Where my consciens fyndeth the mastrye, Yet am I loth for to goo to it. And you in lyeng be well spedde, [Here the Poticary hoppeth: Palm. Here were a hopper to hop for the rynge! But, syr, 128 this gere goth nat by hoppynge. Pot. Syr, in this hoppynge I wyll hop so well, That my tonge shall hop better 129 then my hele: Upon whiche hoppynge, I hope and not doute it, To hop 130 so that ye shall hop 131 without it. Palm. Syr, I wyll neyther boste ne brawll, And sure I thynke that quietnesse In any manner of company, To rule or be ruled 132 indifferently. Pard. By that bost thou semest a begger indede; What can thy quietnesse helpe us at nede? Yf we shulde starve, thou hast nat, I thynke, One peny to bye us one potte of drynke. Nay, yf richesse myghte rule the roste, Beholde what cause I have to boste: Lo, here be 133 pardons halfe a dosyn, For gostely ryches they have no cosyn; And moreover to me they brynge Sufficient succour for my lyvynge. And here be 134 relykes of suche a kynde, As in this worlde no man can 135 fynde. Ped. Ye have no 125 cause to fear: Be bolde; 126 Knele down all thre, and when ye leve kyssynge, For ye may here 127 lie uncontrolde. And ye in this have good avauntage, For lyeng is your comen usage. Who lyst to offer shall have my blyssynge. Frendes, here shall ye se evyn anone, Of All-hallowes, the blessyd jaw-bone," 136 ん 121 For bothe, &c.-First edition reads, "For bothe you twayne shall wayt on me. 122 Things decay-thynge decayed, 1st edit. 123 Holy-Holly, 1st edit. 124 One mastry-i. e. one magisterium; a chemical term, expressive of the highest powers of transmu tation, and sometimes used for any masterly performance. S. 125 No-pot, 1st edit. 126 Be bolde-beholde, edit. 1569. 127 May here-may here, 1st edit.; may lie, edit. 1569. 128 Syr-sirs, edit. 1569. 130 Hop-hope, 1st edit. 132 Be ruled-to be rulde, edit. 1569. 134 Be-are, edit. 1569. 129 Better-as well as, 1st edit. 131 Hop-hope, 1st edit. 133 Here be here are, edit. 1569. 135 Can-may, edit. 1569. 136 All-hallowes, the blessyd jaw-bone-All- hallowes is All-saints. Mr Steevens, in his Note on The First Part of King Henry IV. A. 1. S. 2. remarks on the absurdity of appropriating a word formed to express a community of saints to a particular one of the number, Kysse it hardely with good devocion. cyon. Fogh, by Saynt Savyour I never kyst a wars; Palm. Ye judge All-hallowes breth unknowen; Yf any breth stynke, it is your owne. Pot. I knowe myne owne breth from All-hal- Or els it were tyme to kisse the galows. 37 He shall never be vext with the tooth ake. 140 142 Pot. By Chryste, and yet for all your boste, For all the savours that may come heer Pard. Small! mary me thynketh he hath none at all. Pot. What the devyll care I what ye thinke? Shall I prayse relykes when they styoke? Pard. Here is an eye-toth of the great Turke: Whose eyes be ones sette on thys pece of worke May happely lese part of his eye-syght, But nat all tyll he be blynde outryght. Pot. What so ever any man seeth, I have no devocion unto 144 Turkes teeth: Palm. Syr, I will kysse them with all my herte. 146 147 glas, Which on the drynke at the weddynge was Of Adam and Eve undoubtedly: If ye honour this relyke devoutly, Although ye thurste no whyt the lesse, Yet shall ye drynke the more, doubtlesse. After whiche drynkynge ye shal be as mete To stande on your hede as on your fete. Pot. Ye mary, now I con you thanke; In presens of thys the rest be blanke. Wolde God this relyke had come rather; Kysse that relyke well, good father. Suche is the payne that ye Palmers take, To kisse the pardon bowle for the drynke sake. O holy yeste, that loketh full sowr and stale, For Goddes body, helpe me to a cuppe of ale. The more I beholde 148 thee, the more I thurste: The oftener I kysse the, the more lyke to burste. But sins I kysse the so devoutely, Hyre me and helpe me with drynke tyll I dye. What, so muche prayeing and so lytell spede? Pard. Ye, for God knoweth when it is nede To sende folkes drynke; but by Saynt Antony, 137 He shall never be vext with the tooth ake-He shall be rid of the tooth ake, 1st edit. 138 Either-Other, 1st edit. 140 Frendes-freend, edit. 1569. 139 Asmuche-muche, 1st edit. 141 Here-this, edit. 1569. 142 One of the seven slepers be sure-These seven sleepers are said to have lived at Ephesus in the time of the Emperor Decian. Being commanded to sacrifice according to the Pagan manner, they fled to a cave in Mount Celyon, where they fell asleep, and continued in that state 372 years, as is asserted by some, though, according to others, only 203 years. They awoke in the reign of the Emperor Theodosian, who, being informed of this extraordinary event, came from Constantinople to see them, and to satisfy himself of the truth of the relation. Having communicated to him the several circumstances of their case, they all, as the Legenda Aurea expresses it, “enclyned theyr hedes to th`erth, and rendred their spyrites at the commau dement of our Lorde Jesu Cryst, and soo deyed." See Legenda Aurea, 196. 143 These-thys, 1st edit. 145 Yett, edit. 1569. 144 To, ist edit. 146 Can, Ist edit. 147 Con you thanke-See Note 34 to Gammer Gurton's Needle, in Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. II. p. 28. 148 Beholde-see, edit. 1569. 1 15 HEYWOOD.] THE FOUR P's. I wene he hath sent you to much alredy. T 149 Then all thy relykes, that do no myrakell. Here is a medecyn no mo lyke the same, 156 A goodly thynge for dogges that be If thou haddest prayed but halfe so muche to me, But worketh universally; As I have prayed to thy relykes and the, 150 But streyght shulde have wrought one's operation. So here lyeth muche rychesse in a lytell space. To the beste frende I have in England's grounde, Ped. Then is that medycyn a soverayn thinge Pot. If ye wyll taste but thys crome that ye see, A speciall oyntmente, as doctours discuse, 152 Thys oyntment is even shot anker: 153 For this medecyr helpeth one and other, Or bringeth them in case that they nede no other. A lytell thynge is enough of this; These be's the thynges that breke all stryfe Betwene manne's syckness and his lyfe. mangy: For it doth me as muche good when I sell it, And redy to worke when so ever they shall, 157 me, I besech your mast'ship be good to Pot. Nowe yf I wyst thys wysh no synne, Pot. Yf we both lye, and ye say true, 163 To prayse you for an honest man, 149 Tryacle-theriaca, a remedy against poison. Blount. 151 So-Addition. 152 Thys ointment is even shot anker-I should suppose we ought to read sheet anchor. The sheet anchor is the largest belonging to a ship, and is the last refuge of mariners; for, when that fails to take hold of the ground, the vessel is left at the mercy of the storm. The sheet anchor was called by the ancients, 154 Sall-Will, edit. 1569. 156 Be-are, edit. 169. 153 Now-and, 1st edit. 160 Your mashyp―i. e. your mastership. S. 162 Or-ere, edit. 1569. 164 Your-our, 1st edit. 8 Palm. Ye mary, for I wolde ye knewe, I thynke my selfe an honest man. Pot. What thought ye in the contrary than? I thynke from trouth I dyd nat vary. Pot. And so thought I, by God that dyed. For ye perceyve these knaves cannat lye. Ped. Therfore I have devysed one waye Pot. If ye be set on mervaylinge, L dyd a cure no longer ago, I shewed muche practyse muche to my payne; Could 172 + I thrust a than.pyon in her tewell, But I knew there 174* it was to heevy to cary, For where gonpouder is ones fyerd, Even at a clap losed her buinberd.175 165 None-one, edit. 1569. 166 Ye-your, 1st edit. And that we both my lye so witnes, 168 Neyther-nother, 1st edit. 169 Unlikest-unfyke, 1st edit. 174 I thrust a thampyon in her tewel-The allusion is to gunnery. Thampion (tampon, Fr. a bang, cork, or plug of wood) is now written tompion, and signifies the stopper with which the mouths of cannon are closed up, to prevent the admission of rain, or sea-water, whereby their charges might be rendered incapable of service.-A tewel (tuyau or tuyal, Fr.) is a pipe; and is here used (for the sake of continuing the metaphor) for bore or caliber. Moxon, in his Mechanic Exercises, defines the tewel to be that pipe in a smith's forge into which the nose of the bellows is introduced; and in a MS. fragment, said to be written by Sir Francis Drake, concerning the stores of one of the ships under his command, the word tewel is applied to a gun. S. In Lambarde's Dictionarium Topographicum et Historicum, p. 129. it is said, " It happened in the reigne of Quene Marye, that the master of a shippe passinge by while the court lay theare, and meaning (as the manner is) with sayle and shot to honour the place, unadvisedly gave fire to a piece charged with a stone instede of a tampion, which, lightinge on the quene's house, ranne through a chamber, and did no further barme." 174 There-Addition in the 2d edit. 175 Bumberd-A piece of ordnance. S. |