'Let lungis1 lurke and drudges worke, He is but a foole that goes to schole; 'What doth't availe farr hence to saile, 'It is the best to live at rest, And tak❜t as God doth send it ; 'Nothing is worse than a full purse 'The merye man with cupp and cann 'Tza ['Tis a] beastly thinge to lie musinge For who can tell that he shall well 'We will therfore for evermore While this our life is lastinge, Ete, drinke, and sleepe, and lemans keepe, 'Tis popery to use fastinge. 1 Lungis, a word used by Ben Jonson and others, is mis-written Sungis in the MS. Lungis are stupid, clumsy people. 'In cards and dice, our comforte lies, 'With Bes and Nell we love to dwell In kissinge and in ha[w]kinge; But whope hoe, hollie, with trollye lollye! They leave the fool behind them, who stands aside and speaks to himself, while Liturgus, an honest old servant to Philogonus, relates how Misogonus had treated Eupelas. Cacurgus says, among other things: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! I must needs laughe in my slefe : The wise men of Gotum are risen againe.1 Peter Poppum doth make his master beleive That Misogonus, his sonne, hath Eupelas slayne.' When Liturgus has gone out to inquire after the health of Eupelas, Cacurgus comes forward, assuming his character of a rustic simpleton, and from what he says, we may conclude that such was the peculiarity of Will Summer, King Harry's famous jester : 'Ha, ha! now will I goe playe Will Sommer agayne, And seme as verie a gose as I was before.' The old gentleman pulls the points off his own hose to give them as a reward to Cacurgus, who calls them 'ding-dongs', and rejoices that some of them have 'golden noses'. They all go out, when Liturgus brings word that Eupelas is unhurt. The next scene is a very amusing one, and a very severe According to Hearne (Guil. Neubr., iii, 744), The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham were first published in the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. They were collected by Andrew Borde; but 'the fooles of Gotham' we have seen mentioned in Miracle-plays. satire upon the Roman Catholic priesthood. Misogonus is represented disporting himself with Melissa (meretrix), and attended by his servants Orgalus and Oenophilus. After drinking 'muscadine', the lady proposes a cast at the bones'; but, as no dice can be found, Oenophilus suggests that Sir John, the parish-priest, should be sent for, who 'has not a drop of priest's blood in him', and is sure to be well furnished with cards and dice. He thus gives his character— 'He, Sir? I am sure he is not without a dosin pare of dice. I durst jepert [hazard] he is now at cards or at tables : A bible? nay soft you, heile yet be more wise ; 'Thers no honest pastime but he puts it in ure, Not one game can come upp but he has it bith' backe. Its pittye (so god helpe me) that ever he shoulde lacke.' Oenophilus is dispatched for him, and Cacurgus joins the party, surprised at first to see Misogonus with such a fare Mayde Marion', who is 'as good as brown Bessye'. Oenophilus soon brings Sir John, whom he found 'at the ale-house'. Cacurgus snatches the pack of cards the priest brought in his pocket, in order to play at 'ruff maw or saint', while the rest of the party take the dice to play at 'Mumchaunce, or Novum come quickly'. Sir John first stakes his gown upon a trick of legerdemain at cards, and the fool wins it; but ‘the Vicar' is afterwards so successful with 'the bones', that they suspect he plays with some dise of vauntage'. His luck, however, changes; and in the midst of his play he hears the 'saunce bell goe ding dong', and the parish-clerk comes to fetch him to his church. He tells the clerk to do duty himself, by saying a Magnificat and a Nunc dimittis, and ending with the Creed, leaving out the Psalms and the Paternoster. Sir John is, however, inclined to go himself when he hears that Susan Sweetlips is waiting for him; but Cacurgus swears 'by tetragrammaton and the black santus' he will knock out his brains if he stirs. After some farther gambling they begin dancing 'country dances', and 'the Vicar of St. Fools', 'the shaking of the sheets', and 'catching of quails' are mentioned as three popular tunes. While they are thus engaged, Cacurgus, to make mischief, steals out and brings in Philogonus, Eupelas, and Liturgus to be spectators. An abusing match on all sides follows, Liturgus declaring 'there's no mischiefe, as they say commonly, but a priest at one end'. Misogonus and his companions go out at last, leaving Philogonus, Eupelas, and Liturgus on the stage: the two last endeavour in vain to console the unhappy father, and after they have made their exit, he delivers a 'doleful ditty to the noted tune of Labandoloschote', of which the following is one stanza "Yf Phoebus forst was to lament When Phaeton fell from the element; When all his sonnes were slayne in Troy, But me full oft doth worke great woo.' The third act commences with a new character, Custer Codrus, a country tenant to Philogonus, who complains of having lost a sow, and who comes to town with a couple of capons, as a Christmas present to his landlord. Cacurgus cheats him of his capons, and substitutes two old hens for them; but undertakes to bring him to speak with Philogonus on the promise of a fine thing that cam from London1 for his paine'. Codrus finds his old landlord in great grief at the misconduct of him whom he imagines to be his only son: Codrus gives Philogonus information that his late wife had produced twins, and that, in fact, he had another son alive: he promises to bring his wife Alison, who was present at the birth, to prove the fact, and Philogonus overjoyed exclaims'Ther never was poore mariner amids the surginge seas, Catchinge a glimeringe of a port wherunto he would saile, So much distract twixt hope of health and feare his life to lease, As I even nowe with hope do hang, and eke with feare doe faile.' Alison is now brought forward: she is a Roman Catholic, and talks of her bead-roll and of saying a De profundis, which induces Codrus to remind her that their 'master is of the new learning', that is to say, of the reformed religion. A long scene follows, in which Philogonus hears it confirmed by Alison that his wife had produced twins, and by the advice of 'a certain learned man', had sent one of them secretly away into Apolonia, to be brought up by an uncle and aunt. Cacurgus informs Misogonus what has transpired: Misogonus hopes it is 'but a tale of a tub', but, being informed that Liturgus had been sent into Apolonia for his elder brother, he threatens to 'colefeke' him for it. He calls upon Cacurgus to advise and 1 Farther on in the piece an allusion is made to the Weathercock of St. Paul's, which was almost a novelty at the time this play was written, as, according to Stow, it was put up on the 3rd of November 1553: Cacurgus, speaking of Codrus, says, 'that old dyzarde had no more witt then the wethercocke of Poles'. This also is decisive that the piece was written before 1561, in which year the spire of St. Paul's was burnt, and, of course, the weathercock. See Stow's Chronicle, 1095. 2 The only other instance of the use of this word that we are aware of is in Richard Edwards's Damon and Pythias, which was written and played a few years after this piece: Stephano there tells Jack, 'Away, Jackenapes, els I wyll colpheg you by and by.' Steevens reasonably conjectured that it was a corruption of colaphize, box or buffet-colfez. |