With that above the world's wealth, joyful suf fering, And truly be the master of thyself, Which is the noblest empire; and there stand Song: after which, enter TIME and PLUTUS. [Exit with SIMPLICITY and HUMILITY. Never stood'st still by me. Time. I have brought thee succour; And now catch hold, I am thine. The god of riches, Compell'd by him that saw thy miseries, thee. [Exit. Anth. Have I found pity, then? [They carry ANTHROPOS to a rock, and fall What seest thou now? Anth. A glorious mine of metal. Oh, Jupiter, my thanks! Plutus. To me a little. Anth. And to the god of wealth, my sacrifice! heed, now, son, Take You are afloat again, lest Mundus catch you. Anth. Never betray me more! Plutus. I must to India, From whence I came, where my main wealth lies buried, Take that hook1 and And these must with me. Anth. I shall do. [Exeunt PLUTUS, INDUSTRY, LABour, &c. Enter FAME, sounding. Fame. Thorough all the world the fortune of great Anthropos Be known, and wonder'd at; his riches envied Enter VAIN-DELIGHT, PLEASURE, CRAFT, LUCRE Merc. Take heed, weak man! those are the Trust 'em no more; kneel and give thanks to Anth. Oh, mighty power! Jup. Unmask, ye gilded poisons! That never more thou shalt feel want, — strike, ever Be't done, I say! Now sing in honour of him. "Mr. Sympson The gods are merciful, and lend their hands. 1 hook, &c.] Old eds. "book," &c. would read hook and mattock,' as the two emblems of industry; but knowledge and virtue being as necessary to Anthropos as industry, I understand book as an emblem of them." SEWARD,-whose successors, satisfied with this note, also retained the misprint of the old eds. Knowledge and virtue, however necessary they might be to Anthropos, were certainly not the gifts of Plutus: what had he to do with books? [Flourish. Exeunt. Enter the Triumph, &c.] This stage-direction of the old EPILOGUE. Now, as the husbandman, whose costs and pain, | The harvest of our labours; for we know You are our spring, and when you smile, we grow: Nor charge nor pain shall bind us from your pleasures, So you but lend your hands to fill our measures. 1 charge] Weber prints "change"! THE SCORNFUL LADY. The Scornful Ladie. A Comedie. As it was Acted (with great Blacke Fryers. Written by Fra. Beaumont and Jo. Fletcher, Gent. his Shop at the George neere St. Dunstons Church in Fleet-streete. applause) by the Children of Her Maiesties Reuels in the London Printed for Myles Partrich, and are to be sold at 1616. 4to. The Scarnefel Ladie. A Comedie. As it was now lately Acted (with great applause) by the Kings Maiesties seruants, at the Blacke Fryers. Written by Fra. Beaumont, and Jo. Fletcher, Gentlemen. London, Printed for M. P. and are to be sold by Thomas Jones, at the blacke Rauen, in the Strand. 1625. 4to. The Scornefell Ladie. A Comedie. As it was now lately Acted (with great applause) by the Kings Majesties Servants, at the Blacke-Fryers. Written by Fran: Beaumont and Io: Fletcher, Gentlemen. The third Edition. London. Printed by B. A. and T. F. for T. Jones, and are to be sold at his Shop in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-street. 1630. 4to. The Scornfell Ladie. A Comedy. As it was now lately Acted (with great applause) by the Kings Majesties Servants, at the Blacke-Fryers. The Scornfell Lady. A Comedy, &c. The fift Edition. London, Printed by M. P. for Robert Wilson, and are to be sald at his shop in Holborne at Grayes-Inne Gate. 1639. 4to. The Scornfull Lady. A Comedy, &c. The sixt Edition, Corrected and amended. London, Printed for Humphrey Mosc ley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls Church-yard. 1651. 4to. Also in the folio of 1679. WITH respect to the date of this comedy, we can only determine that it was produced sometime between 1609, when "the Cleve wars "1 broke out, and 1615-16 when Beaumont died. In attributing to Beaumont by far the greater portion of The Scornful Lady, Weber, I apprehend, judged rightly. The sudden conversion of the usurer Morecraft is imitated from the Adelphi of Terence, where the same change takes place in the character of Demea. The Captain is a very indifferent copy of Shakespeare's Pistol. Till the suppression of the theatres, The Scornful Lady continued to be one of the most popular of our authors' dramas; and a droll taken from it, and called The False Heire and Formal Curate, may be found in The Wits, or Sport upon Sport (see p. 158 of the present work). After the Restoration, it again became a stock-play: and Langbaine mentions its being "acted with good Applause even in these times, at the Theatre in Dorset-Garden." Acc. of Engl. Dram. Ports, p. 214. The Editors of 1778 observe that it has not "been performed in the course of many years past; though, in the lifetime of Mrs. Oldfield, who acted the Lady, it used to be frequently represented." An alteration of it, made by Cooke the barrister for Mrs. Abington, was brought out with great success at Covent Garden Theatre, in 1783, under the title of The Capricious Lady. In the edition of 1750, Theobald has a note (act i. sc. 2) concerning the steward Savil, where he says; "The ingenious Mr. Addison, I remember, told me, that he sketched out his character of Vellum, in the comedy called The Drummer, purely from this model." 1 "There will be no more talk of the Cleve wars, ACT I. SCENE I.-A Room in the Lady's House. Enter ELDER LOVELESS, YOUNG LOVELESS, SAVIL, and a Page. E. Love. Brother, is your last hope past, to mollify Morecraft's heart about your mortgage? Y. Love. Hopelessly past. I have presented the usurer with a richer draught than ever Cleopatra swallowed; he hath sucked in ten thousand pounds worth of my land more than he paid for, at a gulp, without trumpets.' E. Love. I have as hard a task to perform in this house. Y. Love. Faith, mine was to make an usurer honest, or to lose my land. E. Love. And mine is to persuade a passionate woman, or to leave the land. Make the boat stay. [Exit Page.] - I fear I shall begin my unfortunate journey this night, though the darkness of the night, and the roughness of the waters, might easily dissuade an unwilling man. Sav. Sir, your father's old friends hold it the sounder course for your body and estate, to stay at home, and marry and propagate, and govern in your country, than to travel for diseases, and return following the court in a night-cap, and die without issue. E. Love. Savil, you shall gain the opinion of a better servant, in seeking to execute, not alter, my will, howsoever my intents succeed. Y. Love. Yonder's Mistress Younglove, brother, the grave rubber of your mistress' toes. Enter ABIGAIL. E. Love. Mistress Younglove Abig. Master Loveless, truly we thought your sails had been hoist: my mistress is persuaded you are sea-sick ere this. 1 without trumpets] i. e. without a flourish of trumpets. "The allusion," says Theobald rightly, in the earlier part of his note on this passage, "is to the drinking of healths at our public halls and city entertainments." 2 E. Love. And mine is to persuade a passionate woman, or to leave the land. Make the boat stay, [Exit Page. I fear, &c.] So folio 1679, except that it does not mark the exit of the Page. The first 4to. gives the speech thus ; "El. Lo. And mine is to persuade a passionate woman, or to leaue the Land. Sauill make the boate stay, I feare," &c. The second 4to. follows the first, except that it places a full point after "Sauill," making that word a prefix. The third and all the later 4tos. read thus; "El. Lo. And mine is to perswade a passionate woman, or to leave the Land. Yo. Lo. Make the boate stay, I feare," &c. Theobald followed the reading of folio 1679. The Editors of 1778 gave; "El. Lo. And mine is to persuade a passionate woman, or to leave the land. Yo. Lo. Make the boat stay. El. Lo. I fear," &c. explaining the words, "Make the boat stay," to mean figurativelybe not hasty, postpone your departure! Weber adopted the reading of the first 4to. your] The 4to. of 1651 reads " your own;" but that edition takes great liberties with the text, and is of no authority. Folio 1679 "our." 4 for diseases, and return following the court in a nighttap So the two earliest 4tos. In the second 4to., these words occupy a line, which, having been left out in the third 4to. by an oversight of the compositor, was not restored in any of the subsequent old eds. The modern editors also omit these words! E. Love. Loves she her ill-taken-up resolution so dearly? Didst thou move her for me? Abig. By this light that shines, there's no removing her, if she get a stiff opinion by the end. I attempted her to-day, when, they say, a woman can deny nothing. E. Love. What critical minute was that? Abig. When her smock was over her ears; but she was no more pliant than if it hung about her heels. E. Love. I prithee, deliver my service, and say, I desire to see the dear cause of my banishment; and then for France. Abig. I'll do't. Hark hither; is that your brother? E. Love. Yes have you lost your memory? Abig. As I live, he's a pretty fellow. [Exit. Y. Love. Oh, this is a sweet brach! 7 E. Love. Why, she knows not you. Y. Love. No, but she offered me once to know her. To this day she loves youth of eighteen. She heard a tale how Cupid struck her in love with a great lord in the Tilt-yard, but he never saw her; yet she, in kindness, would needs wear a willow-garland at his wedding. She loved all the players in the last queen's time once over; she was struck when they acted lovers, and forsook some when they played murderers. She has nine spur-royals, and the servants say she hoards old gold; and she herself pronounces angerly, that the farmer's eldest son (or her mistress' husband's clerk that 10 shall be) that marries her, shall make her a jointure of fourscore pounds a-year. She tells tales of the serving men - E. Love. Enough; I know her, brother. I shall entreat you only to salute my mistress, and take leave: we'll part at the stairs. Enter Lady and ABIGAIL. Lady. Now, sir, this first part of your will is performed: what's the rest? E. Love. First, let me beg your notice for this gentleman, my brother: I shall take it as a favour done to me.19 Lady. Though the gentleman hath received but an untimely grace from you, yet my charitable disposition would have been ready to have done him freer courtesies as a stranger, than upon those cold commendations. Y. Love. Lady, my salutations crave acquaintance and leave at once. 5 for] So the two earliest 4tos. Other eds. " from ;" and so the modern editors. about] The Editors of 1778 and Weber print "above"! brach] "Is," according to an often cited passage of The Gentleman's Recreation, "a mannerly name for all hound-bitches." 8 heard] Qy. "had"? 9 spur-royals] - Or, as Theobald and Weber print, "spurryals," -were gold coins, worth 15s. each, and so called because they had a star on the reverse, resembling the rowel of a spur. 10 that] So the two earliest 4tos. Omitted in other eds. ; and by the modern editors, Weber excepted. 11 Enough: I know her, brother. I shall, &c.] The modern editors alter the punctuation thus; "Enough, I know Brother, I shall," &c. her. 12 I shall take it as a facour done to me] The old eds. make these words the commencement of the next speech; and so the modern editors. THE SCORNFUL LADY. Lady. Sir, I hope you are the master of your own occasions. [Exeunt YOUNG LOVELESS and SAVIL. E. Love. Would I were so! Mistress, for me to praise over again that worth, which all the world and you yourself can see Lady. It's a cold room this, servant.' Lady. What think you if I have a chimney for't, out here? E. Love. Mistress, another in my place, that were not tied to believe all your actions just, would apprehend himself wronged; but I, whose virtues are constancy and obedience Lady. Younglove, make a good fire above, to warm me after my servant's exordiums. E. Love. I have heard and seen your affability to be such, that the servants you give wages to may speak. Lady. "Tis true, 'tis true; but they speak to the purpose. E. Love. Mistress, your will leads my speeches from the purpose. But as a man Lady. A simile, servant! built for honest meaners, that deliver themselves This room was hastily and plainly, and are gone. Is this a time or place for exordiums, and similes, and metaphors? If you have aught to say, break into't my answers shall very reasonably meet you. E. Love. Mistress, I came to see you. E. Love. Yes. Lady. You need not have despaired of that, nor have used so many circumstances to win me to give you leave to perform my command. Is there a third? E. Love. Yes; I had a third, had you been apt to hear it. Lady. I never apter. Fast, good servant, fast. E. Love. 'Twas to entreat you to hear reason. Lady. Most willingly have you brought one can speak it? E. Love. Lastly, it is to kindle in that barren heart love and forgiveness. Lady. You would stay at home? Lady. Why, you may, and doubtlessly will, when you have debated that your commander is but your mistress, a woman, a weak one, wildly overborne with passions; but the thing by her commanded is, to see Dover's dreadful cliff; passing, in a poor water-house, the dangers of the merciless channel 'twixt that and Calais, five long hours' sail, with three poor weeks' victuals. E. Love. You wrong me. Lady. Then to land dumb, unable to enquire for an English host, to remove from city to city by most chargeable post-horse, like one that rode in quest of his mother-tongue. E. Love. You wrong me much. Lady. And all these (almost invincible) labours performed for your mistress, to be in danger to forsake her, and to put on new allegiance 1 servant] See note, p. 162 [ACT 1. to some French lady, who is content to change E. Love. You wrong me much. E. Love. You know your least word is of force to make me seek out dangers; move me take leave to say you are unjust. not with toys. But in this banishment, I must forced from you in public by me so unpardonWas one kiss able? why, all the hours of day and night have seen us kiss. company that heard me chide. Lady. 'Tis true, and so you satisfied the E. Love. Your own eyes were not dearer to you than I. Lady. And so you told 'em. to have stained your cheek: you yourself knew E. Love. I did; yet no sign of disgrace need your pure and simple heart to be most unspotted, and free from the least baseness. Lady. I did; but if a maid's heart doth but once think that she is suspected, her own face will write her guilty. world, that knew us, knew our resolutions well: E. Love. But where lay this disgrace? The and could it be hoped that I should give away my freedom, and venture a perpetual bondage with one I never kissed? or could I, in strict wisdom, take too much love upon me from her that chose me for her husband? Lady. Believe me, if my wedding-smock were Were the gloves bought and given, the licence on; come; 6 5 The hippocras and cakes eat and drunk off;7 Of bachelors, to lead me to the church; I would not wed that year. And you, I hope, Than such a friend. More talk I hold not now: 2 with you for laughter] So the two earliest 4tos. Other eds." with your laughter;" and so the modern editors, Weber excepted. 3 toys] i. e. trifles. modern editors, Weber excepted. 5 rosemary-branches] See note, p. 301. hippocras] Was a favourite medicated drink, composed of wine (usually red), with spices and sugar. It is gener ally supposed to have been so called from Hippocrates (contracted by our earliest writers to Hippocras); perhaps because it was strained, the woollen bag used by apothecaries to strain syrups and decoctions for clarification being termed Hippocrates's sleeve. 7 drunk of Altered to "drank of "by the Editors of 1778 and Weber! 8 If you dare, go] The Editors of 1778 and Weber print these words as an imperfect sentence, "If you dare go-" |