A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX | Page 8

out of my book.
AMIN. Quae caceris chartis deseruisse decet. Torn from your book! I'll tear it from your breech. How say you, Mistress Virga, will you suffer _Hic puer bonae[11] indolis_ to tear His lessons, leaves, and lectures from his book?
1ST BOY. Truly, forsooth, I laid it in my seat, While Robin Glade and I went into _campis_; And when I came again, my book was torn.
AMIN. _O mus_, a mouse; was ever heard the like?
1ST BOY. _O domus_, a house; master, I could not mend it.
2D BOY. _O pediculus_, a louse; I knew not how it came.
AMIN. All toward boys, good scholars of their times; The least of these is past his accidence, Some at _qui mihi_; here's not a boy But he can construe all the grammar rules. _Sed ubi sunt sodales_? not yet come? Those _tard�� venientes_ shall be whipp'd. Ubi est Pipkin? where's that lazy knave? He plays the truant every Saturday; But Mistress Virga, Lady Willow-by,[12] Shall teach him that _diluculo surgere Est saluberrimum_: here comes the knave.
Enter PIPKIN.
1ST BOY. _Tard��, tard��, tard��_.
2D. BOY. _Tard��, tard��, tard��_.
AMIN. _Huc ades_, Pipkin--reach a better rod-- _Cur tam tard�� venis_? speak, where have you been? Is this a time of day to come to school? _Ubi fuisti_? speak, where hast thou been?
PIP. _Magister, quomodo vales_?
AMIN. Is that responsio fitting my demand?
PIP. _Etiam cert��_, you ask me where I have been, and I say _quomodo vales_, as much as to say, come out of the alehouse.
AMIN. Untruss, untruss! nay, help him, help him!
PIP. _Quaeso, preceptor, quaeso_, for God's sake do not whip me: _Quid est grammatica_?
AMIN. Not whip you, _quid est grammatica_, what's that?
PIP. _Grammatica est_, that, if I untruss'd, you must needs whip me upon them, quid est grammatica.
AMIN. Why, then, _dic mihi_, speak, where hast thou been?
PIP. Forsooth, my mistress sent me of an errand to fetch my master from the Exchange; we had strangers at home at dinner, and, but for them, I had not come _tard��; quaeso, preceptor_!
AMIN. Construe your lesson, parse it, ad unguem et condemnato to, I'll pardon thee.
PIP. That I will, master, an' if you'll give me leave.
AMIN. _Propria quae maribus tribuuntur mascula, dicas; expone, expone_.
PIP. Construe it, master, I will; _dicas_, they say--_propria_, the proper man--_quae maribus_, that loves marrow-bones--_mascula_, miscalled me.
AMIN. A pretty, quaint, and new construction.
PIP. I warrant you, master, if there be marrow-bones in my lesson, I am an old dog at them. How construe you this, master, _rostra disertus amat_?
AMIN. _Disertus_, a desert--_amat_, doth love--_rostra_, roast-meat.
PIP. A good construction on an empty stomach. Master, now I have construed my lesson, my mistress would pray you to let me come home to go of an errand.
AMIN. Your _tres sequuntur_, and away.
PIP. Canis a hog, rana a dog, porcus a frog, Abeundum est mihi. [Exit.
AMIN. Yours, sirrah, too, and then ad prandium.
1ST BOY. Apis a bed, genu a knee, _Vulcanus_, Doctor Dee: Viginti minus usus est mihi.
AMIN. By _Juno's_ lip and _Saturn's_ thumb It was _bonus, bona, bonum_.
2D BOY. Vitrum glass, spica grass, _tu es asinus_, you are an ass. Precor tibi felicem noctem.
AMIN. _Claudite jam libros, pueri: sat, prata, bibistis_, Look, when you come again, you tell me ubi fuistis. He that minds trish-trash, and will not have care of his rodix. Him I will be-lish-lash, and have a fling at his podix.
[Exeunt BOYS.
Enter YOUNG MASTER ARTHUR.
Y. ART. A pretty wench, a passing pretty wench. A sweeter duck all London cannot yield; She cast a glance on me as I pass'd by, Not Helen had so ravishing an eye. Here is the pedant Sir Aminadab; I will inquire of him if he can tell By any circumstance, whose wife she is: Such fellows commonly have intercourse Without suspicion, where we are debarr'd. God save you, gentle Sir Aminadab!
AMIN. _Salve tu quoque_! would you speak with me? You are, I take it, and let me not lie, For, as you know, _mentiri non est meum_, Young Master Arthur; _quid vis_--what will you?
Y. ART. You are a man I much rely upon; There is a pretty wench dwells in this street That keeps no shop, nor is not public known: At the two posts, next turning of the lane, I saw her from a window looking out; O, could you tell me how to come acquainted With that sweet lass, you should command me, sir, Even to the utmost of my life and power.
AMIN. _Dii boni, boni_! 'tis my love he means; But I will keep it from this gentleman, And so, I hope, make trial of my love. [Aside.]
Y. ART. If I obtain her, thou shalt win thereby More than at this time I will promise thee.
AMIN. _Quando venis aput_, I shall have two horns on my caput. [Aside.]
Y. ART. What, if her husband come and find one there?
AMIN.