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

while, And
neither know my husband nor myself; Or else you know not man and
wife is one. If he be call'd a villain, what is she, Whose heart and love,
and soul, is one with him? 'Tis pity that so fair a gentleman Should fall
into such villains' company. O, sir, take heed, if you regard your life,
Meddle not with a villain or his wife. [Exit.
FUL. O, that same word villain hath marr'd all.
ANS. Now where is your instruction? where's the wench? Where are
my hopes? where your directions?
FUL. Why, man, in that word villain you marr'd all. To come unto an
honest wife, and call Her husband villain! were he[10] ne'er so bad,
Thou might'st well think she would not brook that name For her own
credit, though no love to him. But leave not thus, but try some other
mean; Let not one way thy hopes make frustrate clean.
ANS. I must persist my love against my will; He that knows all things,
knows I prove this will.
Exeunt.

ACT II., SCENE I.
A School.
Enter AMINADAB, _with a rod in his hand, and_ BOYS with their
books.
AMIN. Come, boys, come, boys, rehearse your parts, And then, _ad
prandium; jam, jam, incipe_!
1ST BOY. Forsooth, my lesson's torn 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 _tardè 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. _Tardè, tardè, tardè_.
2D. BOY. _Tardè, tardè, tardè_.
AMIN. _Huc ades_, Pipkin--reach a better rod-- _Cur tam tardè 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 certè_, 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 _tardè; 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