The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

MERRY.
How now, sir?
Do you abuse our town? [Exit.

GOLDSMITH.
Oh, no offence.

KEMPTHORN. Ralph, I am under bonds for a hundred pound.

GOLDSMITH. Hard lines. What for?

KEMPTHORN.
To take some Quakers back
I brought here from Barbadoes in the Swallow.
And how to do it I don't clearly see,
For one of them is banished, and another
Is sentenced to be hanged! What shall I do?

GOLDSMITH.
Just slip your hawser on some cloudy night;
Sheer off, and pay it with the topsail, Simon!
[Exeunt.

SCENE II. — Street in front of the prison. In the background a gateway and several flights of steps leading up terraces to the Governor's house. A pump on one side of the street. JOHN ENDICOTT, MERRY, UPSALL, and others. A drum beats.

JOHN ENDICOTT. Oh shame, shame, shame!

MERRY.
Yes, it would be a shame
But for the damnable sin of Heresy!

JOHN ENDICOTT. A woman scourged and dragged about our streets!