ROBIN GOODFELLOW. I wonder I hear not of Master Churms; I would fain know how he speeds, and what success he has in Lelia's love. Well, if he cosen the scholar of her, 'twould make my worship laugh; and if he have her, he may say,—Godamercy, Robin Goodfellow: O, ware a good head as long as you live. Why, Master Gripe, he casts beyond the moon, and Churms is the only man he puts in trust with his daughter; and, I'll warrant, the old churl would take it upon his salvation that he will persuade her to marry Peter Plod-all. But I will make a fool of Peter Plod-all; I'll look him in the face, and pick his purse, whilst Churms cosen him of his wench, and my old grandsire Holdfast of his daughter: and if he can do so, I'll teach him a trick to cosen him of his gold too. Now, for Sophos, let him wear the willow garland, and play the melancholy malcontent, and pluck his hat down in his sullen eyes, and think on Lelia in these desert groves: 'tis enough for him to have her in his thoughts, although he ne'er embrace her in his arms. But now there's a fine device comes into my head to scare the scholar: you shall see, I'll make fine sport with him. They say that every day he keeps his walk amongst these woods and melancholy shades, and on the bark of every senseless tree engraves the tenor of his hapless hope. Now when he's at Venus' altar at his orisons, I'll put me on my great carnation-nose, and wrap me in a rowsing calf-skin suit, and come like some hobgoblin, or some devil ascended from the grisly pit of hell, and like a scarbabe make him take his legs: I'll play the devil, I warrant ye.
[Exit ROBIN GOODFELLOW.
FORTUNATUS.
And if you do, by this hand, I'll play the conjuror.
Blush, Fortunatus, at the base conceit!
To stand aloof, like one that's in a trance,
And with thine eyes behold that miscreant imp,
Whose tongue['s] more venom['s] than the serpent's sting,
Before thy face thus taunt thy dearest friends—
Ay, thine own father—with reproachful terms!
Thy sister Lelia, she is bought and sold,
And learned Sophos, thy thrice-vowed friend,
Is made a stale by this base cursed crew
And damned den of vagrant runagates:
But here, in sight of sacred heav'ns, I swear
By all the sorrows of the Stygian souls,
By Mars his bloody blade, and fair Bellona's bowers,
I vow, these eyes shall ne'er behold my father's face,
These feet shall never pass these desert plains;
But pilgrim-like, I'll wander in these woods,
Until I find out Sopho's secret walks.
And sound the depth of all their plotted drifts.
Nor will I cease, until these hands revenge
Th'injurious wrong, that's offer'd to my friend,
Upon the workers of this stratagem.
[Exit.
Enter PEG sola.
I' faith, i' faith, I cannot tell what to do;
I love, and I love, and I cannot tell who:
Out upon this love! for, wot you what?
I have suitors come huddle, twos upon twos,
And threes upon threes: and what think you
Troubles me? I must chat and kiss with all comers,
Or else no bargain.
Enter WILL CRICKET, and kisses her.
WILL CRICKET.
A bargain, i' faith: ha, my sweet honey-sops! how dost thou?
PEG.
Well, I thank you, William; now I see y'are a man of your word.
WILL CRICKET.
A man o' my word, quotha? why, I ne'er broke promise in my life that
I kept.
PEG.
No, William, I know you did not; but I had forgotten me.