Inconstancy that 's the French Merchandize Ios. And doe they fight as it is in the painted cloth of the nine worthies of Ioshua Hector Caesar Arthur Charle-Magne Iudas Machabeus and Godfrey Bollogine Mil. Yes Io they doe Ios. In the painted cloth Joshua stands formost Bal. With his Cat in stead of a Scutchion Ios. Ball thou art full of rebukes Enter Crosse Cros. Arme arme arme regardles of true honour Your message is defide and facing the van Dischargd a thousand shot the Crag and Chappell They make a refuge 'gainst our great Artillery Gr. Let the bow-men shoute their slighted Arrowes As thicke as haile the Musketteers shall follow Alarum then t is our first enterprise When cowards fall the valiant spirits rise Ex. Omnes After skirmishes Enter Grey Arguile young Bateman with Colors Clifton Souldioers prisoners Gray The Crag and Chappell 's ours and the French Like Hares are leapd out of fierce Greyhounds gripes Doysells and Mortigue out-ran their Collours And with all expedition tooke the Towne Y. Ba. Whose Colors I display Gr. How many of the French this day are falne Arg. Seven score my Lord and prisoners of noble worth Poiteers Augois Burbon Shamoont Shaldone Labrosse and of the English meerely one man slaine Gr. Thanks unto heaven whose arme was our defence What 's he that beates the French armes displaid Clif. A servant of mine his name Bateman Gr. Ther 's forty Angells for thy good daies service And if thy merit retaine an Ancients place Y. Ba. I thanke your honour Ios. My prisoner is an Anabaptist all I desire is that I may convert him Mi. It must be in 's drinke then else hee s none o' th right brethren Gr. Can noble Arguile and worthy Clifton After these toiles of bloud and massacre Let 's quench our raging motions in the Grape And in the French-mans Vine drinke his confusion Proud France shall know that our Elizaes Name Drives to confusion those that steale her Fame Ex. Omnes Enter Anne and Vrsula An. Do'st thou not beleeve it Vrs. Let me faile of my best wishes and I doe I cannot amuse my thoughts to 't thou maist as soone perswade me that a Spiders VVeb will catch a swarme of Bees as thou marry German his head 's like a Welch-mans Crest on St. Davies day he lookes like a hoary Frost in December now Venus blesse me I 'de rather ly by a Statue An. Thou art pleasant still In nat'rall things we see that Herbes and Plants In autumne ever doe receive perfection As they so man never attaines his height Till in the autumne of his growing age Experience like a Mistris beautifies him With silver haires badges of experience Of wisdome honours counsell knowledge arts With all th' endowmens vertue hath in store Contrarily greene headed youth Being in the spring or summer of his age Is prone to surfets riots intemperancies And all the stocke of ills that vice is queene of Vrs. Thou wrests a good text to an ill sense but none but fooles would ly in beds of snow that might couch in Roses but it may bee Cozen but it may bee Cuz you follow the fashion of our Country Knights that marry your old London VVidowes t is but keeping a handsome Chamber-maide they are necessary evills and will serve with a small Dowery afterwards to make parsons wives you know my meaning Cuz An. He brings wealth promotion and t is the way Vrs. To your ruine to your blacke father presently cocke him with the herbe Moly that will put bloud in 's cheekes let him be dieted like your Barbary horse hee le neere stand to his tacklings else feede him with Vipers flesh that will make his white head blacke doost thou refuse youthfull Bateman to ly with wealthy Germane reject a Mine of vertue for a Mountaine of muck Cupid blesse thee for I 'le sweare he has blinded thee as blind as a Bat An. I lov'd young Bateman in my childish daies Have vow'd to have him and he againe to me But what of that foolish lovers vowes Like breath on steele as soone are of as on German is wealthy and by him I gaine Recourse amongst the modest sagest dames VVealth has a priviledge that beauty cannot Bateman is young embellish'd with a naturall Active and generous unspotted beauty German is old indebted much to age Yet like ould Aeson gold can make him young Gold like a second nature can elixate Make the deformed faire the faire seeme fowle And we that love not must be tide to th' face A sparkling eye or a smooth pleading tongue Will not keepe hospitality with time Maides that love young men gaine their loves by stealth We that love old men wed not man but wealth Vrs. If I beleeve thee not may I turne Nun before my probation to be serious let me touch thy conscience if young Bateman to whom I know tha 'st vow'd thy faith should at thy falsehood fall into some malevolencies in himselfe or on thee t' wood greive thee to have Ballads made on thee to the tune of the inconstant Lover and have thy periuries pind on euery Post An. Conscience pray no more o' nt Vrs. No introth for I thinke tha 'st asmuch pleasure in 't as a hangd man has of his pardon or a Dog with a Glasse bottle at 's taile see here 's thy father with him the man that must be not the fore-man o' th Parish but a bucke o' th first head Enter Boote Germane An. My lovely Germane Ger. My fairest Mistris Vrs. If I had not rather Kisse a muffe made of Cats-skins then these mouldy chops of his wood I might die an Anchoresse Bo. Now neece what 's your conceit of this Vrs. Faith Vncle i 'me a woman and they say a woman is a wether-Cocke for mine owne part some are I thinke and when I thinke they are not I 'le tell you my conceit till then I 'le pay you with thinking Ger. Sweet beauty rumor that betters nothing But disproportionates every act Gives it out thus that you are affianc'd To youthfull Bateman I wood not have the curse Of contract breaking fall upon my head If it be so fairely I here acquit you From all engagements twixt your selfe and me If not like to a blessing I embrace you That joynture which your father most desir'de I have confirm'd nothing now remaines But your reply or mine or whose you please An. Sir I am yours I lov'de young Bateman with an inward joy Affected him beyond a common rate Yet not so farr but that I might reduce My vowes and my affections to my will For when I saw how disproportionable Our jarring fathers were I then began To alienate all love here I renue To whom it comes as free as bright and pure As are these unstaind Lampes beyond the Moone Ger. Which as a blessing from the heavens I take Bo. You shall be marryed instantly and Girle thou shalt have one Bagg more for this it gladdes me yet thou art so free
onely separates me from thy love Alive or dead I shall enjoy thee then Spite of thy fathers frownes Enter Vrsula Vrs. Why then up-with your bag and baggage and to Saint Maries presently the Priest stayes the Clarke whynes to say Amen and for th' officiall schollers love butterd loaves an Angell will perswade him to consent we that live by the sinnes of the people may dispense with veniall toyes Y. Bat. Thou art merry still Vrs. Faith and shal be as long as I keepe me out of Cupids mannacles doost heare Lover take her now thou hast her i' th vaine trust not we wenches theirs asmuch truth in us as in Knightes o' th post if she sweare love to day shee 'le unsweare it to morrow with a safe conscience stand not shall I shall I take me her to have and to hold and if eyther of you repent your bargaine within a twelue-month An. VVhat then Vrs. Then you shall fetch no Bacon at Dunmowe we young wenches in our loves are like Lapwinges if once we creepe out o' th shells we run from out ould loves like Scopperells weomens minds are planetary and amble as fast as Virginalls Iackes if you stop 'em not in true time you marre all your musique See here 's your Fathers Enter ould Boote old Bateman Y. Ba. Alas what wilt thou doe An. Not shrinke a jot for thee Bo. I charge thee on my blessing leave that boy An. Father sir Bo. Come come come Must your appetite be married to beggery Is this the onely Phoenix of the World O. Ba. Boote boote boote thou art malapert false proud A wretched miscreant and dissembler H' shall enjoy her shee s his lawfull wife Thy hand enstated hers though falsely now Thou plaist the counterfet Vrs. Well said ould cocke would thy spurrs were new rowell'd that thou mightst picke out his eyes Bo. Still are your eyes gadding that way know this I 'le sooner marry thee unto some slave Whom mine owne will can subordinate Rather then to him Y. Ba. Is vertue growne to so absurd a rate It gaines no better credit with base wordlings O. Ba. Tell me Boote Does not his birth and breeding equall hers Are not my revenues correspondent To equall thine his purity of bloud Runs in as sweete a streame and naturall heate As thine or hers his exteriour parts May parralell hers or any others In a true harmony of lawfull love Wast not thine owne motion didst not give way And entercourse to their privacies Didst thou not make me draw conveighances Did not th' assurance of thy Lands seeme proball Boote Boote thou shall not carry it thus I 'le make thee know theirs justice to be had If thou denyst it Bo. Say I grant all this With my selfe having deliberated I doe not like th assurance of thy Lands Thy titles are so bangld with thy debts Which thou wouldst have my daughters portion pay Sir sir it shall not O. Ba. hang thee hang thee miser T is thy base thoughts forges these false conceits And but for thy daughter I 'de I 'de I 'de Bo. I 'de come come An. Father Y. Ba. Deere sir spare your fury Anger in old men is a Lunacy That woundes the speakers not the spectators My thoughts are now embarqu'd to goe for Leith And see the VVarrs I hope e're my returne I shall finde temperate weather in your lookes And all these stormes vanishd O. Ba. Art thou so built on her fidelity Take heede boy women by kinde are fickle Absence in lovers brings strange events Lovers that hourely kisse finde due regard But those that absent are oft lose reward I doubt not of her firmenes but t is common An absent lover thrives not with a woman T is good counsell boy and worth observance But thou darst trust her Y. Ba. With my life sir O. Ba. Goe on then in thy entended purpose Noble sir Jarvis whose man thou art I know will furnish thee Bo. This works to my designe and gives free way For wealthy Germane to my daughters love Come hither Nan Vrs. I thought the wind was in that doore by my virginity a young wench were better be heire to a swine-heards chines then a rich mans bagges we must be coupld in wed-locke like your Barbary horse and Spanish Gennet for breede sake house to house and land to land the devill a jot of love poore simple virginity that us'd to be our best Dowry is now growne as bare as a serving-mans cloake that has not had a good nap this seven yeeres Enter Clifton and a Shoomaker O. Ba. Well Boote time may make us friends Bo. Wee le thinke on 't Bateman Clif. How many paire of shooes knave ha Sho. By Saint Hugh sir Jarvis foure thousand paire Clif. For every knave two paire good sauce against kyb'd heeles by my hollidam well shod and clad will mak 'em fight like men the North is could subject to frostes and snówes and t is bad fighting without vittle and cloth for which I have provided well for both forty horse loades and twenty Carrs of vittle t will stop a good breach in a souldiours belly my man shall pay thee huffit my Hollidam my old Neighbour rich Boote and Bateman is this brabling matter ended yet shall he have her by my Hollidam not yet the knave shall serve his Queene first see the warres where t will do him good to see knocks passe as fillips say i' st done Enter Miles O. Ba. Hee s at your service Clif. By my Hollidam he shall not want for that But I am tardy and my time is precious My Hollidam wheir 's this knave Mi. Faith sir trading as other knaves doe sir yonder 's the Tailor the Weaver and I the Miller Clif. My Hollidam knaves all three put me a Tailor a Weaver and a Miller into a bag Mi. And what then sir Clif. Why he that first comes out will be a knave Mi. Vnder correction sir put me a Justice of peace an Officiall an under Sherriffe into a bag Enter Ball Ioshua Clif. And what then knave Mi. Why and they will not come out let em' tarry their like knaves as they are Cilf. What a knave is this Mi. Sir here 's two more appeares th' one is mad Ball old Huffus man th o'ther may be a knave in graine for any thing I know i 'me sure hee s much given to colours hee s a Painter-stainer Clif. Y' are both pres'd and willing to serve the Queene Bal. I am bend leather and will endure it Iosh. My name is Marmaduke Ioshua a Painter-stainer by Art and a limner by profession I am given to the meanes and doe fructifie among the brethren it were obnoxious and inutiable and contrary to the sages to presse me Clif. Wee le see how you can edifie our Campe Iosh. For the sistren commisserate Clif. Come my old neighbours let our Drum beat a free march wee le have a health to Queene Besse cry St. George and a fig for St. Dennis Enter Omnes nisi Bateman
THE VOW BREAKER OR THE FAIRE MAIDE of Clifton In Notinghamshire as it hath beene diuers times Acted by severall Companies with great applause By WILLIAM SAMPSON Virg Aen lib 2. 77. Obstupui steterantque Comae vox fausibus haesit LONDON Printed by IOHN NORTON and are to be sold by ROGER BALL at the signe of the Golden Anchor in the Strand neere Temple-Barre 1636 The Illustration THis faithlesse woman by her friends consent Plighted her troth to Bateman streight not cōtent With his revenue Coveting for more Shee marries German for his wealthy store There Parents iarr'd and never could agree Till both of them were dround in misery Young Bateman hangs himselfe for love of her Shee drownds her selfe guilt plaies the murtherer His Ghost afrights her sad thoughts doe her annoy Alive or dead t is shee he must enioy The Morrall is Maides should beware in choise And where they cannot love divert their voice Parents must not be rash nor too vnkind And not for wealth to thwart their Childrens minde All is not gaind that 's got ill purchasde wealth Never brought comfort tranquill peace and health This president this principle doth allow Weddings are made in Heaven though seald below Thinke on thy promise aliue or dead I must and will inioy thee Hee s come watch mee or I am gone O how happy had I beene if shee had lived O how happy had I beene if hee had lived TO THE WORSHIPFVLL and most vertuous Gentlewoman Mistris Anne Willoughby Daughter of the Right Worshipfull and ever to be Honoured Henry Wiloughby of Risley in the County of Derby Baronet Worthiest and Noble Mistris THIS infant received breath and being vnder your noble Fathers roofe my ever honored Master and therefore as an Aire-lover belonging to that Hospitable Fahricke it properly prostrates it selfe to you for a patronnesse The title of it saith ignorant Censurers those Critticall Momes that have no language but satirrick Calumnie sounds grosse and ignare expressing smal wit and lesse judgment in the Author to dedicate A vow-breaker under the protection of A Lady of your Candor beauty goodnes and vertues against those foule mouthd detractors who asmuch as in their venemous hearts lay sought to villifie an unblaunchd Laune a vestall puritie a truth like Innocence a temple of sanctitie the Altar of reall goodnes against those brainles Momes I comply my selfe with Plinies naturall similie of the Almond-tree picke of the Rind cracke the shell yet set the kernell upright in earth and by natures helpe it regaines maturity and growth so have your noble vertues even with the Diamond eclipsed darknesse and from obscurity gaind greater lustre even then when the two eldest sons of sin Enuy and Malice sought to obscure them but shee that hath not left the earth divine Astrea sacred iustice the eye and soule of the law hath vindicated those foule mouthd detractors as you are great in goodnes so shine there still and let the Sun-raies of your vertues ever yeild honored hatchments portments to your most noble father his honored families of whom you are a principall Columne continue ever in that noble pedigree of vertues which your virgin purity hitherto hath justly maintaind heaven keepe you from faunning parasites and busie gossips and send you a Husband and a good one else may you neuer make a Holliday for Hymen as much happines as tongue can speake penn write heart thinke or thoughts imagine ever attend on you your noble father and all his families to whom I ever rest as my bounden duty A faithfull servant WILLIAM SAMPSON The Prologue to Censurers TRuth saies the Author this Time will be bold To tell a Story truer ne're was told Wherein he boldly vouches all is true That this Time 's spoke by vs or heard by you If Chronicle that ever yet gain'd favour May please true Iudgments his true endeavour From serious houres his gaind it for vs He hopes our labours will be prosperous And yet me thinkes I here some Criticke say That they are much abus'd in this our Play Their Magistracy laught at as if now What Ninty yeeres since dy'd a fresh did grow To those wee answer that ere they were borne The story that we glaunse at then was worne And held authentick and the men wee name Grounded in Honours Prowesse Vertues Fame Bring not the Author then in your mislikes If on the Ages vice quaintly he strikes And hits your guilt most plainely it appeares He like a Taylor that hath lost his sheares Amongst his shreds he knockes upon the board And by the sound themselues they doe affoord If in his scenes he any vice have hit To you farre better knowne then to his wit Tak 't to your selves alone for him his Penn Strikes at the vices and not mindes the men Actus Primus Scena Prima Enter young Bateman meeting Anne ANNE My Bateman Y. Ba. My sweetest Nan An. Had I but one entire affected Pearle Inestimable unto vulgar censure And is there none to play the Theife but thou Oh misery would'st have thy love entransd Without an eccho that would sigh farewell Common curtesie 'mongst rurall Hyndes With this formallity disciplines them Kisse at the departure and you to steale away Without my Privity Y. Ba. Pray thee no more Teares are the Heralds to future sorrowes I have collected all that 's man together And wrastld with affections as with streames And as they strive that doe oppresse the billowes So doe I fare in each externall part My Actes are like the motionall gymmalls Fixt in a VVatch who winde themselves away Without cessation here if I stay I finde I must be where thou art which when I am Thy fathers rage encreases like a flame Fedd by ungentle blastes my absence May worke those bitter sweeteings from his hart And smooth the rising furrowes in his brow It is sufficient that I know thee firme Fixt as a Rocke in constancy and love Able to ship-wracke greatnes and despiseth A violated heart as a disease I goe to Leith as children goe to schoole Studying what shall please my Mistris best My lesson cond I will returne againe And dedicate my labours unto thee An. Sweete doe not goe and yet if that you will Leaving me here like a forsaken Lover Prethee forget me not nay be not angry Souldiers in Warre make any saint their owne Forgeting those they are devoted too T is I have vow'd to have thee quicke or dead Flattering honours nor dissembling beauties Workes me not from thee Y. Bat. Sweare not sweete Nan The booke of fate as now may be unclasp'd And record what thou speak'st An. Be it writ in brasse My love shall be as durable as that Now by this kisse nay I will second that When I this hand bequeath to any one But my sweete Bateman then may I ever From heaven and goodnes resta cast-away If e're I give this hand to any one But my sweete Bateman Y. Bat. Thy constancy I resalute Death