William Shakespeare - The Complete Apocryphal Works of William Shakespeare - All 17 Rare Plays in One Edition

I cannot tell; I think I locked the doors.

ARDEN

I like not this, but I’ll go see myself. -

Ne’er trust me but the doors were all unlocked.

This negligence not half contenteth me.

Get you to bed, and if you love my favor,

Let me have no more such pranks as these.

Come, master Franklin, let us go to bed.

FRANKLIN

Ay, by my faith; the air is very cold. (Exeunt.

Michael, farewell; I pray thee dream no more.

(here Enter Will, Greene, and SHAKEBAG

SHAKEBAG

Black night hath hid the pleasures of the day,

And sheeting darkness overhangs the earth,

And with the black fold of her cloudy robe

Obscures us from the eyesight of the world,

In which sweet silence such as we triumph.

The lazy minutes linger on their time,

Loth to give due audit to the hour,

Till in the watch our purpose be complete

And Arden sent to everlasting night.

Greene, get you gone, and linger here about,

And at some hour hence come to us again,

Where we will give you instance of his death.

GREENE

Speed to my wish, whose will so e’er says no;

And so I’ll leave you for an hour or two. (Exit GREENE

WILL

I tell thee, Shakebag, would this thery were done,

I am so heavy that I can scarce go;

This drowsiness in me bodes little good.

SHAKEBAG

How now, Will? Become a precisian?

Nay, then let’s go sleep, when bugs and fears

Shall kill our courages with their fancy’s work.

WILL

Why, Shakebag, thou mistakes me much,

And wrongs me too in telling me of fear.

Were’t not a serious thing we go about,

It should be slipt till I had fought with thee,

To let thee know I am no coward, I.

I tell thee, Shakebag, thou abusest me.

SHAKEBAG

Why, thy speech bewrayed an inly kind of fear,

And savored of a weak relenting spirit.

And afterwards attempt me when thou darest.

WILL

And if I do not, heaven cut me off!

But let that pass, and show me to this have,

Where thou shalt see I’ll do as much as SHAKEBAG

SHAKEBAG

This is the door; but soft, me thinks ‘tis shut.

The villain Michael hath deceived us.

WILL

Soft, let me see, Shakebag; ‘tis shut indeed.

Knock with thy sword, perhaps the slave will hear.

SHAKEBAG

It will not be; the white livered peasant is gone to bed

And laughs us both to scorn.

WILL

And he shall ‘by his merriment as dear

As ever coistril bought so little sport:

Ne’er let this sword assist me when I need,

But rust and canker after I have sworn,

And trample on it for this villainy.

SHAKEBAG

And let me never draw a sword again,

Nor prosper in the twilight, cockshut light,

When I would fleece the wealthy passenger,

But lie and languish in a loathsome den,

Hated and spit at by the goers-by.

And in that death may die, nnpitied.

If I the next time that I meet the slave,

Cut not the nose from of the coward’s face,

And trample on it, for this villainy.

WILL

Come, let’s go seek out Greene; I know he’ll swear.

SHAKEBAG

He were a villain, and he would not swear.

‘twould make a peasant swear among his boys,

That ne’er durst say before but ‘yea’ or ‘no’,

To be thus flouted by a coistril.

WILL

Shakebag, let’s seek out Greene, and in the morning

At the alehouse butting Arden’s house

Watch the out coming of that prickear’d cur,

And then let me alone to handle him. (Exeunt.

(here Enter Arden, Franklin, and MICHAEL

ARDEN

Sirrah, get you back to billingsgate

And learn what time the tide will serve our turn,

Come to us in paul’s. First go make the bed,

And afterwards go hearken for the flood. (Exit MICHAEL

Come, master Franklin, you shall go with me.

This night I dream’d that, being in a park,

A toil was pitched to overthrow the deer,

And I upon a little rising hill

Stood whistly watching for the herd’s approach.

Even there, methoughts, a gentle slumber took me,

And summoned all my parts to sweet repose;

But in the pleasure of this golden rest

An ill thewed foster had removed the toil

Which late, methought, was pitched to cast the deer.

With that he blew an evil sounding horn,

And at the noise another herdman came,

With falchion drawn, and bent it at my breast,

Crying aloud, ‘thou art the game we seek!’

With this I wak’d and trembled every joint,

Like one obscured in a little bush,

That sees a lion foraging about,

And, when the dreadful forest king is gone,

He pries about with timorous suspect

Throughout the thorny casements of the brake,

And will not think his person dangerless,

But quakes and shivers, though the cause be gone.

So, trust me, Franklin, when I did awake,

I stood in doubt whether I waked or no:

Such great impression took this fond surprise.

God grant this vision bedeem me any good.

FRANKLIN

This fantasy doth rise from Michael’s fear,

Who being awaked with the noise he made,

His troubled senses yet could take no rest;

And this, I warrant you, procured your dream.

ARDEN

It may be so, god frame it to the best:

But often times my dreams presage too true.

FRANKLIN

To such as note their nightly fantasies,

Some one in twenty may incur belief;

But use it not, ‘tis but a mockery.

ARDEN