SCENE I. ［Before Lovewit's door. ］
［Enter］ LOVEWIT, ［with several of the］ Neighbours
Love. Has there been such resort, say you?
1 Nei. Daily, sir.
2 Nei. And nightly, too.
3 Nei. Ay, some as brave as lords.
4 Nei. Ladies and gentlewomen.
5 Nei. Citizens' wives.
1 Nei. And knights.
6 Nei. In coaches.
2 Nei. Yes, and oyster-women.
1 Nei. Beside other gallants.
3 Nei. Sailors' wives.
4 Nei. Tobacco men.
5 Nei. Another Pimlico!〖A summer resort, where the citizens had cakes and ale.〗
Love. What should my knave advance,
To draw this company? He hung out no banners
Of a strange calf with five legs to be seen,
Or a huge lobster with six claws?
6 Nei. No, sir.
3 Nei. We had gone in then, sir.
Love. He has no gift
Of teaching i' the nose〖Like a Puritan preacher.〗 that e'er I knew of.
You saw no bills set up that promis'd cure
Of agues, or the tooth-ache?
2 Nei. No such thing, sir!
Love. Nor heard a drum struck for baboons or puppets?
5 Nei. Neither, sir.
Love. What device should he bring forth now?
I love a teeming wit as I love my nourishment:
'Pray God he have not kept such open house,
That he had sold my hangings, and my bedding!
I left him nothing else.. If he have eat 'em,
A plague o' the moth, say I! Sure he has got
Some bawdy pictures to call all this ging;〖Gang.〗
The Friar and the Nun; or the new motion〖Puppet show.〗
Of the knight's courser and the parson's mare;
Or't may be, he has the fleas that run at tilt
Upon a table, or some dog to dance.
When saw you him?
1 Nei. Who, sir, Jeremy?
2 Nei. Jeremy butler?
We saw him not this month.
Love. How!
4 Nei. Not these five weeks, sir.
6 Nei. These six weeks at the least.
Love. You amaze me, neighbours!
5 Nei. Sure, if your worship know not where he is,
He's slipt away.
6 Nei. Pray God he be not made away.
Love. Ha! it's no time to question, then. Knocks at the door.
6 Nei. About
Some three weeks since I heard a doleful cry,
As I sat up a mending my wife's stockings.
Love. 'Tis strange that none will answer! Did'st thou hear
A cry, sayst thou?
6 Nei. Yes, sir, like unto a man
That had been strangled an hour, and could not speak.
2 Nei. I heard it too, just this day three weeks, at two o'clock
Next morning.
Love. These be miracles, or you make 'em so!
A man an hour strangled, and could not speak,
And both you heard him cry?
3 Nei. Yes, downward, sir.
Love, Thou art a wise fellow. Give me thy hand, I pray thee.
What trade art thou on?
3 Nei. A smith, an't please your worship.
Love. A smith! Then lend me thy help to get this door open.
3 Nei. That I will presently, sir, but fetch my tools—［Exit.］
1 Nei. Sir, best to knock again afore you break it.