Sir Thomas More, Shakespeare Apocrypha E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 107

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Elizabethan play, sometimes attributed in part to Shakespeare. According to Wikipedia: "William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright."

Leseprobe

Sir Thomas More, A Play Attributed In Part To William Shakespeare

published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books

Other plays partially attributed to William Shakespeare:

Cromwell

Edward III

Faire Em

Fairy Tale in Two Acts

London Prodigal

Merry Devil

Puritaine Widdow

Sir John Oldcastle

Tragedy of Locrine

Two Noble Kinsmen

All's One

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An anonymous play of the sixteen century ascribed in part to William Shakespeare.  First printed in 1844 and here re-edited from the Harleian MS. 7368 in the British Museum.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

Earl of SHREWSBURY.

Earl of SURREY.

Sir THOMAS PALMER.

Sir ROGER CHOMLEY.

Sir THOMAS MORE.

Lord Mayor.

Aldermen.

SURESBY, a Justice.

Other Justices.

Sheriffs.

Recorder.

Sergeant at Arms.

Clerk of the Council.

ERASMUS.

Bishop of Rochester.

ROPER, son-in-law to MORE.

JOHN LINCOLN, a broker.

GEORGE BETTS.

His brother (the 'Clown').

WILLIAMSON, a carpenter.

SHERWIN, a goldsmith.

FRANCIS DE BARDE, Lombard.

CAVELER, Lombard.

LIFTER, a cut-purse.

SMART, plaintiff against him.

HARRY, ROBIN, KIT, and others, Prentices.

MORRIS.

FAULKNER, his servant.

Players.

GOUGH.

CATESBY.

RANDALL.

Butler.

Brewer.

Porter.

Horsekeeper.

CROFTS.

DOWNES.

Lieutenant of the Tower.

Warders of the Tower.

Gentleman Porter of the Tower.

Hangman.

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Messengers, Guard, Attendants.

Lady MORE.

Lady Mayoress.

Mistress ROPER, daughter to MORE.

Another daughter to MORE.

DOLL, wife to WILLIAMSON.

A Poor Woman.

Ladies.

ACT I.

SCENE I.  London.  A Street.

[Enter, at one end, John Lincoln, with the two Bettses together; at

the other end, enters Francis de Barde and Doll a lusty woman, he

haling her by the arm.]

DOLL.

Whether wilt thou hale me?

BARDE.

Whether I please; thou art my prize, and I plead purchase of thee.

DOLL.

Purchase of me! away, ye rascal!  I am an honest plain carpenters

wife, and though I have no beauty to like a husband, yet

whatsoever is mine scorns to stoop to a stranger:  hand off, then,

when I bid thee!

BARDE.

Go with me quietly, or I'll compel thee.

DOLL.

Compel me, ye dog's face! thou thinkst thou hast the goldsmith's

wife in hand, whom thou enticedst from her husband with all his

plate, and when thou turndst her home to him again, madst him,

like an ass, pay for his wife's board.

BARDE.

So will I make thy husband too, if please me.

[Enter Caveler with a pair of doves; Williamson the carpenter, and

Sherwin following him.]

DOLL.

Here he comes himself; tell him so, if thou darst.

CAVELER.

Follow me no further; I say thou shalt not have them.

WILLIAMSON.

I bought them in Cheapside, and paid my money for them.

SHERWIN.

He did, sir, indeed; and you offer him wrong, both to take them

from him, and not restore him his money neither.

CAVELER.

If he paid for them, let it suffice that I possess them:  beefs and

brews may serve such hinds; are pigeons meat for a coarse

carpenter?

LINCOLN.

It is hard when Englishmen's patience must be thus jetted on by

strangers, and they not dare to revenge their own wrongs.

GEORGE.

Lincoln, let's beat them down, and bear no more of these abuses.

LINCOLN.

We may not, Betts:  be patient, and hear more.

DOLL.

How now, husband! what, one stranger take they food from thee,

and another thy wife!  by our Lady, flesh and blood, I think, can

hardly brook that.

LINCOLN.

Will this gear never be otherwise? must these wrongs be thus

endured?

GEORGE.

Let us step in, and help to revenge their injury.

BARDE.

What art thou that talkest of revenge?  my lord ambassador shall

once more make your Major have a check, if he punish thee for this

saucy presumption.

WILLIAMSON.

Indeed, my lord Mayor, on the ambassador's complaint, sent me to

Newgate one day, because (against my will) I took the wall of a

stranger:  you may do any thing; the goldsmith's wife and mine

now must be at your commandment.

GEORGE.

The more patient fools are ye both, to suffer it.

BARDE.

Suffer it! mend it thou or he, if ye can or dare.  I tell thee, fellows,

and she were the Mayor of London's wife, had I her once in my

possession, I would keep her in spite of him that durst say nay.

GEORGE.

I tell thee, Lombard, these words should cost thy best cape, were I

not curbed by duty and obedience: the Mayor of London's wife!

Oh God, shall it be thus?

DOLL.

Why, Betts,  am not I as dear t m husband as my lord Mayor's wife

to him? and wilt thou so neglectly suffer thine own shame?--Hands

off, proud stranger! or, by him that bought me, if men's milky

hearts dare not strike a stranger, yet women beat them down, ere

they bear these abuses.

BARDE.

Mistress, I say you shall along with me.

DOLL.

Touch not Doll Williamson, least she lay thee along on God's dear

earth.--And you, sir [To Caveler], that allow such coarse cates to

carpenters, whilst pigeons, which they pay for, must serve your

dainty appetite, deliver them back to my husband again, or I'll call

so many women to mine assistance as will not leave one inch

untorn of thee: if our husbands must be bridled by law, and forced

to bear your wrongs, their wives will be a little lawless, and

soundly beat ye.

CAVELER.

Come away, De Barde, and let us go complain to my lord

ambassador.

[Exeunt Ambo.]

DOLL.

Aye, go, and send him among us, and we'll give him his welcome

too.--I am ashamed that freeborn Englishmen, having beaten

strangers within their own homes, should thus be braved and

abused by them at home.

SHERWIN.

It is not our lack of courage in the cause, but the strict obedience

that we are bound to.  I am the goldsmith whose wrongs you talked

of; but how to redress yours or mine own is a matter beyond our

abilities.

LINCOLN.

Not so, not so, my good friends:  I, though a mean man, a broker

by profession, and named John Lincoln, have long time winked at

these wild enormities with mighty impatience, and, as these two

brethren here (Betts by name) can witness, with loss of mine own

life would gladly remedy them.

GEORGE.

And he is in a good forwardness, I tell ye, if all hit right.

DOLL.

As how, I prithee? tell it to Doll Williamson.

LINCOLN.

You know the Spittle sermons begin the next week: I have drawn a

bill of our wrongs and the strangers' insolences.

GEORGE.

Which he means the preachers shall there openly publish in the

pulpit.

WILLIAMSON.

Oh, but that they would! yfaith, it would tickle our strangers

thoroughly.

DOLL.

Aye, and if you men durst not undertake it, before God, we women

would.  Take an honest woman from her husband! why, it is

intolerable.

SHERWIN.

But how find ye the preachers affected to our proceeding?

LINCOLN.

Master Doctor Standish hath answered that it becomes not him to

move any such thing in his sermon, and tells us we must move the

Mayor and aldermen to reform it, and doubts not but happy success

will ensue on statement of our wrongs.  You shall perceive there's

no hurt in the bill: here's a couple of it; I pray ye, hear it.

ALL.

With all our hearts; for God's sake, read it.

LINCOLN.

[Reads.]  To you all, the worshipful lords and masters of this city,

that will take compassion over the poor people your neighbors, and

also of the great importable hurts, losses, and hinderances, whereof

proceedeth extreme poverty to all the king's subjects that inhabit

within this city and suburbs of the same:  for so it is that aliens and

strangers eat the bread from the fatherless children, and take the

living from all the artificers and the intercourse from all the

merchants, whereby poverty is so much increased, that every man

bewaileth the misery of other; for craftsmen be brought to beggary,

and merchants to neediness:  wherefore, the premises considered,

the redress must be of the common knit and united to one part:  and

as the hurt and damage grieveth all men, so must all men see to

their willing power for remedy, and not suffer the said aliens in

their wealth, and the natural born men of this region to come to

confusion.

DOLL.

Before God, tis excellent; and I'll maintain the suit to be honest.

SHERWIN.

Well, say tis read, what is your further meaning in the matter?

GEORGE.

What! marry, list to me.  No doubt but this will store us with

friends enow, whose names we will closely keep in writing; and on

May day next in the morning we'll go forth a Maying, but make it

the worst May day for the strangers that ever they saw.  How say

ye? do ye subscribe, or are ye faint-hearted revolters?

DOLL.

Hold thee, George Betts, there's my hand and my heart: by the

Lord, I'll make a captain among ye, and do somewhat to be talk of

for ever after.

WILLIAMSON.

My masters, ere we part, let's friendly go and drink together, and

swear true secrecy upon our lives.

GEORGE.

There spake an angel.  Come, let us along, then.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II.  London.  The Sessions House.

[An arras is drawn, and behind it as in sessions sit the Lord Mayor,

Justice Suresby, and other Justices; Sheriff More and the other

Sheriff sitting by.  Smart is the plaintiff, Lifter the prisoner at the

bar.  Recorder, Officers.]

LORD MAYOR.

Having dispatched our weightier businesses,

We may give ear to petty felonies.

Master Sheriff More, what is this fellow?

MORE.

My lord, he stands indicted for a purse;

He hath been tried, the jury is together.

LORD MAYOR.

Who sent him in?

SURESBY.

That did I, my lord:

Had he had right, he had been hanged ere this;

The only captain of the cutpurse crew.

LORD MAYOR.

What is his name?

SURESBY.

As his profession is, Lifter, my lord,

One that can lift a purse right cunningly.

LORD MAYOR.

And is that he accuses him?

SURESBY.

The same, my lord, whom, by your honors leave,

I must say somewhat too, because I find

In some respects he is well worthy blame.

LORD MAYOR.

Good Master Justice Suresby, speak your mind;

We are well pleased to give you audience.

SURESBY.

Hear me, Smart; thou art a foolish fellow:

If Lifter be convicted by the law,

As I see not how the jury can acquit him,

I'll stand too 't thou art guilty of his death.

MORE.

My lord, that's worthy the hearing.

LORD MAYOR.

Listen, then, good Master More.

SURESBY.

I tell thee plain, it is a shame for thee,

With such a sum to tempt necessity;

No less than ten pounds, sir, will serve your turn,

To carry in your purse about with ye,

To crake and brag in taverns of your money:

I promise ye, a man that goes abroad

With an intent of truth, meeting such a booty,

May be provoked to that he never meant.

What makes so many pilferers and felons,

But such fond baits that foolish people lay

To tempt the needy miserable wretch?

Ten pounds, odd money; this is a pretty sum

To bear about, which were more safe at home.

Fore God, twere well to fine ye as much more

[Lord Mayor and More whisper.]

To the relief of the poor prisoners,

To teach ye be more careful of your own,

In sooth, I say ye were but rightly served,

If ye had lost as much as twice ten pounds.

MORE.

Good my lord, sooth a point or two for once,

Only to try conclusions in this case.

LORD MAYOR.

Content, good Master More: we'll rise awhile,

And, till the jury can return their verdict,

Walk in the garden.--How say ye, Justices?

ALL.

We like it well, my lord; we'll follow ye.

[Exeunt Lord Mayor and Justices.]

MORE.

Nay, plaintiff, go you too;--and officers,

[Exeunt Smart.]

Stand you aside, and leave the prisoner

To me awhile.--Lifter, come hither.

LIFTER.

What is your worship's pleasure?

MORE.

Sirrah, you know that you are known to me,

And I have often saved ye from this place,

Since first I came in office: thou seest beside,

That Justice Suresby is thy heavy friend,

By all the blame that he pretends to Smart,

For tempting thee with such a sum of money.

I tell thee what; devise me but a means

To pick or cut his purse, and, on my credit,

And as I am a Christian and a man,

I will procure they pardon for that jest.

LIFTER.

Good Master Shrieve, seek not my overthrow:

You know, sir, I have many heavy friends,

And more indictments like to come upon me.