A Select Collection of Old English Plays Originally Published by Robert Dodsley in the year 1744

ARISTIPPUS. By mine own experience I prove true that many men tell, To live in court not beloved, better be in hell: What crying out, what cursing, is there within of Carisophus...

In vain I call for death, which heareth not my complaint: But what wisdom is this, in such extremity to faint? _Multum juvat in re malâ animus bonus._ I will to the court myself...

WILL. Fear not that, Jack; for, like brother and brother, They are knit in true friendship the one with the other; They are fellows, you know, and honest men both, Therefore the...

Hob and Lob, ah ye country patches! Ah ye fools! ye have made wrong matches; Ye have spoken treason against the king’s grace: For it I will accuse ye before his face; Then for t...

Accursed judge, couldst thou consent To do this cursed ill? According unto thy demand, Thou shalt for this thy guilt Receive thy death before mine eyes: Thy blood it shall be sp...

The performance was printed in 1575, but acted most likely as early as 1563. The initials R. B. on the title-page would apply to more than one writer about that date. It is a wo...

My Council grave, a thousand thanks With heart I do you render. That you my case so prosperous Entirely do tender: I will not swerve from those your steps, Whereto you would me...

NUNTIUS. Lo, here at length the stately type of Troy, And Britain land the promis’d seat of Brute, Deck’d with so many spoils of conquered kings! Hail, native soil, these nine y...

APPIUS. I mean so, I will so, if thou do persuade me, To hap or to hazard what thing shall invade me? I King and I Kaiser, I rule and overwhelm; I do what it please me within th...

During the music after the second act, there came upon the stage two gentlemen attired in a peaceable manner, which brought with them a table, carpet and cloth: and then having...

ARISTIPPUS. What a devil then meant Carisophus To join in friendship with fine Aristippus? In whom is as much virtue, truth and honesty, As there are true feathers in the three...

4. O base, yet happy boors! O gifts of gods Scant yet perceiv’d! when powd’red ermine robes With secret sighs, mistrusting their extremes, In baleful breast forecast their foult...

This text includes characters that require UTF-8 (Unicode) file encoding. If the œ ligature or characters in Greek do not display properly, or if the apostrophes and quotation m...

_The First Part of Ieronimo. With the Warres of Portugall, and the Life and Death of Don Andræa. Printed at London, for Thomas Pauyer, and are to be solde at his shop, at the en...

ARTHUR. Come, Cador, as our friendship was most firm Throughout our age, so now let’s link as fast. Thus did we live in wars, thus let us die In peace, and arm in arm partake ou...

What! fold paper that way to a nobleman? To Don Andrea, Spain’s embassador! Fie! I am ashamed to see it: hast thou worn Gowns in the university, toss’d[299] logic, suck’d Philos...

Since thus through channels black of Limbo lake, And deep infernal flood of Stygian pool, The ghastly Charon’s boat transported back Thy ghost from Pluto’s pits and glooming sha...

I came from Caleco even the same hour, And Hap was hired to hackney in hempstrid: In hazard he was of riding on beamstrid. Then, crow crop on tree-top, hoist up the sail, Then g...

Out alas? what shall I do? my life is finished; Wounded I am by sudden chance, my blood is minished: Gog’s heart, what means might I make my life to preserve? Is there nought to...

BAL. I bind thee, Don Andrea, by thy honour, Thy valiancy, and all that thou hold’st great, To meet me single in the battle’s heat; Where I’ll set down, in characters on thy fle...

[10] [See Warton’s “H.E.P.” by Hazlitt, iv., 214. Warton is very positive in asserting that the first edition was not in 1571, but in 1570, yet no such edition is at present kno...