SCENE III.

_The Blue Anchor, Billingsgate._

_Enter_ SEAGULL, SPENDALL, _and_ SCAPETHRIFT, _in the Tavern, with a Drawer_.

_Sea._ Come, drawer, pierce your neatest hogsheads, and let's have cheer--not fit for your Billingsgate tavern, but for our Virginian colonel; he will be here instantly.

_Dr._ You shall have all things fit, sir; please you have any more wine?

_Sp._ More wine, slave! whether we drink it or no, spill it, and draw more.

_Sea._ Fill all the pots in your house with all sorts of liquor, and let 'hem wait on us here like soldiers in their pewter coats; and though we do not employ them now, yet we will maintain 'hem till we do. 12

_Dr._ Said like an honourable captain; you shall have all you can command, sir.

[_Exit_ Drawer.

_Sea._ Come, boys, Virginia longs till we share the rest of her maidenhead.

_Sp._ Why, is she inhabited already with any English?

_Sea._ A whole country of English is there, man, bred of those that were left there in '79;[66] they have married with the Indians, and make 'hem bring forth as beautiful faces as any we have in England; and therefore the Indians are so in love with 'hem, that all the treasure they have they lay at their feet. 23

_Sca._ But is there such treasure there, captain, as I have heard?

_Sea._ I tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us; and for as much red copper as I can bring, I'll have thrice the weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping-pans and their chamber-pots are pure gold; and all the chains with which they chain up their streets are massy gold; all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather 'hem by the seashore, to hang on their children's coats, and stick in their caps, as commonly as our children wear saffron-gilt brooches and groats with holes in 'hem. 36

_Sca._ And is it a pleasant country withal?

_Sea._ As ever the sun shined on; temperate and full of all sorts of excellent viands: wild boar is as common there as our tamest bacon is here; venison as mutton. And then you shall live freely there, without sergeants, or courtiers, or lawyers, or intelligencers, only[67] a few industrious Scots, perhaps, who indeed are dispersed over the face of the whole earth. But as for them, there are no greater friends to Englishmen and England, when they are out on't, in the world, than they are. And for my part, I would a hundred thousand of 'hem were there, for we are all one countrymen now, ye know, and we should find ten times more comfort of them there than we do here. Then for your means to advancement, there it is simple, and not preposterously mixed. You may be an alderman there, and never be scavenger: you may be a nobleman, and never be a slave. You may come to preferment enough, and never be a pander; to riches and fortune enough, and have never the more villainy nor the less wit. Besides,[68] there we shall have no more law than conscience, and not too much of either; serve God enough, eat and drink enough, and enough is as good as a feast. 59

_Sp._ God's me! and how far is it thither?

_Sea._ Some six weeks' sail, no more, with any indifferent good wind. And if I get to any part of the coast of Africa, I'll sail thither with any wind; or when I come to Cape Finisterre, there's a foreright wind continually wafts us till we come at Virginia. See, our colonel's come. 66

_Enter_ Sir PETRONEL _with his followers_.

_Pe._ Well met, good Captain Seagull, and my noble gentlemen! Now the sweet hour of our freedom is at hand. Come, drawer, fill us some carouses, and prepare us for the mirth that will be occasioned presently. Here will be a pretty wench, gentlemen, that will bear us company all our voyage.

_Sea._ Whatsoever she be, here's to her health, noble colonel, both with cap and knee.

_Pe._ Thanks, kind Captain Seagull, she's one I love dearly, and must not be known till we be free from all that know us. And so, gentlemen, here's to her health. 78

_Ambo._ Let it come, worthy colonel; we do hunger and thirst for it.

_Pe._ Afore heaven! you have hit the phrase of one that her presence will touch from the foot to the forehead, if ye knew it.

_Sp._ Why, then, we will join his forehead with her health, sir; and Captain Scapethrift, here's to 'hem both.

_Enter_ SECURITY _and_ BRAMBLE.

_Sec._ See, see, Master Bramble, 'fore heaven! their voyage cannot but prosper; they are o' their knees for success to it!

_Br._ And they pray to god Bacchus. 90

_Sec._ God save my brave colonel, with all his tall captains and corporals. See, sir, my worshipful learned counsel, Master Bramble, is come to take his leave of you.

_Pe._ Worshipful Master Bramble, how far do you draw us into the sweet-briar of your kindness! Come, Captain Seagull, another health to this rare Bramble, that hath never a prick about him.

_Sea._ I pledge his most smooth disposition, sir. Come, Master Security, bend your supporters, and pledge this notorious health here. 101

_Sec._ Bend you yours likewise, Master Bramble; for it is you shall pledge me.

_Sea._ Not so, Master Security; he must not pledge his own health.

_Sec._ No, Master Captain?

_Enter_ QUICKSILVER _with_ WINNY _disguised_.

Why, then, here's one is fitly come to do him that honour.

_Qu._ Here's the gentlewoman your cousin, sir, whom, with much entreaty, I have brought to take her leave of you in a tavern; ashamed whereof, you must pardon her if she put not off her mask. 112

_Pe._ Pardon me, sweet cousin; my kind desire to see you before I went, made me so importunate to entreat your presence here.

_Sec._ How now, Master Francis? have you honoured this presence with a fair gentlewoman?

_Qu._ Pray, sir, take you no notice of her, for she will not be known to you.

_Sec._ But my learned counsel, Master Bramble here, I hope he may know her. 121

_Qu._ No more than you, sir, at this time; his learning must pardon her.

_Sec._ Well, God pardon her for my part, and I do, I'll be sworn; and so, Master Francis, here's to all that are going eastward to-night towards Cuckold's Haven;[69] and so to the health of Master Bramble.

_Qu._ I pledge it, sir. Hath it gone round, Captain?

_Sea._ It has, sweet Frank; and the round closes with thee. 130

_Qu._ Well, sir, here's to all eastward and toward cuckolds, and so to famous Cuckold's Haven, so fatally remembered.

[_Surgit._

_Pe._ Nay, pray thee, coz, weep not; gossip Security.

_Sec._ Ay, my brave gossip.

_Pe._ A word, I beseech you, sir. Our friend, Mistress Bramble here, is so dissolved in tears, that she drowns the whole mirth of our meeting. Sweet gossip, take her aside and comfort her. 139

_Sec._ Pity of all true love, Mistress Bramble; what, weep you to enjoy your love? What's the cause, lady? Is't because your husband is so near, and your heart yearns to have a little abused him? Alas, alas! the offence is too common to be respected. So great a grace hath seldom chanced to so unthankful a woman, to be rid of an old jealous dotard, to enjoy the arms of a loving young knight, that when your prickless Bramble is withered with grief of your loss, will make you flourish afresh in the bed of a lady. 149

_Enter_ Drawer.

_Dr._ Sir Petronel, here's one of your watermen come to tell you it will be flood these three hours; and that 'twill be dangerous going against the tide, for the sky is overcast, and there was a porcpisce[70] even now seen at London Bridge, which is always the messenger of tempests, he says.

_Pe._ A porcpisce!--what's that to th' purpose? Charge him, if he love his life, to attend us; can we not reach Blackwall (where my ship lies) against the tide, and in spite of tempests? Captains and gentlemen, we'll begin a new ceremony at the beginning of our voyage, which I believe will be followed of all future adventurers. 161

_Sea._ What's that, good colonel?

_Pe._ This, Captain Seagull. We'll have our provided supper brought aboard Sir Francis Drake's ship,[71] that hath compassed the world; where, with full cups and banquets, we will do sacrifice for a prosperous voyage. My mind gives me that some good spirits of the waters should haunt the desert ribs of her, and be auspicious to all that honour her memory, and will with like orgies enter their voyages. 170

_Sea._ Rarely conceited! One health more to this motion, and aboard to perform it. He that will not this night be drunk, may he never be sober.

[_They compass in_ WINIFRED, _dance the drunken round, and drink carouses_.

_Br._ Sir Petronel and his honourable captains, in these young services we old servitors may be spared. We only came to take our leaves, and with one health to you all, I'll be bold to do so. Here, neighbour Security, to the health of Sir Petronel, and all his captains.

_Sec._ You must bend then, Master Bramble; so now I am for you. I have one corner of my brain, I hope, fit to bear one carouse more. Here, lady, to you that are encompassed there, and are ashamed of our company. Ha, ha, ha! by my troth, my learned counsel, Master Bramble, my mind runs so of Cuckold's Haven to-night, that my head runs over with admiration. 186

_Br._ But is not that your wife, neighbour?

_Sec._ No, by my troth, Master Bramble. Ha, ha, ha! A pox of all Cuckold's Havens, I say!

_Br._ O' my faith, her garments are exceeding like your wife's.

_Sec._ _Cucullus non facit monachum_, my learned counsel; all are not cuckolds that seem so, nor all seem not that are so. Give me your hand, my learned counsel; you and I will sup somewhere else than at Sir Francis Drake's ship to-night. Adieu, my noble gossip.

_Br._ Good fortune, brave captains; fair skies God send ye!

_Omnes._ Farewell, my hearts, farewell! 199

_Pe._ Gossip, laugh no more at Cuckold's Haven, gossip.

_Sec._ I have done, I have done, sir; will you lead, Master Bramble? Ha, ha, ha!

_Pe._ Captain Seagull, charge a boat.

_Omnes._ A boat, a boat, a boat!

[_Exeunt all but_ Drawer.

_Dr._ Y'are in a proper taking indeed, to take a boat, especially at this time of night, and against tide and tempest. They say yet, "drunken men never take harm." This night will try the truth of that proverb. 208

[_Exit._

[66] This date is too early. The first colony was established (by Sir Richard Grenville) in 1585; see Hakluyt's _Voyages_ (ed. 1600), iii. 254. These colonists stayed only a year in Virginia. A second batch was sent out in 1587.

[67] "Only a few ... than we do here."--This is one of the passages that gave offence and procured the author's imprisonment. It is found only in a few copies. Englishmen were disgusted at the favours lavished by James on the needy Scots who swarmed southwards "with pride and hungry hopes completely arm'd." See Jesse's _Court of England under the Stuarts_, ed. 1855, i. 52-3.

[68] "Besides ... good as a feast."--This passage is omitted in the copies that contain the cancelled passage about the Scots.

[69] A spot on the Thames below Rotherhithe.

[70] Old form of porpoise: it occurs in Jonson's _Silent Woman_, &c. The gambolling of porpoises was supposed to portend a storm.

[71] See note 1, p. 59. [Transcriber's Note: Footnote [63]]