Thomas Otway The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists

_Sir Jol._ Out upon't, fie for shame! I protest I'll leave your company if you talk so. But faith they were pure whores, daintily dutiful strumpets: ha! uddsbud, they'd--have st...

Thus is it with the souls of murdered men, Who to their bodies would again repair; But, finding that they cannot enter there, Mourning and groaning wander in the air. Robbed of...

King. 'Tis night; the season when the happy take Repose, and only wretches are awake. Now discontented ghosts begin their rounds, Haunt ruined buildings and unwholesome grounds;...

_Page._ At first I thought they had been mortal foes; Monimia raged, Castalio grew disturbed; Each thought the other wronged, yet both so haughty, They scorned submission, thoug...

Don John. How vainly would dull moralists impose Limits on love, whose nature brooks no laws? Love is a god, and like a god should be Inconstant, with unbounded liberty, Rove as...

_Mon._ Stand off, and give me room! I will not rest till I have found Castalio, My wishes' lord, comely as rising day, Amidst ten thousand eminently known. Flowers spring up whe...

Sylv. To fall in love, and to fall in love with a soldier! nay, a disbanded soldier too; a fellow with the mark of Cain upon him, which everybody knows him by, and is ready to t...

_Belv._ I'm sacrificed! I'm sold! betrayed to shame! Inevitable ruin has inclosed me! No sooner was I to my bed repaired, To weigh and (weeping) ponder my condition, But the old...

_Beau._ Ah, Courtine, must we be always idle? must we never see our glorious days again? when shall we be rolling in the lands of milk and honey; encamped in large luxuriant vin...

_Sir Jol._ So, are ye come? I am glad on't; odd, you're welcome, very welcome, odd, ye are; here's a small banquet, but I hope 'twill please you; sit ye down, sit ye down both t...

_Priu._ Could words express the story I've to tell you, Fathers, these tears were useless, these sad tears That fall from my old eyes; but there is cause We all should weep; tea...

_Acast._ To-day has been a day of glorious sport. When you, Castalio, and your brother left me, Forth from the thickets rushed another boar, So large, he seemed the tyrant of th...

_Jaff._ Not hear me! by my suffering but you shall! My lord, my lord! I'm not that abject wretch You think me: patience! where's the distance throws Me back so far, but I may bo...

Beau. A pox o' fortune! Thou art always teasing me about fortune: thou risest in a morning with ill-luck in thy mouth; nay, never eatest a dinner, but thou sighest two hours aft...

_Cast._ Wished morning's come! And now, upon the plains And distant mountains, where they feed their flocks, The happy shepherds leave their homely huts, And with their pipes pr...

Paul. 'Tis strange, Ernesto, this severity Should still reign powerful in Acasto's mind, To hate the court, where he was bred, and lived, All honours heaped on him that power co...

Don John. Why should dull law rule nature, who first made That law by which herself is now betrayed? Ere man's corruptions made him wretched, he Was born most noble that was bor...

_Ren._ Why was my choice ambition, the worst ground A wretch can build on? 'Tis indeed at distance A goodly prospect, tempting to the view; The height delights us, and the mount...

King. Happy the monarch, on whose brow no cares Add weight to the bright diadem he wears; Like me, in all that he can wish for, blest. Renown and love, the gentlest calms of res...

_Priu._ Why, cruel Heaven, have my unhappy days Been lengthened to this sad one? Oh! dishonour And deathless infamy is fallen upon me. Was it my fault? Am I a traitor? No. But t...

_L. Dunce._ Die a maid, Sylvia, fie, for shame! what a scandalous resolution's that! Five thousand pounds to your portion, and leave it all to hospitals, for the innocent recrea...

_L. Dunce._ What think you now of a cold wet march over the mountains, your men tired, your baggage not come up, but at night a dirty watery plain to encamp upon, and nothing to...

_Cour._ Heigho! heigho! Ha! where am I? Was I drunk or no, last night? Something leaning that way. But where the devil am I? sincerely in a bawdy-house: faugh! what a smell of s...

Come, all ye youths, whose hearts e'er bled By cruel beauty's pride; Bring each a garland on his head, Let none his sorrows hide: But hand in hand around me move, Singing the sa...

_Sir Jol._ You shall, sirrah, if a body desires you a little, so you shall; we shall spoil all else, all will be spoiled else, man, if you do not: stretch out longer, longer yet...

_Jaff._ Final destruction seize on all the world! Bend down, ye Heavens, and, shutting round this earth, Crush the vile globe into its first confusion; Scorch it with elemental...

_Sir Dav._ I cannot sleep, I shall never sleep again: I have prayed too so long, that were I to be hanged presently, I have never a prayer left to help myself: I was no sooner l...

_Aquil._ Tell him I am gone to bed: tell him I am not at home: tell him I've better company with me, or anything; tell him, in short, I will not see him, the eternal troublesome...

_Jaff._ I'm here; and thus, the shades of night around me, I look as if all hell were in my heart, And I in hell. Nay, surely, 'tis so with me; For every step I tread, methinks...

_Sir Dav._ Troth, I had forgot my medal and chain, quite, and clean forgot my relic; I was forced to come up these back stairs, for fear of meeting my wife again; it is the trou...

_Pier._ I tell thee Heaven and I are friends: I ne'er broke peace with it yet, by cruel murders, Rapine or perjury, or vile deceiving; But lived in moral justice towards all men...

_Belv._ Come, come, come, come--nay, come to bed, Pr'ythee, my love. The winds! hark how they whistle! And the rain beats: oh, how the weather shrinks me! You're angry now; who...

Jaff. Where dost thou lead me? Every step I move, Methinks I tread upon some mangled limb Of a racked friend. O my dear charming ruin! Where are we wandering?

You were pleased to send me word you would meet me in the Mall this evening, and give me further satisfaction in the matter you were so unkind to charge me with: I was there, bu...

I endure too much torment to be silent, and have endured it too long not to make the severest complaint. I love you, I dote on you; desire makes me mad when I am near you, and d...

In value of your quiet, though it would be the utter ruin of my own, I have endeavoured this day to persuade myself never more to trouble you with a passion that has tormented m...

Acast. Blest be the morning that has brought me health; A happy rest has softened pain away, And I'll forget it, though my mind's not well: A heavy melancholy clogs my heart; I...

_Sir Jol._ Go you and Fourbin to my house presently; bid Monsieur Fourbin remember that all things be ordered according to my directions. Tell my maids, too, I am coming home in...

_Pier._ No: there's fool, There's fool about thee: when a woman sells Her flesh to fools, her beauty's lost to me; They leave a taint, a sully where they've passed; There's such...

And was she not frank and free, And was she not kind to me, To lock up her cat in her cupboard, And give her key to me, to me? To lock up her cat in her cupboard, And give her k...

Since you are going to quit the world[81] I think myself obliged, as a member of that world, to use the best of my endeavours to divert you from so ill-natured an inclination: t...

You cannot but be sensible that I am blind, or you would not so openly discover what a ridiculous tool you make of me. I should be glad to discover whose satisfaction I was sacr...

Could I see you without passion, or be absent from you without pain, I need not beg your pardon for this renewing my vows, that I love you more than health, or any happiness her...