_Tho_. If he were sure to flie, he were sure to escape.
_Cap_. At the worst, drowning is a most [sic] honourable death then hanging.
_Do_. My mother died, I have it by tradition, As soone as I was borne; my father (but No knight) is now i'th _Indies_, a poore Merchant, That broke for 20,000 pounds.
_Do_. You were best use me well, now we are married. I will be sworne you forc'd me to the Church And thrice compeld me there to say _I Dorothy_. The Parsons oath and mine, for ought I know, May make it halfe a rape.
_Ri_. There is no remedy; We can prove no conspiracie. And, because I have been gulld my selfe, gett her with child, --My Doe is barren,--at birth of her first baby Ile give her a hundred peeces.
_Un_. That's somewhat yet, when charge comes on. Thy hand! a wife can be but a wife: it shall cost me 500 pounds but ile make thee a Ladie in earnest.
_Fra_. My Surgeon sayes no danger; when you please, I may venture, Sir, to _London_.
_Cou_. Not to-night, Sir; wee must have revells and you salute my Bride.
_Fra_. May all joy thrive upon your Loves. --Then you are cosend of your Mistres, Mounseir?
_Do_. But your nephew knowes I have met with my match. Some bodie has been put to the sword.
_Fra_. Preserve your marriage faith: a full increase Of what you wish confirme your happinesse.
The folio volume numbered Eg. MS. 1,994 contains 349 leaves. It was purchased by the British Museum, for the very modest sum of thirty-three pounds, at the sale of Lord Charlemont's library on August 6, 1865. Mr. Warner (of the Manuscript Department of the British Museum), to whom the public are indebted for an excellent catalogue of the Dulwich Collection, thinks that the volume originally belonged to Dulwich College. Towards the end of the XVIIth century Cartwright, the actor, bequeathed to the College a number of MS. plays, which the College authorities in the middle of the last century exchanged (horrendum dictu!) for tomes of controversial divinity. Of all the plays left by the actor only one[280]--and that imperfect--remains. The late Lord Charlemont was a friend of Malone, and it is well known that Malone had many of the Dulwich documents in his possession for years. Mr. Warner's theory is that Malone lent the volume to Lord Charlemont, and that it was never returned. The objection that naturally suggests itself is, "How came so acute a scholar as Malone to fail to draw attention to a Collection of such considerable interest?" And I confess that I am not able to offer any satisfactory answer.