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- ALL IS TRUE (HENRY VIII)
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- Act 5 Scene 3
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- (Noise and tumult within. Enter Porter with rushes and his man with a
- broken cudgel)
- l1l Porter (to those within)
- YouÆll leave your noise anon, ye rascals. Do you take
- l2l The court for Paris Garden, ye rude slaves?
- l3l Leave your gaping.
- l4l One (within) Good master porter, I belong to thÆ larder.
- l5l Porter Belong to thÆ gallows, and be hanged, ye rogue!
- l6l Is this a place to roar in?
- l7l (To his man)
- Fetch me a dozen crab-tree staves, and strong ones,
- l8l (Raising his rushes)
- These are but switches to Æem.
- (To those within)
- IÆll scratch your heads.
- l9l You must be seeing christenings? Do you look
- l10l For ale and cakes here, you rude rascals?
- l11l Man Pray, sir, be patient. ÆTis as much impossible,
- l12l Unless we sweep Æem from the door with cannons,
- l13l To scatter Æem as Ætis to make Æem sleep
- l14l On May-day morningùwhich will never be.
- l15l We may as well push against PaulÆs as stir Æem.
- l16l Porter How got they in, and be hanged?
- l17l Man Alas, I know not. How gets the tide in?
- l18l As much as one sound cudgel of four footù
- (He raises his cudgel)
- l19l You see the poor remainderùcould distribute,
- l20l I made no spare, sir.
- Porter You did nothing, sir.
- l21l Man I am not Samson, nor Sir Guy, nor Colbrand,
- l22l To mow Æem down before me; but if I spared any
- l23l That had a head to hit, either young or old,
- l24l He or she, cuckold or cuckold-maker,
- l25l Let me neÆer hope to see a chine againù
- l26l And that I would not for a cow, God save her!
- l27l One (within) Do you hear, master porter?
- l28l Porter I shall be with you presently,
- l29l Good master puppy.
- (To his man) Keep the door close, sirrah.
- l30l Man What would you have me do?
- Porter What should you do,
- l31l but knock Æem down by thÆ dozens? Is this Moorfields
- l32l to muster in? Or have we some strange Indian with
- l33l the great tool come to court, the women so besiege us?
- l34l Bless me, what a fry of fornication is at door! On my
- l35l Christian conscience, this one christening will beget a
- l36l thousand. Here will be father, godfather, and all
- l37l together.
- l38l Man The spoons will be the bigger, sir. There is a fellow
- l39l somewhat near the door, he should be a brazier by his
- l40l face, for oÆ my conscience twenty of the dog-days now
- l41l reign in Æs nose. All that stand about him are under the
- l42l lineùthey need no other penance. That fire-drake did
- l43l I hit three times on the head, and three times was his
- l44l nose discharged against me. He stands there like a
- l45l mortar-piece, to blow us. There was a haberdasherÆs
- l46l wife of small wit near him, that railed upon me till her
- l47l pinked porringer fell off her head, for kindling such a
- l48l combustion in the state. I missed the meteor once, and
- l49l hit that woman, who cried out ôClubs!ö, when I might
- l50l see from far some forty truncheoners draw to her
- l51l succour, which were the hope oÆ thÆ Strand, where she
- l52l was quartered. They fell on. I made good my place. At
- l53l length they came to thÆ broomstaff to me. I defied Æem
- l54l still, when suddenly a file of boys behind Æem, loose
- l55l shot, delivered such a shower of pebbles that I was fain
- l56l to draw mine honour in and let Æem win the work. The
- l57l devil was amongst Æem, I think, surely.
- l58l Porter These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse,
- l59l and fight for bitten apples, that no audience but the
- l60l tribulation of Tower Hill or the limbs of Limehouse,
- l61l their dear brothers, are able to endure. I have some of
- l62l Æem in limbo patrum, and there they are like to dance
- l63l these three days, besides the running banquet of two
- l64l beadles that is to come.
- (Enter the Lord Chamberlain)
- l65l Lord Chamberlain Mercy oÆ me, what a multitude are here!
- l66l They grow still, tooùfrom all parts they are coming,
- l67l As if we kept a fair here! Where are these porters,
- l68l These lazy knaves? (To the Porter and his man) YouÆve
- made a fine hand, fellows!
- l69l ThereÆs a trim rabble let inùare all these
- l70l Your faithful friends oÆ thÆ suburbs? We shall have
- l71l Great store of room, no doubt, left for the ladies
- l72l When they pass back from the christening!
- Porter An Æt please your honour,
- l73l We are but men, and what so many may do,
- l74l Not being torn a-pieces, we have done.
- l75l An army cannot rule Æem.
- Lord Chamberlain As I live,
- l76l If the King blame me for Æt, IÆll lay ye all
- l77l By thÆ heels, and suddenlyùand on your heads
- l78l Clap round fines for neglect. YouÆre lazy knaves,
- l79l And here ye lie baiting of bombards when
- l80l Ye should do service.
- (Flourish of trumpets within)
- Hark, the trumpets sound.
- l81l TheyÆre come, already, from the christening.
- l82l Go break among the press, and find a way out
- l83l To let the troop pass fairly, or IÆll find
- l84l A Marshalsea shall hold ye play these two months.
- (As they leave, the Porter and his man call within)
- l85l Porter Make way there for the Princess!
- Man You great fellow,
- l86l Stand close up, or IÆll make your head ache.
- l87l Porter You iÆ thÆ camlet, get up oÆ thÆ railù
- l88l IÆll peck you oÆer the pales else.
- (Exeunt)
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