Part 15
_Launder._ The les your sylence, the lesse your credence, The les your credens the les your honeste, The les your honeste the les your assystens, The les your assystens the les abylyte 970 In you to do ought. Wherfore, so god me save, No hurte in hangynge such a raylynge knave.
_Mery-reporte._ What monster is this? I never harde none suche. For loke how myche more I have made her to myche, And so farre, at lest, she hath made me to lyttell. 975 Wher be ye Launder? I thynke in some spytell.[202] Ye shall washe me no gere, for feare of fretynge[203] I love no launders that shrynke my gere in wettynge, I praye the go hens, and let me be in rest. I wyll do thyne erand as I thynke best. 980
_Launder._ Now wolde I take my leve, yf I wyste how. The lenger I lyve the more knave you.
_Mery-reporte._ The lenger thou lyvest the pyte the gretter, The soner thou be ryd the tydynges the better! Is not this a swete offyce that I have, 985 When every drab shall prove me a knave? Every man knoweth not what goddes servyce is, Nor I my selfe knewe yt not before this. I thynke goddes servauntes may lyve holyly, But the devyls servauntes lyve more meryly. 990 I know not what god geveth in standynge fees, But the devyls servaunts have casweltees[204] A hundred tymes mo then goddes servauntes have. For, though ye be never so starke a knave, If ye lacke money the devyll wyll do no wurse 995 But brynge you strayght to a-nother mans purse. Then wyll the devyll promote you here in this world, As unto suche ryche yt doth moste accord. Fyrste _pater noster qui es in celis_, And then ye shall sens[205] the shryfe wyth your helys. 1000 The greatest frende ye have in felde or towne, Standynge a-typ-to, shall not reche your crowne.
_The_ BOY _cometh in, the lest that can play_.
_Boy._ This same is even he, by al lycklyhod. Syr, I pray you, be not you master god?
_Mery-reporte._ No, in good fayth, sonne. But I may say to the I am suche a man that god may not mysse me. D iii 1006 Wherfore with the god yf thou wouldest have ought done Tell me thy mynde, and I shall shew yt sone.
_Boy._ Forsothe, syr, my mynde is thys, at few wordes, All my pleasure is in catchynge of byrdes, 1010 And makynge of snow-ballys and throwyng the same; For the whyche purpose to have set in frame,[206] Wyth my godfather god I wolde fayne have spoken, Desyrynge hym to have sent me by some token Where I myghte have had great frost for my pytfallys, 1015 And plente of snow to make my snow-ballys. This onys[207] had, boyes lyvis be such as no man leddys. O, to se my snow ballys lyght on my felowes heddys, And to here the byrdes how they flycker theyr wynges In the pytfale! I say yt passeth all thynges. 1020 Syr, yf ye be goddes servaunt, or his kynsman, I pray you helpe me in this yf ye can.
_Mery-reporte._ Alas, pore boy, who sent the hether?
_Boy._ A hundred boys that stode to-gether, Where they herde one say in a cry 1025 That my godfather, god almighty, Was come from heven, by his owne accorde, This nyght to suppe here wyth my lorde,[208] And farther he sayde, come whos[o][209] wull, They shall sure have theyr bellyes full 1030 Of all wethers who lyste to crave, Eche sorte suche wether as they lyste to have. And when my felowes thought this wolde be had, And saw me so prety a pratelynge lad, Uppon agrement, wyth a great noys, 1035 "Sende lyttell Dycke," cryed al the boys. By whose assent I am purveyd[210] To sew for the wether afore seyd. Wherin I pray you to be good, as thus, To helpe that god may geve yt us. 1040
_Mery-reporte._ Gyve boyes wether, quoth a! nonny,[211] nonny!
_Boy._ Yf god of his wether wyll gyve nonny, I pray you, wyll he sell ony? Or lend us a bushell of snow, or twayne, And poynt us a day to pay hym agayne? 1045
_Mery-reporte._ I can not tell, for, by thys light, D iii _b_ I chept[212] not, nor borowed, none of hym this night. But by suche shyfte as I wyll make Thou shalte se soone what waye he wyll take.
_Boy._ Syr, I thanke you. Then I may departe. 1050
_The_ BOY _goth forth_.
_Mery-reporte._ Ye, fare well, good sonne, wyth all my harte, Now suche an other sorte[213] as here hath bene In all the dayes of my lyfe I have not sene. No sewters now but women, knavys, and boys, And all theyr sewtys are in fansyes and toys. 1055 Yf that there come no wyser after thys cry I wyll to the god and make an ende quyckely. Oyes,[214] yf that any knave here Be wyllynge to appere, For wether fowle or clere, 1060 Come in before thys flocke And be he hole or syckly, Come, shew hys mynde quyckly, And yf hys tale be not lyckly[215] Ye shall lycke my tayle in the nocke. 1065 All thys tyme I perceyve is spent in wast, To wayte for mo sewters I se none make hast. Wherfore I wyll shew the god all thys procys And be delyvered of my symple[216] offys. Now, lorde, accordynge to your commaundement, 1070 Attendynge sewters I have ben dylygent, And, at begynnyng as your wyll was I sholde, I come now at ende to shewe what eche man wolde. The fyrst sewter before your selfe dyd appere, A gentylman desyrynge wether clere, 1075 Clowdy nor mysty, nor no wynde to blowe, For hurte in hys huntynge; and then, as ye know, The marchaunt sewde, for all of that kynde, For wether clere and mesurable wynde As they maye best bere theyr saylys to make spede. 1080 And streyght after thys there came to me, in dede, An other man who namyd hym-selfe a ranger, And sayd all of hys crafte be farre brought in daunger, For lacke of lyvynge, whyche chefely ys wynde-fall. But he playnely sayth there bloweth no wynde at al, D iv 1085 Wherfore he desyreth, for encrease of theyr fleesys,[217] Extreme rage of wynde, trees to tere in peces. Then came a water-myller and he cryed out For water and sayde the wynde was so stout The rayne could not fale, wherfore he made request 1090 For plenty of rayne, to set the wynde at rest. And then, syr, there came a wynde myller in, Who sayde for the rayne he could no wynde wyn, The water he wysht to be banysht all, Besechynge your grace of wynde contynuall. 1095 Then came there an other that wolde banysh all this A goodly dame, an ydyll thynge iwys. Wynde, rayne, nor froste, nor sonshyne, wold she have, But fayre close wether, her beautye to save. Then came there a-nother that lyveth by laundry, 1100 Who muste have wether hote & clere here clothys to dry. Then came there a boy for froste and snow contynuall, Snow to make snow ballys and frost for his pytfale, For whyche, god wote, he seweth full gredely. Your fyrst man wold have wether clere and not wyndy; 1105 The seconde the same, save cooles[218] to blow meanly; The thyrd desyred stormes and wynde moste extremely; The fourth all in water and wolde have no wynde; The fyft no water, but al wynde to grynde; The syxt wold have none of all these, nor no bright son; 1110 The seventh extremely the hote son wold have wonne; The eyght, and the last, for frost & snow he prayd. Byr lady, we shall take shame, I am a-frayd! Who marketh in what maner this sort is led May thynke yt impossyble all to be sped. 1115 This nomber is smale, there lacketh twayne of ten, And yet, by the masse, amonge ten thousand men No one thynge could stande more wyde from the tother; Not one of theyr sewtes agreeth wyth an other. I promyse you, here is a shrewed pece of warke. 1120 This gere wyll trye wether ye be a clarke. Yf ye trust to me, yt is a great foly; For yt passeth my braynes, by goddes body!
_Jupyter._ Son, thou haste ben dylygent and done so well, That thy labour is ryght myche thanke-worthy. D iv _b_ 1125 But be thou suer we nede no whyt thy counsell, For in ourselfe we have foresene remedy, Whyche thou shalt se. But, fyrste, departe hence quyckly To the gentylman and all other sewters here And commaunde them all before us to appere. 1130
_Mery-reporte._ That shall be no longer in doynge Then I am in commynge and goynge.
MERY-REPORTE _goth out_.
_Jupyter._ Suche debate as from above ye have herde, Suche debate beneth amonge your selfes ye se; As longe as heddes from temperaunce be deferd, 1135 So longe the bodyes in dystemperaunce be, This perceyve ye all, but none can helpe save we. But as we there have made peace concordantly, So woll we here now gyve you remedy.
MERY-REPORTE _and al the sewters entreth_.
_Mery-reporte._ If I hadde caught them 1140 Or ever I raught[219] them, I wolde have taught them To be nere me; Full dere have I bought them, Lorde, so I sought them, 1145 Yet have I brought them, Suche as they be.
_Gentylman._ Pleaseth yt your majeste, lorde, so yt is, We, as your subjectes and humble sewters all, Accordynge as we here your pleasure is, 1150 Are presyd[220] to your presens, beynge principall Hed and governour of all in every place, Who joyeth not in your syght, no joy can have. Wherfore we all commyt us to your grace As lorde of lordes us to peryshe or save. 1155
_Jupyter._ As longe as dyscrecyon so well doth you gyde Obedyently to use your dewte, Dout ye not we shall your savete provyde, Your grevys we have harde, wherfore we sent for ye To receyve answere, eche man in his degre, 1160 And fyrst to content most reason yt is, The fyrste man that sewde, wherfore marke ye this,
Oft shall ye have the wether clere and styll To hunt in for recompens of your payne. D v Also you marchauntes shall have myche your wyll. 1165 For oft-tymes, when no wynde on lande doth remayne, Yet on the see pleasaunt cooles you shall obtayne. And syns your huntynge maye rest in the nyght, Oft shall the wynde then ryse, and before daylyght
It shall ratyll downe the wood, in suche case 1170 That all ye rangers the better lyve may; And ye water-myllers shall obtayne this grace Many tymes the rayne to fall in the valey, When at the selfe tymes on hyllys we shall purvey Fayre wether for your wyndmilles, with such coolys of wynde As in one instant both kyndes of mylles may grynde. 1176
And for ye fayre women, that close wether wold have, We shall provyde that ye may suffycyently Have tyme to walke in, and your beauty save; And yet shall ye have, that lyveth by laundry, 1180 The hote sonne oft ynough your clothes to dry. Also ye, praty chylde, shall have both frost and snow, Now marke this conclusyon, we charge you arow.[221]
Myche better have we now devysed for ye all Then ye all can perceve, or coude desyre. 1185 Eche of you sewd to have contynuall Suche wether as his crafte onely doth requyre, All wethers in all places yf men all tymes myght hyer, Who could lyve by other? what is this neglygens Us to atempt in suche inconvenyens. 1190
Now, on the tother syde, yf we had graunted The full of some one sewt and no mo, And from all the rest the wether had forbyd, Yet who so hadde obtayned had wonne his owne wo. There is no one craft can preserve man so, 1195 But by other craftes, of necessyte, He muste have myche parte of his commodyte.
All to serve at ones and one destroy a nother, D v _b_ Or ellys to serve one and destroy all the rest, Nother wyll we do the tone nor the tother 1200 But serve as many, or as few, as we thynke best; And where, or what tyme, to serve moste or leste, The dyreccyon of that doutles shall stande Perpetually in the power of our hande.
Wherfore we wyll the hole worlde to attende 1205 Eche sorte on suche wether as for them doth fall, Now one, now other, as lyketh us to sende. Who that hath yt, ply[222] it, and suer we shall So gyde the wether in course to you all, That eche wyth other ye shall hole[223] remayne 1210 In pleasure and plentyfull welth, certayne.
_Gentylman._ Blessed was the tyme wherin we were borne, Fyrst for the blysfull chaunce of your godly presens. Next for our sewt was there never man beforne That ever harde so excellent a sentens 1215 As your grace hath gevyn to us all arow, Wherin your hyghnes hath so bountyfully Dystrybuted my parte that your grace shall know, Your selfe sooll[224] possessed of hertes of all chyvalry.
_Marchaunt._ Lyke-wyse we marchauntes shall yeld us holy,[225] 1220 Onely to laude the name of Jupyter As god of all goddes, you to serve soolly; For of every thynge, I se, you are norysher.
_Ranger._ No dout yt is so, for so we now fynde; Wherin your grace us rangers so doth bynde, 1225 That we shall gyve you our hertes with one accorde, For knowledge to know you as our onely lorde.
_Water Myller._ Well, I can no more, but "for our water We shall geve your lordshyp our ladyes sauter."
_Wynde Myller._ Myche have ye bounde us; for, as I be saved, We have all obteyned better then we craved. 1231
_Gentylwoman._ That is trew, wherfore your grace shal trewly The hertes of such as I am have surely.
_Launder._ And suche as I am, who be as good as you, His hyghness shall be suer on, I make a vow.[226] 1235
_Boy._ Godfather god, I wyll do somewhat for you agayne. D vi By Cryste, ye maye happe to have a byrd or twayne, And I promyse you, yf any snow come, When I make my snow ballys ye shall have some.
_Mery-reporte._ God thanke your lordshyp. Lo, how this is brought to pas! 1240 Syr, now shall ye have the wether even as yt was.
_Jupyter._ We nede no whyte our selfe any farther to bost, For our dedes declare us apparauntly. Not onely here on yerth, in every cost, But also above in the hevynly company, 1245 Our prudens hath made peace unyversally, Whyche thynge we sey, recordeth us as pryncypall God and governour of heven, yerth, and all. Now unto that heven we woll make retourne, When we be gloryfyed most tryumphantly, 1250 Also we woll all ye that on yerth sojourne, Syns cause gyveth cause to knowe us your lord onely, And nowe here to synge moste joyfully, Rejoycynge in us, and in meane tyme we shall Ascende into our trone celestyall. 1255
FINIS.
Printed by W. Rastell.
1533.
_Cum privilegio._
FOOTNOTES:
[98] _I.e._ of the audience as representing mankind.
[99] For use as a plural cf. l. 347 'besecheth,' 844 'ye doth.'
[100] The dispensers respectively of frost, sunshine, wind, and rain.
[101] placed on record.
[102] powers, not 'pores.'
[103] that which they have experienced.
[104] conclusion.
[105] _I.e._ some one in the audience.
[106] Said to one of the attendants.
[107] The phrase in alphabet-learning for a letter sounded by itself; cf. _Wily Beguiled_: "A _per se_ A" (Hawkins' Origin of English Drama, 3: 357. Oxford: 1772).
[108] matters.
[109] frieze.
[110] sweeting, sweetheart.
[111] separated.
[112] impartial.
[113] out of good fellowship.
[114] the end.
[115] equivalent to stanza.
[116] clownish rascals.
[117] Louvain.
[118] In Herts.
[119] Perhaps one of the numerous Barfords.
[120] In Notts.
[121] In Essex.
[122] Tottenham.
[123] In Suffolk.
[124] Near Woolwich.
[125] Witham, in Essex.
[126] Bristol.
[127] Possibly Gravelye near Baldock.
[128] There is a parish of Buttsbury in Essex: 'ynge Gyngiang Jayberd' defies explanation.
[129] Have given notice to the petitioners to appear. The 'cry' is supposed to have been made outside.
[130] mastership.
[131] the audience.
[132] journeying.
[133] rouse the game.
[134] call off after a kill.
[135] avail.
[136] clyster, purge.
[137] parson.
[138] As the play was written before 1533, the clergy were still celibates, and this is only Mery-reporte's 'humour.'
[139] immediately.
[140] Explained by 'thynges wherof there is plente.'
[141] available.
[142] heard more, or others.
[143] in the same rightness.
[144] Scio (Chios).
[145] Purlieus are technically the woods adjacent to a royal forest; a chase is an unenclosed part.
[146] What on earth would it matter?
[147] dispensed with, missed.
[148] To give two pounds of wheat for grinding sixty-four.
[149] wheel.
[150] feeder of the mill.
[151] axletree.
[152] Jupiter's proclamation.
[153] making rejoice.
[154] too far at variance.
[155] given less freedom.
[156] the kingdom of saints.
[157] assembly.
[158] scatter, blow about.
[159] flying apart.
[160] murrain, plague.
[161] dispensed with.
[162] roundly, completely.
[163] the psalms appointed for the Hours of the Blessed Virgin.
[164] esteem.
[165] admit.
[166] hair-breadth.
[167] float.
[168] sent.
[169] moderate cool breezes.
[170] choir.
[171] _Sic_ in all editions.
[172] of not sufficient advantage.
[173] Indistinguishable from trifles.
[174] off.
[175] The earliest reference to a dearth of corn in the reign of Henry VIII. which I can find in Holinshed is _sub anno_ 1523, when he states that the price in London was 20 _s._ a quarter, but without assigning any cause. The reference here is, I think, clearly to the great rains of the autumn of 1527 and April and May, 1528, of which Holinshed writes that they "caused great floods and did much harme namelie in corne, so that the next yeare [1528?] it failed within the realme and great dearth ensued."
[176] one.
[177] preliminary.
[178] moderate, adjust.
[179] morass.
[180] stands still.
[181] the flat fixed stone (or bed stone) over which the turning stone, or _runner_, moved.
[182] reviling.
[183] decayed.
[184] be leaky; misprinted _belyke_ by Kitson.
[185] or _jet_ (l. 835), strut.
[186] parrot.
[187] simpletons.
[188] Jesus.
[189] trim.
[190] smart.
[191] guess.
[192] Mlle. Simper de Coquette.
[193] communicate.
[194] wanton.
[195] Cf. note on _Roister Doister_, I. iv. 12. _Merygreeke_: "But with whome is he nowe so sadly roundyng yonder?" _Dougerie_: "With _Nobs nicebecetur miserere_ fonde." Explained by Flügel as a contraction of _Nescio quid dicitur_ = Mistress 'What's-her-name.' _Gen. Ed._
[196] At regard, _i.e._ as the object of.
[197] perils.
[198] sweeter.
[199] fetch.
[200] thee.
[201] In _The Play of Love_, Heywood writes of "bybbyll babbyll, clytter clatter."
[202] hospital, lazar-house.
[203] rubbing.
[204] casualties, chance perquisites.
[205] swing to and fro with your heels before the sheriff, as a censer is swung by a thurifer.
[206] made arrangements.
[207] once.
[208] Cardinal Wolsey suggests himself as the person most likely to be thus referred to, but if the reference of l. 636 is to the excessive rain of 1527-28, Wolsey's disgrace followed it rather too closely for the phrase "within this seven yere."
[209] Rastell ed., 'whose.'
[210] provided.
[211] Usually a mere exclamation, but here apparently as if from _non_, not.
[212] bargained for.
[213] assemblage.
[214] oyez, hearken.
[215] likely.
[216] foolish.
[217] plunder.
[218] Cf. l. 590, "meane cooles."
[219] reached.
[220] pressed, have hastened.
[221] in order.
[222] use.
[223] whole.
[224] solely.
[225] wholly.
[226] St. John's copy ends.
JOHAN JOHAN
=Previous Editions and the Present Text.=--An edition of "A Mery Play between Johan Johan, the Husbande, Tyb, his Wyfe and Syr Jhan, the Preest, attributed to John Heywood 1533,"[227] was printed at the Chiswick Press by C[harles] Whittingham "from an unique copy in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford," some time in the first half of the present century.[228] The anonymous editor prefaces it with the following brief "advertisement":--
"This is one of the six Plays attributed by our dramatic biographers to John Heywood, author of _The Four P's_ (contained in Dodsley's collection), of 'the Spider and Flie,' and of some other poems, an account of which may be found in the Third Volume of Warton's History of English Poetry. No copy of this Mery Play appears to exist except that in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, from which this is a faithful reprint. Exclusive of its antiquity and rarity, it is valuable as affording a specimen of the earliest and rudest form of our Comedy (for the Poem is shorter, & the number of the Dramatis Personæ yet fewer than those of the _Four P's_) & of the liberty with which even the Roman Catholic authors of that age felt themselves authorized to treat the established priesthood."
The Ashmolean copy (now in the Bodleian Library) can no longer be reckoned unique, another copy having been discovered in the Pepys collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge. This copy has been used in correcting the Chiswick Press text, and it may be as well to mention that the following changes, besides a good many minor ones, have been made on its authority, and are not surreptitious emendations of the present editor.
l. 4, _myche_ for _muche_; l. 27, _Whan_ for _Whyn_; l. 31, _thwak_ for _twak_; l. 89, _enrage_ for _engage_; l. 94, _But_ for _Thou_; l. 121, _thou_ for _you_; l. 129, _lyk_ for _syk_; l. 132, _to go_ for _go_; l. 137, _fare_ for _face_; l. 305, _waxe_ for _ware_; l. 335, _for I_ for _I_; l. 471, _Ye_ for _le_; l. 497, _mych_ for _much_; l. 540, _beyond_ for _beand_; l. 542, _a bevy_ for _bevy_; l. 552, _beyond_ for _beyand_; l. 581, _v_ for _ix_; l. 604, _I am_ for _am I_.
In the apportionment of ll. 240-266 between the two speakers, my predecessor, like myself, though not in the same manner, has departed from Rastell's (clearly erroneous) arrangement of the speeches, but his dislike of footnotes has caused him to omit any mention of the fact. The title-page is a representation, not a _facsimile_. There is no running head-line in the original.
ALFRED W. POLLARD.
FOOTNOTES:
[227] See Critical Essay, pp. 10, 14.
[228] My own copy has beneath the initials of a former owner the date "March 22, 1833"; that in the British Museum is assigned to 1830. I have seen it stated, but I know not on what authority, that the book appeared in 1819.
[Decoration]
A mery play
Betwene Johan Johan the husbande / Tyb his wyfe / & syr Jhān the preest
[Decoration]
A Mery Play, betwene JOHAN JOHAN, _the husbande_. TYB, _his wyfe_, & SYR JHAN, _the preest_
JOHAN JOHAN, _the Husbande_.