A YORK-SHIRE TRAGEDY
Page: 7

Would fain leap after him. Revenge, I say,
I'm mad to be reveng'd. My strumpet wife,
It is thy quarrel that rips thus my flesh,
And makes my breast spit blood, but thou shalt bleed.
Vanquisht? got down? unable e'en to speak?
Surely tis want of money makes men weak.
Aye, twas that orethrew me; I'd nere been down else.

[Exit.]


SCENE III. The same.

[Enter wife in a riding suit with a servingman.]


SERVINGMAN.
Faith, mistress, If it might not be presumption
In me to tell you so, for his excuse
You had small reason, knowing his abuse.

WIFE.
I grant I had; but, alas,
Why should our faults at home be spread abroad?
Tis grief enough within doors. At first sight
Mine Uncle could run o'er his prodigal life
As perfectly, as if his serious eye
Had numbered all his follies:
Knew of his mortgaged lands, his friends in bonds,
Himself withered with debts: And in that minute
Had I added his usage and unkindness,
Twould have confounded every thought of good:
Where now, fathering his riots on his youth,
Which time and tame experience will shake off,
Guessing his kindness to me (as I smoothd him
With all the skill I had) though his deserts
Are in form uglier then an unshaped Bear,
He's ready to prefer him to some office
And place at Court, A good and sure relief
To all his stooping fortunes: twill be a means, I hope
To make new league between us, and redeem
His vertues with his lands.

SERVINGMAN.
I should think so, mistress. If he should not now be kind
to you and love you, and cherish you up, I should think the
devil himself kept open house in him.

WIFE.
I doubt not but he will now: prethe, leave me; I think I
hear him coming.

SERVINGMAN.
I am gone.

[Exit.]

WIFE.
By this good means I shall preserve my lands,
And free my husband out of usurers hands:
Now there is no need of sale, my Uncle's kind,
I hope, if ought, this will content his mind.--
Here comes my husband.

[Enter Husband.]

HUSBAND.
Now, are you come? where's the money? let's see the money.
Is the rubbish sold, those wiseakers your lands? why, when?
the money! where ist? powr't down, down with it, down with it: