Actus iiij, Scæna v

[Christian Custance. Trupenie. Tristram Trusty.]
C. CUSTANCE.
Trupenie dyd promise me to runne a great pace,
My friend Tristram Trusty to fet into this place.
In deede he dwelleth hence a good stert I confesse:
But yet a quicke messanger might twice since as I gesse,
Haue gone and come againe. Ah yond I spie him now.

TRUPENY.
Ye are a slow goer sir, I make God auow.
My mistresse Custance will in me put all the blame,
Your leggs be longer than myne: come apace for shame.

C. CUSTANCE.
I can thee thanke Trupenie, thou hast done right wele.

TRUPENY.
Maistresse since I went no grasse hath growne on my hele,
But maister Tristram Trustie here maketh no speede.

C. CUSTANCE.
That he came at all I thanke him in very deede,
For now haue I neede of the helpe of some wise man.

T. TRUSTY.
Then may I be gone againe, for none such I am.

TRUPENIE.
Ye may bee by your going: for no Alderman
Can goe I dare say, a sadder pace than ye can.

C. CUSTANCE.
Trupenie get thee in, thou shalt among them knowe,
How to vse thy selfe, like a propre man I trowe.

TRUPENY.
I go. Ex.

C. CUSTANCE.
Now Tristram Trusty I thank you right much.
For at my first sending to come ye neuer grutch.

T. TRUSTY.
Dame Custance God ye saue, and while my life shall last,
For my friende Goodlucks sake ye shall not sende in wast.

C. CUSTANCE.
He shal giue you thanks.

T. TRUSTY.
I will do much for his sake

C. CUSTANCE.
But alack, I feare, great displeasure shall be take.

T. TRUSTY.
Wherfore?

C. CUSTANCE.
For a foolish matter.

T. TRUSTY.
What is your cause

C. CUSTANCE.
I am yll accombred with a couple of dawes.

T. TRUSTY.
Nay weepe not woman: but tell me what your cause is
As concerning my friende is any thing amisse?

C. CUSTANCE.
No not on my part: but here was Sym Suresby.

T. TRUSTIE.
He was with me and told me so.

C. CUSTANCE.
And he stoode by
While Ralph Roister Doister with helpe of Merygreeke,
For promise of mariage dyd vnto me seeke.

T. TRUSTY.
And had ye made any promise before them twaine,

C. CUSTANCE.
No I had rather be torne in pieces and slaine,
No man hath my faith and trouth, but Gawyn Goodlucke,
And that before Suresby dyd I say, and there stucke,
But of certaine letters there were suche words spoken.

T. TRUSTIE.
He tolde me that too.

C. CUSTANCE.
And of a ring and token.
That Suresby I spied, dyd more than halfe suspect,
That I my faith to Gawyn Goodlucke dyd reiect.

T. TRUSTY.
But there was no such matter dame Custance in deede?

C. CUSTANCE.
If euer my head thought it, God sende me yll speede.
Wherfore I beseech you, with me to be a witnesse,
That in all my lyfe I neuer intended thing lesse,
And what a brainsicke foole Ralph Roister Doister is,
Your selfe know well enough.

T. TRUSTY.
Ye say full true ywis.

C. CUSTANCE.
Bicause to bee his wife I ne graunt nor apply,
Hither will he com he sweareth by and by,
To kill both me and myne, and beate downe my house flat.
Therfore I pray your aide.

T. TRUSTIE.
I warrant you that.

C. CUSTANCE.
Haue I so many yeres liued a sobre life,
And shewed my selfe honest, mayde, widowe, and wyfe
And nowe to be abused in such a vile sorte,
Ye see howe poore Widowes lyue all voyde of comfort.

T. TRUSTY.
I warrant hym do you no harme nor wrong at all.

C. CUSTANCE.
No, but Mathew Merygreeke doth me most appall,
That he woulde ioyne hym selfe with suche a wretched loute.

T. TRUSTY.
He doth it for a iest I knowe hym out of doubte,
And here cometh Merygreke.

C. CUSTANCE.
Then shal we here his mind.