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  • Title: The Honest Whore, Part 1 (Quarto 1, 1604)
  • Editor: Joost Daalder
  • Contributing editor: Brett Greatley-Hirsch
  • Coordinating editor: Brett Greatley-Hirsch
  • General textual editor: Eleanor Lowe
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-490-5

    Copyright Digital Renaissance Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Authors: Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton
    Editor: Joost Daalder
    Peer Reviewed

    The Honest Whore, Part 1 (Quarto 1, 1604)

    191511. SCE. Enter Fustigo, Crambo and Poli.
    Fus. Hold vp your hands gentlemen: heres one, two, three,
    (nay I warrant they are sound pistols, and without flawes, I
    had them (of my sister, and I know she vses to put nothing
    thats crackt,) three, foure, fiue, sixe, seuen, eight and nine, by
    1920this hand bring me but a piece of his bloud. and you shall
    haue 9. more. Ile lurke in a tauerne not far off, & prouide sup-
    per to close vp the end of the Tragedy, the linnen drapers re-
    mēber-stand toot I beseech you, & play your partes perfectly.
    Cram. Looke you Signior, tis not your golde that we way.
    1925Fust. Nay, nay, way it and spare not, if it lacke one graine of (corne;
    Ile giue you a bushell of wheate to make it vp.
    Cram. But by your fauour Signior, which of the seruants
    G 3 is
    THE HONEST WHORE.
    is it, because wele punish iustly.
    Fust. Mary tis the head man; you shall tast him by his
    1930tongue a pretty tall prating felow, with a Tuscalonian beard.
    Po. Tuscalonian: very good.
    Fust. Cods life I was neere so thrumbd since I was a gentle-
    man: my coxcombe was dry beaten as if my haire had beene
    hemp. Cram. Wele dry beate some of them.
    1935Fust. Nay it grew so high, that my sister cryed murder out
    very manfully: I haue her consent in a manner to haue him
    pepperd, els ile not doot to win more then ten cheaters do at a
    rifling: breake but his pate or so, onely his mazer, because
    ile haue his head in a cloath aswell as mine, hees a linnen dra-
    1940per and may take enough. I could enter mine action of batte-
    ry against him, but we may haps be both dead and rotten be-
    fore the lawyers would end it.
    Cram. No more to doe, but insconce your selfe i'th taueren;
    prouide no great cheare, couple of Capons, some Phesants,
    1945Plouers, an Oringeado-pie or so: but how bloudy soere the
    day be, sally you not forth.
    Fust. No, no, nay if I stir, some body shal stinke: ile not budge:
    ile lie like a dog in a manger.
    Cram. Well, well, to the tauerne, let not our supper be raw,
    1950for you shall haue blood enough-your belly full.
    Fust. Thats all so god sa me, I thirst after, bloud for bloud,
    bump for bump, nose for nose, head for head, plaster for pla-
    ster, and so farewell: what shall I call your names because ile
    leaue word, if any such come to the barre.
    1955Cram. My name is Corporall Crambo.
    Poh. and mine, Lieutenant Poh. Exeunt.
    Cram. Poli. Is as tall a man as euer opened Oyster: I would
    not be the diuell to meete Poh, farewell.
    Fust. Nor I by this light, if Poh be such a Poh. Exeunt.