Digital Renaissance Editions

About this text

  • Title: The Honest Whore, Part 2 (Modern)
  • Editor: Joost Daalder
  • 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.
    Author: Thomas Dekker
    Editor: Joost Daalder
    Peer Reviewed

    The Honest Whore, Part 2 (Modern)

    1290.1[3.2]
    Enter Mattheo, [who stands aside], Bellafront, and Orlando [as Pacheco].
    Bellafront
    How now, what ails your master?
    Orlando
    H始as taken a younger brother始s purge, forsooth, and that works with him.
    1295Bellafront
    Where is his cloak and rapier?
    Orlando
    He has given up his cloak, and his rapier is bound to the peace. If you look a little higher, you may see that another hath entered into hatband for him too. Six and four have put him into this sweat.
    1300Bellafront
    Where始s all his money?
    Orlando
    始Tis put over by exchange. His doublet was going to be translated, but for me. If any man would ha始 lent but half a ducat on his beard, the hair of it had stuffed a pair of breeches by this time. I had but one poor penny, and 1305that I was glad to niggle out and buy a holly-wand to grace him through the street. As hap was, his boots were on, and them I dustied, to make people think he had been riding and I had run by him.
    Bellafront
    O me! [To Mattheo] How does my sweet Mattheo?
    1310Mattheo
    O rogue, of what devilish stuff are these dice made of? Of the parings of the devil始s corns of his toes, that they run thus damnably?
    Bellafront
    I prithee, vex not.
    Mattheo
    If any handicraftsman was ever suffered to keep 1315shop in hell, it will be a dice-maker. He始s able to undo more souls than the devil; I played with mine own dice, yet lost. Ha始 you any money?
    Bellafront
    始Las, I ha始 none.
    Mattheo
    Must have money, must have some, must have a 1320cloak and rapier and things. Will you go set your lime-twigs and get me some birds, some money?
    Bellafront
    What lime-twigs should I set?
    Mattheo
    You will not, then? Must have cash and pictures. Do ye hear, frailty? Shall I walk in a Plymouth cloak, 1325that始s to say like a rogue, in my hose and doublet, and a crab-tree cudgel in my hand, and you swim in your satins? Must have money, come!
    [Taking off her gown.]
    Orlando
    Is始t bedtime, master, that you undo my mistress?
    Bellafront
    Undo me? Yes, yes, at these riflings 1330I
    Have been too often.
    Mattheo
    Help to flay, Pacheco.
    Orlando
    Flaying call you it?
    Mattheo
    [To Bellafront] I始ll pawn you, by th始Lord, to your very eyebrows.
    Bellafront
    With all my heart; since heaven will have me poor,
    1335As good be drowned at sea as drowned at shore.
    Orlando
    Why, hear you, sir? I始faith, do not make away her gown.
    Mattheo
    O, it始s summer, it始s summer; your only fashion for a woman now is to be light, to be light.
    1340Orlando
    Why, pray, sir, employ some of that money you have of mine.
    Mattheo
    Thine? I始ll starve first, I始ll beg first; when I touch a penny of that, let these fingers始 ends rot.
    Orlando
    [Aside] So they may, for that始s past touching. I saw my 1345twenty pounds fly high.
    Mattheo
    Knowst thou never a damned broker about the city?
    Orlando
    Damned broker? Yes – five hundred.
    Mattheo
    The gown stood me in above twenty ducats; 1350borrow ten of it. Cannot live without silver.
    Orlando
    I始ll make what I can of it, sir; I始ll be your broker.
    [Aside] But not your damned broker. O, thou scurvy knave!
    What makes a wife turn whore but such a slave?
    Exit [with Bellafront始s gown. She weeps.]
    Mattheo
    How now, little chick? What ailst? Weeping 1355for a handful of tailor始s shreds? Pox on them! Are there not silks enough at mercer始s?
    Bellafront
    I care not for gay feathers, I.
    Mattheo
    What dost care for, then? Why dost grieve?
    Bellafront
    Why do I grieve? A thousand sorrows strike
    1360At one poor heart, and yet it lives. Mattheo,
    Thou art a gamester; prithee throw at all,
    Set all upon one cast. We kneel and pray,
    And struggle for life, yet must be cast away.
    Meet misery quickly then, split all, sell all,
    1365And when thou hast sold all, spend it. But, I beseech thee,
    Build not thy mind on me to coin thee more.
    To get it wouldst thou have me play the whore?
    Mattheo
    始Twas your profession before I married you.
    Bellafront
    Umh! It was, indeed: if all men should be branded
    1370For sins long since laid up, who could be saved?
    The quarter-day始s at hand; how will you do
    To pay the rent, Mattheo?
    Mattheo
    Why, do as all of your occupation do against quarter-days: break up house, remove, shift your 1375lodgings. Pox o始your quarters!
    Enter Lodovico.
    Lodovico
    Where始s this gallant?
    Mattheo
    Signor Lodovico! How does my little Mirror of Knighthood? This is kindly done, i始faith. Welcome, by my 1380troth.
    Lodovico
    And how dost, frolic? – Save you, fair lady. – Thou lookst smug and bravely, noble Mat.
    Mattheo
    Drink and feed, laugh and lie warm.
    Lodovico
    Is this thy wife?
    1385Mattheo
    A poor gentlewoman, sir, whom I make use of a-nights.
    Lodovico
    Pay custom to your lips, sweet lady.
    [He kisses her.]
    Mattheo
    [Aside to her] Borrow some shells of him. [Aloud] Some wine, sweetheart.
    1390Lodovico
    I始ll send for始t then, i始faith.
    Mattheo
    You send for始t? [To Bellafront] Some wine, I prithee.
    Bellafront
    [Aside to him] I ha始 no money.
    Mattheo
    [Aside to her] 始Sblood, nor I. [Aloud] What wine love you, signor?
    Lodovico
    [Giving money to Bellafront]
    Here; or I始ll not stay, I protest. Trouble the 1395gentlewoman too much?
    Exit Bellafront.
    And what news flies abroad, Mattheo?
    Mattheo
    Troth, none. O, signor, we ha始 been merry in our days!
    Lodovico
    And no doubt shall again. 1400The divine powers
    Never shoot darts at mortal men to kill them.
    Mattheo
    You say true.
    Lodovico
    Why should we grieve at want? Say the world made thee
    Her minion, that 1405thy head lay in her lap,
    And that she danced thee on her wanton knee,
    She could but give thee a whole world. That始s all,
    And that all始s nothing; the world始s greatest part
    Cannot fill up one corner of thy heart.
    Say the three corners were all filled; alas,
    1410Of what art thou possessed? A thin-blown glass
    Such as by boys is puffed into the air.
    Were twenty kingdoms thine, thou始dst live in care:
    Thou couldst not sleep the better nor live longer,
    Nor merrier be, nor healthfuller, nor stronger.
    1415If, then, thou wantst, thus make that want thy pleasure;
    No man wants all things, nor has all in measure.
    Mattheo
    I am the most wretched fellow; sure some left-handed priest christened me, I am so unlucky. I am never out of one puddle or another, still falling.
    1420Enter Bellafront [with wine], and Orlando.
    [To her] Fill out wine to my little finger. [To Lodovico] With my heart, i始faith.
    [He drinks.]
    Lodovico
    Thanks, good Mattheo. To your own sweet self. [He drinks.]
    1425Orlando
    [Aside to Mattheo] All the brokers始 hearts, sir, are made of flint. I can with all my knocking strike but six sparks of fire out of them. Here始s six ducats, if you始ll take them.
    Mattheo
    [Aside to him] Give me them. [Taking money] An evil conscience gnaw them all! Moths and plagues hang upon their lousy wardrobes!
    1430Lodovico
    Is this your man, Mattheo? An old servingman?
    Orlando
    You may give me t始other half too, sir – that始s the beggar.
    Lodovico
    [To Mattheo] What hast there? Gold?
    Mattheo
    A sort of rascals are in my debt God knows 1435what, and they feed me with bits, with crumbs. A pox choke them!
    Lodovico
    A word, Mattheo. Be not angry with me.
    Believe it that I know the touch of time
    And can part copper, though it be gilded o始er,
    1440From the true gold. The sails which thou dost spread
    Would show well if they were not borrowèd.
    The sound of thy low fortunes drew me hither;
    I give myself unto thee – prithee use me.
    I will bestow on you a suit of satin
    1445And all things else to fit a gentleman,
    Because I love you.
    Mattheo
    Thanks, good, noble knight.
    Lodovico
    Call on me when you please. Till then, farewell.
    Exit.
    1450Mattheo
    [To Bellafront] Hast angled? Hast cut up this fresh salmon?
    Bellafront
    Wouldst have me be so base?
    Mattheo
    It始s base to steal, it始s base to be a whore.
    Thou始t be more base: I始ll make thee keep a door.
    Exit.
    Orlando
    I hope he will not sneak away with all the money, 1455will he?
    Bellafront
    Thou seest he does.
    Orlando
    Nay, then, it始s well I set my brains upon an upright last. Though my wits be old, yet they are like a withered pippin, wholesome. Look you, mistress, I told him I had but six 1460ducats of the knave broker, but I had eight, and kept these two for you.
    [He gives her money.]
    Bellafront
    Thou shouldst have given him all.
    Orlando
    What, to fly high?
    Bellafront
    Like waves, my misery drives on misery.
    Exit.
    1465Orlando
    Sell his wife始s clothes from her back? Does any poulterer始s wife pull chickens alive? He riots all abroad, wants all at home; he dices, whores, swaggers, swears, cheats, borrows, pawns. I始ll give him hook and line a little more for all this;
    1470Yet sure i始th始 end he始ll delude all my hopes,
    And show me a French trick danced on the ropes.
    Exit.