Digital Renaissance Editions

About this text

  • Title: The Whore of Babylon (Quarto, 1607)
  • Editors: Frances E. Dolan, Anna Pruitt

  • 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
    Editors: Frances E. Dolan, Anna Pruitt
    Not Peer Reviewed

    The Whore of Babylon (Quarto, 1607)

    The Whore of Babylon.
    Plain. Looking vp and downe for thy selfe: and yet I lie too,
    1765now I remember, I was in the citie: our mi stre s s e would needes
    haue me goe thither, to see fa shions: I could make an excellent
    Taylor for Ladies and gentlemen, and fooles, for I haue seene
    more fa shions there, then a picture drawer makes skuruy faces,
    the fir st two yeares of his trade: its the madde st circle to coniure
    1770in, that euer raiz'd spirit.
    Truth. Tell me good kinsman, what in the citie saw you?
    Plain. What did I see? why Ile tell the cozen; I sawe no more
    conscience in mo st of your rich men, then in Tauerne faggots:
    nor no more sobernes in poore men, then in Tauerne spiggots: I
    1775 see that citizens fine wiues vndo their husbands (by their pride)
    within a yeare after they are married; and within halfe a yeare
    after they be widdowes, knights vndo them: they'le giue a 100.
    pound to be dubd ladies, and to ride in a coach, when they haue
    scarce another hundred pound left to keep the horses. But cozē
    1780 Truth, I met in one street a number of men in gowns, with papers
    in their hands, what are all those?
    Truth. Oh! they are the sonnes of Iu stice; they are those
    That beat the kingdom leuell, keep it smooth
    And without rubs: they are the poore mans captaine,
    1785The rich mans souldier, and cal'd Lawiers.
    Plain. Lawiers? doe st know any of them?
    Truth. A few.
    Plain. I wondred what they were, I asked one of them if they
    were going to foot-ball, yes said he, doe you not see those coun-
    1790trey fellowes, we are again st them; and who do you thinke shall
    winne, said I, oh said he, the gownes, the gownes. Enter Time.
    Time. Follow me Truth; Plaine dealing follow me. Exit
    Plain. He charges like a Con stable; come, wee are his watch:
    follow me? Is our Time mad?
    1795O braue mad Time. Exeunt.
    Dumb shew. A caue suddenly breakes open, and out of it comes Fal shood,
    (attir'd as Truth is) her face spotted, shee stickes vp her banner on the top
    of the Caue; then with her foot in seuerall places strikes the earth, and vp
    riseth Campeius; a Frier with a boxe: a gentleman with a drawn sword,
    1800 another with rich gloues in a boxe, another with a bridle, Time, Truth
    with her banner, and Plain-dealing enter & stand aloofe beholding all.
    Time. See there's the Caue, where that Hyena lurkes,
    That