EDMOND. Troth, this is exlent; I may do any knavery now and never be Seen,--and now I remember me, Sir Godfrey my Uncle abused me Tother day, and told tales of me to my Mother--Troth, now I'm Invisible, I'll hit him a sound wherrit ath' ear, when he comes out ath' garden.--I may be revengd on him now finely.

[Enter Sir Godfrey, Widdow, Frances, Nicholas with the Chain.]

SIR GODFREY. I have my Chain again, my Chain's found again. O sweet Captain, O admirable Conjurer. [Edmond strikes him.] Oh! what mean you by that, Nephew?

EDMOND. Nephew? I hope you do not know me, Uncle?

WIDOW. Why did you strike your Uncle, sir?

EDMOND. Why, Captain, am I not invisible?

CAPTAIN. A good jest, George!--not now you are not, Sir. Why, did you not see me when I did uncharm you?

EDMOND. Not I by my troth, Captain. Then pray you pardon me, Uncle; I thought I'd been invisible when I struck you.

SIR GODFREY. So, you would doo't? go,--y'are a foolish Boy, And were I not o'er-come with greater joy, I'd make you taste correction.

EDMOND. Correction, push!--no, neither you nor my Mother shall think to whip me as you have done.

SIR GODFREY. Captain, my joy is such, I know not how to thank you: let me embrace you, hug you. O my sweet Chain! Gladness 'een makes me giddy. Rare man! twas as just ith' Rosemary bank, as if one should ha' laid it there--oh, cunning, cunning!

WIDOW. Well, seeing my fortune tells me I must marry, let me marry a man of wit, a man of parts. Here's a worthy Captain, and 'tis a fine Title truly la to be a Captain's Wife. A Captain's Wife, it goes very finely; beside all the world knows that a worthy Captain is a fit Companion to any Lord, then why not a sweet bed-fellow for any Lady,--I'll have it so--

[Enter Frailty.]

FRAILTY. O Mistress, Gentlemen, there's the bravest sight coming along this way.

WIDOW. What brave sight?

FRAILTY. Oh, one going to burying, & another going to hanging.

WIDOW. A rueful sight.

PYE. Sfoot, Captain, I'll pawn my life the Corporal's confined, and old Skirmish the soldier going to execution, and 'tis now full about the time of his waking; hold out a little longer, sleepy potion, and we shall have exlent admiration; for I'll take upon me the cure of him.

SCENE III. The street before the Widow's house.

[Enter the Coffin of the Corporal, the soldier bound, and lead by Officers, the Sheriff there. From the house, Sir Godfrey, the Widow, Idle, Pyeboard, Edmond, Frailty, and Nicholas.]

FRAILTY. Oh here they come, here they come!

PYE. Now must I close secretly with the Soldier, prevent his impatience, or else all's discovered.

WIDOW. O lamentable seeing! these were those Brothers, that fought and bled before our door.

SIR GODFREY. What, they were not, Sister?

SKIRMISH. George, look toot, I'll peach at Tyburn else.

PYE. Mum,--Gentles all, vouchsafe me audience, and you especially, Master Sheriff: Yon man is bound to execution, Because he wounded this that now lies coffined?

SHERIFF. True, true; he shall have the law,--and I know the law.

PYE. But under favour, Master Sheriff, if this man had been cured and safe again, he should have been released then?

SHERIFF. Why make you question of that, Sir?

PYE. Then I release him freely, and will take upon me the death that he should die, if within a little season, I do not cure him to his proper health again.

SHERIFF. How Sir? recover a dead man? That were most strange of all.

[Frances comes to him.]

FRANCES. Sweet Sir, I love you dearly, and could wish my best part yours,--oh do not undertake such an impossible venture.

PYE. Love you me? then for your sweet sake I'll doo't: Let me entreat the corpse to be set down.

SHERIFF. Bearers, set down the Coffin.--This were wonderful, and worthy Stoes Chronicle.

PYE. I pray bestow the freedom of the air upon our wholesome Art.-- Mass, his cheeks begin to receive natural warmth: nay, good Corporal, wake betime, or I shall have a longer sleep then you.--Sfoot, if he should prove dead indeed now, he were fully revenged upon me for making a property on him, yet I had rather run upon the Ropes, then have the Rope like a Tetter run upon me.

William Shakespeare
Classic Literature Library

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