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قراءة كتاب A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 3
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اللغة: English
الصفحة رقم: 3
tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[6]) make a man to piss,
To hear what they talk of in open communication,
Surely I fear me, Ignorance, this gear will make some desolation.
Ignorance. I fear the same also; but as touching that whereof you speak full well,
They have revoked divers old heresies out of hell.
As against transubstantiation, purgatory, and the mass,
And say that by scripture they cannot be brought to pass.
But that which ever hath been a most true and constant opinion,
And defended also hitherto by all of our religion,
That I, Ignorance, am the mother of true devotion,
And Knowledge the author of the contrary affection:
They deny it so stoutly as though it were not so;
But this hath been believed many an hundred year ago.
Wherefore it grieveth me not a little that my case should so stand,
Thus to be disproved at every prattler's hand.
Perv. Doc. Yea, doth? then the more unwise man you, as I trow,
For they say as much by me, as you well do know.
And shall I then go vex myself at their talk?
No, let them speak so long as their tongues can walk.
They shall not grieve me, for why in very sooth
It were folly to endeavour to stop every man's mouth.
They have brought in one, a young upstart lad, as it appears,
I am sure he hath not been in the realm very many years,
With a gathered frock, a polled head and a broad hat,
An unshaved beard, a pale face; and he teacheth that
All our doings are nought, and hath been many a day.
He disalloweth our ceremonies and rites, and teacheth another way
To serve God, than that which we do use,
And goeth about the people's minds to seduce.
It is a pestilent knave, he will have priests no corner-cap to wear;[7]
Surplices are superstition: beads, paxes, and such other gear,
Crosses, bells, candles, oil, bran, salt, spettle, and incense,
With censing and singing, he accounts not worth three-halfpence,
And cries out on them all (if to repeat them I wist)
Such holy things, wherein our religion doth consist.
But he commands the service in English to be read,
And for the Holy Legend[8] the Bible to put in his stead,
Every man to look thereon at his list and pleasure,
Every man to study divinity at his convenient leisure,
With a thousand new guises more you know as well as I.
And to term him by his right name, if I should not lie,
It is New Custom, for so they do him call,
Both our sister Hypocrisy, Superstition, Idolatry and all.
And truly me-thinketh, they do justly and wisely therein,
Since he is so diverse, and so lately crept in.
Ignorance. So they call him indeed, you have said right well,
Because he came newly from the devil of hell,
New Custom, quoth you? now a vengeance of his new nose,
For bringing in any such unaccustomed glose!
For he hath seduced the people by mighty great flocks:
Body of God, it were good to set the knave in the stocks.
Or else to whip him for an example to all rogues as he,
How they the authors of new heresies be,
Or henceforth do attempt any such strange devise:
Let him keep himself from my hands, if he be wise.
If ever I may take him within my reign,
He is sure to have whipping there for his pain.
For he doth much harm in each place throughout the land.
Wherefore, Perverse Doctrine, here needeth your hand:
I mean that ye be diligent in any case,
If ye fortune to come, where New Custom is in place,
So to use the villain, you know what I mean,
That in all points you may discredit him clean;
And when he begins of anything for to clatter,
Of any controversy of learning or divinity matter,
So to cling fast unto every man's thought,
That his words may seem heresy, and his doings but nought.
Perv. Doc. Tush, let me alone with that, for I have not so little wit,
But I have practised this already, and mind also to do it.
Yet a further device I have, I think, not amiss.
Hearken to me, Ignorance, for the matter is this:
For the better accomplishing our subtlety pretended,[9]
It were expedient that both our names were amended;
Ignorance shall be Simplicity, for that comes very nigh;
And for Perverse Doctrine I will be called Sound Doctrine, I.
And now that we are both in such sort named,
We may go in any place, and never be blamed.
See then you remember your name, sir Simplicity,
And me at every word Sound Doctrine to be;
Beware of tripping, but look in mind that you bear
Your feigned name, and what before you were.
But who is this that hitherward doth walk?
Let us stand still, to hear what he will talk.
ACTUS I., SCÆNA 2.
New Custom entereth alone.
New Cus. When I consider the ancient times before,
That have been these eight hundred years and more,
And those confer with these our later days,
My mind do these displease a thousand ways.
For sure he, that hath both perceived aright,
Will say they differ as darkness doth from light.
For then plain-dealing bare away the prize;
All things were ruled by men of good advice;
Conscience