sly is discovered in a rich nightgown, with attendants: some with apparel, basin, ewer, and other appurtenances; and lord, dressed like a servant.

sly.

for god’s sake! a pot of small ale.

first servant.

will’t please your lordship drink a cup of sack?

second servant.

will’t please your honour taste of these conserves?

third servant.

what raiment will your honour wear today?

sly.

i am christophero sly; call not me honour nor lordship. i ne’er drank sack in my life; and if you give me any conserves, give me conserves of beef. ne’er ask me what raiment i’ll wear, for i have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet: nay, sometime more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the over-leather.

lord.

heaven cease this idle humour in your honour!

o, that a mighty man of such descent,

of such possessions, and so high esteem,

should be infused with so foul a spirit!

sly.

what! would you make me mad? am not i christopher sly, old sly’s son of burton-heath; by birth a pedlar, by education a cardmaker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker? ask marian hacket, the fat ale-wife of wincot, if she know me not: if she say i am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in christendom. what! i am not bestraught. here’s—

third servant.

o! this it is that makes your lady mourn.

second servant.

o! this is it that makes your servants droop.

lord.

hence comes it that your kindred shuns your house,

as beaten hence by your strange lunacy.

o noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth,

call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment,

and banish hence these abject lowly dreams.

look how thy servants do attend on thee,

each in his office ready at thy beck:

wilt thou have music? hark! apollo plays,

[music.]

and twenty caged nightingales do sing:

or wilt thou sleep? we’ll have thee to a couch

softer and sweeter than the lustful bed

on purpose trimm’d up for semiramis.

say thou wilt walk: we will bestrew the ground:

or wilt thou ride? thy horses shall be trapp’d,

their harness studded all with gold and pearl.

dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar

above the morning lark: or wilt thou hunt?

thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them

and fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

first servant.

say thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift

as breathed stags; ay, fleeter than the roe.

second servant.

dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight

adonis painted by a running brook,

and cytherea all in sedges hid,

which seem to move and wanton with her breath

even as the waving sedges play with wind.

lord.

we’ll show thee io as she was a maid

and how she was beguiled and surpris’d,

as lively painted as the deed was done.

third servant.

or daphne roaming through a thorny wood,

scratching her legs, that one shall swear she bleeds

and at that sight shall sad apollo weep,

so workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

lord.

thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord:

thou hast a lady far more beautiful

than any woman in this waning age.

first servant.

and, till the tears that she hath shed for thee

like envious floods o’er-run her lovely face,

she was the fairest creature in the world;

and yet she is inferior to none.

sly.

am i a lord? and have i such a lady?

or do i dream? or have i dream’d till now?

i do not sleep: i see, i hear, i speak;

i smell sweet savours, and i feel soft things:

upon my life, i am a lord indeed;

and not a tinker, nor christophero sly.

well, bring our lady hither to our sight;

and once again, a pot o’ the smallest ale.

second servant.

will’t please your mightiness to wash your hands?

[servants present a ewer, basin and napkin.]

o, how we joy to see your wit restor’d!

o, that once more you knew but what you are!

these fifteen years you have been in a dream,

or, when you wak’d, so wak’d as if you slept.

sly.

these fifteen years! by my fay, a goodly nap.

but did i never speak of all that time?

first servant.

o! yes, my lord, but very idle words;

for though you lay here in this goodly chamber,

yet would you say ye were beaten out of door,

and rail upon the hostess of the house,

and say you would present her at the leet,

because she brought stone jugs and no seal’d quarts.

sometimes you would call out for cicely hacket.

sly.

ay, the woman’s maid of the house.

third servant.

why, sir, you know no house nor no such maid,

nor no such men as you have reckon’d up,

as stephen sly, and old john naps of greece,

and peter turph, and henry pimpernell;

and twenty more such names and men as these,

which never were, nor no man ever saw.

sly.

now, lord be thanked for my good amends!

all.

amen.

enter the page, as a lady, with attendants.

sly.

i thank thee; thou shalt not lose by it.

page.

how fares my noble lord?

sly.

marry, i fare well; for here is cheer enough.

where is my wife?

page.

here, noble lord: what is thy will with her?

sly.

are you my wife, and will not call me husband?

my men should call me lord: i am your goodman.

page.

my husband and my lord, my lord and husband;

i am your wife in all obedience.

sly.

i know it well. what must i call her?

lord.

madam.

sly.

alice madam, or joan madam?

lord.

madam, and nothing else; so lords call ladies.

sly.

madam wife, they say that i have dream’d

and slept above some fifteen year or more.

page.

ay, and the time seems thirty unto me,

being all this time abandon’d from your bed.

sly.

’tis much. servants, leave me and her alone.

madam, undress you, and come now to bed.

page.

thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you

to pardon me yet for a night or two;

or, if not so, until the sun be set:

for your physicians have expressly charg’d,

in peril to incur your former malady,

that i should yet absent me from your bed:

i hope this reason stands for my excuse.

sly.

ay, it stands so that i may hardly tarry so long; but i would be loath to fall into my dreams again: i will therefore tarry in despite of the flesh and the blood.

enter a messenger.

messenger.

your honour’s players, hearing your amendment,

are come to play a pleasant comedy;

for so your doctors hold it very meet,

seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood,

and melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:

therefore they thought it good you hear a play,

and frame your mind to mirth and merriment,

which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life.

sly.

marry, i will; let them play it. is not a commonty a christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?

page.

no, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff.

sly.

what! household stuff?

page.

it is a kind of history.

sly.

well, we’ll see’t. come, madam wife, sit by my side and let the world slip: we shall ne’er be younger.