SLY.
For God’s sake! a pot of small ale.
FIRST SERVANT.
Will’t please your lordship drink a cup of sack?
SECOND SERVANT.
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: nay3, 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!
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 knave7 in Christendom. What! I am not bestraught. Here’s—
THIRD SERVANT.
O! this it is that makes your lady mourn.
SECOND SERVANT.
LORD.
As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.
O noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth,
Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment10,
Look how thy servants do attend on thee,
Each in his office ready at thy beck:
[Music.]
And twenty caged nightingales do sing:
Or wilt thou sleep? We’ll have thee to a couch
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.
Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them
FIRST SERVANT.
Say thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift
SECOND SERVANT.
Dost thou love pictures? We will fetch thee straight
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
As lively painted as the deed was done.
THIRD SERVANT.
Scratching her legs, that one shall swear she bleeds
And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,
LORD.
Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord:
Thou hast a lady far more beautiful
FIRST SERVANT.
And, till the tears that she hath shed for thee
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 mightiness26 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;
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,
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.
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;
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.
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,
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 loath35 to fall into my dreams again: I will therefore tarry in despite of the flesh and the blood.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER.
Are come to play a pleasant comedy;
For so your doctors hold it very meet,
Seeing too much sadness hath congeal’d your blood,
Therefore they thought it good you hear a play,
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment,
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.
点击收听单词发音
1 ewer | |
n.大口水罐 | |
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2 conserves | |
n.(含有大块或整块水果的)果酱,蜜饯( conserve的名词复数 )v.保护,保藏,保存( conserve的第三人称单数 ) | |
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3 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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4 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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5 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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6 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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7 knave | |
n.流氓;(纸牌中的)杰克 | |
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8 droop | |
v.低垂,下垂;凋萎,萎靡 | |
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9 shuns | |
v.避开,回避,避免( shun的第三人称单数 ) | |
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10 banishment | |
n.放逐,驱逐 | |
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11 banish | |
vt.放逐,驱逐;消除,排除 | |
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12 abject | |
adj.极可怜的,卑屈的 | |
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13 wilt | |
v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎;(指人)疲倦,衰弱 | |
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14 lustful | |
a.贪婪的;渴望的 | |
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15 hawking | |
利用鹰行猎 | |
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16 hawks | |
鹰( hawk的名词复数 ); 鹰派人物,主战派人物 | |
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17 lark | |
n.云雀,百灵鸟;n.嬉戏,玩笑;vi.嬉戏 | |
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18 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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19 roe | |
n.鱼卵;獐鹿 | |
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20 brook | |
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让 | |
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21 beguiled | |
v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 );使陶醉;使高兴;消磨(时间等) | |
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22 thorny | |
adj.多刺的,棘手的 | |
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23 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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24 waning | |
adj.(月亮)渐亏的,逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 );(月)亏;变小;变暗淡 | |
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25 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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26 mightiness | |
n.强大 | |
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27 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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28 jugs | |
(有柄及小口的)水壶( jug的名词复数 ) | |
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29 amends | |
n. 赔偿 | |
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30 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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31 entreat | |
v.恳求,恳请 | |
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32 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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33 incur | |
vt.招致,蒙受,遭遇 | |
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34 malady | |
n.病,疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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35 loath | |
adj.不愿意的;勉强的 | |
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36 amendment | |
n.改正,修正,改善,修正案 | |
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37 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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38 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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39 lengthens | |
(时间或空间)延长,伸长( lengthen的第三人称单数 ) | |
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