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Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744

"A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2"


ESAU. O, to my younger brother must I be servant?
O, that ever a man should be so oppressed!
ISAAC. Thine own fault it is, that thou art dispossessed.
ESAU. Father, change that piece of thy sentence and judgment.
ISAAC. Things done cannot be undone; therefore be content,
Let me be in quiet, and trouble me no more.
Come, Mido, in God's name, lead me in at the door.
[_Exeunt Isaac and Mido_.
ESAU. O, would not this chafe a man, and fret his guts out,
To live as an underling under such a lout?
Ah hypocrite, Ah hedgecreeper, Ah 'sembling wretch!
I will be even with thee for this subtle fetch.
O God of Abraham, what reason is herein,
That to sle one's enemy it should be made sin?
Were not one as good his part of heaven forego,
As not to be revenged on his deadly foe?
God was angry with Cain for killing Abel:
Else might I kill Jacob marvellously well.
I may fortune one day him to dispatch and rid:
The Lord will not see all things; something may be hid.
But as for these misers[278] within my father's tent,
Which to the supplanting of me put their consent,
Not one, but I shall coil them, till they stink for pain,
And then for their stinking coil them off fresh again.
I will take no days[279]; but, while the matter is hot,
Not one of them shall 'scape, but they shall to the pot.

ACTUS QUINTI, SCAENA QUINTA.

RAGAN.
Where are we now become? marry, sir, here is array!
With Esau, my master, this is a black day.


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