e, sir? O, that same very name
Hath in it much variety of shame!
Of all the birds that ever yet was seen,
I would not have them graze upon this green;
I hope they will not, for this crop is poor,
And they may pasture upon greater store:
But yet 'tis pity that they let them pass,
And like a common bite the Muse's grass.
Yet this I fear: if Frank and I should kiss,
Some creaking goose would chide us with a hiss;
I mean not that goose that
Sings it knows not what;
'Tis not that hiss, when one says, "hist, come hither,"
Nor that same hiss that setteth dogs together,
Nor that same hiss that by a fire doth stand,
And hisseth T. or F.[447] upon the hand;
But 'tis a hiss, and I'll unlace my coat,
For I should sound[448] sure, if I heard that note,
And then green ginger for the green goose cries,
Serves not the turn--I turn'd the white of eyes.
The _rosa-solis_ yet that makes me live
Is favour[449] that these gentlemen may give;
But if they be displeased, then pleas'd am I
To yield myself a hissing death to die.
Yet I hope here is[450] none consents to kill,
But kindly take the favour of good-will.
If any thing be in the pen to blame,
Then here stand I to blush the writer's shame:
If this be bad, he promises a better;
Trust him, and he will prove a right true debtor.

[_Exeunt_.

FINIS.

LOOK ABOUT YOU.

_EDITION.

A Pleasant Commodie called Looke About you. As it was lately played by
the right honourable the Lord High Admirall his seruaunts. London,
Printed for William Ferbrand, and are to be solde at his shop at the
signe of the Crowne neere Guildhall gate_. 1600. 4to.

This drama is now first reprinted from the original edition, which has
no division into acts and scenes. Mr Halliwell ("Dict. of Old Plays,"
1860, p. 149) observes: "This is a diverting play, and the plot of it
is founded on the English historians of the reign of Henry II."[451]

"Look About You" is not only a _pleasant_ comedy, full of bustle and
amusing episodes, and abundantly stored with illustrations of manners,
but it is a piece which exhibits, on the part of the unknown writer,
a considerable share of power and originality. The crazed Earl of
Gloucester is not an ill-conceived character, and may have supplied a
hint to Shakespeare; and the cross-purposes, stratagems, and deceptions,
of which it is full, remind us of our great dramatist's own "Comedy of
Errors," with which, however