EDWIN THE FAIR. ACT I. SCENE I. A FOREST. A SWINEHERD tending his swine. SWINEHERD (sings). The hog he munch'd the acorns brown, Till joyfully twinkled his tail, And he twitched himself up, and he tossed himself down, And he wriggled and reeled, and gallopped and squealed, As though he were drunk with ale: For you shall know that what by ale or wine To man is done, that acorns do to swine. Ah! it was so. Alack-a-day! so it was once. Enter a FORESTER. FORESTER. Grunt! grunt! No end to swine. Why here's a herd! B Beech-mast is scarce. Routing and grunting. Ho! Who's here? SWINEHERD. A sinful unconsolable man, The swineherd Ulf. FORESTER. Why swineherds are but men, And man is sinful. Ulf, what grief is his ? SWINEHERD. His grief, sir, is a grief touching his swine, The how, sir, is a tale that moves to pity, But if you list to hearken, it was thus: I perched myself for shade, and there the wind Belated in the dusky forest's verge I found them, much amazed, a furlong's length, And wrestling with the Evil One. Quoth I, 'ye villains, will ye run to the pit, FORESTER. Such howls! What howls? The Devil's were they, or were they Dunstan's? SWINEHERD. Sir, I have ears unskilful to discern B 2 Betwixt the twain. They might have come from either. For Dunstan his own back not less belabours Than he belabours Satan. FORESTER. Ay, 'tis true; A holy man is he and gives his life Poh! no. SWINEHERD. I know not. FORESTER. Thou say'st well thou know'st not, For thou know'st nothing; thou art an ignorant swineherd. SWINEHERD. Swine, didst thou say? Swine have the murrain! Is it come to that? Prithee, why so? FORESTER. It is but our deserts. To please the young, misguided, heedless King, Here comes a nobleman, if we may guess |