Me thynk, bi my wit, He may happyn to-day/ com agane or

THE DELUGE 1

[Acted by the Waterleaders and Drawers in Dye of Chester.]

Pagina Tertia de Deluvio Noe 1 The waterleaders and drawers in dye.

And first in some high place, or in the cloudes yf it may be, God speaketh vnto Noe standing with-out the Arke with all his familye.2

DEUS. I, God, that all the world have
wrought,

Heaven and earth, and all of nought,
I see my people, in deede and thought,
Are sett fowle in sinne.

My ghost shall not lenge 2 in man,
That through fleshlie liking is my fone,
But till six skore yeares be gone,
To loke if they will blynne.'

300 Cubytes it shall be long,

And 50 of breadeth, to mak it stronge,
Of heighte 50. The mete1 thou fonge,2
Thus measure it about.

One wyndow worch through thy wytte,
One cubyte of length and breadeth make it.
Vpon the side a dore shall sit
32

For to come in and out.

Eating places thou make also;
Three-roofed chambers, one or two;
For with water I thinke to flow 3
Man that I can make.

Destroyed all the world shalbe,

Save thou; thy wife, thy sonnes three,
And all there wives also with thee

8

Shall saved be, for thy sake.

16

40

NOE. Ah! Lord, I thanke the lowd and

still,

That to me art in such will,

And spares me and my house to spill,

As now I sothlie fynde.

Thy bydding, Lord, I shall fulfill,

And never more the greeve ne grill,"
That suche grace hast sent me till
Among all mankinde.

[Noah calls to his family.]

48

56

3 Deluge. Ready, prepared.

1 The text here reproduced is that of British Museum Harleian MS. 2124, as printed in The Chester Plays, Part I, edited for the Early English Text Society by H. Deimling, 1892. I have modernized the punctuation, and have added, in brackets, some stage-directions.