The things we do!

In _The Captives_, ii. 2, we have a similar conceit
suggested:--
_Scrib_. Such was the grace heaven sent us, who from perill,
Danger of lyfe, the extreamest of all extreames
Hathe brought us to the happy patronage
Of this most reverent abbott.
_Clowne_. What dangers? what extreames?
_Scrib_. From the sea's fury, drowneing; for last night
Our shipp was splitt, wee cast upon these rocks.
_Clowne_. Sayd in a jest, in deede! Shipwreck by land! I perceive
you tooke the woodden waggen for a ship and the violent rayne for
the sea, and by cause some one of the wheels broake and you cast
into some water plashe, you thought the shipp had splitt and you
had bene in danger of drowneinge.
The main story of _The Captives_ is borrowed from Plautus's _Rudens_,
many passages being translated almost word for word. It will be
remembered that in the _English Traveller_ Heywood was indebted to
another of Plautus's plays--the _Mostellaria_. I have not been able to
discover the source of the very curious underplot of _The Captives_.


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