2 Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.—Come, neighbour Mugs, we’ll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge.
[Exeunt Carriers.
Gads. What, ho! chamberlain!
Cham. [Within.] At hand, quoth pick-purse.
Gads. That’s even as fair as—at hand, quoth the chamberlain: for thou variest no more from picking of purses, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay’st the plot how.
Enter Chamberlain.
Cham. Good morrow, master Gadshill. It holds current that I told you yesternight: There’s a franklin in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company, last night at supper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter: They will away presently.
Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with saint Nicholas’ clerks, I’ll give thee this neck.
Cham. No, I’ll none of it: I pr’ythee, keep that for the hangman; for, I know, thou worship’st saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.
Gads. What talkest thou to me of the hangman? if I hang, I’ll make a fat pair of gallows: for, if I hang, old sir John hangs with me; and, thou knowest, he’s no starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dreamest not of, the which, for sport sake, are content to do the profession some grace; that would, if matters should be looked into, for their own credit sake, make all whole. I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff, six-penny strikers; none of these mad, mustachio purple-hued malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers; such as can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray: And yet I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.