Sir Amor. ’Faith, Fawn, an odd unwholesome cold makes me still hoarse and rheumatic. 127
Herod. Yes, in troth, a paltry murr.[169] Last morning, he blew nine bones out of his nose with an odd unwholesome murr. How does my sister, your lady? What, does she breed?
Herc. I perceive, knight, you have children. O! ’tis a blessed assurance of Heaven’s favour, and long-lasting name, to have many children.
Sir Amor. But I ha’ none, Fawn, now. 135
Herc. O that’s most excellent—a right special happiness. He shall not be a drudge to his cradle, a slave to his child; he shall be sure not to cherish another’s blood, nor toil to advance, peradventure, some rascal’s lust. Without children, a man is unclogg’d, his wife almost a maid. Messallina, thou criedst out, O blessed barrenness! Why, once with child, the very Venus of a lady’s entertainment hath lost all pleasure.
Sir Amor. By this ring, Faunus, I do hug thee with
most passionate affection, and shall make my wife thank thee. 146
Herod. Nay, my brother grudgeth not at my probable inheritance. He means once to give a younger brother hope to see fortune.
Nym. And yet I hear, Sir Amoroso, you cherish your loins with high art, the only engrosser of eringoes; prepared cantharides, cullisses[170] made of dissolved pearl and bruised amber; the pith of parkets,[171] and candied lamb-stones are his perpetual meats; beds made of the down under pigeons’ wings and goose-necks, fomentations, baths, electuaries, frictions, and all the nurses of most forcible excited concupiscence, he useth with most nice and tender industry. 158
Herc. Pish, Zoccoli! No, Nymphadoro, if Sir Amoroso would ha’ children, let him lie on a mattress, plow or thresh, eat onions, garlic, and leek porridge. Pharaoh and his council were mistaken; and their device to hinder the increase of procreation in the Israelites with enforcing them to much labour of body, and to feed hard, with beets, garlic, and onions (meat that make the original of man most sharp and taking), was absurd. No, he should have given barley bread, lettuce, melons, cucumbers,