friends, wed her, bed her; my first son shall be a captain, and his name shall be what it please his godfathers; the second, if he have a face bad enough, a lawyer; the third, a merchant; and the fourth, if he be maim’d, dull-brain’d, or hard-shaped, a scholar; for that’s your fashion. 123
Qua. Get them; get them, man, first. Now by the wantonness of the night, and I were a wench, I would not ha’ thee, wert thou an heir, nay (which is more) a fool.
Lav. Why, I can rise high: a straight leg, a plump thigh, a full vein, a round cheek; and, when it pleaseth the fertility of my chin to be delivered of a beard, ’twill not wrong my kissing, for my lips are rebels, and stand out. 131
Qua. Ho! but there’s an old fusty proverb, these great talkers are never good doers.
Lam. Why, what a babel arrogance is this!
Men will put by the very stock of fate;
They’ll thwart the destiny of marriage,
Strive to disturb the sway of Providence:
They’ll do it!
Qua. Come, you’ll be snarling now.
Lam. As if we had free-will in supernatural
Effects, and that our love or hate 140
Depended not on causes ’bove the reach
Of human stature.
Qua. I think I shall not lend you forty shillings now.
Lam. Dirt upon dirt, fear is beneath my shoe.
Dreadless of racks, strappadoes, or the sword—
Maugre informer and sly intelligence,—
I’ll stand as confident as Hercules,
And, with a frightless resolution,
Rip up and lance our time’s impieties.