Qu. Still Eastward-ho was all my word:
But westward I had no regard,
Nor never thought what would come after,
As did, alas! his youngest daughter.
At last the black ox trod o’ my foot,[123] 80
And I saw then what long’d unto ’t;
Now cry I, “Touchstone, touch me still,
And make me current by thy skill.”
To. And I will do it, Francis.
Wo. Stay him, Master Deputy; now is the time: we shall lose the song else.
Fr. I protest it is the best that ever I heard.
Qu. How like you it, gentlemen?
All. O admirable, sir!
Qu. This stanze now following, alludes to the story of Mannington, from whence I took my project for my invention. 92
Qu. O Mannington, thy stories show,
Thou cutt’st a horse-head off at a blow!
But I confess, I have not the force
For to cut off the head of a horse;
Yet I desire this grace to win,
That I may cut off the horse-head of Sin,
And leave his body in the dust 100
Of sin’s highway and bogs of lust,
Whereby I may take Virtue’s purse,
And live with her for better, for worse.
Fr. Admirable, sir, and excellently conceited!