Pe. ’Sfoot! wilt not believe me? I know’t by th’ elevation of the pole, and by the altitude and latitude of the climate. See, here comes a couple of French gentlemen; I knew we were in France; dost thou think our Englishmen are so Frenchified, that a man knows not whether he be in France or in England, when he sees ’hem? What shall we do? We must e’en to ’hem, and entreat some relief of ’hem. Life is sweet, and we have no other means to relieve our lives now but their charities.
Sea. Pray you, do you beg on ’hem then; you can speak French. 168
Pe. Monsieur, plaist il d’avoir pitie de nostre grande infortune. Je suis un poure chevalier d’Angleterre qui a souffri l’infortune de naufrage.
1st Gent. Un poure chevalier d’Angleterre?
Pe. Oui, monsieur, il est trop vray; mais vous sçaves bien nous sommes toutes subject à fortune.
2nd Gent. A poor knight of England?—a poor knight of Windsor, are you not? Why speak you this broken French when y’are a whole Englishman? On what coast are you, think you?
Pe. On the coast of France, sir. 179
1st Gent. On the coast of Dogs, sir; y’are i’th’ Isle o’ Dogs, I tell you, I see y’ave been washed in the Thames here, and I believe ye were drowned in a tavern before, or else you would never have took boat in such a dawning as this was. Farewell, farewell; we will not know you for shaming of you. I ken the man weel; he’s one of my thirty pound knights.[76]
2nd Gent. No, no, this is he that stole his knighthood o’ the grand day for four pound given to a page; all the money in’s purse, I wot well.
[Exeunt.