MICHAEL
Butcher?
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL
[unhappily]
Butcher!
Oh, no! I couldn't hurt them.
[Loud laughter.
BUTCHER'S WIFE
'T is a fool!
[The PIPER motions to MICHAEL and CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, who during the following join the other player-folk, strike their tent, pack their bundles, and wheel off the bar rows that have served them for an Ark, leaving the space clear before the Shrine. Exeunt Strollers, all but MICHAEL, who hangs about, still gazing at BARBARA.
JACOBUS
Good people, we have wasted time enow.
You see this fellow, that he has no writ—
PIPER
Why not, then? 'T was a bargain. If your word
Hold only when 't is writ—
KURT
We cannot spend
Clerkship on them that neither write nor read.
What good would parchment do thee?
JACOBUS
My good man—
PIPER
Who says I cannot read?—Who says I cannot?