“Yea, if it please you.”
“‘Tis the more time thou wert used.”
Master Shallow was in ecstacies. The practical joke of sending a man to the wars against his will had already tickled the excellent justice’s sense of humour. But to make a verbal jest on his calamity to his very face, and on his own name, was irresistible.
“Ha! ha! ha! most excellent i’ faith! Things that are mouldy lack use. Very singular, good. Well said, Sir John. Very well said.”
“Prick him,” said Sir John.
And down went a mark against Mouldy’s name, making him as much the King’s property as though he had been honestly bought by a sergeant’s shilling.
Mouldy grumbled like a malcontent as he was. He thought that he might have been let alone.
“My old dame will be undone now for one to do her husbandry and her drudgery. You need not to have pricked me: there are other men fitter to go than I.”
As if that were a reason for your not going! For shame, Mouldy!
Simon Shadow was the next called.