ONE.
Well met, my masters: how now? what’s the news?
And wherefore are ye laden thus with stuff?
What, is it quarter day that you remove,
And carry bag and baggage too?
TWO.
Quarter day? Aye, and quartering day, I fear:
Have ye not heard the news that flies abroad?
ONE.
What news?
THREE.
How the French Navy is destroyed at Sea,
And that the English Army is arrived.
ONE.
What then?
TWO.
What then, quoth you? why, ist not time to fly,
When envy and destruction is so nigh?
ONE.
Content thee, man; they are far enough from hence,
And will be met, I warrant ye, to their cost,
Before they break so far into the Realm.
TWO.
Aye, so the Grasshopper doth spend the time
In mirthful jollity, till Winter come;
And then too late he would redeem his time,
When frozen cold hath nipped his careless head.
He, that no sooner will provide a Cloak,
Then when he sees it doth begin to reign,
May, peradventure, for his negligence,
Be throughly washed, when he suspects it not.
We that have charge and such a train as this,
Must look in time to look for them and us,
Least, when we would, we cannot be relieved.
ONE.
Belike, you then despair of all success,
And think your Country will be subjugate.
THREE.
We cannot tell; tis good to fear the worst.