[Enter Lincoln, Doll, Clown, George Betts, Williamson, others; and a Sergeant at Arms.]
LINCOLN. Peace, hear me: he that will not see a red herring at a Harry groat, butter at elevenpence a pound, meal at nine shillings a bushel, and beef at four nobles a stone, list to me.
GEORGE.
It will come to that pass, if strangers be suffered. Mark him.
LINCOLN. Our country is a great eating country; ergo, they eat more in our country than they do in their own.
CLOWN.
By a halfpenny loaf, a day, troy weight.
LINCOLN. They bring in strange roots, which is merely to the undoing of poor prentices; for what’s a sorry parsnip to a good heart?
WILLIAMSON. Trash, trash; they breed sore eyes, and tis enough to infect the city with the palsey.
LINCOLN. Nay, it has infected it with the palsey; for these bastards of dung, as you know they grow in dung, have infected us, and it is our infection will make the city shake, which partly comes through the eating of parsnips.
CLOWN.
True; and pumpkins together.
SERGEANT.
What say ye to the mercy of the king?
Do ye refuse it?