SCENE III.—A Room in Candido’s House. Candido, the Bride and Guests discovered at dinner; Prentices waiting on them.

Enter Lodovico, Carolo, and Astolfo.

Cand. O gentlemen, so late, you are very welcome, pray sit down.

Lod. Carolo, did’st e’er see such a nest of caps?[241]

Ast. Methinks it’s a most civil and most comely sight.

Lod. What does he i’th’ middle look like?

Ast. Troth, like a spire steeple in a country village overpeering so many thatched houses.

Lod. It’s rather a long pike-staff against so many bucklers without pikes;[242] they sit for all the world like a pair of organs, and he’s the tall great roaring pipe i’ th’ midst.

Ast. Ha, ha, ha, ha!

Cand. What’s that you laugh at, signors?