EXPERIENCE.
Young man, a word or twain, and then adieu:
Your years are few, your practice green and new;
Mark what I say, and ye shall find it true:
You are the first that shall this rashness rue.
Be ruled here: our counsel do thereafter.
Lay good ground, your work shall be the faster.
This headlong haste may sooner miss than hit;
Take heed both of witless[394] Will and wilful Wit.
We have within a gentleman, our retainer and our friend,
With servants twain, that do on him attend—
Instruction, Study, Diligence: these three
At your commandment in this attempt shall be.
Hear them instead of us, and as they shall devise,
So hardily cast your[395] cards in this enterprise.
I will send them to you, and leave you for now.
WIT.
The more company the merrier; boy, what say'st thou?
WILL.
It is a good fault to have more than enou':
I care not, so as we may put the knaves down,
I would we were at it, I pass not how soon.
WIT.
If it shall please you to send those three hither,
We will follow your counsel, and go together.
WILL.
I warrant her a shrew, whosoever be another,
God make the daughter good, I like not the mother. [Aside.
WIT.[396]
Yet would not I for no good to have forgone her. [Aside.
WILL.
Marry, sir, indeed she talks and takes on her,
Like a dame, nay, like a duchess or a queen,
With such a solemnity as I have not seen.
REASON.
She is a queen, I tell thee, in her degree.
WILL.
Let her be what she list, with a vengeance, for me!
I will keep me out of her reach, if I can. [Aside.
REASON.
If this marriage go forward, thou must be her man.