ISAAC. In all manner of things divided by a rate.
REBECCA. Well given goods to him, that the Lord doth hate!
ISAAC. Why say ye so of Esau, mine eldest son?
REBECCA. I say true, if he proceed, as he hath begun.
ISAAC. Is he not your son too, as well as he is mine?
Wherefore do ye then against him thus sore repine?
REBECCA. Because that in my spirit verily I know,
God will set up Jacob, and Esau down throw.
I have showed you many a time ere this day,
What the Lord of them being in my womb did say.
I use not for to lie, and I believe certain,
That the Lord spake not these words to me in vain.
And Jacob it is (I know), in whom the Lord will
His promises to you made and to your seed fulfil.
ISAAC. I doubt not his promise made to me and my seed,
Leaving to his conveyance how it shall proceed.
The Lord after his way may change th'inheritance;
But I may not wittingly break our ordinance.
REBECCA. Now would God I could persuade my lord Isaac
Jacob to prefer, and Esau to put back.
ISAAC. I may not do it, wife, I pray you be content:
The title of birthright, that cometh by descent,
Or the place of eldership coming by due course,
I may not change nor shift for better nor for worse.
Nature's law it is, the eldest son to knowledge,
And in no wise to bar him of his heritage:
And ye shall of Esau one day have comfort.
REBECCA. Set a good long day then, or else we shall come short.