Cruelty. Nay, by God's heart, if I might do what I list,
Not one of them all that should 'scape my fist.
His nails,[25] I would plague them one way or another.
I would not miss him, no, if he were mine own brother.
With small faults I might bear as I saw occasion,
And punish or forgive at mine own discretion,
For I wot that sometime the wisest may fall;
But heresy—fie on that, that is the greatest of all.
Every stocks should be full, every prison and jail:
Some would I beat with rods, some scourge at a cart's tail,