[Exit Basilisco.
Piston.
Take the bragging'st knave in Christendom with thee—
Truly, I am sorry for him:
He just like a knight! he'll just like a jade.
It is a world to hear the fool prate and brag;
He will jet as if it were a goose on a green:
He goes many times supperless to bed,
And yet he takes physic to make him lean.
Last night he was bidden to a gentlewoman's to supper,
And, because he would not be put to carve,
He wore his hand in a scarf, and said he was wounded.
He wears a colour'd lath in his scabbard,
And, when 'twas found upon him, he said he was wrathful,
He might not wear iron: he wears civet,
And, when it was ask'd him where he had that musk,
He said all his kindred smelt so.
Is not this a counterfeit fool?
Well; I'll up, and see how he speeds.
[Sound the sixth course.
Now, by the faith of a 'squire, he is a very faint knight;
Why, my master hath overthrown him
And his curtal both to the ground:
I shall have old laughing,
It will be better than the fox-in-the-hole[394] for me.
[Sound.
Enter Philippo, Prince of Cyprus, Erastus, Ferdinando, Lucina, and all the Knights.
Cyprus.
Brave gentlemen, by all your free consents,
This knight unknown hath best demean'd himself:
According to the proclamation made,
The prize and honour of the day is his;—
But now unmask thyself that we may see
What warlike wrinkles time hath charactered
With age's print upon thy warlike face.
Englishman.