WILL.
No: what was that Tarlton? I never knew him.
SIMPLICITY. What was he? A prentice in his youth of this honourable city, God be with him. When he was young, he was leaning to the trade that my wife useth now, and I have used, vide lice shirt,[240] water-bearing. I-wis, he hath toss'd a tankard in Corn-hill ere now: If thou knew'st him not, I will not call thee ingram;[241] but if thou knewest not him, thou knewest nobody. I warrant, here's two crack-ropes knew him.
WIT.
I dwelt with him.
SIMPLICITY.
Didst thou? now, give me thy hand: I love thee the better.
WILL.
And I, too, sometime.
SIMPLICITY.
You, child! did you dwell with him sometime?
Wit dwelt with him, indeed, as appeared by his rhyme,
And served him well; and Will was with him now and then. But, soft, thy
name is Wealth: I think in earnest he was little acquainted with thee.
O, it was a fine fellow, as e'er was born:
There will never come his like, while the earth can corn.
O passing fine Tarlton! I would thou hadst lived yet.
WEALTH.
He might have some, but thou showest small wit.
There is no such fineness in the picture that I see.[242]
SIMPLICITY.
Thou art no Cinque-Port man; thou art not wit-free.
The fineness was within, for without he was plain;
But it was the merriest fellow, and had such jests in store
That, if thou hadst seen him, thou would'st have laughed thy heart sore.
WEALTH.
Because of thy praise, what's the price of the picture?
SIMPLICITY. I'll tell thee, my lad. Come hither: if thou wilt be ruled by me, thou shalt pay nothing; I'll give it thee, if thou wilt dwell with me; and, I promise thee, this counsel is for thy prefarmin'.[243] Hadst not thou better serve a freeman of the City, and learn a trade to live another day, than to be a serving-boy in thy youth, and to have no occupation in thine age. I can make thee free, if thou wilt be my prentice.