Enter FRAUD, USURY, DISSIMULATION, SIMONY, and SIMPLICITY.
FRAUD. How happy may we call this merry day, my mates, wherein we meet, that once were desperate, I think, ever to have seen one another, when Nemo, that upright judge, had, by imprisoning our mistresses, banished us (by setting such diligent watch for us) out of London, and almost out of the world. But live we yet and are we met, and near our old seat? Usury, is it thou? Let me see, or hath some other stolen thy face? Speakest thou, man?
USURY.
No, Fraud: though many have counterfeited both thee and me,
We are ourselves yet, and no changelings, I see
And why shouldst thou ask me, man, if I live?
The silly ass cannot feed on harder forage than
Usury: she upon thistles, and I upon a brown crust of a month old.
SIMPLICITY. So that Usury and an ass are two of the profitablest beasts that a man can keep; yet th'one hath sharper teeth than th'other.
FRAUD.
But what means Dissimulation? He droops, methinks. What cheer, man?
Why, cousin, frolic a fit. Art thou not glad of this meeting? What's
the cause of thy melancholy?
DISSIMULATION. Not melancholic, but musing how it comes to pass that we are thus fortunate to meet, as we do?
SIMONY.
I'll tell thee why we met: because we are no mountains.[247]
SIMPLICITY.
But ye are as ill, for ye are monsters.
SIMONY.
And men may meet, though mountains cannot.
FRAUD. In token that this meeting is joyous to us all, let us embrace altogether with heart's joy and affection.