DISSIMULATION.
Not I, for of all my tongue is best known;
But if I speak, it shall be to her that was once mine own.
Good Lady Love, thou little knowest the grief
That I, thy friend, sustain for thy distress,
And less believest what care I have of thee.
Look up, good Love, and to supply thy wants
Ask what thou wilt, and thou shalt have of me,
Of me, that joy more in thy liberty
Than in this life or[254] light that comforts me.
LOVE.
O gall in honey, serpent in the grass!
O bifold fountain of two bitter streams,
Dissimulation fed with viper's flesh,
Whose words are oil, whose deeds, the darts of death!
Thy tongue I know, that tongue that me beguil'd,
Thyself a devil mad'st me a monster vild.
From the[e] well known well may I bless myself:
Dear-bought repentance bids me shun thy snare.
CONSCIENCE.
O happy Love, if now thou can beware.
SIMPLICITY. Marry, but hear ye, motley-beard. I think this blindfold buzzardly hedge-wench spoke to ye; she knows ye, though she see thee not. Hark ye, you women, if you'll go to the alehouse, I'll bestow two pots on ye, and we'll get a pair of cards[255] and some company, and win twenty pots more; for you play the best at a game, call'd smelling of the four knaves, that ever I saw.
USURY.
Four! soft, yet they have not smell'd thee.
SIMPLICITY. No? I am one more than is in the deck, but you'll be smell'd as soon as ye begin to speak. I'll see what they'll say to me. Hear ye, you women, wives, widows, maids, men's daughters, what shall I call ye? These four fellows (hark ye, shall I call ye crafty knaves?) make me believe that you are the three that were the three fair ladies of London.
CONSCIENCE.
Gentle Simplicity, we are unhappy they.
SIMPLICITY.
Now, ye bad fellows, which of ye had such a word as gentle Sim?
USURY. Bad fellows, ye rascal! If e'er you bring me pawn, I'll pinch ye for that word.
SIMPLICITY.
I cry you mercy, Master Inquiry—Master Usury: I meant not you.