MRS BAR. Too young to marry.
MALL. Nay, by the mass, ye lie.
Mother, how old were you when you did marry?
MRS BAR. How old soe'er I was, yet you shall tarry.
MALL. Then the worse for me. Hark, mother, hark!
The priest forgets that e'er he was a clerk:
When you were at my years, I'll hold my life,
Your mind was to change maidenhead for wife.
Pardon me, mother, I am of your mind,
And, by my troth, I take it but by kind.[253]
MRS BAR. Do ye hear, daughter? you shall stay my leisure.
MALL. Do you hear, mother? would you stay from pleasure,
When ye have mind to it? Go to, there's no wrong
Like this, to let maids lie alone so long:
Lying alone they muse but in their beds,
How they might lose their long-kept maidenheads.
This is the cause there is so many scapes,
For women that are wise will not lead apes
In hell: I tell ye, mother, I say true;
Therefore come husband: maidenhead adieu! [Exit.
MRS BAR. Well, lusty guts, I mean to make ye stay,
And set some rubs in your mind's smoothest way[254].
Enter PHILIP.
PHIL. Mother—
MRS BAR. How now, sirrah; where have you been walking?