INGENIOSO. An excellent observation, in good faith. See how the old fox teacheth the young cub to worry a sheep; or rather sits himself, like an old goose, hatching the addle brain of Master Amoretto. There is no fool to the satin fool, the velvet fool, the perfumed fool; and therefore the witty tailors of this age put them under colour of kindness into a pair of cloth bags, where a voider will not serve the turn. And there is no knave to the barbarous knave, the moulting knave, the pleading knave.—What, ho! Master Recorder? Master Noverint universi per presentes,—not a word he, unless he feels it in his fist.
PHANTASMA. Mitto tibi merulas, cancros imitare legendo.
SIR RADERIC to FUROR.
Fellow, what art thou, that art so bold?
FUROR.
I am the bastard of great Mercury,
Got on Thalia when she was asleep:
My gaudy grandsire, great Apollo hight,[113]
Born was, I hear, but that my luck was ill,
To all the land upon the forked hill.
PHANTASMA. O crudelis Alexi, nil mea carmina curas? Nil nostri miserere? mori me denique coges?
SIR RADERIC to PAGE. If you use them thus, my master is a justice of peace, and will send you all to the gallows.
PHANTASMA. Hei mihi, quod domino non licet ire tuo?[114]
INGENIOSO.
Good Master Recorder, let me retain you this term—for my cause, good
Master Recorder.
RECORDER. I am retained already on the contrary part. I have taken my fee; begone, begone.
INGENIOSO. It's his meaning I should come off.[115] Why, here is the true style of a villain, the true faith of a lawyer; it is usual with them to be bribed on the one side, and then to take a fee of the other; to plead weakly, and to be bribed and rebribed on the one side, then to be fee'd and refee'd of the other; till at length, per varios casus, by putting the case so often, they make their clients so lank, that they may case them up in a comb-case, and pack them home from the term, as though they had travelled to London to sell their horse only; and, having lost their fleeces, live afterward like poor shorn sheep.