Enter BRABO with his sword in his hand.
BRA. Where's Mistress Mary? never a post here,
A bar of iron, 'gainst which to try my sword?
Now, by my beard, a dainty piece of steel.
AMIN. O Jove, what a qualm is this I feel!
BRA. Come hither, Mall, is none here but we two?
When didst thou see the starveling schoolmaster?
That rat, that shrimp, that spindle-shank,
That wren, that sheep-biter, that lean chitty-face,
That famine, that lean envy, that all-bones,
That bare anatomy, that Jack-a-Lent,
That ghost, that shadow, that moon in the wane?
AMIN. I wail in woe, I plunge in pain.[15] [Aside.]
BRA. When next I find him here, I'll hang him up,
Like a dried sausage, in the chimney's top:
That stock-fish, that poor John, that gut of men!
AMIN. O, that I were at home again! [Aside.]
BRA. When he comes next, turn him into the streets.
Now, come, let's dance the shaking of the sheets.
[Exeunt MISTRESS MARY and BRABO.
AMIN. Qui, quae, quod!
Hence, boist'rous bill! come, gentle rod!
Had not grimalkin stamp'd and star'd,
Aminadab had little car'd;
Or if, instead of this brown bill,
I had kept my Mistress Virga still,
And he upon another's back,
His points untruss'd, his breeches slack;
My countenance he should not dash,
For I am expert in the lash.
But my sweet lass my love doth fly,
Which shall make me by poison die.
Per fidem, I will rid my life
Either by poison, sword, or knife.