[Exeunt omnes.
SCENE IV.
Enter Parson, Captain, Wild, Wanton, Careless, and Jolly.
Par. I am reconciled, and will no longer be an uncharitable churchman. I think this sack is a cooler.
Capt. What! does it make you to see your error?
Par. Yes, and consider my man-of-war: nor will I again dispute his letters of mart, nor call them passes for pirates. I am free.
Capt. And welcome. Anything but anger is sufferable, and all is jest, when you laugh; and I will hug thee for abusing me with thy eyes in their scabbards; but when you rail with drawn eyes, red and naked, threatening a Levite's second revenge[266] to all that touches your concubine, then I betake me to a dark lantern and a constable's staff; and by help of these fathers whom I cite, I prove my text: Women that are kind ought to be free.
Par. But, captain, is it not lawful for us shepherds to reclaim them?
Capt. A mere mistake; for sin, like the sea, may be turned out, but will ne'er grow less: and though you should drain this Mistress Doll, yet the whore will find a place, and perhaps overflow some maid, till then honest; and so you prove the author of a new sin, and the defiler of a pure temple: therefore I say, while you live, let the whore alone, till she wears out; nor is it safe to vamp them, as you shall find. Read Ball the first and the second.[267]