Rea. Ho, daughter! can ye desire any more?
What need these doubts? Avoid them, therefore!
Exp. By' lakyn, sir! but, under your favour,
This doubt our daughter doth well to gather
For a good warning now, at beginning,
What Wit, in the end, shall look for in winning.
Which shall be this, sir! if Science here,
Which is God's gift, be used mere
Unto God's honour, and profit both
Of you and your neighbour, which goth
In her, of kind, to do good to all:
This seen to, Experience! I, shall
Set you forth, Wit, by her to employ
Double increase to your double joy;
But if you use her contrariwise
To her good nature, and so devise
To evil effects to wrest and to wry her,
Yea, and cast her off and set nought by her,
Be sure I, Experience, shall than
Declare you so before God and man;
That this talent from you shall be taken
And you punished for your gain forsaken.
Wit. "Once warned, half-armed," folk say, namely when
Experience shall warn a man, then
Time to take heed. Mother Experience!
Touching your daughter, my dear heart, Science,
As I am certain that to abuse her
I breed mine own sorrow, and well to use her
I increase my joy; and so to make it
God's grace is ready if I will take it:
Then—but ye count me no wit at all—
Let never these doubts into your head fall;
But, as yourself, Experience, clearing
All doubts at length, so, till time appearing,
Trust ye with me in God; and, sweetheart,
While your father, Reason, taketh with part
To receive God's grace as God shall send it,
Doubt ye not our joy till life's end [end] it!
Sci. Well, then, for the end of all doubts past,
And to that end which ye spake of last,
Among our wedding matters here rendering,
Th' end of our lives would be in remembering;
Which remembrance, Wit, shall sure defend ye
From the misuse of Science and send ye
The gain my mother to mind did call:
Joy without end—that wish I to all!
Rea. Well said! and as ye, daughter! wish it,
That joy, to all folk in general,
So wish I, Reason, the same; but yet
First in this life wish I here to fall
To our most noble King and Queen in especial,
To their honourable Council, and then to all the rest,
Such joy as long may rejoice them all best! [All say Amen.
Here cometh in four with viols and sing, "Remember me," and, at the last, choir all make curtsey, and so go forth singing.
Thus endeth the Play of Wit and Science, made by Master John Redford.
