[Enter Mischief.]
Mischief. I beseech you heartily leave your calculation!
Leave your chaff! leave your corn! leave your dalliation!
Your wit is little; your head is mickle; ye are full of predication!
But, sir! I pray [you] this question to clarify:
Driff, draff! mish, mash!
Some was corn, and some was chaff;
My dame said my name was Raff.
Unshut your lock and take an halfpenny!
Mer. Why come ye hither, brother? ye were not desired.
Mis. For a winter corn thresher, sir! I have hired.
And ye said: the corn should be saved and the chaff should be fired;
And he proveth nay, as it showeth by this verse:
Corn serveth breadibus, chaff horsibus, straw firibusque.
This is as much to say, to your lewd understanding,
As: the corn shall serve to bread at the next baking; chaff horsibus, et reliqud,
The chaff to horse shall be good produce;
When a man is for-cold the straw may be brent;
And so forth, etc.
Mer. Avoid, good brother! ye been culpable
To interrupt thus my talking delectable.
Mis. Sir! I have nother horse nor saddle;
Therefore, I may not ride.
Mer. Hie you forth on foot, brother! in God's name!
Mis. I say, sir! I am come hither to make you game;
Yet, bade ye me not go out in the devil's name,
And I will abide.
[A leaf of the manuscript has probably been lost at this point. It commences again by the entry of New Guise, Nought and Now-a-days with a band of minstrels.]