Sens. Will I, quod a? yea, parde!
It is according for Sensuality
With Pride for to go.
[Sens. and Pride go out.
Wor. Aff. Now the matter is almost in good case,
After the world's mind and pleasure;
There is no more but now must I compass,
With all my wit and busy endeavour,
How it may be stablished and continued sure.
For, a little fantasy of man's own will
May quail this matter, and utterly it spill.
And if he vary again
Of scruple imagination,
Or else by the suggestion
Of the foresaid Reason,
One thing I am certain—
He will no longer me support;
And that were a shrewd crank dort.
Therefore, it is best that I resort
To my master's presence,
And see of what demeanour he is.
I am greatly to blame, I wis,
For that I saw him not or this
Sith he departed hence.
[He goeth out and Reason cometh in.
Rea. O good Lord! to whom shall I complain
And show the sorrows of my mind?
And nothing for mine own cause, certain;
But only for the decay of mankind;
Which now, of late, is waxen so blind
That he hath despised and forsaken me,
And followeth every motion of his Sensuality.
What availed at the beginning
That Nature committed me to his service?
And charged me that, before all thing,
Of all his guiding I should take th' enterprise
When he lusteth not to follow mine advice,
But followeth th' appetites of his sensual affection,
As a brute beast that lacketh reason?
And yet, notwithstanding
That he doth me disdain,
I will resort to him again;
And do my labour and busy pain
To assay if I can him refrain
From such beastly living.
But, first will I stand hereby,
In secret manner, to espy
Some token of grace in him, whereby
I may discern and find
That he hath any shamefacedness
After his great surfeit and excess;
And, if it be so, doubtless,
It shall content my mind. [Reason goeth aside.
Man cometh in [followed by Wor. Affec.
Man. I say, sirs! where is Worship, can ye tell?
In this place I left him last.
Wor. Aff. Sir, I warrant you he is occupied well
In ordaining your garments, full fast;
He departed from me in great haste
For that intent; and so he desired
That I would tell you when need required.
He showed me his mind or he went;
How he had devised your garment;
And, if it be made after that intent,
As he told me,
When ye wear on that vestour
Every man shall do your honour,
As becometh a man of your haviour;
And so it should be.
Man. Yea, but what will Reason say
When he seeth me in that array?
Wor. Aff. Reason? Marry! let him go play
To the devil of hell:
Ye promised me, at the beginning,
That ye would no more be under his guiding.