You'll not play the fool While these good gentlemen are there to save you.
SECOND MERCHANT. Since the drought came they drift about in a throng, Like autumn leaves blown by the dreary winds. Come, deal—come, deal.
FIRST MERCHANT. Who will come deal with us?
SHEMUS. They are out of spirit, Sir, with lack of food, Save four or five. Here, sir, is one of these; The others will gain courage in good time.
MIDDLE-AGED-MAN. I come to deal—if you give honest price.
FIRST MERCHANT (reading in a book) John Maher, a man of substance, with dull mind, And quiet senses and unventurous heart. The angels think him safe." Two hundred crowns, All for a soul, a little breath of wind.
THE MAN. I ask three hundred crowns. You have read there That no mere lapse of days can make me yours.
FIRST MERCHANT. There is something more writ here—"often at night He is wakeful from a dread of growing poor, And thereon wonders if there's any man That he could rob in safety."
A PEASANT. Who'd have thought it? And I was once alone with him at midnight.
ANOTHER PEASANT. I will not trust my mother after this.