SCHOOLMASTER.
We have,
as learned authors utter, washed a tile.
we have been fatuus and laboured vainly.
SECOND COUNTRYMAN.
This is that scornful piece, that scurvy hilding,
That gave her promise faithfully, she would be here,
Cicely, the sempster’s daughter.
The next gloves that I give her shall be dogskin!
Nay an she fail me once—You can tell, Arcas,
She swore by wine and bread, she would not break.
SCHOOLMASTER.
An eel and woman,
A learned poet says, unless by th’ tail
And with thy teeth thou hold, will either fail.
In manners this was false position.
FIRST COUNTRYMAN.
A fire ill take her; does she flinch now?
THIRD COUNTRYMAN.
What
Shall we determine, sir?
SCHOOLMASTER.
Nothing.
Our business is become a nullity,
Yea, and a woeful and a piteous nullity.
FOURTH COUNTRYMAN.
Now, when the credit of our town lay on it,
Now to be frampul, now to piss o’ th’ nettle!
Go thy ways; I’ll remember thee. I’ll fit thee.
Enter Jailer’s Daughter.
DAUGHTER.
[Sings.]
The George Alow came from the south,
From the coast of Barbary-a.
And there he met with brave gallants of war,
By one, by two, by three-a.
Well hailed, well hailed, you jolly gallants,
And whither now are you bound-a?
O let me have your company
Till I come to the sound-a.