'POTHECARY. By God, I have a dry soul should thither; I pray you let our souls go to heaven together, So busy you twain be in soul's health; May not a 'pothecary come in by stealth? Yes, that I will,[389] by St Anthony, And, by the leave of this company, Prove ye false knaves both, ere[390] we go, In part of your sayings, as this, lo! Thou by thy travail thinkest heaven to get: And thou by pardons and relics countest no let,[391] To send thine own soul to heaven sure; And all other whom thou list to procure. If I took an action, then were they blank; For like thieves the knaves[392] rob away my thank. All souls in heaven having relief, Shall they thank your crafts? nay, thank mine chief. No soul, ye know, entereth heaven-gate, Till from the body he be separate: And whom have ye known die honestly,[393] Without help of the 'pothecary? Nay, all that cometh to our handling, Except ye happen to come to hanging; That way perchance ye shall not mister[394] To go to heaven without a glister. But be ye sure I would be woe,[395] If[396] ye should chance to beguile me so. As good to lie with me a-night, As hang abroad in the moonlight. There is no choice to flee my hand, But, as I said, into the band. Since of our souls the multitude I send to heaven, when all is viewed, Who should but I then altogether Have thank of all their coming thither? PARDONER. If ye killed a thousand in an hour's space, When come they to heaven dying out of grace?[397] 'POTHECARY. If a thousand pardons about your necks were tied, When come they to heaven, if they never died? PALMER. Long life after good works indeed Doth hinder man's receipt of mead; And death before one duty done, May make us think we die too soon. Yet better tarry a thing than[398] have it; Than go too soon, and vainly crave it. PARDONER. The longer ye dwell in communication, The less shall ye like this imagination. For ye[399] may perceive, even at the first chop, Your tale is trapped in such a stop. That at the least ye seem worse than we. 'POTHECARY. By the mass, I hold us nought all three. [_Enter Pedlar_. PEDLAR. By our lady, then have I gone wrong; And yet to be here I thought it long. 'POTHECARY. Ye have gone wrong no whit, I praise your fortune and your wit, That can direct you so discreetly To plant you in this company. Thou a Palmer, and thou a Pardoner, I a 'Pothecary. PEDLAR. And I a Pedlar. 'POTHECARY. Now, on my faith, well watched; Where the devil were we four hatched? PEDLAR. That maketh no matter, since we be matched, I could be merry if that I had catched Some money for part of the ware in my pack. 'POTHECARY. What the devil hast thou there at thy back?