ESAU. Ah, thou villain, tellest thou me this now? If [I] had thee, I would eat thee, to God I vow. Ah, meat, thou whoreson, why hast thou not brought me meat? RAGAN. Would you have me bring you that, I can nowhere get? ESAU. Come hither, let me tell thee a word in thine ear. RAGAN. Nay, speak out aloud: I will not come a foot near. Fall ye to snatching at folks? adieu, I am gone. ESAU. Nay, for God's love, Ragan, leave me not alone: I will not eat thee, Ragan, so God me help. RAGAN. No, I shall desire you to choose some other whelp. Being in your best lust, I would topple with ye, And pluck a good crow, ere ye brake your fast with me. What? are you mankin[261] now? I reckon it best, I, To bind your hands behind you, even as ye lie. ESAU. Nay, have mercy on me, and let me not perish. RAGAN. In faith, nought could I get, wherewith you to cherish. ESAU. Was there nothing to be had among so many? RAGAN. I could not find one but Jacob that had any, And no grant would he make for ought that I could say, Yet no man alive with fairer words could him pray. But the best red pottage he hath, that ever was. ESAU. Go, pray him, I may speak with him once, ere I pass. RAGAN. That message, by God's grace, shall not long be undone. ESAU. Hie thee, go apace, and return again soon. If Jacob have due brotherly compassion, He will not see me faint after this fashion; But I daresay, the wretch had rather see me throst, Than he would find in his heart to do so much cost. For where is, between one fremman[262] and another, Less love found than now between brother and brother? Will Jacob come forth to shew comfort unto me? The whoreson hypocrite will as soon hanged be. Yet, peace, methinketh Jacob is coming indeed: And my mind giveth me at his hand I shall speed, For he is as gentle and loving as can be, As full of compassion and pity. But let me see, doth he come? no, I warrant you. He come, quod I? tush, he come? then hang Esau! For there is not this day in all the world round Such another hodypeak wretch to be found, And Ragan my man, is not that a fine knave? Have any mo masters such a man as I have? So idle, so loit'ring, so trifling, so toying? So prattling, so trattling, so chiding, so boying? So jesting, so wresting, so mocking, so mowing? So nipping, so tripping, so cocking, so crowing? So knappish, so snappish, so elvish, so froward? So crabbed, so wrabbed, so stiff, so untoward? In play or in pastime so jocund, so merry? In work or in labour so dead or so weary? O, that I had his ear between my teeth now, I should shake him, even as a dog that lulleth a sow. But in faith, if ever I recover myself, There was never none trounced, as I shall trounce that elf. He and Jacob are agreed, I daresay, I, Not to come at all, but to suffer me here to die. Which if they do, they shall find this same word true That, after I am dead, my soul shall them pursue. I will be avenged on all foes, till I die: Yea, and take vengeance, when I am dead too, I.