Though I hang therefore, I care not, I, So I be revenged on a slave, ere I die. Sacrament of God! who hath heard such a knave? Who, after he had done at Ignorance to rave, Perverse Doctrine (quod he) is also rooted so fast, That he may be changed by no heavenly blast. No, God's soul, I warrant him, I will see him rotten, Before that my doctrine I shall have forgotten: Wherefore it behoveth us some counsel to take, How we the stronger our matters may make, Against the surprise of this new invasion, Begun of late by this strange generation, Of New Custom and his makes;[20] meaning to deface Our ancient rites and religion, and to place Their devilish doctrine the Gospel, and so Our gains to debate, and ourselves to undo. I think it best therefore that our sister Hypocrisy Do understand fully of this matter by and by. Let us go and seek her, the case for to show, That we her good counsel may speedily know. IGNORANCE. I am ready; in following I will not be slow. [_Exeunt._ FOOTNOTES: [1] A cheating bully, so called in several Acts of Parliament during the reign of King Henry the Eighth.--_S._ [2] A common proverb, of which there are varying versions; but the original is _quot homines_, &c. [3] _Merchant_ was anciently used as we now use the word _chap_. See note on "Romeo and Juliet," A. 2, S. 4.--_Steevens._ [4] _Cowle_ or rather _coll_ [Coll] I suppose to be the name of the dog.--_Steevens._ _Cowle my dog_, I am inclined to believe, means _put a cowl or hood on a dog_, and he will be as learned as a friar: the contempt into which the order had at this period fallen will at least countenance the explanation, if it should not be thought sufficient to prove it. I once was of opinion, that there might be an allusion to the case of one Collins, a crazy man, who seeing a priest hold up the host over his head, lifted up a dog in the same manner, for which both he and the animal were burnt in 1538. See Fox, vol. ii. 436. My conjecture requires a little explanation. The speaker means to say, "If the New Testament is fit for the use of boys, so likewise is it adapted equally to the conception of _Coll my dog_. The one will understand and make a proper use of it as soon as the other."--_Steevens._ [What will be thought of the preceding note, I hardly know; the text is the clearer.] [5] By the Stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 9, s. 16, a penalty is imposed on certain persons therein mentioned, who should play at the tables, tennis, dice, cards, bowls, clash, _coyting_, logating, or other unlawful game. [6] Perhaps a contraction of _save your reverence_.--_Steevens._