PERV. DOC. Our matters with Cruelty our friend to discuss, And to hear him, what counsel in this case he will give us; And this is the cause I have tarried for thee, Because that to him I would have thee go with me, But see where he cometh with Avarice sadly walking, Let us listen, if we can, whereof they be talking. ACTUS II., SCENA 3. CRUELTY, AVARICE _enter_. PERVERSE DOCTRINE _and_ IGNORANCE _tarry_. CRUELTY. Nay, by God's heart, if I might do what I list, Not one of them all that should 'scape my fist. His nails,[25] I would plague them one way or another. I would not miss him, no, if he were mine own brother. With small faults I might bear as I saw occasion, And punish or forgive at mine own discretion, For I wot that sometime the wisest may fall; But heresy--fie on that, that is the greatest of all. Every stocks should be full, every prison and jail: Some would I beat with rods, some scourge at a cart's tail, Some hoise their heels upward, some beat in a sack, Some manacle their fingers, some bind in the rack. Some would I starve for hunger, some would I hang privily, Saying, that themselves so died desperately. Some would I accuse of matters of great weight, Openly to hang them as trespassers straight. A thousand mo ways could I tell, and not miss, Which here in England, I may say to you, I have practised ere this, And trust, by His wounds, Avarice, soon again for to try, Howsoever the world go, before that I die. AVARICE. Now I will tell thee, Cruelty, by God's sacrament I have swore, It were pity but thou were hanged before. CRUELTY. Ha, ha, ha; I had as lief they were hanged as I. By the mass, there is one thing makes me laugh heartily, ha, ha, ha. AVARICE. I pray thee what is that? CRUELTY. What? ha, ha, ha; I cannot tell for laughing, I would never better pastime desire, Than to hear a dozen of them howling together in the fire; Whose noise, as me-thinketh, I could best compare To a cry of hounds following after the hare, Or a rabblement of bandogs barking at a bear; Ha, ha, ha. AVARICE. I beshrew thy knave's fingers with my very heart, The devil will reward thee, whose darling thou art. But sirrah, I pray thee-- If it had chanced me in those days in thy hands to have fell, I think sure thou wouldst have ordered me well. CRUELTY. His blood, I would I might have once seen that chance, I would have vexed thee with a vengeance, for old acquaintance. AVARICE. Why so? I was always thy furderer in those days, I am sure. CRUELTY. Yea, but what was the cause? thine own profit to procure. For so that thou mightest 'vantage and lucre obtain, Thou wouldest not stick to bring thine own brother to pain.