LOVE. O gall in honey, serpent in the grass! O bifold fountain of two bitter streams, Dissimulation fed with viper's flesh, Whose words are oil, whose deeds, the darts of death! Thy tongue I know, that tongue that me beguil'd, Thyself a devil mad'st me a monster vild. From the[e] well known well may I bless myself: Dear-bought repentance bids me shun thy snare. CONSCIENCE. O happy Love, if now thou can beware. SIMPLICITY. Marry, but hear ye, motley-beard. I think this blindfold buzzardly hedge-wench spoke to ye; she knows ye, though she see thee not. Hark ye, you women, if you'll go to the alehouse, I'll bestow two pots on ye, and we'll get a pair of cards[255] and some company, and win twenty pots more; for you play the best at a game, call'd smelling of the four knaves, that ever I saw. USURY. Four! soft, yet they have not smell'd thee. SIMPLICITY. No? I am one more than is in the deck, but you'll be smell'd as soon as ye begin to speak. I'll see what they'll say to me. Hear ye, you women, wives, widows, maids, men's daughters, what shall I call ye? These four fellows (hark ye, shall I call ye crafty knaves?) make me believe that you are the three that were the three fair ladies of London. CONSCIENCE. Gentle Simplicity, we are unhappy they. SIMPLICITY. Now, ye bad fellows, which of ye had such a word as gentle Sim? USURY. Bad fellows, ye rascal! If e'er you bring me pawn, I'll pinch ye for that word. SIMPLICITY. I cry you mercy, Master Inquiry--Master Usury: I meant not you. FRAUD. If you mean us, we may be even with ye too. SIMPLICITY. Tut! I knew ye an ostler, and a thief beside: You have rubb'd my horse-heels ere now for all your pride. But, ladies, if ye be the three ladies, which of ye dwelt in Kent Street? One of you did, but I know not which is she, ye look all so like broom-wenches. I was once her servant: I'll ne'er be ashamed of her, though I be rich and she be poor; yet if she that hath been my dame, or he that hath been my master, come in place, I'll speak to them, sure: I'll do my duty. Which is Lady Conscience? CONSCIENCE. Even I am she, Simplicity. SIMPLICITY. I am glad ye are out of prison. I thought ye had forgot me: I went a-begging for[256] you, till the beadles snapp'd me up: now I am free, and keep a stall of ballads. I may buy and sell. I would you had as good a gown now, as I carried once of yours to pawn to Usury here. CONSCIENCE. Gramercy, good Simplicity. Wilt thou be with me now? SIMPLICITY. No, I thank you heartily; I'll beg no more. I cannot with ye, though I would, for I am married to Painful-Penury. Look now, my proud stately masters, I may if I will; and you would, if ye might. FRAUD. No, not dwell with such a beggar as Conscience. SIMPLICITY. No, Fraud ne'er lov'd Conscience, since he was an ostler. USURY. Who cares for Conscience but dies a beggar? SIMPLICITY. That will not Usury do: he will first take threescore pound in the hundred.