OLIVIA. It can't be the connexion between us, I'm pretty certain.
LEONT. Whatever it be, my dearest, I'm resolved to put it out of
Fortune's power to repeat our mortification. I'll haste, and prepare
for our journey to Scotland this very evening. My friend Honeywood has
promised me his advice and assistance. I'll go to him, and repose our
distresses on his friendly bosom: and I know so much of his honest
heart, that if he can't relieve our uneasinesses, he will at least
share them.
[_Exeunt._
ACT III.
SCENE.—YOUNG HONEYWOOD'S _House_.
BAILIFF, HONEYWOOD, FOLLOWER.
BAILIFF. Look-ye, sir, I have arrested as good men as you in my time;
no disparagement of you neither. Men that would go forty guineas on a
game of cribbage. I challenge the town to show a man in more genteeler
practice than myself.
HONEYW. Without all question, Mr. ——. I forget your name, sir?
BAILIFF. How can you forget what you never knew? he, he, he!
HONEYW. May I beg leave to ask your name?
BAILIFF. Yes, you may.
HONEYW. Then, pray, sir, what is your name, sir?
BAILIFF. That I didn't promise to tell you; he, he, he! A joke breaks
no bones, as we say among us that practise the law.
HONEYW. You may have reason for keeping it a secret perhaps.
BAILIFF. The law does nothing without reason. I'm ashamed to tell my
name to no man, sir. If you can show cause, as why, upon a special
capus, that I should prove my name—But, come, Timothy Twitch is my
name. And, now you know my name, what have you to say to that?
HONEYW. Nothing in the world, good Mr. Twitch, but that I have a favour
to ask, that's all.
BAILIFF. Ay, favours are more easily asked than granted, as we say
among us that practise the law. I have taken an oath against granting
favours. Would you have me perjure myself?
HONEYW. But my request will come recommended in so strong a manner, as,
I believe, you'll have no scruple. (_Pulling out his purse._) The thing
is only this: I believe I shall be able to discharge this trifle in two
or three days at farthest; but as I would not have the affair known for
the world, I have thought of keeping you, and your good friend here,
about me till the debt is discharged; for which I shall be properly
grateful.
BAILIFF. Oh! that's another maxum, and altogether within my oath. For
certain, if an honest man is to get anything by a thing, there's no
reason why all things should not be done in civility.
HONEYW. Doubtless, all trades must live, Mr. Twitch, and yours is a
necessary one. (_Gives him money._)
BAILIFF. Oh! your honour; I hope your honour takes nothing amiss as I
does, as I does nothing but my duty in so doing. I'm sure no man can
say I ever give a gentleman, that was a gentleman, ill-usage. If I saw
that a gentleman was a gentleman, I have taken money not to see him for
ten weeks together.
HONEYW. Tenderness is a virtue, Mr. Twitch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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