_Enter_ PRINCE EDWARD _malcontented, with_ LACY, WARREN, ERMSBY, _and_ RALPH SIMNELL. _Lacy._ Why looks my lord like to a troubled sky, When heaven's bright shine is shadowed with a fog? Alate we ran the deer, and through the lawnds Stripp'd[173] with our nags the lofty frolic bucks That scudded 'fore the teasers[174] like the wind: Ne'er was the deer of merry Fressingfield So lustily pull'd down by jolly mates, Nor shar'd the farmers such fat venison, So frankly dealt, this hundred years before; Nor have I seen my lord more frolic in the chase, And now chang'd to a melancholy dump. _War._ After the prince got to the keeper's lodge, And had been jocund in the house awhile, Tossing off ale and milk in country cans; Whether it was the country's sweet content, Or else the bonny damsel fill'd us drink, That seem'd so stately in her stammel[175] red, Or that a qualm did cross his stomach then, But straight he fell into his passions. _Erms._ Sirrah Ralph, what say you to your master, Shall he thus all amort[176] live malcontent? _Ralph._ Hearest thou, Ned?--Nay, look if he will speak to me! _P. Edw._ What say'st thou to me, fool? _Ralph._ I prithee, tell me, Ned, art thou in love with the Keeper's daughter? _P. Edw._ How if I be, what then? _Ralph._ Why then, sirrah, I'll teach thee how to deceive love. _P. Edw._ How, Ralph? _Ralph._ Marry, Sirrah Ned, thou shalt put on my cap and my coat and my dagger, and I will put on thy clothes and thy sword; and so thou shalt be my fool. _P. Edw._ And what of this? _Ralph._ Why, so thou shalt beguile Love; for Love is such a proud scab, that he will never meddle with fools nor children. Is not Ralph's counsel good, Ned? _P. Edw._ Tell me, Ned Lacy, didst thou mark the maid, How lovely in her country weeds she look'd? A bonnier wench all Suffolk cannot yield:-- All Suffolk! nay, all England holds none such. _Ralph._ Sirrah Will Ermsby, Ned is deceived. _Erms._ Why, Ralph? _Ralph._ He says all England hath no such, and I say, and I'll stand to it, there is one better in Warwickshire. _War._ How provest thou that, Ralph? _Ralph._ Why, is not the abbot a learned man, and hath read many books, and thinkest thou he hath not more learning than thou to choose a bonny wench? yes, I warrant thee, by his whole grammar. _Erms._ A good reason, Ralph.