MER. Brief, good Maſter _Ambler_, Put your selfe to your rack: for I haue taſque Of more importance. Mere-craft _ſeemes full of buſineſſe_. AMB. Sir you’ll laugh at me? 15 But (ſo is _Truth_) a very friend of mine, Finding by conference with me, that I liu’d Too chaſt for my complexion (and indeed Too honeſt for my place, Sir) did aduiſe me If I did loue my ſelfe (as that I do, 20 I muſt confeſſe) MER. Spare your _Parentheſis_. AMB. To gi’ my body a little euacuation-- MER. Well, and you went to a whore? AMB. No, S^r. I durſt not (For feare it might arriue at ſome body’s eare, It ſhould not) truſt my ſelfe to a common houſe; 25 Ambler _tels this with extraordinary ſpeed_. But got the Gentlewoman to goe with me, And carry her bedding to a _Conduit-head_, Hard by the place toward _Tyborne_, which they call My L. Majors _Banqueting-houſe_. Now Sir, This morning Was _Execution_; and I ner’e dream’t on’t 30 Till I heard the noiſe o’ the people, and the horſes; And neither I, nor the poore Gentlewoman [159] Durſt ſtirre, till all was done and paſt: ſo that I’ the _Interim_, we fell a ſleepe againe. _He flags_. MER. Nay, if you fall, from your gallop, I am gone S^r. 35 AMB. But, when I wak’d, to put on my cloathes, a ſute, I made new for the action, it was gone, And all my money, with my purſe, my ſeales, My hard-wax, and my table-bookes, my ſtudies, And a fine new deuiſe, I had to carry 40 My pen, and inke, my ciuet, and my tooth-picks, All vnder one. But, that which greiu’d me, was The Gentlewoman’s ſhoes (with a paire of roſes, And garters, I had giuen her for the buſineſſe) So as that made vs ſtay, till it was darke. 45 For I was faine to lend her mine, and walke In a rug, by her, barefoote, to Saint _Giles’es_. MER. A kind of Iriſh penance! Is this all, Sir? AMB. To ſatisfie my _Lady_. MER. I will promiſe you, S^r. AMB. I ha’ told the true _Diſaſter_. MER. I cannot ſtay wi’ you 50 Sir, to condole; but gratulate your returne. AMB. An honeſt gentleman, but he’s neuer at leiſure To be himſelfe: He ha’s ſuch tides of buſineſſe. [733] SD. AMBLER ...] _A Room in_ Tailbush’s _House. Enter_ AMBLER _and_ PITFALL. G [734] 6 entreat W, G || SN.] [_Exit Pitfall._ G [735] 8 _Enter_ MEERCRAFT. G [736] 12 that] this 1641 [737] 14 a tasque 1641 [738] 15 SN. om. G [739] 16 () ret. G. [740] 25 SN. Ambler om. G [741] 29 Mayor’s 1716, f. [742] 30 never W, G [743] 34 SN. _slags_ 1641