Abbot. Sir Tristram may be any instant here. Now, will you go, or must we help you? Groom. Go? Go where? Abbot. To your dressing-room. Groom. But I am dressed. Abbot. The last time:--Will you go? Groom. When I have played My scene. Abbot. Quick, men; away with him. Groom. [Beating them off with his sword] Away With _you_. D'ye take me for a property, Thrice sodden shifters? Abbot--friar John, Go, mop your tonsure. Skip about! Shift, shift, Inevitable vermin of the stage! Abbot. By God, sir, you'll remember this! You cur! Groom. You'll not forget it either, business bug! Your discounts, claims, commissions, premiums--ha! My unjust steward, we must cork it in, This honest indignation, righteous bile, The rancour lacing all our thoughts, or else, By rent and vent, the lining of our pokes, Like treacherous entrails, Judas' viscera To wit, may fundamentally escape, And leave us poorer than we were before. Go down--to the box-office! Abbot. Thank the lord, Sir Tristram! [Enter Sir Tristram Sumner.] 'Twas not my fault, at all; I did my best. They treated him; he treated them: the wine's Above the tide-mark, and the fat in the fire. Sir T. Orchard? Orchard. Oh, very well, Sir Tristram! Off I go. Send for me if you want me: none Shall say that Silas Orchard overstayed His welcome. [Goes out.] Sir T. Send a line to Orchard's rooms: See that the messenger is there before him: No man in England can play the part like him. [Abbot and Salerne, etc., go out.] Now what's the matter, Warwick? Groom. This gutted play! You've cut the very things I want to say. Here in my first scene comes your pruning-hook, Your harvester, and shears my poppied patch:-- "Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl":-- Why man, it's poetry: I want to say it. Then here---- Sir T. Yes, yes; but this? Why this? You make My theatre a pothouse. Groom. Pothouse? [Drinks] Why, Your theatre's well enough to drink in, Knight. Knight? Vain, deluded, damned theatrocrat! Sir T. What, Warwick! What! Groom. An actor knighted! Once The actor was an artist here in England. When England in Queen Bess's time became A world above the world, and felt itself Adult and masculine, then lightly came The actor and the act, outside the state, Authentic and alone. Sir T. Enough of that! We know your fantasies. Will you attempt The part; or are you spoiled for this time, Warwick?