English drama -- 17th century; English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
_Sec._ That I have, Frank. The ostler a'th' Cock
dressed him for a breakfast. 41
_Qu._ What! did he eat him?
_Sec._ No, but he eat his breakfast for dressing him;
and so dressed him for breakfast.
_Qu._ O witty age! where age is young in wit,
And all youths' words have gray-beards full of it!
_Sec._ But alas, Frank! how will all this be maintained
now? Your place maintained it before. 48
_Qu._ Why, and I maintained my place. I'll to the
court: another manner of place for maintenance, I
hope, than the silly City! I heard my father say, I
heard my mother sing an old song and a true: _Thou_
_art a she-fool, and know'st not what belongs to our male
wisdom._ I shall be a merchant, forsooth! trust my
estate in a wooden trough as he does! What are these
ships but tennis-balls for the winds to play withal?
tossed from one wave to another; now under line, now
over the house; sometimes brick-walled against a rock,
so that the guts fly out again; sometimes strook under
the wide hazard, and farewell, master merchant! 60
_Si._ Well, Frank, well: the seas you say, are uncertain:
but he that sails in your Court seas shall find 'hem ten
times fuller of hazard; wherein to see what is to be seen
is torment more than a free spirit can endure; but when
you come to suffer, how many injuries swallow you!
What care and devotion must you use to humour an
imperious lord, proportion your looks to his looks,
smiles to his smiles; fit your sails to the winds of his
breath!
_Qu._ Tush! he's no journeyman in his craft that
cannot do that. 71
_Si._ But he's worse than a prentice that does it; not
only humouring the lord, but every trencher-bearer,
every groom, that by indulgence and intelligence crept
into his favour, and by panderism into his chamber;
he rules the roast; and when my honourable lord says
it shall be thus, my worshipful rascal, the groom of his
close stool, says it shall not be thus, claps the door
after him, and who dares enter? A prentice, quoth
you? 'Tis but to learn to live; and does that disgrace
a man? He that rises hardly stands firmly; but he
that rises with ease, alas! falls as easily. 82
_Qu._ A pox on you! who taught you this morality?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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