_Page._ Thrice-noble lord, let me entreat of you To pardon me yet for a night or two; Or, if not so, until the sun be set: For your physicians have expressly charged, In peril to incur your former malady, 120 That I should yet absent me from your bed: I hope this reason stands for my excuse. _Sly._ Ay, it stands so that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loath to fall into my dreams again: I will therefore tarry in despite of the flesh and the blood. 125 _Enter a_ Messenger. _Mess._ Your honour's players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy; For so your doctors hold it very meet, Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood, And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy: 130 Therefore they thought it good you hear a play And frame your mind to mirth and merriment. Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life. _Sly._ Marry, I will, let them play it. Is not a comonty a Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick? 135 _Page._ No, my good lord; it is more pleasing stuff. _Sly._ What, household stuff? _Page._ It is a kind of history. _Sly._ Well, we'll see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side and let the world slip: we shall ne'er be younger. 140 _Flourish._ LINENOTES: [SCENE II.] Capell. SCENE IV. Pope. A ... house.] Theobald. Enter aloft SLY ...] Enter aloft the drunkard ... Ff Q. A stately Room in the Lord's House: In it a Stage and other Appurtenances, for the Play: and, in another Part, a Bed; SLY, in a rich Night-dress, sitting on it; surrounded by Servants, bearing Apparel, Bason, Ewer, &c. a Sideboard being by. Enter, at lower End, the Lord, himself habited like a Servant. Capell. [1] Sly.] Beg. Ff Q, and elsewhere in the scene. [5] _Christophero_] _Christopher_ Warburton. [10] _sometime_] _sometimes_ F3 F4. [12] _idle_] _evil_ Collier MS. [17] _Christopher_] F1 Q F2. _Christophero_ F3 F4. _Sly's_] _Sies_ F1. _Burton-heath_] _Barton-heath_ Steevens conj. [18] _card-maker_] _cart-maker_ or _cord-maker_ or _crate-maker_ or _cord-wainer_ Anon. conj. [21] _fourteen pence_] xiiii. d. F1 Q F2. xiv. d. F3 F4. _score_] _sorce_ F2. [22] _sheer_] F4. _sheere_ F1 Q F2 F3. _shear_ Jordan conj. _Warwickshire_ Collier MS.] [23] _What!_] _What_ Ff Q. _What?_--Hanmer. _bestraught_] _distraught_ Steevens conj. (withdrawn). _here's_--] Ff. _here's_ Q. [24] Third Serv.] 3. Man. F1 Q F2. 1. Man. F3 F4. [25] _is it_] _it is_ Rowe. [26] _shuns_] _shun_ Rowe. [43] _hounds_] _bounds_ Q. [47] Sec. Serv.] 2. M. Ff Q. [51] _with_] _with th'_ Anon. conj. [63] _o'er-run_] _o'er-ran_ Theobald. [71] _Christophero_] F2 F3 F4. _Christopher_ F1 Q. [74] [presenting the Ewer, &c. Capell. [75] _wit_] _wits_ F3 F4. [78] _so_] _you_ Rowe.