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SLY: |
I am Christophero Sly; call not me 'honour' nor |
'lordship:' I ne'er drank sack in my life; and if |
you give me any conserves, give me conserves of |
beef: ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear; for I |
have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings |
than legs, nor no more shoes than feet; nay, |
sometimes more feet than shoes, or such shoes as my |
toes look through the over-leather. |
Lord: |
Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour! |
O, that a mighty man of such descent, |
Of such possessions and so high esteem, |
Should be infused with so foul a spirit! |
SLY: |
What, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher |
Sly, old Sly's son of Burtonheath, by birth a |
pedlar, by education a cardmaker, by transmutation a |
bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker? |
Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if |
she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence |
on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the |
lyingest knave in Christendom. What! I am not |
bestraught: here's-- |
Third Servant: |
O, this it is that makes your lady mourn! |
Second Servant: |
O, this is it that makes your servants droop! |
Lord: |
Hence comes it that your kindred shuns your house, |
As beaten hence by your strange lunacy. |
O noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth, |
Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment |
And banish hence these abject lowly dreams. |
Look how thy servants do attend on thee, |
Each in his office ready at thy beck. |
Wilt thou have music? hark! Apollo plays, |
And twenty caged nightingales do sing: |
Or wilt thou sleep? we'll have thee to a couch |
Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed |
On purpose trimm'd up for Semiramis. |
Say thou wilt walk; we will bestrew the ground: |
Or wilt thou ride? thy horses shall be trapp'd, |
Their harness studded all with gold and pearl. |
Dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar |
Above the morning lark or wilt thou hunt? |
Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them |
And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth. |
First Servant: |
Say thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift |
As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe. |
Second Servant: |
Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight |
Adonis painted by a running brook, |
And Cytherea all in sedges hid, |
Which seem to move and wanton with her breath, |
Even as the waving sedges play with wind. |
Lord: |
We'll show thee Io as she was a maid, |
And how she was beguiled and surprised, |
As lively painted as the deed was done. |
Third Servant: |
Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood, |
Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds, |
And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep, |
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn. |
Lord: |
Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord: |
Thou hast a lady far more beautiful |
Than any woman in this waning age. |
First Servant: |
And till the tears that she hath shed for thee |
Like envious floods o'er-run her lovely face, |
She was the fairest creature in the world; |
And yet she is inferior to none. |
SLY: |
Am I a lord? and have I such a lady? |
Or do I dream? or have I dream'd till now? |
I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak; |
I smell sweet savours and I feel soft things: |
Upon my life, I am a lord indeed |
And not a tinker nor Christophero Sly. |
Well, bring our lady hither to our sight; |
And once again, a pot o' the smallest ale. |
Second Servant: |
Will't please your mightiness to wash your hands? |
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