Yes, sir, I will tell you; yet if you were not dunces, you would never
ask me such a question; for
[20
is not he corpus
naturale? and is not that mobile? then wherefore should
you ask me such a question? But that I am by nature phlegmatic, slow to
wrath, and prone to lechery (to love, I would say), it were not for you
to come within forty feet of the place of execution, although I do not
doubt to see you both hanged the next sessions. Thus having triumphed
over you, I will set my countenance like a Precisian, and begin to speak
thus:—Truly, my dear brethren, my master is within at dinner, with
Valdes and Cornelius, as this wine, if it could speak, [30 would inform
your worships; and so the Lord bless you, preserve you, and keep you, my
dear brethren, my dear brethren.
Alas, poor slave! see how poverty jesteth in his nakedness! the villain
is bare and out of service, and so hungry that I know he would give his
soul to the Devil for a shoulder of mutton, though it were
blood-raw.
So thou shalt, whether thou beest with me or no. But, sirrah, leave your
jesting, and bind yourself presently unto me for seven years, or I'll
turn all the lice about thee into familiars, and they shall tear thee in
pieces.