• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

meat him well, I will double his reward. there is twelve

pence for ye.

Servant

I thank your grace. Exit with the horse

Woodstock

now, sir, your business.

Courtier

his majesty commends him to your grace.

Woodstock

this same is a rare fashion you have got at court.

of whose devising was it, I pray?

Courtier

I assure your grace, the King his council sat three

days about it.

Woodstock

by my faith, their wisdoms took great pains, I assure ye.

the state was well employed the whiles, by the rood.

then this at court is all the fashion now?

Courtier

the King himself doth wear it;

whose most gracious majesty sent me in haste.

Woodstock

this peak doth strangely well become the foot.

Courtier

this peak, the King doth likewise wear, being a

polonian peak; and me did his highness pick from forth

the rest.

Woodstock

he could not have picked out such another,

I assure ye.

Courtier

I thank your grace that picks me out so well;

but as I said, his highness would request -

Woodstock

but this most fashionable chain, that links as it were

the toe and knee together?

Courtier

in a most kind coherence, so it like your grace;

for these two parts, being in operation and quality

different, as for example: the toe a disdainer or

spurner; the knee a dutiful and most humble orator.

this chain doth, as it were, so toeify the knee and so

kneeify the toe, that between both it makes a most

methodical coherence, or coherent method.

Woodstock

it is most excellent, sir, and full of art. please ye

walk in.

Courtier

my message tendered, I will tend your grace.

Woodstock

cry ye mercy, have you a message to me?

Courtier

his majesty, most affectionately, and like a royal

kinsman,

entreats your grace's presence at the court.

Woodstock

is that your message sir? I must refuse it, then.

my english plainness will not suit that place,

the court is too fine for me. my service here

will stand in better stead, to quench the fire

those blanks have made. I would they were all burnt,

or he were hanged that first devised them, sir.

they stir the country so. I dare not come

and so excuse me, sir. if the King think it ill,

he thinks amiss. I am plain Thomas still.

the rest I will tell ye as ye sit at meat.

furnish a table, Cheyney, call for wine.

come, sir, ye shall commend me to the King.

tell him I will keep these parts in peace to him.

Exeunt

Act III, Scene 3: The market square, Dunstable]

Enter Master Ignorance, the Bailey of Dunstable, Crosby, Fleming, and Nimble, with blanks. [Officers with bills in attendance]

Crosby

dispatch, good mr Bailey, the market is almost done,

you see. it is rumored that the blanks are come and the

rich choughs begin to flock out of the town already.

you have seen the high Shrieve's warrant and the

council's commission, and therefore I charge ye in the

King's name, be ready to assist us.

Bailey

nay, look ye sir. be not too pestiferous, I beseech

ye. I have begun myself and sealed one of your blanks

already, and by my example there is more shall follow.

I know my place and calling, my name is ignorance and

I am Bailey of dunstable. I cannot write nor read,

I confess it, mo more could my father, nor his father

nor none of the ignorants this hundred year, I assure ye.

Nimble

your name proclaims no less, sir, and it has been a

most learned generation.

Bailey

though I cannot write, I have set my mark, ecce

signum! read it I beseech ye.

Nimble

the mark of simon ignorance, the Bailey of dunstable,

being a sheephook with a tarbox at end on it.

Bailey

very right. it was my mark ever since I was an

innocent and therefore, as I say, I have begun and

will assist ye. for here be rich whoresons in the

town, I can tell ye, that will ye the slip and ye look

not to it.

Fleming

we therefore presently will divide ourselves. you

two shall stay here whiles we, mr ignorance, with some

of your brethren, the men of dunstable, walk through

the town noting the carriage of the people. they say

there