A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI by Robert Dodsley

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WEALTH.
He might have some, but thou showest small wit.
There is no such fineness in the picture that I see.[242]

SIMPLICITY.
Thou art no Cinque-Port man; thou art not wit-free.
The fineness was within, for without he was plain;
But it was the merriest fellow, and had such jests in store
That, if thou hadst seen him, thou would'st have laughed thy heart sore.

WEALTH.
Because of thy praise, what's the price of the picture?

SIMPLICITY.
I'll tell thee, my lad. Come hither: if thou wilt be ruled by me, thou
shalt pay nothing; I'll give it thee, if thou wilt dwell with me; and,
I promise thee, this counsel is for thy prefarmin'.[243] Hadst not thou
better serve a freeman of the City, and learn a trade to live another
day, than to be a serving-boy in thy youth, and to have no occupation
in thine age. I can make thee free, if thou wilt be my prentice.

WEALTH.
Why, Wealth is free everywhere: what need I serve you? My lord is a
freeman, if that may do me good.

SIMPLICITY.
I cry you mercy, master boy: then, your master is free of the Lord's
Company, and you serve him, that you may be a lord, when you come out
of your years.

WIT.
Wealth is a proud boy, gaffer: what say you to me?

SIMPLICITY.
Thy name is Wit: wilt thou dwell with me?

WIT.
If I like your name and science, perchance we'll agree.

SIMPLICITY.
Nay, my name and mine honesty is all one: it is well known. He's a very
fool that cannot beguile me, for my name is Simplicity.

WILL.
Goads,[244] gaffer! were you not a mealman once, and dwelt with Lady
Conscience?

SIMPLICITY.
Yes, for want of a better.

WILL.
What, a better man?

SIMPLICITY.
No; for want of a better mistress: she was as very a fool as I.
We dwelt so long together, that we went both on begging.

WIT.
Indeed, they that use a good conscience cannot suddenly be rich.
But I'll not dwell with ye: you are too simple a master for me.

WILL.
Nor I'll not dwell with you for all this world's treasure.

SIMPLICITY.
No? Why, whom serve you, Will?

WILL.
I serve my Lord Pleasure.

SIMPLICITY.
And whom serve you, Wit?

WIT.
I serve my Lord Policy.

SIMPLICITY.
And whom serve you, Wealth?

WEALTH.
I serve my Lord Pomp.

SIMPLICITY.
You should be served all with my Lord Birchley, if you were well served.
These lads are so lordly that louts care not for them; for Wealth serves
Pomp, Wit serves Policy, and Will serves Pleasure. Wealth, will you buy
this picture for your lord?
[_Shew Tarlton's picture_.

WEALTH.
No: it is too base a present for Pomp.

WIT.
And Policy seldom regards such a trifle.

WILL.
Come on, gaffer, come on; I must be your best chapman: I'll buy it for
Pleasure. Hold, there is a groat.

SIMPLICITY.
Gramercy, good Will, my wife shall love thee still;
And since I can neither get Wit nor Wealth,
Let my wife have her Will, and let me have my health.
God forgive me, I think I never name her, but it conjures her:
look where she comes!
Be mannerly, boys, that she knock ye not with her staff:
Keep your own counsel, and I'll make ye laugh.
What do ye lack? What lack ye?
Stand away, these boys, from my wares:
Get ye from my stall, or I'll wring you by the ears:
Let my customers see the wares. What lack ye?
What would ye have bought?

_Enter_ PAINFUL-PENURY, _attired like a water-bearing woman,
with her tankard_.

PENURY.
You have customers enou', and if they were ought.
What do you with these boys here, to filch away your ware?
You show all your wit: you'll ne'er have more care.

WILL.
Content ye, good wife: we do not filch, but buy.

PENURY.
I meant not you, young master, God's blessing on your heart:
You have bought indeed, sir, I see, for your part.
Be these two young gentlemen of your company?
Buy, gentlemen, buy ballads to make your friends merry.

WIT.
To stand long with your burden, methinks, you should be weary.

PENURY.
True, gentlemen; but you may see, poor Painful-Penury
Is fain to carry three tankards for a penny.
But, husband, I say, come not home to dinner; it's Ember-day:
You must eat nothing till night, but fast and pray.
I shall lose my draught at Conduit, and therefore I'll away.
Young gentlemen, God be with ye.

SIMPLICITY.
Wife, must I not dine to-day?

PENURY.
No, sir, by my fay.
[_Exit_ PENURY.

SIMPLICITY.
If I must not eat, I mean to drink the more:
What I spare in bread, in ale I'll set on the score.
How say ye, my lads, and do I not speak wisely?

WIT.
Methinks ye do; and it's pretty that Simplicity
Hath gotten to his wife plain Painful-Penury.

SIMPLICITY.
Yea, I thank God, though she he poor and scarce cleanly,
Yet she is homely, careful, and comely.

_One call within_.

Wit, Wealth, and Will, come to your lords quickly.

WILL.
Must the scutcheons hang still?

_One within_.

Yea, let them alone.

WIT.
Farewell, Master Simplicity.

[_Exeunt_.

SIMPLICITY.
Farewell, good master boys, e'en heartily, e'en heartily, heartily.
And, hear ye, Will, I thank you for your hansel[245] truly.
Pretty lads! hark ye, sirs, how? Will, Wit, Wealth!

[_Re-]enter_ WIT.

WIT.
What's the matter, you call us back so suddenly?

SIMPLICITY.
I forgot to ask you whether your three lords of London be courtiers
or citizens?

WIT.
Citizens born, and courtiers brought up. Is this all? Farewell.
[_Exit_.

SIMPLICITY.
Citizens born and courtiers brought up! I think so; for they that be
born in London are half courtiers, before they see the court: for
fineness and mannerliness, O, passing! My manners and misbehaviour is
mended half in half, since I gave over my mealman, and came to dwell in
London: ye may see time doth much. Time wears out iron horseshoes: time
tears out milstones: time seasons a pudding well; and time hath made me
a free man, as free to bear water and sell ballads as the best of our
copulation. I would have thought once my horse should have been free as
soon as myself, and sooner too, for he would have stumbled with a sack
of meal, and lien along in the channel with it, when he had done; and
that some calls freedom. But it's but a dirty freedom, but, ye may see,
bad horses were but jades in those days. But soft: here comes customers.
What lack ye? What is't ye lack? What lack ye? Come along, and buy
nothing. Fine ballads! new ballads! What lack ye?

_Enter_ NEMO _and the three Lords_.

NEMO.
My lords, come on. What suits have you to me?

POLICY.
Renowned Nemo, the most only one
That draws no breath but of th'eternal air,
That knowest our suit before we bound to speak,
For thou art the very Oracle of thoughts;
Whose virtues do encompass thee about,
As th'air surrounds this massy globe of earth;
Who hast in power whatever pleaseth thee,
And canst bestow much more than we may crave,
To thee we seek; to thee on knees we sue,
That thou wilt deign from thraldom to release
Those lovely dames, that London ladies are.

NEMO.
What, those three caitiffs, long ago condemn'd?
Love, Lucre, Conscience? well-deserving death,
Being corrupt with all contagion:
The spotted ladies of that stately town?

POMP.
Love, Lucre, Conscience, we of thee desire,
Which in thyself hast all perfection,
Accomplished with all integrity,
And needest no help to do what pleaseth thee;
Which holdest fame and fortune both thy slaves,
And dost compel the Destinies draw the coach,
To thee we sue, sith power thou hast thereto,
To set those ladies at their liberty.

PLEASURE.
At liberty, thou spotless magistrate,
That of the cause dost carry all regard,
Careless of bribes, of birth and parentage,
Because thyself art only born to bliss.
Bless us so much, that lords of London are,
That those three ladies, born and bred with us,
May by our suits release of thraldom find.

NEMO.
Release, my lords! why seek ye their release,
That have perpetual prison for their doom?

POLICY.
But Nemo can from thence redeem them all.

NEMO.
Their deeds were cause, not Nemo, of their thrall.

POMP.
Yet Nemo was the judge that sentence gave.

NEMO.
But Nemo never spill'd, whom he could save.

PLEASURE.
Thou from perpetual prison may'st revoke.

POLICY.
Death hath no power 'gainst him to give a stroke.

POMP.
Thou only mild and courteous sir, vouchsafe
To grant our suit, and set those ladies free.

NEMO.
What is your purpose in this earnest suit?

PLEASURE.
To marry them, and make them honest wives.

NEMO.
But may it be, that men of your regard,
Lords of such fortune and so famous place,
Will link yourselves with ladies so forlorn,
And so distained with more than common crimes?

POLICY.
Marriage doth make amends for many a miss.

POMP.
And love doth cover heaps of cumbrous evils.

PLEASURE.
And doth forget the faults that were before.

NEMO.
Mean as you say: you need to say no more.

POLICY.
In token that we mean what we have said,
Lo, here our shields, the prizes of our love,
To challenge all, except thyself, that dare
Deny those ladies to be ours by right.

NEMO.
Woo them and win them, win them and wear them too:
I shall both comfort and discourage you, my lords.
The comfort's this: of all those former crimes,
Wherewith the world was wont these dames to charge,
I have them clear'd, and made them all as free
As they were born, no blemish left to see.
But the discourage, gentle lords, is this:
The time of their endurance hath been long,
Whereby their clothes of cost and curious stuff
Are worn to rags, and give them much disgrace.

POMP.
Alas. good ladies! was there none that sued
For their release, before we took't in hand?

NEMO.
Yes, divers for fair Lucre sought release.
And some for Love would fain have paid the fees;
But silly Conscience sat without regard
In sorrow's dungeon, sighing by herself.
Which when I saw that some did sue for Love,
And most for Lucre, none for Conscience,
A vow I made, which now I shall perform:
Till some should sue to have release for all,
Judg'd as they were, they should remain in thrall.
But you, that crave their freedoms all at once.
Shall have your suit, and see them here ere long.
A little while you must have patience,
And leave this place. Go in, my lords, before.

POMP.
Becometh us to wait on Nemo still.

NEMO.
Not so; but, lordings, one condition more.
You promise me, sith they are in my power,
I shall dispose them, when they are releas'd,
Upon you three, as I shall think it best.

POMP.
Do but command, and we shall all subscribe.

NEMO.
Then go your ways, for I have here to do.

[_Exeunt Three Lords_.

_Enter_ SORROW.

Sorrow, draw near; to-morrow bring thou forth
Love, Lucre, Conscience, whom thou hast in thrall,
Upon these stones to sit and take the air,
But set no watch or spial[246] what they do.

[_Exeunt Ambo_.

_Enter_ FRAUD, USURY, DISSIMULATION, SIMONY, and SIMPLICITY.

FRAUD.
How happy may we call this merry day, my mates, wherein we meet, that
once were desperate, I think, ever to have seen one another, when Nemo,
that upright judge, had, by imprisoning our mistresses, banished us
(by setting such diligent watch for us) out of London, and almost out
of the world. But live we yet and are we met, and near our old seat?
Usury, is it thou? Let me see, or hath some other stolen thy face?
Speakest thou, man?

USURY.
No, Fraud: though many have counterfeited both thee and me,
We are ourselves yet, and no changelings, I see
And why shouldst thou ask me, man, if I live?
The silly ass cannot feed on harder forage than
Usury: she upon thistles, and I upon a brown crust of a month old.

SIMPLICITY.
So that Usury and an ass are two of the profitablest beasts that a man
can keep; yet th'one hath sharper teeth than th'other.

FRAUD.
But what means Dissimulation? He droops, methinks. What cheer, man?
Why, cousin, frolic a fit. Art thou not glad of this meeting? What's
the cause of thy melancholy?

DISSIMULATION.
Not melancholic, but musing how it comes to pass that we are thus
fortunate to meet, as we do?

SIMONY.
I'll tell thee why we met: because we are no mountains.[247]

SIMPLICITY.
But ye are as ill, for ye are monsters.

SIMONY.
And men may meet, though mountains cannot.

FRAUD.
In token that this meeting is joyous to us all, let us embrace
altogether with heart's joy and affection.

SIMPLICITY.
I see many of these old proverbs prove true; 'tis merry when
knaves meet. [_Aside_.

FRAUD.
How, sir! what's that?

SIMONY.
If a man had a casting-net, he might catch all you.

FRAUD.
Art thou not Simplicity?

SIMPLICITY.
Goodman Simplicity, for I am married, and it like your mastership.
And you are Master Fraud, too; a pox on your worship. I see a fox
and a false knave have all one luck, the better for banning; and
many of you crafty knaves live merrilier than we honest men.

FRAUD.
Sirrah, bridle your tongue, if you'll be welcome to our company.
No girds nor old grudges, but congratulate this meeting. And, sirs,
if you say it, let's tell how we have lived since our parting.

SIMPLICITY.
O, it is great pity.

USURY.
What, to tell how we have lived?

SIMPLICITY.
No; that ye do live.

FRAUD.
Yet again, sirrah? Usury, as for thee, it were folly to ask, for thou
livest but too well; but Dissimulation and Simony, how have you two
lived? Discourse, I pray you heartily.

SIMPLICITY.
Faith, even like two mice in an ambery,[248] that eat up all the meat,
and when they have done gnaw holes in the cupboard.

DISSIMULATION.
Fraud, after my 'scaping away at the Sessions, where I shifted, as thou
knowest, in three sundry shapes: one of a friar, and they can dissemble;
another like a woman, and they do little else; the third as a saint and
a devil--and so is a woman--I was banished out of London by Nemo. To the
country went I amongst my old friends, and never better loved than among
the russet-coats. Once in a month I stole in o' th' market-day to
Leadenhall and about, and sometime to Westminster Hall. Now, hearing
some speech that the ladies should be sued for, I am come in hope of my
old entertainment, supposing myself not known of many, and hoping the
three lords will prevail in their suit, and I to serve one of them.

SIMPLICITY.
He shall do well that gives thee a coat, but he should do better that
could take off thy skin. [Aside.

SIMONY.
And I have been a traveller abroad in other realms, for here I am so
cried out against by preachers (and yet some ministers, that be none,
could be content to use me) that I was glad to be gone: now, in some
other lands, and not very far off, I am secretly fostered--saving in
Scotland and the Low-Countries, [where] they are reformed, they cannot
abide me. Well, now and then hither I came stealing over sea, and
hearing as you hear, intend as you do.

FRAUD.
And for mine own part, among artificers,
And amongst a few bad-conscienced lawyers,
I have found such entertainment as doth pass,
Yet would I with Lucre fain be as I was.

SIMPLICITY.
Fraud is as ill as a cut-purse, by the mass. [Aside.

USURY.
And for Usury, the longer I live the greater love I find;
Yet would I be with Lucre again, to please my mind.

FRAUD.
Here's a good fellow, too, one of our acquaintance.
How hast thou lived, Simplicity?

SIMPLICITY.
More honestly than all the rest of thy company; for when I might beg
no longer, as begging was but bad, for you cosen'd me once of an alms,
I fell to tankard-bearing, and so got a wife of the same science,
Painful-Penury: then got I my freedom, and feeling my shoulder grow
weary of the tankard, set up an easier trade--to sell ballads.

FRAUD.
Hadst thou a stock to set up withal?

SIMPLICITY.
Wise enough to tell you, I!--and yonder's my stall: but beware I lose
nothing, for if I do, I'll lay it straight to some of you; for I saw
none so like thieves, I promise you, since I set up.

FRAUD.
You are a wise man, when your nose is in the cup. But soft, who comes
here? step we close aside, for these be the three ladies, for my life,
brought out of prison by their keeper. Let us be whist, and we shall
hear and see all. Sirrah, you must say nothing.

_Enter SORROW and the three Ladies: he sets them
on three stones on the stage._

SIMPLICITY.
Not till ye speak, for I am afraid of him that's with the women.

CONSCIENCE.
O Sorrow, when, when, Sorrow, wilt thou cease
To blow the spark that burns my troubled soul,
To feed the worm that stings my fainting breast,
And sharp the steel that gores my bleeding heart?
My thoughts are thorns, my tears hot drops of lead:
I plain, I pine, I die, yet never dead.
If world would end, my woe should but begin:
Lo, this the case of Conscience for her sin;
And sin the food, wherewith my worm was fed,
That stings me now to death, yet never dead.

LOVE.
Yet never dead, and yet Love doth not live,
Love, that to loss in life her folly led[249],
Folly the food whereon her frailty fed,
Frailty the milk that Nature's breast did give:
Life, loss, and folly: frailty, food, and kind,
Worm, sting, thorns, fire, and torment to the mind;
Life but a breath, and folly but a flower,
Frailty, clay, dust, the food that fancy scorns;
Love a sweet bait to cover losses sour,
Flesh breeds the fire that kindles lustful thorns;
Lust, fire, bait, scorn, dust, flower and feeble breath,
Die, quench, deceive, flie, fade, and yield to death.
To death? O good! if death might finish all:
We die each day, and yet for death we call.

LUCRE.
For death we call, yet death is still in sight.
Lucre doth scald in drops of melting gold
Accusing rust calls on eternal night[250],
Where flames consume, and yet we freeze with cold.
Sorrow adds sulphur unto fury's heat,
And chops them ice whose chattering teeth do beat;
But sulphur, snow, flame, frost, nor hideous crying
Can cause them die that ever are in dying,
Nor make the pain diminish or increase:
Sorrow is slack, and yet will never cease.

SORROW.
When Sorrow ceaseth, Shame shall then begin
With those that wallow senseless in their sin.
But, ladies, I have drawn you from my den
To open air, to mitigate some moan.
Conscience, sit down upon that sweating stone,
And let that flint, Love, serve thee for a seat;
And, Lady Lucre, on that stone rest you.
And, ladies, thus I leave you here alone.
Mourn ye, but moan not I shall absent be;
But good it were sometime to think on me.
[_Exit_.]

CONSCIENCE.
Comfort it is to think on sorrow past.

LOVE.
Sorrow remains, where joy is but a blast.

LUCRE.
A blast of wind is world's felicity.

CONSCIENCE.
A blasting wind, and full of misery.

LOVE.
O Conscience, thou hast more tormented me.

LUCRE.
Me hath thy worm, O Conscience, stung too deep.

CONSCIENCE.
But more myself my thoughts tormented have,
Than both of you, in Sorrow's sullen cave;
From whence drawn forth, I find but little rest:
A seat uneasy, wet, and scalding hot,
On this hard stone hath Sorrow me assign'd.

LOVE.
And on my seat myself I frozen find:
No flint more hard, no ice more cold than this.

LUCRE.
I think my seat some mineral stone to be;
I cold from it, it draw[eth] heat from me.
Ladies, consent, and we our seats will view.

CONSCIENCE.
Dare we for shame our stained faces shew?

LOVE.
My double face is single grown again.

LUCRE.
My spots are gone: my skin is smooth and plain.

CONSCIENCE.
Doff we our veils, and greet this gladsome light;
The chaser of gloom, Sorrow's heavy night[251].

LOVE.
Hail, cheerful air, and clearest crystal sky.

LUCRE.
Hail, shining sun and fairest firmament,
Comfort to those that time in woe have spent.

CONSCIENCE.
Upon my weeping stone is set REMORSE in brazen letters.

LOVE.
And on this flint in lead is CHARITY.

LUCRE.
In golden letters on my stone is CARE.

CONSCIENCE.
Then Lucre sits upon the stone of Care.

LUCRE.
And Conscience on the marble of Remorse.

LOVE.
Love on the flint of frozen Charity.
Ladies, alas, what tattered souls are we.

CONSCIENCE.
Sorrow our hearts, and time our clothes hath torn.

LUCRE.
Then sit we down like silly souls forlorn,
And hide our faces that we be not known;
For Sorrow's plagues tormenteth[252] me no more,
Than will their sight, that knew me heretofore.

LOVE.
Then will their sight, that knew us heretofore,
Draw ruth and help from them for our relief.

CONSCIENCE.
For our relief? for Conscience and for Love
No help, small ruth that our distress may move.

LOVE.
O Conscience, thou wouldst lead me to despair,
But that I see the way to hope is fair,
And hope to heaven directs a ready way,
And heaven to help is prest to them that pray.

LUCRE.
That pray with faith, and with unfeign'd remorse,
For true belief and tears make prayer of force.

CONSCIENCE.
Then veil ourselves, and silent let us stay,
Till heaven shall please to send some friends this way.

[_Sit all down_.

[_Enter_ FRAUD, DISSIMULATION, &c.]

FRAUD.
Ladies, unmask[253]! blush not for base attire:
Here are none but friends and servants all. Dear Lady Lucre,
Dearer unto us than daily breath we draw from sweetest air,
Dearer than life, dearer than heaven itself,
Deign to discover those alluring lamps,
Those lovely eyes more clear than Venus' star,
Whose bright aspects world's wonder do produce.
Unveil, I say, that beauty more divine
Than Nature (save in thee) did ever paint,
That we, sworn slaves unto our mistress, may
Once more behold those stately lovely looks,
And do those duties which us well beseems,
Such duties as we all desire to do.

CONSCIENCE.
I know that tongue. Lucre, beware of Fraud.

LUCRE.
Of Fraud! Indeed by speech it should be he.
Fraud, what seekest thou?

FRAUD.
Lucre, to honour thee with wit, with worth, with all I have;
To be thy servant, as I was before,
To get thee clothes, and what thou wantest else.

LUCRE.
No, Fraud, farewell: I must be won no more
To keep such servants as I kept before.

SIMONY.
Sweet Lady Lucre, me thou mayest accept.

LUCRE.
How art thou called?

SIMONY.
Simony.

LUCRE.
Aye? No, sir; Conscience saith.

CONSCIENCE.
No; Lucre now beware, false not thy faith,
For Simony's subject to perpetual curse.

DISSIMULATION.
As you two have sped, I would desire to speed no worse.

FRAUD.
Make you a suit: you may chance to speed better.

DISSIMULATION.
Not I, for of all my tongue is best known;
But if I speak, it shall be to her that was once mine own.
Good Lady Love, thou little knowest the grief
That I, thy friend, sustain for thy distress,
And less believest what care I have of thee.
Look up, good Love, and to supply thy wants
Ask what thou wilt, and thou shalt have of me,
Of me, that joy more in thy liberty
Than in this life or[254] light that comforts me.

LOVE.
O gall in honey, serpent in the grass!
O bifold fountain of two bitter streams,
Dissimulation fed with viper's flesh,
Whose words are oil, whose deeds, the darts of death!
Thy tongue I know, that tongue that me beguil'd,
Thyself a devil mad'st me a monster vild.
From the[e] well known well may I bless myself:
Dear-bought repentance bids me shun thy snare.

CONSCIENCE.
O happy Love, if now thou can beware.

SIMPLICITY.
Marry, but hear ye, motley-beard. I think this blindfold buzzardly
hedge-wench spoke to ye; she knows ye, though she see thee not.
Hark ye, you women, if you'll go to the alehouse, I'll bestow two
pots on ye, and we'll get a pair of cards[255] and some company,
and win twenty pots more; for you play the best at a game, call'd
smelling of the four knaves, that ever I saw.

USURY.
Four! soft, yet they have not smell'd thee.

SIMPLICITY.
No? I am one more than is in the deck, but you'll be smell'd as soon
as ye begin to speak. I'll see what they'll say to me. Hear ye, you
women, wives, widows, maids, men's daughters, what shall I call ye?
These four fellows (hark ye, shall I call ye crafty knaves?) make
me believe that you are the three that were the three fair ladies
of London.

CONSCIENCE.
Gentle Simplicity, we are unhappy they.

SIMPLICITY.
Now, ye bad fellows, which of ye had such a word as gentle Sim?

USURY.
Bad fellows, ye rascal! If e'er you bring me pawn, I'll pinch ye
for that word.

SIMPLICITY.
I cry you mercy, Master Inquiry--Master Usury: I meant not you.

FRAUD.
If you mean us, we may be even with ye too.

SIMPLICITY.
Tut! I knew ye an ostler, and a thief beside: You have rubb'd my
horse-heels ere now for all your pride. But, ladies, if ye be the
three ladies, which of ye dwelt in Kent Street? One of you did, but
I know not which is she, ye look all so like broom-wenches. I was
once her servant: I'll ne'er be ashamed of her, though I be rich and
she be poor; yet if she that hath been my dame, or he that hath been
my master, come in place, I'll speak to them, sure: I'll do my duty.
Which is Lady Conscience?

CONSCIENCE.
Even I am she, Simplicity.

SIMPLICITY.
I am glad ye are out of prison. I thought ye had forgot me: I went
a-begging for[256] you, till the beadles snapp'd me up: now I am free,
and keep a stall of ballads. I may buy and sell. I would you had as
good a gown now, as I carried once of yours to pawn to Usury here.

CONSCIENCE.
Gramercy, good Simplicity. Wilt thou be with me now?

SIMPLICITY.
No, I thank you heartily; I'll beg no more. I cannot with ye, though
I would, for I am married to Painful-Penury. Look now, my proud
stately masters, I may if I will; and you would, if ye might.

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