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Sc. x

Enter prince & Clowne
pr:
slaue of all slaues to mee most ominous
was this discreetly manag'd

Clo:
why yor grace knowes, I was neuer brought
vp to the missery of wenching, had hoo imploy'd
mee in any thing I hade bene practisd in, I could
haue hitt it in the right que, [but] as eating drinking
or such thinges, but for yor wenching, you that
best knowe what belonges to it goe about it
your selfe

pr:
why thou couldst not keepe thy selfe from being known[OMITTED]

Clo
growne to these yeares, and to make a mole
on. mee now

pr:
and then the teltale, to discouer mee

45

vnto the duke in whose suspitious thoughtes
I stand disgrac't shee lastingly confin'd

Clo:
and I put into a terrible feare of whipping
euery thing goes ill on our sides

pr:
thou that hast hinderd all helpe me now

Cl:
I was neuer porter to helpe at a dead lift

pr:
hast thou noe braine at all

Cl:
not soe much as in a buzzard, of all the deathes
that my witt giues mee, I shall neuer bee in
danger of brayning

pr:
thy want of witt hath made mee past my sence
here's like to bee a councell sweetly calld
betwixt a ffoole and a madman
for my head, I haue bene diuers times told

46

I might haue bene a Councellor, but here comes
one of more gravity deale wt h him,

Enter woodman
woo:
my suite's to you my lord

pr
ffather to mee

woo:
I neuer yet had ayme at such a sonne
then doe not call mee ffathr

Cl:
then good son or god son freely speake thy mind

woo:
you haue vndone mee robd mee of achild
my deerest child

pr:
impose not that on mee
wherein I trespast most vnwillingly

Clo:
you are deceiu'd sir wee haue lost noe child
shee's safe enough,

woo:
vnsafe in her most safety shee's now sick
and ready for the graue

pr:
now by my roialty
hope of succession and what honor s elce
the world may in fitt time bestow on mee
I greatly her lament much pitty thee

woo
pitty'es noe helpe by you the sicknes came
and you must study to relieue the same

pr:
teach mee the meanes Ile doo't

woo
I come not now to sue for her release
onely I plead to haue a living daughter

47

rather prissoner to stony walles then to a graue
there's hope in those but in the other none
gracious prince beg of the duke this for mee

pr
why this is graunted by the duke him selfe

Woo:
spar'd from one death to suffer by a nother

pr:
attend and Ile solicite for thee.

Exeunt