 | The Diuell is an Asse |  |
Scene. I.
Gvilt-head. Plvtarchvs.[Gvi.]
All this is to make you a Gentleman:
I'll haue you learne, Sonne. Wherefore haue I plac'd you
With Sr. Poul Either-side, but to haue so much Law
To keepe your owne? Besides, he is a Iustice,
Here i'the Towne; and dwelling, Sonne, with him,
You shall learne that in a yeere, shall be worth twenty
Of hauing stay'd you at Oxford, or at Cambridge,
Or sending you to the Innes of Court, or France.
I am call'd for now in haste, by Master Meere-craft
To trust Master Fitz-dottrel, a good man:
I'haue inquir'd him, eighteene hundred a yeere,
(His name is currant) for a diamant ring
Of forty, shall not be worth thirty (thats gain'd)
And this is to make you a Gentleman!
Plv.
O, but good father, you trust too much!
Gvi.
Boy, boy,
We liue, by finding fooles out, to be trusted.
Our shop-bookes are our pastures, our corn-grounds,
We lay 'hem op'n, for them to come into:
And when wee haue 'hem there, wee driue 'hem vp
In t'one of our two Pounds, the Compters, streight,
And this is to make you a Gentleman!
Wee Citizens neuer trust, but wee doe coozen:
For, if our debtors pay, wee coozen them;
And if they doe not, then we coozen our selues.
But that's a hazard euery one must runne,
That hopes to make his Sonne a Gentleman!
Plv.
I doe not wish to be one, truely, Father.
In a descent, or two, wee come to be
Iust 'itheir state, fit to be coozend, like 'hem.
And I had rather ha' tarryed i'your trade:
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Me thinkes we should in time, holding together,
And matching in our owne tribes, as they say,
Haue got an Act of Common Councell, for it,
That we might coozen them out of rerum natura.
Gvi.
I, if we had an Act first to forbid
The marrying of our wealthy heyres vnto 'hem:
And daughters, with such lauish portions.
That confounds all.
Plv.
And makes a Mungril breed, Father.
And when they haue your money, then they laugh at you:
Or kick you downe the stayres. I cannot abide 'hem.
I would faine haue 'hem coozen'd, but not trusted.
| The Diuell is an Asse | |