This fellow, sir, perhaps will meet ye thus,
Action ⌈of greeting him⌉
Or thus, or thus, and in kind compliment
Pretend acquaintance, somewhat doubtfully,
And these embraces serve.
SURESBY (shrugging gladly)
Ay, marry, Lifter, wherefore serve they?
LIFTER
Only to feel
Whether you go full under sail or no,
Or that your lading be aboard your barque.
SURESBY
In plainer English, Lifter, if my purse
Be stored or no?
LIFTER
Ye have it, sir.
SURESBY
Excellent, excellent!
LIFTER
Then, sir, you cannot but for manners’ sake
Walk on with him, for he will walk your way,
Alleging either you have much forgot him,
Or he mistakes you.
SURESBY
But in this time has he my purse or no?
LIFTER
Not yet, sir, fie! ⌈Aside⌉ No, nor I have not yours.—
⌈He takes Suresby’s purse.⌉
Enter Lord Mayor, ⌈Justices, and the Recorder; Sheriff
More and the other Sheriff⌉
But now we must forbear; my lords return.
SURESBY
A murrain on’t! Lifter, we’ll more anon.
Ay, thou sayst true: there are shrewd knaves indeed.
He sits down
But let them gull me, widgeon me, rook me, fop me,
I‘faith, i’faith, they are too short for me.
Knaves and fools meet when purses go.
Wise men look to their purses well enough.
MORE (aside)
Lifter, is it done?
LIFTER (aside)
Done, Master Sheriff, and there it is.
⌈He gives Suresby’s purse to More⌉
MORE (aside)
Then build upon my word, I’ll save thy life.
RECORDER Lifter, stand to the bar. 150
The jury have returned thee guilty; thou must die.
According to the custom, look to it, Master Sheriff.
LORD MAYOR
Then, gentlemen, as you are wont to do,
Because as yet we have no burial place,
What charity your meaning’s to bestow 155
Toward burial of the prisoners now condemned,
Let it be given. There is first for me.
RECORDER
And there’s for me.
ANOTHER
And me.
SURESBY
Body of me,
My purse is gone!
MORE Gone, sir? What, here? How can that be?
LORD MAYOR
Against all reason: sitting on the bench? 160
SURESBY
Lifter, I talked with you; you have not lifted me, ha?
LIFTER
Suspect ye me, sir? O, what a world is this!
MORE
But hear ye, Master Suresby. Are ye sure
Ye had a purse about ye?
SURESBY
Sure, Master Sheriff, as sure as you are there; 165
And in it seven pounds odd money, on my faith.
MORE
Seven pounds odd money? What, were you so mad,
Being a wise man, and a magistrate,
To trust your purse with such a liberal sum?
Seven pounds odd money? Fore God, it is a shame 170
With such a sum to tempt necessity.
I promise ye, a man that goes abroad
With an intent of truth, meeting such a booty,
May be provoked to that he never thought.
What makes so many pilferers and felons 175
But these fond baits that foolish people lay
To tempt the needy, miserable wretch?
Should he be taken now that has your purse,
I’d stand to‘t, you are guilty of his death;
For, questionless, he would be cast by law.
’Twere a good deed to fine ye as much more,
To the relief of the poor prisoners,
To teach ye lock your money up at home.
SURESBY
Well, Master More, you are a merry man.
I find ye, sir, I find ye well enough.
MORE
Nay, ye shall see, sir, trusting thus your money,
And Lifter here in trial for like case,
But that the poor man is a prisoner,
It would be now suspected that he had it.
Thus may ye see what mischief often comes
By the fond carriage of such needless sums.
LORD MAYOR
Believe me, Master Suresby, this is strange,
You being a man so settled in assurance
Will fall in that which you condemned in other.
MORE
Well, Master Suresby, there’s your purse again,
And all your money. Fear nothing of More.
Wisdom still ( ) the door.
[Exeunt]
Sc. 3 Enter the Earls of Shrewsbury and Surrey, Sir Thomas Palmer, and Sir Roger Cholmley
Mend this:
SHREWSBURY
My lord of Surrey, and Sir Thomas Palmer,
Might I with patience tempt your grave advice?
I tell ye true, that in these dangerous times
I do not like this frowning vulgar brow.
My searching eye did never entertain
A more distracted countenance of grief
Than I have late observed
In the displeased commons of the city.
SURREY
’Tis strange, that from his princely clemency
So well a tempered mercy and a grace
To all the aliens in this fruitful land,
That this high-crested insolence should spring
From them that breathe from his majestic bounty,
That, fattened with the traffic of our country,
Already leap into his subjects’ face.
PALMER
Yet Sherwin hindered to commence his suit
Against de Barde, by the Ambassador
By supplication made unto the King;
Who, having first enticed away his wife
And got his plate, near worth four hundred pound,
To grieve some wronged citizens that found
This vile disgrace oft cast into their teeth,
Of late sues Sherwin, and arrested him
For money for the boarding of his wife.