not a king? 
Hanging’s too good for her.  I am but a plain knave. 
And yet should any of these “no forsooths,”
These pray-aways, these trip-and-goes, these tits,
Deny me, now by these—­
A plague upon this bottle and this cup,
I cannot act mine oath! but to’t again—­
By these ten ends of flesh and blood[350] I swear,
First with this hand, wound thus about her hair,

And with this dagger lustily lambeak’d[351]—­
I would, i’ faith, ay, by my villainy,
I would.—­But here, but here she comes,
Led by two doctors in sweet lechery. 
If they speed, with my poison I go by;
If not, have at you, maid:  then step in I.

    Enter MATILDA, between the MONK and the ABBESS.[352]

MONK.  And as I said, fair maid, you have done well,
In your distress, to seek this holy place. 
But tell me truly, how do you expel
The rage of lust-arising heat in you?

MAT.  By prayer, by fasting, by considering
The shame of ill, and meed of doing well.

ABB.  But daughter, daughter, tell me in my ear,
Have you no fleshly fightings now and then? [Whisper.

BRAND.  Fleshly, quoth you, a maid of three-score years? 
And fleshly fightings sticking in her teeth? 
Well, wench, thou’rt match’d, i’ faith. [Aside.]

ABB.  You do confess the king has tempted you,
And thinking now and then on gifts and state,
A glowing heat hath proudly puff’d you up: 
But, thanks to God, his grace hath done you good.

MONK.  Who? the king’s grace?

MAT.  No; God’s grace, holy monk.

MONK.  The king’s grace would fain do you good, fair maid.

MAT.  Ill-good:  he means my fame to violate.

ABB.  Well, let that be.

BRAND.  Good bawd, good mother B.[353]
How fain you would that that good deed should be! [Aside.]

ABB.  I was about to say somewhat upon a thing: 
O, thus it is. 
We maids that all the day are occupied
In labour and chaste, hallow’d exercise,
Are nothing so much tempted, while day lasts,
As we are tried and proved in the night. 
Tell me, Matilda, had you, since you came,
No dreams, no visions, nothing worth the note?

MAT.  No, I thank God.

ABB.  Truly you will, you will,
Except you take good heed, and bless yourself;
For if I lie but on my back awhile
I am, past recovery, sure of a bad dream. 
You see yon reverend monk:  now, God he knows,
I love him dearer for his holiness,
And I believe the devil knows it too;
For the foul fiend comes to me many a night,
As like the monk, as if he were the man—­
Many a hundred nights the nuns have seen,
Pray, cry, make crosses, do they what they can—­
Once gotten in, then do I fall to work,
My holy-water bucket being near-hand,
I whisper secret spells, and conjure him,
That the foul fiend hath no more power to stand: 
He down, as I can quickly get him laid,
I bless myself, and like a holy maid,
Turn on my right side, where I sleep all night
Without more dreams or troubling of the sprite.