CON.  Why, thieves, man, I tell thee, come away.

HOST. Thieves, i’faith?  Wife! my scull, my jack, my brown bill.

CON.  Come away quickly.

HOST. Dick, Tom, Will, ye whoresons, make ye all ready, and haste;
But let me hear, how stands the case?
                        [Follows CONSTABLE.[412]

CON.  Marry, sir, here-by.  Not far from this place,
A plain simple man, riding on his ass,
Meaning home to his country in God’s peace to pass,
By certain roisters, most furious and mad,
Is spoiled and robbed of all that he had. 
And yet not contented, when they had his money,
But the villains have also murdered him most cruelly.

HOST. Good God, for his mercy!

CON.  It was my hap to come then present[ly] by him,
And found him dead, with twenty wounds upon him.

HOST. But what became of them?

CON.  They fled this way.

HOST. Then, neighbour, let us here no longer stay,
But hence and lay the country roundabout: 
They shall be quickly found, I have no doubt.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

    Enter VIRTUE and EQUITY, with other attendants.

VIR.  My lords, you see how far this worldly state perverted is;
From good declin’d, inclined still to follow things amiss: 
You see but very few that make of Virtue any price: 
You see all sorts with hungry wills run headlong into vice.

EQ.  We see it oft, we sorrow much, and heartily lament,
That of himself man should not have a better government.

VER.  The very beasts that be devoid of reason, dull and dumb,
By nature learn to shun those things whereof their hurt may come. 
If man were then but as a beast, only by nature taught,
He would also by nature learn to shun what things are nought. 
But man with reason is endued:  he reason hath for stay;
Which reason should restrain his will from going much astray.

EQ.  Madam, ’tis true: 
Where reason rules, there is the golden mean.

VER.  But most men stoop to stubborn will,
Which conquereth reason clean.

EQ.  And will again to fancy yields,
Which twain be special guides,
That train a man to tread ill paths,
Where ease and pleasure bides.

VER.  No ease, no pleasure, can be good, that is not got with pains.

EQ.  That is the cause from Virtue’s love
Man’s fancy still refrains.

VER.  And pains, I think, they feel likewise,
That unto vice do bend.

EQ.  They feel, no doubt:  but yet such pains
Come not before the end.

VIR.  I grieve for man, that man should be of ill attempts so[413] fain.

EQ.  Grieve not for that:  evil tasted once, turns him to good again.

VIR.  Then will I take a cheerful mind,
Unpleasant thoughts expel,
And cares for man commit to them,
That in the heavens do dwell.