WEN.  Nay, but valorous Frank, he that knows the secrets of all hearts knows I did it in kindness.

ILF.  Know your seasons:  besides, I am not of that species for you to instruct.  Then know your seasons.

BAR.  ’Sfoot, friends, friends, all friends; here comes young Scarborow.  Should he know of this, all our designs were prevented.

    Enter SCARBOROW.

ILF.  What! melancholy, my young master, my young married man?  God give your worship joy.

SCAR.  Joy of what, Frank?

ILF.  Of thy wealth, for I hear of few that have joy of their wives.

SCAR.  Who weds as I have to enforced sheets,
His care increaseth, but his comfort fleets.

ILF.  Thou having so much wit, what a devil meant’st thou to marry?

SCAR.  O, speak not of it,
Marriage sounds in mine ear like a bell,
Not rung for pleasure, but a doleful knell.

ILF.  A common course:  those men that are married in the morning to wish themselves buried ere night.

SCAR.  I cannot love her.

ILF.  No news neither.  Wives know that’s a general fault amongst their husbands.

SCAR.  I will not lie with her.

ILF. Caeteri volunt, she’ll say still;
If you will not, another will.

SCAR.  Why did she marry me, knowing I did not love her?

ILF.  As other women do, either to be maintained by you, or to make you a cuckold.  Now, sir, what come you for?

    Enter CLOWN.

CLOWN.  As men do in haste, to make an end of their business.

ILF.  What’s your business?

CLOWN.  My business is this, sir—­this, sir—­and this, sir.

ILF.  The meaning of all this, sir?

CLOWN.  By this is as much as to say, sir, my master has sent unto you; by this is as much as to say, sir, my master has him humbly commended unto you; and by this is as much as to say, my master craves your answer.

ILF.  Give me your letter, and you shall have this, sir, this, sir, and this, sir. [Offers to strike him.

CLOWN.  No, sir.

ILF.  Why, sir?

CLOWN.  Because, as the learned have very well instructed me, Qui supra nos, nihil ad nos, and though many gentlemen will have to do with other men’s business, yet from me know the most part of them prove knaves for their labour.

WEN.  You ha’ the knave, i’faith, Frank.

CLOWN.  Long may he live to enjoy it.  From Sir John Harcop, of Harcop, in the county of York, Knight, by me his man, to yourself my young master, by these presents greeting.

ILF.  How cam’st thou by these good words?

CLOWN.  As you by your good clothes, took them upon trust, and swore I would never pay for them.