IMMERITO. 
Twelve, sir.

SIR RADERIC,
How many from Newmarket to Grantham?

IMMERITO. 
Ten, sir.

PAGE. 
Without doubt, he hath been some carrier’s horse. [Aside.

SIR RADERIC. 
How call you him that is cunning in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and the cypher?

IMMERITO. 
A good arithmetician.

SIR RADERIC. 
Write down that answer of his, to show his learning in arithmetic.

PAGE. 
He must needs be a good arithmetician, that counted money so lately.
          
                                                 [Aside.

SIR RADERIC. 
When is the new moon?

IMMERITO. 
The last quarter the fifth day, at two of the clock and thirty-eight
minutes in the morning.

SIR RADERIC. 
Write that down.  How call you him that is weatherwise?

IMMERITO. 
A good astronomer.

SIR RADERIC. 
Sirrah boy, write him down for a good astronomer.

PAGE. 
Ass colit ass-tra. [Aside.

SIR RADERIC. 
What day of the month lights the Queen’s day on?

IMMERITO. 
The seventeenth of November.[94]

SIR RADERIC. 
Boy, refer this to his virtues, and write him down a good subject.

PAGE. 
Faith, he were an excellent subject for two or three good wits:  he would
make a fine ass for an ape to ride upon. [Aside.

SIR RADERIC.  And these shall suffice for the parts of his learning.  Now it remains to try whether you be a man of good utterance, that is, whether you can ask for the strayed heifer with the white face, as also chide the boys in the belfry, and bid the sexton whip out the dogs.  Let me hear your voice.

IMMERITO. 
If any man or woman—­

SIR RADERIC. 
That’s too high.

IMMERITO. 
If any man or woman—­

SIR RADERIC. 
That’s too low.

IMMERITO.  If any man or woman can tell any tidings of a horse with four feet, two ears, that did stray about the seventh hour, three minutes in the forenoon the fifth day—­

PAGE. 
A book of[95] a horse, just as it were the eclipse of the moon.
          
                                             [Aside.

SIR RADERIC. 
Boy, write him down for a good utterance.  Master Recorder, I think he
hath been examined sufficiently.

RECORDER. 
Ay, Sir Raderic, ’tis so; we have tried him very throughly.

PAGE. 
Ay, we have taken an inventory of his good parts, and prized them
accordingly.

SIR RADERIC.  Signior Immerito, forasmuch as we have made a double trial of thee—­the one of your learning, the other of your erudition—­it is expedient also, in the next place, to give you a few exhortations, considering the greatest clerks are not the wisest men.  This is therefore, first, to exhort you to abstain from controversies; secondly, not to gird at men of worship, such as myself, but to use yourself discreetly; thirdly, not to speak when any man or woman coughs—­do so, and in so doing, I will persevere to be your worshipful friend and loving patron.