INSTRUCTION.
[I] come.
WIT.
[I] go.
[_Exeunt_.
ACT IV., SCAENA 1.
WIT, WILL, INSTRUCTION, STUDY, DILIGENCE.
WILL.
Tush, tush, Instruction, your talk is of no force:
You tell us a tale of a roasted horse,
Which, by his wounds, except we set to it,
As fast as we make, these[399] fellows will undo it,
Their talk is nothing but soft, and fair, and tarry;
If you follow their counsel, you shall never marry.
INSTRUCTION.
To follow our counsel your charge and promise was.
WIT.
I would I had never known you, by the mass.
Must I look so long, and spend my life with toil?
Nay, sure, I will either win it, or take the foil.
STUDY.
The surer is your ground, the better you shall bear it.
WILL.
Ground us no ground; let him win it, and wear it.
INSTRUCTION.
Good sir, be ruled, and leave this peevish elf.
WIT.
I had even as lief ye bad me hang myself;
Leave him? no, no, I would you all knew,
You be but loiterers to him, my Will tells me true.
I could be content with a week, yea a month or twain,
But three or four years! marry, that were a pain.
So long to keep me, and lie like a hog.
WILL.
A life, with all my heart, I would not wish a dog.
WIT.
Will a week serve?
STUDY.
No.
WIT.
A month?
STUDY.
Neither.
WIT.
No?
STUDY.
Not so.
INSTRUCTION.
No, nor so many mo.
WIT.
Then, farewell all, for, as I hope to thrive,
I will prove him, ere I sleep, if I be alive,
And if ye be mine, and good fellows all three,
Go thither out of hand, and take your chance with me.
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