Act 1 — SCENE V.
Reading edition
A Street.
Enter Jeweller’s Wife and Boy.
Jew. Wife. Is my sweet knight coming? are you certain he’s coming?
Boy. Certain, forsooth; I am sure I saw him out of the barber’s shop, ere I would come away.
Jew. Wife. A barber’s shop? O, he’s a trim knight! would he venture his body into a barber’s shop, when he knows ’tis as dangerous as a piece of Ireland? O, yonder, yonder he comes! Get you back again, and look you say as I advised you.
Boy. You know me, mistress.
Jew. Wife. My mask, my mask. [Exit Boy.
Enter Knight, and Lackey following at some distance.
Knight. My sweet Revenue!
Jew. Wife. My Pleasure, welcome! I have got single; none but you shall accompany me to the justice of peace, my father’s.
Knight. Why, is thy father justice of peace, and I not know it?
Jew. Wife. My father? i’faith, sir, ay; simply though I stand here a citizen’s wife, I am a justice of peace’s daughter.
Knight. I love thee the better for thy birth.
Jew. Wife. Is that your lackey yonder, in the steaks[829] of velvet?
Knight. He’s at thy service, my sweet Revenue, for thy money paid for ’em.
337Jew. Wife. Why, then, let him run a little before, I beseech thee; for, a’ my troth, he will discover us else.
Knight. He shall obey thee.—Before, sirrah, trudge. [Exit Lackey.]—But do you mean to lie at your father’s all night?
Jew. Wife. Why should I desire your company else?
Knight. ’S foot, where shall I lie then?
Jew. Wife. What an idle question’s that! why, do you think I cannot make room for you in my father’s house as well as in my husband’s? they’re both good for nothing else.
Knight. A man so resolute in valour as a woman in desire, were an absolute leader. [Exeunt.