Ay, sir: the other squirrel was stolen from me by
the hangman boys in the market-place: and then I
offered her mine own, who is a dog as big as ten of
yours, and therefore the gift the greater.

No, indeed, did she not: here have I brought him
back again.

Marry, she says your dog was a cur, and tells you
currish thanks is good enough for such a present.

Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the dog you bade me.

When a man's servant shall play the cur with him,
look you, it goes hard: one that I brought up of a
puppy; one that I saved from drowning, when three or
four of his blind brothers and sisters went to it.
I have taught him, even as one ...

Now will he be swinged for reading my letter; an
unmannerly slave, that will thrust himself into
secrets! I'll after, to rejoice in the boy's correction.

Thou must run to him, for thou hast stayed so long
that going will scarce serve the turn.

For thee! ay, who art thou? he hath stayed for a
better man than thee.

Why, then will I tell thee--that thy master stays
for thee at the North-gate.

Why, that word makes the faults gracious. Well,
I'll have her; and if it be a match, as nothing is
impossible,--

That's monstrous: O, that that were out!

More hair than wit? It may be; I'll prove it. The
cover of the salt hides the salt, and therefore it
is more than the salt; the hair that covers the wit
is more than the wit, for the greater hides the
less. What's next?

Stop there; I'll have her: she was mine, and not
mine, twice or thrice in that last article.
Rehearse that once more.

Of her tongue she cannot, for that's writ down she
is slow of; of her purse she shall not, for that
I'll keep shut: now, of another thing she may, and
that cannot I help. Well, proceed.

If her liquor be good, she shall: if she will not, I
will; for good things should be praised.

Well, the best is, she hath no teeth to bite.

I care not for that neither, because I love crusts.

Out with that too; it was Eve's legacy, and cannot
be ta'en from her.

O villain, that set this down among her vices! To
be slow in words is a woman's only virtue: I pray
thee, out with't, and place it for her chief virtue.

It's no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk.

That makes amends for her sour breath.

Well, that fault may be mended with a breakfast. Read on.

Close at the heels of her virtues.

That's as much as to say, bastard virtues; that,
indeed, know not their fathers and therefore have no names.

Then may I set the world on wheels, when she can
spin for her living.

A special virtue: for then she need not be washed
and scoured.

What need a man care for a stock with a wench, when
she can knit him a stock?

That's as much as to say, Can she so?

And thereof comes the proverb: 'Blessing of your
heart, you brew good ale.'

Ay, that she can.

There; and St. Nicholas be thy speed!

O illiterate loiterer! it was the son of thy
grandmother: this proves that thou canst not read.

I will try thee. Tell me this: who begot thee?

Fie on thee, jolt-head! thou canst not read.

Why, as black as ink.

The blackest news that ever thou heardest.

With my master's ship? why, it is at sea.

I am but a fool, look you; and yet I have the wit to
think my master is a kind of a knave: but that's
all one, if he be but one knave. He lives not now
that knows me to be in love; yet I am in love ...

Sir, there is a proclamation that you are vanished.

Why, sir, I'll strike nothing: I pray you,--

Nothing.

Can nothing speak? Master, shall I strike?

Him we go to find: there's not a hair on's head
but 'tis a Valentine.

Soho, soho!

Because thou hast not so much charity in thee as to
go to the ale with a Christian. Wilt thou go?

Why, I tell thee, I care not though he burn himself
in love. If thou wilt, go with me to the alehouse;
if not, thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the
name of a Christian.

Why, fool, I meant not thee; I meant thy master.

A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be.

I never knew him otherwise.

Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a parable.