Touch. Why, do not your courtier's hands
sweat? and is not the grease of a mutton as
wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow,
shallow. A better instance, I say; come. 60
Cor. Besides, our hands are hard.
Touch. Your lips will feel them the sooner:
shallow again. A more sounder instance; come.
Cor. And they are often tarred over with the
surgery of our sheep; and would you have us
kiss tar? The courtier's hands are perfumed
with civet. 67
Touch. Most shallow man! Thou worms-meat,
in respect of a good piece of flesh, indeed! Learn
of the wise, and perpend: civet is of a baser
birth than tar, the very uncleanly flux of a cat.
Mend the instance, shepherd. 72
Cor. You have too courtly a wit for me: I'll
rest.
Touch. Wilt thou rest damned? God help
thee, shallow man! God make incision in thee!
thou art raw. 77
Cor. Sir, I am a true labourer: I earn that I
eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no
man's happiness, glad of other men's good, con-
tent with my harm; and the greatest of my pride
is to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck. 82
Touch. That is another simple sin in you, to
bring the ewes and the rams together, and to
offer to get your living by the copulation of
cattle; to be bawd to a bell-wether, and to be-
67 civet: perfume derived from the civet cat
68 worms-meat; cf. n.
69 in respect of: in comparison with
70 perpend: consider
71 flux: discharge
76 incision: i.e., to cure thee of thy simpleness; cf. n.
77 raw: untrained
79 owe . . . hate: have hate toward no man
85 offer: presume
86 bell-wether: leading sheep of a flock on whose neck a bell is hung
