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Be prudent! Yonder fools will spoil the game.
If they pick up the glove, a long farewell
To the catastrophe! We must prevent them
From wrecking everything.
Trick. From wrecking everything. But, prithee, how?
[Gramadoch shakes his head with a knowing air.
The Champion [still holding his sword aloft.
So no one doth respond to me?
Gramadoch [leaping down from the gallery into the hall.
So no one doth respond to me? Yes, I!
[Amazement in the crowd.
The Champion [surprised.
Thou dost pick up the glove?
Gramadoch [picking it up.] … the glove? Ay, that I do.
The Champion.Who art thou, pray?
Gramadoch. Who art thou, pray? A dealer in grimaces,
E'en as thou art. Our masks alike deceive.
Mine causes laughter, and thine fear; that's all.
The Champion.
Thou seem'st to me a knave.
Gramadoch. Thou seem'st to me a knave. And thou likewise.
The Champion [to the halberdiers.
A fool.
Gramadoch. A fool. Just so—from taste and theory.
I 'm of the court, in the quality of fool,
As thou hast said.
A Voice in the Crowd.The clown doth risk his neck.
'Tis one of Noll's, four fools.—A daring step!—
Is he a very fool?
Milton. Is he a very fool? What is this folly?
[Loud bursts of laughter in the Jesters' gallery.
Gramadoch.Come! let us take the field.
The Champion. Come! let us take the field. Thou wretched mummer!
Begone, or I will have thee whipped.