How many days
Will you keep up this quarrel with the King,
And the King’s nobles, and myself, and all,
Who'd gladly be your friends, if you would let them?[Going near to monk.
If you would try, you might persuade him, father.
I cannot make him answer me, and yet
If fitting hands would offer him the food,
He might accept it.
monk. Certainly I will not.
I’ve made too many homilies, wherein
The wanton imagination of the poets
Has been condemned, to be his flatterer.
If pride and disobedience are unpunished
Who will obey?
chamberlain [going to other side towards soldier]. If you would speak to him,
You might not find persuasion difficult,
With all the devils of hunger helping you.
soldier. I will not interfere, and if he starve
For being obstinate and stiff in the neck,
'Tis but good riddance.
chamberlain. One of us must do it.
It might be, if you’d reason with him, ladies,
He would eat something, for I have a notion
That if he brought misfortune on the King,
Or the King’s house, we’d be as little thought of
As summer linen when the winter’s come.
