Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 4.djvu/26

Sub.Would I were hang'd then? I'll conform myself.

Dol.Will you, sir? do so then, and quickly: swear.

Sub.What should I swear?

Dol.To leave your faction, sir,
And labour kindly in the common work.

Sub.Let me not breathe if I meant aught beside.
I only used those speeches as a spur
To him.

Dol.I hope we need no spurs, sir. Do we?

Face.'Slid, prove to-day, who shall shark best.

Sub.Agreed.

Dol.Yes, and work close and friendly.

Sub.'Slight, the knot
Shall grow the stronger for this breach, with me.[They shake hands.]

Dol.Why, so, my good baboons! Shall we go make
A sort of sober, scurvy, precise neighbours,
That scarce have smiled twice since the king came in,^[1]
A feast of laughter at our follies? Rascals,
Would run themselves from breath, to see me ride,^[2]
Or you t' have but a hole to thrust your heads in,
For which you should pay ear-rent? No, agree.
And may don Provost ride a feasting long,
In his old velvet jerkin and stain'd scarfs,
My noble sovereign, and worthy general,
Ere we contribute a new crewel garter
To his most worsted worship.^[3]

1. Since the king came in,] James succeeded to the throne in 1603, and this was written in 1610.
2. ——————to see me ride, &c.] "To see me (as Upton says) carted as a bawd; and you, as a couple of rogues, to lose your ears in the pillory."
3. Ere we contribute a new crewel garter