WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.
"Gracious Heaven! and was this too doubted?"
SIR THOMAS.
"Maybe not; but the whole race of men, the whole male sex, wanted
and found in me a protector. I shewed her what I was ready to do."
WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.
"Perhaps, sir, it was for that very thing that she put the daughter
back and herself forward."
SIR THOMAS.
"I say not so; but thou mayest know as much as befitteth, by what
follows:-
"'Worshipful lady! honoured madam!
I at this present truly glad am
To have so fair an opportunity
Of saying I would be the man
To bind in wedlock Mistress Anne,
Living with her in holy unity.
"'And for a jointure I will gi'e her
A good two hundred pounds a year
Accruing from my landed rents,
Whereof see t'other paper, telling
Lands, copses, and grown woods for felling,
Capons, and cottage tenements.
"'And who must come at sound of horn,
And who pays but a barley-corn,
And who is bound to keep a whelp,
And what is brought me for the pound,
And copyholders, which are sound,
And which do need the leech's help.
"'And you may see in these two pages
Exact their illnesses and ages,
Enough (God willing) to content ye;
Who looks full red, who looks full yellow,
Who plies the mullen, who the mallow,
Who fails at fifty, who at twenty.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162