SIR SAMPSON, VALENTINE, SCANDAL, JEREMY.
VAL. Ha, ha, ha; you need not run so fast, honesty will not overtake
you. Ha, ha, ha, the rogue found me out to be _in forma pauperis_
presently.
SIR SAMP. Oons! What a vexation is here! I know not what to do, or
say, nor which way to go.
VAL. Who’s that that’s out of his way? I am Truth, and can set him
right. Harkee, friend, the straight road is the worst way you can go.
He that follows his nose always, will very often be led into a stink.
_Probatum est_. But what are you for? religion or politics? There’s a
couple of topics for you, no more like one another than oil and vinegar;
and yet those two, beaten together by a state-cook, make sauce for the
whole nation.
SIR SAMP. What the devil had I to do, ever to beget sons? Why did I
ever marry?
VAL. Because thou wert a monster, old boy! The two greatest monsters in
the world are a man and a woman! What’s thy opinion?
SIR SAMP. Why, my opinion is, that those two monsters joined together,
make yet a greater, that’s a man and his wife.
VAL. Aha! Old True-penny, say’st thou so? Thou hast nicked it. But
it’s wonderful strange, Jeremy.
JERE. What is, sir?
VAL. That gray hairs should cover a green head—and I make a fool of my
father. What’s here! _Erra Pater_: or a bearded sibyl? If Prophecy
comes, Truth must give place.