nd_, IMMERITO.

AMORETTO.
Take it on the word of a gentleman, thou cannot have it a penny under;
think on it, think on it, while I meditate on my fair mistress--
_Nunc sequor imperium, magne Cupido, tuum_.
Whate'er become of this dull, threadbare clerk,
I must be costly in my mistress' eye:
Ladies regard not ragged company.
I will with the revenues of my chaffer'd church
First buy an ambling hobby for my fair,
Whose measur'd pace may teach the world to dance,
Proud of his burden, when he 'gins to prance.
Then must I buy a jewel for her ear,
A kirtle of some hundred crowns or more.
With these fair gifts when I accompani'd go,
She'll give Jove's breakfast; Sidney terms it so.
I am her needle, she is my adamant,
She is my fair rose, I her unworthy prick.

ACADEMICO.
Is there nobody here will take the pains to geld his mouth? [_Aside_.

AMORETTO.
She's Cleopatra, I Mark Antony.

ACADEMICO.
No, thou art a mere mark for good wits to shoot at: and in that suit
thou wilt make a fine man to dash poor crows out of countenance.
[_Aside_.

AMORETTO.
She is my Moon, I her Endymion.

ACADEMICO.
No, she is thy shoulder of mutton, thou her onion: or she may be thy
Luna, and thou her lunatic. [_Aside_.

AMORETTO.
I her Aeneas, she my Dido is.

ACADEMICO.
She is thy Io, thou her brazen ass,
Or she Dame Phantasy, and thou her gull;
She thy Pasiphae, and thou her loving bull.[84]
[_Aside_.

ACTUS II, SCAENA 4.

_Enter_ IMMERITO _and_ STERCUTIO, _his father_.

STERCUTIO.
Son, is this the gentleman that sells us the living?

IMMERITO.
Fie, father! thou must not call it selling: thou must say, Is this the
gentleman that must have the _gratuito_?

ACADEMICO.
What have we here? old truepenny come to town, to fetch away the living
in his old greasy slops? Then, I'll none: the time hath been when such a
fellow meddled with nothing but his ploughshare, his spade, and his
hobnails; and so to a piece of bread and cheese, and went his way. But
now these fellows are grown the only factors for preferment. [_Aside_.]

STERCUTIO.
O, is this the grating gentleman? And how many pounds must I pay?

IMMERITO.
O, thou must not call them pounds, but thanks. And, hark thou, father;
thou must tell of nothing that is done, for I must seem to come clear
to it.

ACADEMICO.
Not pounds, but thanks? See, whether this si