JACK. Will, let us slip aside and view him well.
_Here entereth_ GRIM _the Collier, whistling._
GRIM. What devil! ich ween the porters are drunk, will they not dup[93] the gate to-day? [To] take in coals for the king’s own mouth;[94] will nobody stir, I say? Ich might have lain tway hours longer in my bed, Cha tarried so long here, that my teeth chatter in my head.
JACK. Will, after our falling out wilt thou laugh merrily?
WILL. Ay, marry, Jack, I pray thee heartily.
JACK. Then follow me, and hem in a word now and then-- What brawling knave is there at the court-gate so early?
WILL. It is some brainsick villain, I durst lay a penny.
JACK. Was it you,[95] sir, that cried so loud, I trow, And bid us take in coals for the king’s mouth even now?
JACK. Why, sir, how dare you speak such petty treason? Doth the king eat coals at any season?
GRIM. Here is a gay world! boys now sets old men to school. I said well enough: what, Jack-sauce, think’st cham a fool? At bakehouse, butt’ry-hatch, kitchen, and cellar, Do[96] they not say for the king’s mouth?
GRIM. What, then! seeing without coals thee cannot finely dress the king’s meat, May I not say, take in coals for the king’s mouth, though coals he do not eat?
JACK. James Christe! came ever from a collier an answer so trim? You are learned, are you not, father Grim?
GRIM. Grim is my name indeed, cham not learned, and yet the king’s collier: This vorty winter cha been to the king a servitor, Though I be not learned, yet cha mother-wit enough, whole and some.
WILL. So it seems, you have so much mother-wit, that you lack your father’s wisdom.
GRIM. Mass, cham well-beset, here’s a trim cast of murlons.[97] What be you, my pretty cockerels, that ask me these questions?
JACK. Good faith, Master Grim,[98] if such merlins on your pouch may light, They are so quick of wing, that quickly they can carry it out of your sight; And though we are cockerels now, we shall have spurs one day, And shall be able perhaps to make you a capon [to your pay.[99]] But to tell you the truth, we are the porter’s men, which early and late Wait on such gentlemen as you, to open the court-gate.
GRIM. Pretty men, quoth you? nay, you are strong men, else you could not bear these breeches.