No More Learning

--You gentlefolk have got
Warm chambers to your wish. I'd rather be
A stone than what I am. --But two nights gone,
The darkness overtook me--wind and rain
Beat hard upon my head--and yet I saw
A glow-worm, through the covert of the furze,
Shine calmly as if nothing ailed the sky:
At which I half accused the God in Heaven. --
You must forgive me.


OSWALD Ay, and if you think
The Fairies are to blame, and you should chide
Your favourite saint--no matter--this good day
Has made amends.


BEGGAR Thanks to you both; but, Oh Sir!
How would you like to travel on whole hours
As I have done, my eyes upon the ground,
Expecting still, I knew not how, to find
A piece of money glittering through the dust.


MARMADUKE This woman is a prater. Pray, good Lady!
Do you tell fortunes?


BEGGAR Oh Sir, you are like the rest.
This Little-one--it cuts me to the heart--
Well! they might turn a beggar from their doors,
But there are Mothers who can see the Babe
Here at my breast, and ask me where I bought it:
This they can do, and look upon my face--
But you, Sir, should be kinder.


MARMADUKE Come hither, Fathers,
And learn what nature is from this poor Wretch!


BEGGAR Ay, Sir, there's nobody that feels for us.
Why now--but yesterday I overtook
A blind old Greybeard and accosted him,
I' th' name of all the Saints, and by the Mass
He should have used me better! --Charity!
If you can melt a rock, he is your man;
But I'll be even with him--here again
Have I been waiting for him.


OSWALD Well, but softly,
Who is it that hath wronged you?


BEGGAR Mark you me;
I'll point him out;--a Maiden is his guide,
Lovely as Spring's first rose; a little dog,
Tied by a woollen cord, moves on before
With look as sad as he were dumb; the cur,
I owe him no ill will, but in good sooth
He does his Master credit.


MARMADUKE As I live,
'Tis Herbert and no other!


BEGGAR 'Tis a feast to see him,
Lank as a ghost and tall, his shoulders bent,
And long beard white with age--yet evermore,
As if he were the only Saint on earth,
He turns his face to heaven.


OSWALD But why so violent
Against this venerable Man?


BEGGAR I'll tell you:
He has the very hardest heart on earth;
I had as lief turn to the Friar's school
And knock for entrance, in mid holiday.


MARMADUKE But to your story.


BEGGAR I was saying, Sir--
Well! --he has often spurned me like a toad,
But yesterday was worse than all;--at last
I overtook him, Sirs, my Babe and I,
And begged a little aid for charity:
But he was snappish as a cottage cur.
Well then, says I--I'll out with it; at which
I cast a look upon the Girl, and felt
As if my heart would burst; and so I left him.


OSWALD I think, good Woman, you are the very person
Whom, but some few days past, I saw in Eskdale,
At Herbert's door.


BEGGAR Ay; and if truth were known
I have good business there.


OSWALD I met you at the threshold,
And he seemed angry.