No More Learning

[YOUNG KNOWELL _moves apart to read the letter. Enter_
STEPHEN. KNOWELL _laughs_.

STEPHEN: 'Slid, I hope he laughs not at me; an he
do----

KNOWELL: Here was a letter, indeed, to be intercepted
by a man's father! Well, if he read this with
patience---- (_Seeing_ STEPHEN) What, my wise cousin!
Nay, then, I'll furnish our feast with one gull more.
How now, Cousin Stephen--melancholy?

STEPHEN: Yes, a little. I thought you had laughed
at me, cousin.

KNOWELL: Be satisfied, gentle coz, and, I pray you,
let me entreat a courtesy of you. I am sent for this
morning by a friend in the Old Jewry: will you bear me
company?

STEPHEN: Sir, you shall command me twice as far.

KNOWELL: Now, if I can but hold him up to his
height!


SCENE II. --BOBADILL'S _room, a mean chamber, in_ COB'S _house_.
BOBADILL _lying on a bench. Enter_ MATTHEW, _ushered
in by_ TIB.

MATTHEW: 'Save you, sir; 'save you, captain.

BOBADILL: Gentle Master Matthew! Sit down, I pray
you. Master Matthew in any case, possess no gentlemen
of our acquaintance with notice of my lodging. Not
that I need to care who know it! But in regard I would
not be too popular and generally visited, as some are.

MATTHEW: True, captain, I conceive you.

BOBADILL: For do you see, sir, by the heart of valour
in me except it be to some peculiar and choice spirit like
yourself--but what new book have you there?

MATTHEW: Indeed, here are a number of fine
speeches in this book.

"O eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears"--

There's a conceit! Another:

"O life, no life but lively form of death!
O world, no world but mass of public wrongs"--

O the Muses! Is't not excellent? But when will you come to see my
study?