The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE III. An ante-chamber in the palace.
Enter Lord Chamberlain and Lord Sandys. CHAMBERLAIN. Is’t possible the spells of France should juggle Men into such strange mysteries? SANDYS. New customs, Though they be never so ridiculous— Nay, let ’em be unmanly—yet are followed. CHAMBERLAIN. As far as I see, all the good our English Have got by the late voyage is but merely A fit or two o’ th’ face; but they are shrewd ones, For when they hold ’em, you would swear directly Their very noses had been counsellors To Pepin or Clotharius, they keep state so. SANDYS. They have all new legs, and lame ones. One would take it, That never saw ’em pace before, the spavin Or springhalt reigned among ’em. CHAMBERLAIN. Death! My lord, Their clothes are after such a pagan cut to’t, That, sure, they’ve worn out Christendom. Enter Sir Thomas Lovell. How now? What news, Sir Thomas Lovell? LOVELL. Faith, my lord, I hear of none but the new proclamation That’s clapped upon the court gate. CHAMBERLAIN. What is’t for? LOVELL. The reformation of our travelled gallants That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors. CHAMBERLAIN. I’m glad ’tis there. Now I would pray our monsieurs To think an English courtier may be wise And never see the Louvre. LOVELL. They must either, For so run the conditions, leave those remnants Of fool and feather that they got in France, With all their honourable points of ignorance Pertaining thereunto, as fights and fireworks, Abusing better men than they can be Out of a foreign wisdom, renouncing clean The faith they have in tennis and tall stockings, Short blistered breeches, and those types of travel, And understand again like honest men, Or pack to their old playfellows. There, I take it, They may, _cum privilegio, oui_ away The lag end of their lewdness and be laughed at.
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