The Complete Works of William Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE V. The same. A street
Enter Speed and Lance with his dog Crab. SPEED. Lance, by mine honesty, welcome to Milan! LANCE. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth, for I am not welcome. I reckon this always, that a man is never undone till he be hanged, nor never welcome to a place till some certain shot be paid and the hostess say “Welcome”. SPEED. Come on, you madcap. I’ll to the alehouse with you presently, where, for one shot of five pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with Madam Julia? LANCE. Marry, after they closed in earnest, they parted very fairly in jest. SPEED. But shall she marry him? LANCE. No. SPEED. How then? Shall he marry her? LANCE. No, neither. SPEED. What, are they broken? LANCE. No, they are both as whole as a fish. SPEED. Why then, how stands the matter with them? LANCE. Marry, thus: when it stands well with him, it stands well with her. SPEED. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not. LANCE. What a block art thou that thou canst not! My staff understands me. SPEED. What thou sayst? LANCE. Ay, and what I do too. Look thee, I’ll but lean, and my staff understands me. SPEED. It stands under thee indeed. LANCE. Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one.
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