SCENE III.
A Publick Place.
Enter Cloten, and Two Lords.
1 Lord.
Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt;
the violence of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice:
Where air comes out, air comes in: there's
none abroad so wholesome as that you vent.
Clo.
If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it—
Have I hurt him?
2 Lord.
No, faith; not so much as his patience.
[Aside.
1 Lord.
Hurt him? his body's a passable carcass,
if he be not hurt: it is a thoroughfare for
steel, if it be not hurt.
2 Lord.
His steel was in debt; it went o' the
backside the town.
[Aside.
Clo.
The villain would not stand me.
2 Lord.
No; but he fled forward still, toward
your face8 note
.
[Aside.
1 Lord.
Stand you! You have land enough of
your own: but he added to your having; gave you
some ground.
2 Lord.
As many inches as you have oceans:
Puppies!
[Aside.
Clo.
I would, they had not come between us.
2 Lord.
So would I, till you had measured how
long a fool you were upon the ground.
[Aside.
Clo.
And that she should love this fellow, and
refuse me!
-- 21 --
2 Lord.
If it be a sin to make a true election,
she is damned.
[Aside.
1 Lord.
Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and
her brain go not together9 note
: She's a good sign, but
I have seen small reflection of her wit1 note
.
2 Lord.
She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection
should hurt her.
[Aside.
Clo.
Come, I'll to my chamber: 'Would there
had been some hurt done!
2 Lord.
I wish not so; unless it had been the
fall of an ass, which is no great hurt.
[Aside.
Clo.
You'll go with us?
1 Lord.
I'll attend your lordship.
Clo.
Nay, come, let's go together.
2 Lord.
Well, my lord.
[Exuent.
-- 22 --
James Boswell [1821], The plays and poems of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators: comprehending A Life of the Poet, and an enlarged history of the stage, by the late Edmond Malone. With a new glossarial index (J. Deighton and Sons, Cambridge) [word count] [S10201].
