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Enter P HILASTER and B ELLARIO 1
PHI. And thou shalt find her honourable, boy; | |
| Full of regard unto thy tender youth, | |
| For thine own modesty; and, for my sake, | |
| Apter to give than thou wilt be to ask, | 4 |
| Ay, or deserve. | |
| BEL. Sir, you did take me up | |
| When I was nothing; and only yet am something | |
| By being yours. You trusted me unknown; | 8 |
| And that which you were apt to conster 2 | |
| A simple innocence in me, perhaps | |
| Might have been craft, the cunning of a boy | |
| Hard’ned in lies and theft: yet ventur’d you | 12 |
| To part my miseries and me; for which, | |
| I never can expect to serve a lady | |
| That bears more honour in her breast than you. | |
| PHI. But. boy, it will prefer 3 thee. Thou art young, | 16 |
| And bear’st a childish overflowing love | |
| To them that clap thy cheeks and speak thee fair yet; | |
| But when thy judgment comes to rule those passions, | |
| Thou wilt remember best those careful friends | 20 |
| That plac’d thee in the noblest way of life. | |
| She is a princess I prefer thee to. | |
| BEL. In that small time I have seen the world, | |
| I never knew a man hasty to part | 24 |
| With a servant he thought trusty. I remember, | |
| My father would prefer the boys he kept | |
| To greater men than he; but did it not | |
| Till they were grown too saucy for himself. | 28 |
| PHI. Why, gentle boy, I find no fault at all | |
| In thy behaviour. | |
| BEL. Sir, if I have made | |
| A fault in ignorance, instruct my youth: | 32 |
| I shall be willing, if not apt, to learn; | |
| Age and experience will adorn my mind | |
| With larger knowledge; and if I have done | |
| A wilful fault, think me not past all hope | 36 |
| For once. What master holds so strict a hand | |
| Over his boy, that he will part with him | |
| Without one warning? Let me be corrected | |
| To break my stubbornness, if it be so, | 40 |
| Rather than turn me off; and I shall mend. | |
| PHI. Thy love doth plead so prettily to stay, | |
| That, trust me, I could weep to part with thee. | |
| Alas, I do not turn thee off! Thou knowest | 44 |
| It is my business that doth call thee hence; | |
| And when thou art with her, thou dwell’st with me. | |
| Think so, and ’tis so; and when time is full, | |
| That thou hast well discharg’d this heavy trust, | 48 |
| Laid on so weak a one, I will again. | |
| With joy receive thee; as I live, I will! | |
| Nay, weep not, gentle boy. ’Tis more than time | |
| Thou didst attend the princess. | 52 |
| BEL. I am gone. | |
| But since I am to part with you, my lord, | |
| And none knows whether I shall live to do | |
| More service for you, take this little prayer: | 56 |
| Heaven bless your loves, your fights, all your designs! | |
| May sick men, if they have your wish, be well; | |
| And Heaven hate those you curse, though I be one! Exit. | |
| PHI. The love of boys unto their lords is strange; | 60 |
| I have read wonders of it: yet this boy | |
| For my sake (if a man may judge by looks | |
| And speech) would out-do story. I may see | |
| A day to pay him for his loyalty. Exit. | 64 |
