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trust me, you show a noble mind,

      That rather than you’ll live with him you hate,

      You’ll venture life, and die with him you love.

      The like will I do for my Susan’s sake.

      ALICE

      Yet nothing could inforce me to the deed

      But Mosbie’s love. Might I without control,

      Enjoy thee still, then Arden should not die:

      But seeing I cannot, therefore let him die.

      MOSBIE

      Enough, sweet Alice; thy kind words make me melt.

      Your trick of poisoned pictures we dislike;

      Some other poison would do better far.

      ALICE

      Ay, such as might be put into his broth,

      And yet in taste not to be found at all.

      CLARKE

      I know your mind, and here I have it for you.

      Put but a dram of this into his drink,

      Or any kind of broth that he shall eat,

      And he shall die within an hour after.

      ALICE

      As I am a gentlewoman, clarke, next day

      Thou and Susan shall be married.

      MOSBIE

      And I’ll make her dowry more than I’ll talk of, CLARKE

      CLARKE

      Yonder’s your husband. Mosbie, I’ll be gone.

      (here enters Arden and FRANKLIN

      ALICE

      In good time; see where my huskand comes,

      master Mosbie, ask him the question yourself. Exit clarke

      MOSBIE

      Master Arden, being at London yesternight,

      The abbey lands, whereof you are now possessed,

      Were offered me on some occasion

      by Greene, one of sir antony ager’s men:

      I pray you, sir, tell me, are not the lands yours?

      Hath any other interest herein?

      ARDEN

      Mosbie, that question we’ll decide anon.

      As for the lands, Mosbie, they are mine

      by letters patent from his majesty.

      But I must have a mandate for my wife;

      They say you seek to rob me of her love:

      Villain, what makes thou in her company?

      She’s no companion for so base a groom.

      MOSBIE

      Arden, I thought not on her, I came to thee,

      But rather than I pocket up this wrong.

      FRANKLIN

      What will you do, sir?

      MOSBIE

      Revenge it on the proudest of you both.

      (then Arden draws forth Mosbie’s sword.

      ARDEN

      So, sirrah, you may not wear a sword,

      The statute makes against artificers.

      I warrant that I do. Now use your bodkin,

      Your spanish needle, and your pressing iron,

      For this shall go with me; and mark my words,

      You goodman butcher, ‘tis to you I speak:

      The next time that I take thee near my house,

      Instead of legs I’ll make thee crawl on stumps.

      MOSBIE

      Ah, master Arden, you have injured me:

      I do appeal to God and to the world.

      FRANKLIN

      Why, canst thou deny thou wert a butcher once?

      MOSBIE

      Measure me what I am, not what I was.

      ARDEN

      Why, what art thou now but a velvet drudge,

      A cheating steward, and base minded peasant.

      MOSBIE

      Arden, now thou hast belched and vomited

      The rancorous venom of thy mis-swoll’n heart,

      Hear me but speak: as I intend to live

      With god and his elected saints in heaven,

      I never meant more to solicit her;

      And that she knows, and all the worldshall see,

      I loved her once; - sweet Arden, pardon me,

      I could not choose, her beauty fired my heart!

      Forget them, Mosbie: I had cause to speak,

      When all the knights and gentlemen of kent

      Make common table-talk of her and thee.

      MOSBIE

      Who lives that is not touched with slanderous tongues.

      FRANKLIN

      Then, Mosbie, to eschew the speech of men,

      Upon whose general bruit all honor hangs,

      Forbear his house.

      ARDEN

      Forbear it! Nay, rather frequent it more.

      To warn him on the sudden from my house

      Were to confirm the rumor that is grown.

      MOSBIE

      by my faith, sir, you say true,

      And therefore will I sojourn here a while,

      Until our enemies have talked their fill.

      And then, I hope, they’ll cease, and at last confess

      How causeless they have injured her and me.

      ARDEN

      And I will lie at London all this term

      To let them see how light I weigh their words. (here enters ALICE

      ALICE

      Husband sit down, your breakfast will be cold.

      ARDEN

      Come, master Mosbie, will you sit with us?

      MOSBIE

      I can not eat, but I’ll sit for company.

      ARDEN

      Sirrah Michael, see our horse be ready.

      ALICE

      Husband, why pause ye? Why eat you not?

      ARDEN

      I am not well; there’s something in the broth

      That is not wholesome: didst thou make it, Alice?

      ALICE

      I did, and that’s the cause it likes not you.

      (then she throws down the broth on the ground.

      There’s nothing that I do can please your taste;

      You were best to say I would have poisoned you.

      I cannot speak or cast aside

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