SIR THOMAS MORE
Page: 37

plays Good Council, and now he should enter, to admonish Wit
that this is Lady Vanity, and not Lady Wisdom.

MORE.
Nay, and it be no more but so, ye shall not tarry at a stand for that;
we'll not have our play marred for lack of a little good council: till
your fellow come, I'll give him the best council that I can.--Pardon
me, my Lord Mayor; I love to be merry.--

Oh...Wit, thou art now on the bow hand,
And blindly in thine own opinion dost stand.
I tell thee, this naughty lewd Inclination
Does lead thee amiss in a very strange fashion:
This is not Wisdom, but Lady Vanity;
Therefore list to Good Council, and be ruled by me.

INCLINATION.
In troth, my lord, it is as right to Lugginses part as can be.--Speak,
Wit.

MORE.
Nay, we will not have our audience disappointed, if I can help it.

WIT.
Art thou Good Council, and will tell me so?
Wouldst thou have Wit from Lady Wisdom to go?
Thou art some deceiver, I tell thee verily,
In saying that this is Lady Vanity.

MORE.
Wit, judge not things by the outward show;
The eye oft mistakes, right well you do know:
Good Council assures thee upon his honesty,
That this is not Wisdom, but Lady Vanity.

[Enter Luggins with the beard.]

INCLINATION.
Oh, my lord, he is come; now we shall go forward.

MORE.
Art thou come? well, fellow, I have hoped to save thine honesty a
little. Now, if thou canst give Wit any better council than I have
done, spare not: there I leave him to they mercy.
But by this time, I am sure, our banquet's ready:
My lord and ladies, we will taste that first,
And then they shall begin the play again,
Which through the fellow's absence, and by me,
Instead of helping, hath been hindered.--
Prepare against we come.--Lights there, I say!--
Thus fools oft times do help to mar the play.

[Exeunt all but players.]

WIT.
Fie, fellow Luggins, you serve us handsomely; do ye not, think ye?

LUGGINS.
Why, Oagle was not within, and his wife would not let me have the
beard; and, by my troth, I ran so fast that I sweat again.

INCLINATION.
Do ye hear, fellows? would not my lord make a rare player? oh, he