SIR THOMAS MORE
Page: 54

It will be no disparagement at all.

LADY MORE.
His highness shall be certified thereof
Immediately.

[Offering to depart.]

MORE.
Nay, hear me, wife; first let me tell ye how:
I thought to have had a barber for my beard;
Now, I remember, that were labour lost,
The headsman now shall cut off head and all.

ROPER'S WIFE.
Father, his majesty, upon your meek submission,
Will yet (they say) receive you to his grace
In as great credit as you were before.

MORE.
........
Has appointed me to do a little business.
If that were past, my girl, thou then shouldst see
What I would say to him about that matter;
But I shall be so busy until then,
I shall not tend it.

DAUGHTER.
Ah, my dear father!

LADY MORE.
Dear lord and husband!

MORE.
Be comforted, good wife, to live and love my children;
For with thee leave I all my care of them.--
Son Roper, for my sake that have loved thee well,
And for her virtue's sake, cherish my child.--
Girl, be not proud, but of thy husband's love;
Ever retain thy virtuous modesty;
That modesty is such a comely garment
As it is never out of fashion, sits as fair
upon the meaner woman as the empress;
No stuff that gold can buy is half so rich,
Nor ornament that so becomes a woman.
Live all and love together, and thereby
You give your father a rich obsequy.

BOTH DAUGHTERS.
Your blessing, dear father.

MORE.
I must be gone--God bless you!--
To talk with God, who now doth call.

LADY MORE.
Aye, my dear husband!

MORE.
Sweet wife, good night, good night:
God send us all his everlasting light!

ROPER.
I think, before this hour,
More heavy hearts ne'er parted in the Tower.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. Tower Hill.

[Enter the Sheriffs of London and their Officers at one door, the
Warders with their halbards at another.]

SECOND SHERIFF.
Officers, what time of day ist?

OFFICER.
Almost eight o'clock.

SECOND SHERIFF.
We must make haste then, least we stay too long.

SECOND WARDER.
Good morrow, Master Shrieves of London; Master Lieutenant
Wills ye repair to the limits of the Tower,
There to receive your prisoner.