|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
 |
||||
|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
|
|
||||
|
good, sir, and giveth me neither sorrow nor pain of any sort. And Nan and Bet are like to her in this.’ ‘How old be these?’ ‘Fifteen, an it please you, sir.’ ‘The Lady Elizabeth, my sister, is fourteen and the Lady Jane Grey, my cousin, is of mine own age, and comely and gracious withal; but my sister the Lady Mary, with her gloomy mien and-Look you: do thy sisters forbid their servants to smile, lest the sin destroy their souls?’ ‘They? Oh, dost think, sir, that they have servants?’ The little prince contemplated the little pauper gravely a moment, then said: ‘And prithee, why not? Who helpeth them undress at night? who attireth them when they rise?’ ‘None, sir. Wouldst have them take off their garment, and sleep without-like the beasts?’ ‘Their garment! Have they but one?’ ‘Ah, good your worship, what would they do with more? Truly, they have not two bodies each.’ ‘It is a quaint and marvelous thought! Thy pardon, I had not meant to laugh. But thy good Nan and thy Bet shall have raiment and lackeys enow, and that soon, too: my cofferer shall look to it. No, thank me not; ‘tis nothing. Thou speakest well; thou hast an easy grace in it. Art learned?’ ‘I know not if I am or not, sir. The good priest that is called Father Andrew taught me, of his kindness, from his books.’ ‘Know’st thou the Latin?’ ‘But scantily, sir, I doubt.’ ‘Learn it, lad: ‘tis hard only at first. The Greek is harder; but neither these nor any tongues else, I think, are hard to the Lady Elizabeth and my cousin. Thou shouldst hear those damsels at it! But tell me of thy Offal Court. Hast thou a pleasant life there?’ ‘In truth, yes, so please you, sir, save when one is hungry. There be Punchand- Judy shows, and monkeys-oh, such antic creatures! and so bravely dressed!and there be plays wherein they that play do shout and fight till all are slain, and ‘tis so fine to see, and costeth but a farthing-albeit ‘tis main hard to get the farthing, please your worship.’ ‘Tell me more.’ ‘We lads of Offal Court do strive against each other with the cudgel, like to the fashion of the ‘prentices, sometimes.’ The prince’s eyes flashed. Said he: ‘Marry, that would I not mislike. Tell me more.’ ‘We strive in races, sir, to see who of us shall be fleetest.’ ‘That would I like also. Speak on.’ ‘In summer, sir, we wade and swim in the canals and in the river, and each doth duck his neighbor, and spatter him with water, and dive and shout and tumble and-’ ‘’Twould be worth my father’s kingdom but to enjoy it once! Prithee go on.’ ‘We dance and sing about the Maypole in Cheapside; we play in the sand, each covering his neighbor up; and times we make mud pastry-oh, the lovely mud, it hath not its like for delightfulness in all the world!- we do fairly wallow in the mud, sir, saving your worship’s presence.’ ‘Oh, prithee, say no more, ‘tis glorious! If that I could but clothe me in raiment like to thine, and strip my feet, and revel in the mud once, just once, with none to rebuke me or forbid, meseemeth I could forego the crown!’ ‘And if that I could clothe me once, sweet sir, as thou art clad-just once-’ ‘Oho, wouldst like it? Then so shall it be. Doff thy rags, and don these splendors, lad! It is a brief happiness, but will be not less keen for that. We will have it while we may, and change again before any come to molest.’ A few minutes later the little Prince of |
