_Adam._ This way he is, and here will I speak with him.
_First Lord._ Fellow, whither pressest thou?
_Adam._ I press nobody, sir; I am going to speak with a friend of mine.
_First Lord._ Why, slave, here is none but the king, and his viceroys.
_Adam._ The king! marry, sir, he is the man I would speak withal.
_First Lord._ Why, callest him a friend of thine?
_Adam._ Ay, marry, do I, sir; for if he be not my friend, I'll make him my friend, ere he and I pass.
_First Lord._ Away, vassal, begone! thou speak unto the king!
_Adam._ Ay, marry, will I, sir; an if he were a king of velvet, I will talk to him.
_Rasni._ What's the matter there? what noise is that?
_Adam._ A boon, my liege, a boon, my liege!
_Rasni._ What is it that great Rasni will not grant, This day, unto the meanest of his land, In honour of his beauteous Alvida? Come hither, swain; what is it that thou cravest?
_Adam._ Faith, sir, nothing, but to speak a few sentences to your worship.
_Adam._ I am sure, sir, you have heard of the spirits that walk in the city here.
_Adam._ Truly, sir, I have an oration to tell you of one of them; and this it is.
_Alvi._ Why goest not forward with thy tale?
_Adam._ Faith, mistress, I feel an imperfection in my voice, a disease that often troubles me; but, alas, easily mended; a cup of ale or a cup of wine will serve the turn.
_Alvi._ Fill him a bowl, and let him want no drink.
_Adam._ O, what a precious word was that, "And let him want no drink!" [_Drink given to_ ADAM.] Well, sir, now I'll tell you forth my tale. Sir, as I was coming alongst the port-royal of Nineveh, there appeared to me a great devil, and as hard-favoured a devil as ever I saw; nay, sir, he was a cuckoldly devil, for he had horns on his head. This devil, mark you now, presseth upon me, and, sir, indeed, I charged him with my pike-staff; but when that would not serve, I came upon him with _Spritus santus_,--why, it had been able to have put Lucifer out of his wits: when I saw my charm would not serve, I was in such a perplexity, that sixpenny-worth of juniper would not have made the place sweet again.
_Alvi._ Why, fellow, wert thou so afraid?
_Adam._ O, mistress, had you been there and seen, his very sight had made you shift a clean smock! I promise you, though I were a man, and counted a tall fellow, yet my laundress called me slovenly knave the next day.