_Adul._ But look! who cometh yonder, puffing and tuffing?
_Avar._ Come the devil, if him lust, staring and snuffing!
_Oppr._ In all my whole life was I never wearier.
_Avar._ Come near, on God's half! the mo knaves, the merrier! Where have ye lost your breath? in some coffer diving?
_Oppr._ Shouldering among them for a piece of a living.
_Adul._ And what, are you now in any good hope to thrive?
_Oppr._ Faith! if I lust, I may wear mitres four or five; I have so many half bishoprics, at the least.
_Adul._ By th' arms of Calais! then am I a very beast.
_Avar._ Why, what hast thou gotten to thy share in this space?
_Adul._ Three hundred pound by the year, and one manor place.
_Avar._ Ah, the passion of God! three hundred pound! and no more?
_Adul._ Is not that fair for him that had nothing before?
_Avar._ What, three hundred pound by years! call thee Honesty? Call thee a knave! thou shamest our fraternity! Three hundred pound! if some man had been in thy room, A thousand pound a year, ere this time, might have come. Three hundred pound a year! against our next meeting Get more! or, I shall give a homely greeting.
_Adul._ He here hath flitched the bishoprics already.
_Avar._ Yea! I can him thank; he hath been somewhat speedy.
_Oppr._ But yet have I left many a good gobbet loose: Change thou for the rest! give a feather for a goose!
_Adul._ Didst thou with any one of them make such exchange?
_Oppr._ Yea! I almost left them never a farm nor grange. I told them, Respublica at their wealth did grutch; And, the fifth penny they had was, for them, too much. So Authority and I, did with them so chop That we left the best of them a threadbare bishop. To some we left one house, to some we left none; The best had but his see place, that he might keep home. We informed them, and we deformed them; We conformed them, and we reformed them!
_Adul._ And what gave ye them in your permutations?
_Oppr._ Bare parsonages of appropriations, Bought from Respublica, and first emprowed; Then at the highest extent to bishops allowed, Let out to their hands for fourscore and [nineteen] year.
_Avar._ Lo, cousin Honesty! lo! do ye hear this gear? Faith! your marsship will thrive at the latter Lammas!
_Adul._ I now grant myself to have been a very ass; But all is not yet gone, in case I have good luck.