_Ale._ Nay, but hear you, Master Usurer: "no cow!" Why, sir, here's your thirty shillings: I have paid you eighteen-pence a week, and therefore there is reason I should have my cow.
_Usurer._ What pratest thou? have I not answered thee, thy day is broken?
_Alc._ Why, sir, alas, my cow is a commonwealth to me! for first, sir, she allows me, my wife, and son, for to banquet ourselves withal, butter, cheese, whey, curds, cream, sod-milk, raw-milk, sour-milk, sweet-milk, and butter-milk: besides, sir, she saved me every year a penny in almanacs, for she was as good to me as a prognostication; if she had but set up her tail, and have gallop'd about the mead, my little boy was able to say, "O, father, there will be a storm"; her very tail was a calendar to me: and now to lose my cow! alas, Master Usurer, take pity upon me!
_Usurer._ I have other matters to talk on; farewell, fellows.
_Thras._ Why, but, thou covetous churl, wilt thou not receive thy money, and deliver me my recognisance?
_Usurer._ I'll deliver thee none; if I have wronged thee, seek thy mends at the law. [_Exit._
_Thras._ And so I will, insatiable peasant.
_Alc._ And, sir, rather than I will put up this word "no cow," I will lay my wife's best gown to pawn. I tell you, sir, when the slave uttered this word "no cow," it struck to my heart, for my wife shall never have one so fit for her turn again; for, indeed, sir, she is a woman that hath her twiddling-strings broke.
_Thras._ What meanest thou by that, fellow?
_Alc._ Marry, sir, sir-reverence of your manhood, she breaks wind behind; and indeed, sir, when she sat milking of her cow and let a fart, my other cows would start at the noise, and kick down the milk and away; but this cow, sir, the gentlest cow! my wife might blow whilst[71] she burst: and having such good conditions, shall the Usurer come upon me with "no cow"? Nay, sir, before I pocket up this word "no cow," my wife's gown goes to the lawyer: why, alas, sir, 'tis as ill a word to me as "no crown" to a king!
_Thras._ Well, fellow, go with me, and I'll help thee to a lawyer.
_Alc._ Marry, and I will, sir. No cow! well, the world goes hard. [_Exeunt._
_Oseas._ Where hateful usury Is counted husbandry; Where merciless men rob the poor, And the needy are thrust out of door; Where gain is held for conscience, And men's pleasure is all on pence; Where young gentlemen forfeit their lands, Through riot, into the usurer's hands; Where poverty is despis'd, and pity banish'd, And mercy indeed utterly vanish'd: Where men esteem more of money than of God; Let that land look to feel his wrathful rod: For there is no sin more odious in his sight Than where usury defrauds the poor of his right. London, take heed, these sins abound in thee; The poor complain, the widows wrongèd be; The gentlemen by subtlety are spoil'd; The ploughmen lose the crop for which they toil'd: Sin reigns in thee, O London, every hour: Repent, and tempt not thus the heavenly power.