Sir Thomas.

“Now, Silas, what sayest thou?”

Sir Silas.

“Ignorant fool!”

William Shakspeare.

“Ignorant fools are bearable, Master Silas! your wise ones are the worst.”

Sir Thomas.

“Prithee no bandying of loggerheads.”

William Shakspeare.

“Or else what mortal man shall say
Whose shins may suffer in the fray?”

Sir Thomas.

“Thou reasonest aptly and timest well.  And surely, being now in so rational and religious a frame of mind, thou couldst recall to memory a section or head or two of the sermon holden at St. Mary’s.  It would do thee and us as much good as lighten our darkness, or forasmuch as it hath pleased; and somewhat less than three quarters of an hour (maybe less than one quarter) sufficeth.”

Sir Silas.

“Or he hangs without me.  I am for dinner in half the time.”

Sir Thomas.

“Silas!  Silas! he hangeth not with thee or without thee.”

Sir Silas.

“He thinketh himself a clever fellow; but he (look ye) is the cleverest that gets off.”

“I hold quite the contrary,” quoth Will Shakspeare, winking at Master Silas from the comfort and encouragement he had just received touching the hanging.

And Master Silas had his answer ready, and shewed that he was more than a match for poor Willy in wit and poetry.

He answered thus:-

“If winks are wit,
Who wanteth it?

Thou hadst other bolts to kill bucks withal.  In wit, sirrah, thou art a mere child.”

William Shakspeare.

“Little dogs are jealous of children, great ones fondle them.”

Sir Thomas.

“An that were written in the Apocrypha, in the very teeth of Bel and the Dragon, it could not be truer.  I have witnessed it with my own eyes over and over.”

Sir Silas.

“He will take this for wit, likewise, now the arms of Lucy do seal it.”

Sir Thomas.

“Silas, they may stamp wit, they may further wit, they may send wit into good company, but not make it.”

William Shakspeare.

“Behold my wall of defence!”

Sir Silas.

“An thou art for walls, I have one for thee from Oxford, pithy and apposite, sound and solid, and trimmed up becomingly, as a collar of brawn with a crown of rosemary, or a boar’s head with a lemon in the mouth.”

William Shakespeare.

“Egad, Master Silas, those are your walls for lads to climb over, an they were higher than Babel’s.”

Sir Silas.

“Have at thee!”