SECOND CITIZEN
Is that so?
DUKE
These ragged knaves who come before us here,
With mouths chock-full of treason.
THIRD CITIZEN
Good my Lord,
Fill up our mouths with bread; we'll hold our tongues.
DUKE
Ye shall hold your tongues, whether you starve or not.
My lords, this age is so familiar grown,
That the low peasant hardly doffs his hat,
Unless you beat him; and the raw mechanic
Elbows the noble in the public streets.
[To the Citizens.]
Still as our gentle Duchess has so prayed us,
And to refuse so beautiful a beggar
Were to lack both courtesy and love,
Touching your grievances, I promise this -
FIRST CITIZEN
Marry, he will lighten the taxes!
SECOND CITIZEN
Or a dole of bread, think you, for each man?
DUKE
That, on next Sunday, the Lord Cardinal
Shall, after Holy Mass, preach you a sermon
Upon the Beauty of Obedience.
[Citizens murmur.]
FIRST CITIZEN
I' faith, that will not fill our stomachs!
SECOND CITIZEN
A sermon is but a sorry sauce, when
You have nothing to eat with it.
DUCHESS
Poor people,
You see I have no power with the Duke,
But if you go into the court without,
My almoner shall from my private purse,
Divide a hundred ducats 'mongst you all.
FIRST CITIZEN
God save the Duchess, say I.
SECOND CITIZEN
God save her.
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