Original Text |
Modern Text |
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SECOND CARRIER Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.
Come, neighbour Mugs, we’ll call up the gentlemen. They
will along with company, for they have great charge.
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SECOND CARRIER At a reasonable enough time. (to
FIRST CARRIER) Come on, Mugs, old friend. Let’s wake up the gentlemen. They want to travel in a group because they’re carrying a lot of valuables.
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Exeunt CARRIERS
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Both CARRIERS exit.
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GADSHILL What ho, chamberlain!
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GADSHILL |
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CHAMBERLAIN
(within) At hand, quoth pickpurse.
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CHAMBERLAIN
(offstage)
“I’m there for you,”Shakespeare’s line apparently references a popular saying of the time. “I’m there for you,” as the pickpockets say! |
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GADSHILL That’s even as fair as “at hand, quoth the Chamberlain,” for
thou variest no more from picking of purses than giving
direction doth from laboring: thou layest the plot how.
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GADSHILL That’s as good as saying, “‚I’m there for you,' said the chamberlain.” You’re only as different from a pickpocket as a supervisor is from a worker; you’re the one who sets the plans.
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Enter CHAMBERLAIN
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The CHAMBERLAIN enters.
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CHAMBERLAIN Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that I told
you yesternight: there’s a franklin in the Wild of Kent hath
brought three hundred marks with him in gold. I heard him
tell it to one of his company last night at supper—a kind of
auditor, one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows
what. They are up already and call for eggs and butter. They
will away presently.
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CHAMBERLAIN Morning, Mr. Gadshill. What I told you last night is still true. There’s a rich landowner all the way from Kent staying here, and he’s got three hundred gold coins with him. I heard him say so to a man at supper last night. That man’s some kind of tax collector, and he has plenty of money with him, too. They just woke up and they’ve ordered breakfast; they’ll be leaving soon.
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GADSHILL Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas' clerks, I’ll give
thee this neck.
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GADSHILL Sirrah, if they don’t run into some highway robbers today, you can have my neck.
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