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Enter FLAVIUS,
MURELLUS, a CARPENTER, a
COBBLER, and certain other
COMMONERS over the stage
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FLAVIUS and MURELLUS enter and speak
to a CARPENTER, a COBBLER, and some
other commoners.
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FLAVIUS Hence! Home, you idle creatures get you home!
Is this a holiday? What, know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign
5Of your profession?—Speak, what trade art thou?
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FLAVIUS Get out of here! Go home, you lazy men. What, is today a holiday?
Don’t you know that working men aren’t supposed to
walk around on a workday without wearing their work clothes? You
there, speak up. What’s your occupation?
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CARPENTER Why, sir, a carpenter.
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CARPENTER I’m a carpenter, sir.
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MURELLUS Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?
—You, sir, what trade are you?
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MURELLUS Where are your leather apron and your ruler? What are you doing,
wearing your best clothes? And you, sir, what’s
your trade?
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COBBLER
10Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you
would say, a cobbler.
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COBBLER Well, compared to a fine workman, you might call me a mere
cobbler.
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MURELLUS But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.
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MURELLUS But what’s your trade? Answer me
straightforwardly.
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COBBLER A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience,
which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.
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COBBLER It is a trade, sir, that I practice with a clear conscience. I am
a mender of worn soles.
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MURELLUS
15What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade?
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MURELLUS What trade, boy? You insolent rascal, what trade?
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COBBLER Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me. Yet, if you be
out, sir, I can mend you.
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COBBLER Sir, please, don’t be angry. But if your soles are worn
out, I can mend you.
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MURELLUS What mean’st thou by that? “Mend”
me, thou saucy
fellow?
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MURELLUS What do you mean by that? “Mend” me, you
impertinent fellow?!
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