nterest requires it.

_Beam._ That leads me to your religion, which is only made up of
interest: At home, you tolerate all worships in them who can pay for
it; and abroad, you were lately so civil to the emperor of Pegu, as to
do open sacrifice to his idols.

_Fisc._ Yes, and by the same token, you English were such precise
fools as to refuse it.

_Beam._ For frugality in trading, we confess we cannot compare with
you; for our merchants live like noblemen; your gentlemen, if you have
any, live like boors. You traffic for all the rarities of the world,
and dare use none of them yourselves; so that, in effect, you are the
mill-horses of mankind, that labour only for the wretched provender
you eat: A pot of butter and a pickled herring is all your riches;
and, in short, you have a good title to cheat all Europe, because, in
the first place, you cozen your own backs and bellies.

_Fisc._ We may enjoy more whenever we please.

_Beam._ Your liberty is a grosser cheat than any of the rest; for you
are ten times more taxed than any people in Christendom: You never
keep any league with foreign princes; you flatter our kings, and ruin
their subjects; you never denied us satisfaction at home for injuries,
nor ever gave it us abroad.

_Fisc._ You must make yourselves more feared, when you expect it.

_Beam._ And I prophecy that time will come, when some generous monarch
of our island will undertake our quarrel, reassume the fishery of our
seas, and make them as considerable to the English, as the Indies are
to you.

_Fisc._ Before that comes to pass, you may repent your over-lavish
tongue.

_Beam._ I was no more in earnest than you were.

_Jul._ Pray let this go no further; my husband has invited both to
supper.

_Beam._ If you please, I'll fall to before he comes; or, at least,
while he is conferring in private with the Fiscal. [_Aside to her._

_Jul._ Their private businesses let them agree;
The Dutch for him, the Englishman for me. [_Exeunt._

ACT III. SCENE I.

_Enter_ PEREZ.

_Per._ True, the reward proposed is great enough, I want it too;
besides, this Englishman has never paid me since, as his lieutenant, I
served him once against the Turk at sea; yet he confessed I did my
duty well, when twice I cleared our decks; he has long promised me,
but what are promises to starving men? this is his house, he may walk
out this morning.

_Enter a Page, and another Servant, walking by, no