_! wouldst thou ship ordnance?
What though we send unto the foes our corne
To fatten them, and cloth to keepe them warme,
Lets not be so forgetfull of our selves
As to provide them with knives to cut our throates:
So I should arme a thiefe to take my purse.
Hast thou no other course of Merchandize?
Thou shouldst get gold, twill yeeld thee ten in the hundred
On bare exchange, and raise the price with us;
Make us for want coyn brasse and passe it currant
Untill we find profit to call it in.
There are a thousand waies to make thee thrive
And Ile allow of all, bee it nere so bad,
Excepting guns to batter downe our houses.

1. Letters[189] of Mart I humblie then intreate,
To cease on Rovers that doe secure the seas.

_Hat_. And on our friends too, if thou canst do't cleanlie.
Spare none, but passe it very closely;
We will be loath to sift thy Piracie,
But open eare to heare what they [thou?] complaine.
Hast thou a Letter?

1. Ready drawne my Lord.
And heres a brace of hundred pounds for you.

_Hat_. 'Tis very well; I thinke I shall be rich
If dayly tenants pay me rent thus fast.
Give me your licenses, they shall bee seal'd.
About an houre hence, here attend our pleasure.

_Omnes_. We thanke your Lordship.
[_Exeunt petiti_.

_Hat_. O vild catterpillers,
And yet how necassarie for my turne!
I have the Dukes seale for the Citie _Meath_,
With which Ile signe their warrants.
This corne and twentie times as much
Alreadie covertly convai'd to _France_,
And other bordering Kingdomes neere the sea,
Cannot but make a famine in this land;
And then the poore, like dogs, will die apace.
Ile seeme to pittie them, and give them almes
To blind the world; 'tis excellent policie
To rid the land of such, by such device.
A famine to the poore is like a frost
Unto the earth, which kills the paltry wormes
That would destroy the harvest of the spring.
As for the which, I count them painefull men
Worthy to enjoy what they can get:
Beggars are trash, and I esteeme them so;
Starve, hang, or drowne themselves, I am alive;
Loose all the world, so I have wit to thrive.
But I must to the Parliment, and then
Ile have a clause to beggar some rich men.

[_Exit_.

_Actus Tertius_.

[SCENE 1.]

_Enter Duke, Fredericke, Constantine, Reinaldo,
Alberto, Alfrid, and amongst them Hatto shuffles in_.

_Alberto_. Princes and pillars of the _Saxon_ State.