Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 6.djvu/200

SCENE IV.

Another part of the Same.

Enter sir Hugh and Preamble.

 Hugh. O bone Deus, have you seen the like!
Here was, Hodge hold thine ear fair, whilst I strike.
Body o' me, how came this geer about?

 Pre. I know not, Canon, but it falls out cross.
Nor can I make conjecture by the circumstance
Of these events; it was impossible, so
Being so close and politicly carried,
To come so quickly to the ears of Turfe.
O priest! had but thy slow delivery bald
Been nimble, and thy lazy Latin tongue
But run the forms o'er with that swift dispatch
As had been requisite, all had been well.

 Hugh. What should have been, that never loved the friar;
But thus you see the old adage verified,
Multa cadunt inter———you can guess the rest,
Many things fall between the cup and lip;
And though they touch, you are not sure to drink.
You lack'd good fortune, we had done our parts:
Give a man fortune, throw him in the sea.
The properer man, the worse luck: stay a time;
Tempus edax—In time the stately ox,^[1]—
Good counsels lightly never come too late.

 Pre. You, sir, will run your counsels out of breath.

1. In time the stately ox—] Old Jeronymo again!
   "In time the savage bull sustains the yoke," &c.
   Lightly, in the next line, is commonly, usually.