my Lord,
Such common things as neither you nor I,
Nor any of these noble gentlemen,
Have ever need at all to think about;
They say the bread, the very bread they eat,
Is made of sorry chaff.
first citizen
Ay! so it is,
Nothing but chaff.
duke
And very good food too,
I give it to my horses.
duchess [restraining herself]
They say the water,
Set in the public cisterns for their use,
[Has, through the breaking of the aqueduct,]
To stagnant pools and muddy puddles turned.
duke
They should drink wine; water is quite unwholesome.
·41· second citizen
Alack, your Grace, the taxes which the customs
Take at the city gate are grown so high
We cannot buy wine.
duke
Then you should bless the taxes
Which make you temperate.
duchess
Think, while we sit
In gorgeous pomp and state, gaunt poverty
Creeps through their sunless lanes, and with sharp knives
Cuts the warm throats of children stealthily
And no word said.
third citizen
Ay! marry, that is true,
My little son died yesternight from hunger;
He was but six years old; I am so poor,
I cannot bury him.
duke
If you are poor,
Are you not blessed in that? Why, poverty
·42· Is one of the Christian virtues,
[Turns to the Cardinal.]
Is it not?
I know, Lord Cardinal, you have great revenues,
Rich abbey-lands, and tithes, and large estates
For preaching voluntary poverty.
duchess
Nay but, my lord the Duke, be generous;
While we sit here within a noble house
[With shaded porticoes against the sun,
And walls and roofs to keep the winter out],
There are many citizens of Padua
Who in vile tenements live so full of holes,
That the chill rain, the snow, and the rude blast,
Are tenants also with them; others sleep
Under the arches of the public bridges
All through the autumn nights, till the wet mist
Stiffens their limbs, and fevers come, and so——
duke
And so they go to Abraham’s bosom, Madam.
They should thank me for sending them to Heaven,
·43· If they are wretched here.
[To the Cardinal.]
Is it not said
Somewhere in Holy Writ, that every man
Should be contented with that state of life
God calls him to? Why should I change their state,
Or meddle with an all-wise providence,
Which has apportioned that some men should starve,
And others surfeit? I did not make the world.
first citizen
He hath a hard heart.
second citizen
Nay, be silent, neighbour;
I think the Cardinal will speak for us.
cardinal
True, it is Christian to bear misery,
Yet it is Christian also to be kind,
And there seem many evils in this town,
Which in your wisdom might your Grace reform.
·44· first citizen
What is that word reform? What does it mean?
second citizen
Marry, it means leaving things as they are; I like it not.
duke
Reform, Lord Cardinal, did you say reform?
There is a man in Germany called Luther,
Who would reform the Holy Catholic Church.
Have you not made him heretic, and uttered
Anathema, maranatha, against him?
cardinal [rising from his seat]
He would have led the sheep out of the fold,
We do but ask of you to feed the sheep.
duke
When I have shorn their fleeces I may feed
