Part 12 (1/2)
”I would I were but a king! Wouldn't I lead a brave life!”
”That would not I be for all the riches in Christendom.”
”The which speech showeth thine unwisdom. Why, a king can have his purveyor to pick of the finest in the market ere any other be serven; he can lay tax on his people whenas it shall please him [this was true at that time]; he can have a whole pig or goose to his table every morrow; and as for the gifts that be brought him, they be without number.
Marry, but if I were a king, wouldn't I have a long gown of blue velvet, all o'er broidered of seed-pearl, and a cap of cramoisie [crimson velvet], with golden broidery! And a summer jack [the garment of which jacket is the diminutive] of samitelle would I have--let me see--green, I reckon, bound with gold ribbon; and fair winter hoods of miniver and ermine, and b.u.t.tons of gold by the score. Who so bravely apparelled as I, trow?”
”Be your garments not warm enough, Matthew?”
”Warm enough? certes! But they be only camoca and lamb's far, with never a silver b.u.t.ton, let be gold.”
”What advantage should gold b.u.t.tons be to you? Those pearl do attach your gown full evenly as well.”
”Hylton, thou hast no ambitiousness in thee! Seest not that folks should pay me a deal more respect, thus donned [dressed] in my bravery?”
”That is, they should pay much respect to the blue velvet and the gold b.u.t.tons? You should be no different that I can see.”
”I should be a vast sight comelier, man alive!”
”You!” returned Hylton.
”Where's the good of talking to thee? As well essay to learn a sparrow to sing, '_J'ay tout perdu mon temps_.'”
”I think you should have lost your time in very deed, and your labour belike, if you spent them on broidering gowns and st.i.tching on b.u.t.tons, when you had enow aforetime.”
”Thou sely loon! [Simple creature!] Dost reckon I mean to work mine own broidery, trow? I'd have a fair score of maidens alway a-broidering for me, so that I might ever have a fresh device when I lacked a new gown.”
”The which should come in a year to--how much?”
”Dost look for me to know?”
”I do, when I have told you. Above an hundred and twenty pound, Master Matthew. That should your bravery cost you, in broidering-maids alone.”
”Well! what matter, so I had it?”
”It might serve you. I should desire to buy more happiness with such a sum than could be st.i.tched into golden broidery and seed-pearl.”
”Now come, Norman, let us hear thy notion of happiness. If thou hadst in thine hand an hundred pound, what should'st do withal?”
”I would see if I could not dry up as many widows' tears as I had golden pieces, and bring as many smiles to the lips of orphans as they should divide into silver.”
”Prithee, what good should that do thee?”
”It should keep mine heart warm in the chillest winter thereafter. But I thought rather of the good it should do them than me.”
”But what be such like folks to thee?”
”Our Lord died for them, and He is something to me.”
”Fate meant thee for a monk, Hylton. Thou rannest thine head against the wall to become a squire.”
”Be monks the sole men that love G.o.d?”