Nay, no less than a farmer, a right honest man,
But my tongue cannot stay me to tell what I am:
Nay, who is it that knows me not by my party-colour'd head?
They may well think, that see me, my honesty is fled.
Tush! a fig for honesty: tut, let that go,
Sith men, women and children my name and doings do know.
My name is Dissimulation, and no base mind I bear,
For my outward effects my inward zeal do declare;
For men do dissemble with their wives, and their wives with them again,
So that in the hearts of them I always remain.
The child dissembles with his father, the sister with her[141] brother,
The maiden with her mistress, and the young man with his lover.[142]
There is dissimulation between neighbour and neighbour, friend and
friend, one with another,
Between the servant and his master, between brother and brother.
Then, why make you it strange that ever you knew me,
Seeing so how[143] I range thoroughout every degree?
But I forget my business: I'll towards London as fast[144] I can,
To get entertainment of one of the three ladies, like an honest man.
_Enter_ SIMPLICITY _like a miller, all mealy,
with a wand in his hand_.
SIMPLICITY.
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