Fair-Welcome.
But if she asks whence comes the prize?
The Duenna.
Oh! I can forge you twenty lies.
Fair-Welcome.
But if she question me amain.
How shall I answer her again?
If in her rage she cruelly
Rebuke me, how shall I reply?
I can but put her off, forsooth.
With some fair plausible untruth.
And I, if she thereof should know,
Pain worse than death must undergo.13410
The Duenna.
What shall you say? If you have not
A better tale, ’twere well I wot
To say you had it straight from me,
That would above suspicion be,
And nought of blame would you receive
For taking that I chose to give.
LXXI
Induced by what the hag hath said,
Fair-Welcome setteth on his head
The garland, and doth take therein
A pledge to sell his very skin.13420
The chaplet accepted
Fair-welcome saith no more, but sets
