Page 887 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

I would I had not known him; it was the death of the most virtuous
gentlewoman that ever nature had praise for creating. If she had partaken of
my flesh and cost me the dearest groans of a mother I could not have [10]
owed her a more rooted love.

LAFEW
’Twas a good lady, ’twas a good lady. We may pick a thousand sallets ere we

light on such another herb.

CLOWN
Indeed, sir, she was the sweet-marjoram of the sallet, or, rather, the herb of
grace. [15]

LAFEW
They are not herbs, you knave, they are nose-herbs.

CLOWN
I am no great Nabuchadnezzar, sir, I have not much skill in grass.

LAFEW

Whether dost thou profess thyself, a knave or [20] a fool?

CLOWN

A fool, sir, at a woman’s service, and a knave at a man’s.

LAFEW
Your distinction?

CLOWN
I would cozen the man of his wife and do his [25] service.

LAFEW
So you were a knave at his service indeed.

CLOWN
And I would give his wife my bauble, sir, to do her service.