Fraser Allonby Q.C.30 Mar 2005

[Enter the Borgias' FOOL.]

LUCREZIA: Well, Fool, what's thy latest?
FOOL: Aristotle's or Zeno's, Lady--'tis neither latest nor last. For, marry, if the cobbler stuck to his last, then were his latest his last in rebus ambulantibus. Argal, I stick at nothing but cobble-stones, which, by the same token, are stuck to the road by men's fingers.
LUCREZIA: How many crows may nest in a grocer's jerkin?
FOOL: A full dozen at cock-crow, and something less under the dog-star, by reason of the dew, which lies heavy on men taken by the scurvy.
LUCREZIA: Methinks the Fool is a fool.
FOOL: And therefore, by auricular deduction, am I own twin to the Lady Lucrezia!

[Sings.]

When pears hang green on the garden wall
With a nid, and a nod, and a niddy-niddy-o
Then prank you, lads and lasses all,
With a yea and a nay and a niddy-o.

But when the thrush flies out o' the frost
With a nid, [etc.]
'Tis time for loons to count the cost,
With a yea [etc.]