WALTER MAP.
And is the King's _if_ too high a stile for your lordship to overstep
and come at all things in the next field?
BECKET.
Ay, if this _if_ be like the Devil's '_if_
Thou wilt fall down and worship me.'
HERBERT.
Oh, Thomas;
I could fall down and worship thee, my Thomas,
For thou hast trodden this wine-press alone.
BECKET.
Nay, of the people there are many with me.
WALTER MAP.
I am not altogether with you, my lord, tho' I am none of those that
would raise a storm between you, lest ye should draw together like two
ships in a calm. You wrong the King: he meant what he said to-day. Who
shall vouch for his to-morrows? One word further. Doth not the
_fewness_ of anything make the fulness of it in estimation? Is not
virtue prized mainly for its rarity and great baseness loathed as an
exception: for were all, my lord, as noble as yourself, who would look
up to you? and were all as base as--who shall I say--Fitzurse and his
following--who would look down upon them? My lord, you have put so
many of the King's household out of communion, that they begin to
smile at it.
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