Template:Dkt division of funds

From The Jolly Contrarian
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Provocatoria: Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. I am tired.
Nuncle, pass the deck. Know this my council:
My departing wish: this house must hold its nerve.
Wherefore I divide, in quarters, all of its reserves.
Conferring them upon some younger lance, while I
Unburden’d crawl toward my place in France.
I have made this hour a will to put the firm
In firmer hand and stouter head than mine.
Is there one among you who can forsooth attest
To an acumen so sharp to shave the chin
Or cut the lunch of those cur-struck brigands from the west?
Thou art my likeliest inheritors. Who shall make it right?
Is there one or two who, perchance between you
Has both the stomach and the wisdom for the fight?

Nuncle: Now steady, here, my lady liege: one hears it oftly said:
One head per pair of shoulders is enough
Less than one a lack, for sure
But no less a lack there is if there is more.

Provocatoria: What mean you, Fool? Your riddle stays unspun.

Nuncle: One head’s a head ahead: co-heads are none.

Provocatoria: Must co-operation e’er be seen a fudge?

Nuncle: So try it, ma’am: you be the fool, and I the judge.

Provocatoria: And here to be answer’d. Tell me, my lords:
Should I divest my mandate to a worthy heir
Which heir was you: what wouldst be your best idea?
How wouldst you drive our sweetened chariot to the sun?
What wouldst you scheme to make the rabbits run?
He, or she, or they, who enthrall mine eyes:
Shall with royal leave possess our frittered prize. Speak.