Title: The Alchemist
Author: Ben Jonson
+ +Release date: May 1, 2003 [eBook #4081]
Most recently updated: January 25, 2013
Language: English
+ +Credits: Produced by Amy E Zelmer, Robert Prince, Sue Asscher, and David Widger
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+ + INTRODUCTION + ++ TO THE READER. + + ++ ARGUMENT. + ++ PROLOGUE. + ++ + + + + + + + GLOSSARY + + |
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+ The greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first literary + dictator and poet-laureate, a writer of verse, prose, satire, and + criticism who most potently of all the men of his time affected the + subsequent course of English letters: such was Ben Jonson, and as such his + strong personality assumes an interest to us almost unparalleled, at least + in his age. +
++ Ben Jonson came of the stock that was centuries after to give to the world + Thomas Carlyle; for Jonson's grandfather was of Annandale, over the + Solway, whence he migrated to England. Jonson's father lost his estate + under Queen Mary, "having been cast into prison and forfeited." He entered + the church, but died a month before his illustrious son was born, leaving + his widow and child in poverty. Jonson's birthplace was Westminster, and + the time of his birth early in 1573. He was thus nearly ten years + Shakespeare's junior, and less well off, if a trifle better born. But + Jonson did not profit even by this slight advantage. His mother married + beneath her, a wright or bricklayer, and Jonson was for a time apprenticed + to the trade. As a youth he attracted the attention of the famous + antiquary, William Camden, then usher at Westminster School, and there the + poet laid the solid foundations of his classical learning. Jonson always + held Camden in veneration, acknowledging that to him he owed, +
++ "All that I am in arts, all that I know;" +
++ and dedicating his first dramatic success, "Every Man in His Humour," to + him. It is doubtful whether Jonson ever went to either university, though + Fuller says that he was "statutably admitted into St. John's College, + Cambridge." He tells us that he took no degree, but was later "Master of + Arts in both the universities, by their favour, not his study." When a + mere youth Jonson enlisted as a soldier, trailing his pike in Flanders in + the protracted wars of William the Silent against the Spanish. Jonson was + a large and raw-boned lad; he became by his own account in time + exceedingly bulky. In chat with his friend William Drummond of + Hawthornden, Jonson told how "in his service in the Low Countries he had, + in the face of both the camps, killed an enemy, and taken opima spolia + from him;" and how "since his coming to England, being appealed to the + fields, he had killed his adversary which had hurt him in the arm and + whose sword was ten inches longer than his." Jonson's reach may have made + up for the lack of his sword; certainly his prowess lost nothing in the + telling. Obviously Jonson was brave, combative, and not averse to talking + of himself and his doings. +
++ In 1592, Jonson returned from abroad penniless. Soon after he married, + almost as early and quite as imprudently as Shakespeare. He told Drummond + curtly that "his wife was a shrew, yet honest"; for some years he lived + apart from her in the household of Lord Albany. Yet two touching epitaphs + among Jonson's "Epigrams," "On my first daughter," and "On my first son," + attest the warmth of the poet's family affections. The daughter died in + infancy, the son of the plague; another son grew up to manhood little + credit to his father whom he survived. We know nothing beyond this of + Jonson's domestic life. +
++ How soon Jonson drifted into what we now call grandly "the theatrical + profession" we do not know. In 1593, Marlowe made his tragic exit from + life, and Greene, Shakespeare's other rival on the popular stage, had + preceded Marlowe in an equally miserable death the year before. + Shakespeare already had the running to himself. Jonson appears first in + the employment of Philip Henslowe, the exploiter of several troupes of + players, manager, and father-in-law of the famous actor, Edward Alleyn. + From entries in "Henslowe's Diary," a species of theatrical account book + which has been handed down to us, we know that Jonson was connected with + the Admiral's men; for he borrowed 4 pounds of Henslowe, July 28, 1597, + paying back 3s. 9d. on the same day on account of his "share" (in what is + not altogether clear); while later, on December 3, of the same year, + Henslowe advanced 20s. to him "upon a book which he showed the plot unto + the company which he promised to deliver unto the company at Christmas + next." In the next August Jonson was in collaboration with Chettle and + Porter in a play called "Hot Anger Soon Cold." All this points to an + association with Henslowe of some duration, as no mere tyro would be thus + paid in advance upon mere promise. From allusions in Dekker's play, + "Satiromastix," it appears that Jonson, like Shakespeare, began life as an + actor, and that he "ambled in a leather pitch by a play-wagon" taking at + one time the part of Hieronimo in Kyd's famous play, "The Spanish + Tragedy." By the beginning of 1598, Jonson, though still in needy + circumstances, had begun to receive recognition. Francis Meres—well + known for his "Comparative Discourse of our English Poets with the Greek, + Latin, and Italian Poets," printed in 1598, and for his mention therein of + a dozen plays of Shakespeare by title—accords to Ben Jonson a place + as one of "our best in tragedy," a matter of some surprise, as no known + tragedy of Jonson from so early a date has come down to us. That Jonson + was at work on tragedy, however, is proved by the entries in Henslowe of + at least three tragedies, now lost, in which he had a hand. These are + "Page of Plymouth," "King Robert II. of Scotland," and "Richard + Crookback." But all of these came later, on his return to Henslowe, and + range from August 1599 to June 1602. +
++ Returning to the autumn of 1598, an event now happened to sever for a time + Jonson's relations with Henslowe. In a letter to Alleyn, dated September + 26 of that year, Henslowe writes: "I have lost one of my company that + hurteth me greatly; that is Gabriel [Spencer], for he is slain in Hogsden + fields by the hands of Benjamin Jonson, bricklayer." The last word is + perhaps Henslowe's thrust at Jonson in his displeasure rather than a + designation of his actual continuance at his trade up to this time. It is + fair to Jonson to remark however, that his adversary appears to have been + a notorious fire-eater who had shortly before killed one Feeke in a + similar squabble. Duelling was a frequent occurrence of the time among + gentlemen and the nobility; it was an impudent breach of the peace on the + part of a player. This duel is the one which Jonson described years after + to Drummond, and for it Jonson was duly arraigned at Old Bailey, tried, + and convicted. He was sent to prison and such goods and chattels as he had + "were forfeited." It is a thought to give one pause that, but for the + ancient law permitting convicted felons to plead, as it was called, the + benefit of clergy, Jonson might have been hanged for this deed. The + circumstance that the poet could read and write saved him; and he received + only a brand of the letter "T," for Tyburn, on his left thumb. While in + jail Jonson became a Roman Catholic; but he returned to the faith of the + Church of England a dozen years later. +
++ On his release, in disgrace with Henslowe and his former associates, + Jonson offered his services as a playwright to Henslowe's rivals, the Lord + Chamberlain's company, in which Shakespeare was a prominent shareholder. A + tradition of long standing, though not susceptible of proof in a court of + law, narrates that Jonson had submitted the manuscript of "Every Man in + His Humour" to the Chamberlain's men and had received from the company a + refusal; that Shakespeare called him back, read the play himself, and at + once accepted it. Whether this story is true or not, certain it is that + "Every Man in His Humour" was accepted by Shakespeare's company and acted + for the first time in 1598, with Shakespeare taking a part. The evidence + of this is contained in the list of actors prefixed to the comedy in the + folio of Jonson's works, 1616. But it is a mistake to infer, because + Shakespeare's name stands first in the list of actors and the elder + Kno'well first in the dramatis personae, that Shakespeare took that + particular part. The order of a list of Elizabethan players was generally + that of their importance or priority as shareholders in the company and + seldom if ever corresponded to the list of characters. +
++ "Every Man in His Humour" was an immediate success, and with it Jonson's + reputation as one of the leading dramatists of his time was established + once and for all. This could have been by no means Jonson's earliest + comedy, and we have just learned that he was already reputed one of "our + best in tragedy." Indeed, one of Jonson's extant comedies, "The Case is + Altered," but one never claimed by him or published as his, must certainly + have preceded "Every Man in His Humour" on the stage. The former play may + be described as a comedy modelled on the Latin plays of Plautus. (It + combines, in fact, situations derived from the "Captivi" and the + "Aulularia" of that dramatist). But the pretty story of the beggar-maiden, + Rachel, and her suitors, Jonson found, not among the classics, but in the + ideals of romantic love which Shakespeare had already popularised on the + stage. Jonson never again produced so fresh and lovable a feminine + personage as Rachel, although in other respects "The Case is Altered" is + not a conspicuous play, and, save for the satirising of Antony Munday in + the person of Antonio Balladino and Gabriel Harvey as well, is perhaps the + least characteristic of the comedies of Jonson. +
++ "Every Man in His Humour," probably first acted late in the summer of 1598 + and at the Curtain, is commonly regarded as an epoch-making play; and this + view is not unjustified. As to plot, it tells little more than how an + intercepted letter enabled a father to follow his supposedly studious son + to London, and there observe his life with the gallants of the time. The + real quality of this comedy is in its personages and in the theory upon + which they are conceived. Ben Jonson had theories about poetry and the + drama, and he was neither chary in talking of them nor in experimenting + with them in his plays. This makes Jonson, like Dryden in his time, and + Wordsworth much later, an author to reckon with; particularly when we + remember that many of Jonson's notions came for a time definitely to + prevail and to modify the whole trend of English poetry. First of all + Jonson was a classicist, that is, he believed in restraint and precedent + in art in opposition to the prevalent ungoverned and irresponsible + Renaissance spirit. Jonson believed that there was a professional way of + doing things which might be reached by a study of the best examples, and + he found these examples for the most part among the ancients. To confine + our attention to the drama, Jonson objected to the amateurishness and + haphazard nature of many contemporary plays, and set himself to do + something different; and the first and most striking thing that he evolved + was his conception and practice of the comedy of humours. +
++ As Jonson has been much misrepresented in this matter, let us quote his + own words as to "humour." A humour, according to Jonson, was a bias of + disposition, a warp, so to speak, in character by which +
+"Some one peculiar quality + Doth so possess a man, that it doth draw + All his affects, his spirits, and his powers, + In their confluctions, all to run one way." ++
+ But continuing, Jonson is careful to add: +
+"But that a rook by wearing a pied feather, + The cable hat-band, or the three-piled ruff, + A yard of shoe-tie, or the Switzers knot + On his French garters, should affect a humour! + O, it is more than most ridiculous." ++
+ Jonson's comedy of humours, in a word, conceived of stage personages on + the basis of a ruling trait or passion (a notable simplification of actual + life be it observed in passing); and, placing these typified traits in + juxtaposition in their conflict and contrast, struck the spark of comedy. + Downright, as his name indicates, is "a plain squire"; Bobadill's humour + is that of the braggart who is incidentally, and with delightfully comic + effect, a coward; Brainworm's humour is the finding out of things to the + end of fooling everybody: of course he is fooled in the end himself. But + it was not Jonson's theories alone that made the success of "Every Man in + His Humour." The play is admirably written and each character is vividly + conceived, and with a firm touch based on observation of the men of the + London of the day. Jonson was neither in this, his first great comedy (nor + in any other play that he wrote), a supine classicist, urging that English + drama return to a slavish adherence to classical conditions. He says as to + the laws of the old comedy (meaning by "laws," such matters as the unities + of time and place and the use of chorus): "I see not then, but we should + enjoy the same licence, or free power to illustrate and heighten our + invention as they [the ancients] did; and not be tied to those strict and + regular forms which the niceness of a few, who are nothing but form, would + thrust upon us." "Every Man in His Humour" is written in prose, a novel + practice which Jonson had of his predecessor in comedy, John Lyly. Even + the word "humour" seems to have been employed in the Jonsonian sense by + Chapman before Jonson's use of it. Indeed, the comedy of humours itself is + only a heightened variety of the comedy of manners which represents life, + viewed at a satirical angle, and is the oldest and most persistent species + of comedy in the language. None the less, Jonson's comedy merited its + immediate success and marked out a definite course in which comedy long + continued to run. To mention only Shakespeare's Falstaff and his rout, + Bardolph, Pistol, Dame Quickly, and the rest, whether in "Henry IV." or in + "The Merry Wives of Windsor," all are conceived in the spirit of humours. + So are the captains, Welsh, Scotch, and Irish of "Henry V.," and Malvolio + especially later; though Shakespeare never employed the method of humours + for an important personage. It was not Jonson's fault that many of his + successors did precisely the thing that he had reprobated, that is, + degrade "the humour" into an oddity of speech, an eccentricity of manner, + of dress, or cut of beard. There was an anonymous play called "Every Woman + in Her Humour." Chapman wrote "A Humourous Day's Mirth," Day, "Humour Out + of Breath," Fletcher later, "The Humourous Lieutenant," and Jonson, + besides "Every Man Out of His Humour," returned to the title in closing + the cycle of his comedies in "The Magnetic Lady or Humours Reconciled." +
++ With the performance of "Every Man Out of His Humour" in 1599, by + Shakespeare's company once more at the Globe, we turn a new page in + Jonson's career. Despite his many real virtues, if there is one feature + more than any other that distinguishes Jonson, it is his arrogance; and to + this may be added his self-righteousness, especially under criticism or + satire. "Every Man Out of His Humour" is the first of three "comical + satires" which Jonson contributed to what Dekker called the poetomachia or + war of the theatres as recent critics have named it. This play as a fabric + of plot is a very slight affair; but as a satirical picture of the manners + of the time, proceeding by means of vivid caricature, couched in witty and + brilliant dialogue and sustained by that righteous indignation which must + lie at the heart of all true satire—as a realisation, in short, of + the classical ideal of comedy—there had been nothing like Jonson's + comedy since the days of Aristophanes. "Every Man in His Humour," like the + two plays that follow it, contains two kinds of attack, the critical or + generally satiric, levelled at abuses and corruptions in the abstract; and + the personal, in which specific application is made of all this in the + lampooning of poets and others, Jonson's contemporaries. The method of + personal attack by actual caricature of a person on the stage is almost as + old as the drama. Aristophanes so lampooned Euripides in "The Acharnians" + and Socrates in "The Clouds," to mention no other examples; and in English + drama this kind of thing is alluded to again and again. What Jonson really + did, was to raise the dramatic lampoon to an art, and make out of a casual + burlesque and bit of mimicry a dramatic satire of literary pretensions and + permanency. With the arrogant attitude mentioned above and his uncommon + eloquence in scorn, vituperation, and invective, it is no wonder that + Jonson soon involved himself in literary and even personal quarrels with + his fellow-authors. The circumstances of the origin of this 'poetomachia' + are far from clear, and those who have written on the topic, except of + late, have not helped to make them clearer. The origin of the "war" has + been referred to satirical references, apparently to Jonson, contained in + "The Scourge of Villainy," a satire in regular form after the manner of + the ancients by John Marston, a fellow playwright, subsequent friend and + collaborator of Jonson's. On the other hand, epigrams of Jonson have been + discovered (49, 68, and 100) variously charging "playwright" (reasonably + identified with Marston) with scurrility, cowardice, and plagiarism; + though the dates of the epigrams cannot be ascertained with certainty. + Jonson's own statement of the matter to Drummond runs: "He had many + quarrels with Marston, beat him, and took his pistol from him, wrote his + 'Poetaster' on him; the beginning[s] of them were that Marston represented + him on the stage."* +
+* The best account of this whole subject is to be + found in the edition of "Poetaster" and "Satiromastrix" by + J. H. Penniman in "Belles Lettres Series" shortly to appear. + See also his earlier work, "The War of the Theatres," 1892, + and the excellent contributions to the subject by H. C. Hart + in "Notes and Queries," and in his edition of Jonson, 1906. ++
+ Here at least we are on certain ground; and the principals of the quarrel + are known. "Histriomastix," a play revised by Marston in 1598, has been + regarded as the one in which Jonson was thus "represented on the stage"; + although the personage in question, Chrisogonus, a poet, satirist, and + translator, poor but proud, and contemptuous of the common herd, seems + rather a complimentary portrait of Jonson than a caricature. As to the + personages actually ridiculed in "Every Man Out of His Humour," Carlo + Buffone was formerly thought certainly to be Marston, as he was described + as "a public, scurrilous, and profane jester," and elsewhere as "the grand + scourge or second untruss [that is, satirist], of the time." (Joseph Hall + being by his own boast the first, and Marston's work being entitled "The + Scourge of Villainy"). Apparently we must now prefer for Carlo a notorious + character named Charles Chester, of whom gossipy and inaccurate Aubrey + relates that he was "a bold impertinent fellow...a perpetual talker and + made a noise like a drum in a room. So one time at a tavern Sir Walter + Raleigh beats him and seals up his mouth (that is his upper and nether + beard) with hard wax. From him Ben Jonson takes his Carlo Buffone ['i.e.', + jester] in "Every Man in His Humour" ['sic']." Is it conceivable that + after all Jonson was ridiculing Marston, and that the point of the satire + consisted in an intentional confusion of "the grand scourge or second + untruss" with "the scurrilous and profane" Chester? +
++ We have digressed into detail in this particular case to exemplify the + difficulties of criticism in its attempts to identify the allusions in + these forgotten quarrels. We are on sounder ground of fact in recording + other manifestations of Jonson's enmity. In "The Case is Altered" there is + clear ridicule in the character Antonio Balladino of Anthony Munday, + pageant-poet of the city, translator of romances and playwright as well. + In "Every Man in His Humour" there is certainly a caricature of Samuel + Daniel, accepted poet of the court, sonneteer, and companion of men of + fashion. These men held recognised positions to which Jonson felt his + talents better entitled him; they were hence to him his natural enemies. + It seems almost certain that he pursued both in the personages of his + satire through "Every Man Out of His Humour," and "Cynthia's Revels," + Daniel under the characters Fastidious Brisk and Hedon, Munday as + Puntarvolo and Amorphus; but in these last we venture on quagmire once + more. Jonson's literary rivalry of Daniel is traceable again and again, in + the entertainments that welcomed King James on his way to London, in the + masques at court, and in the pastoral drama. As to Jonson's personal + ambitions with respect to these two men, it is notable that he became, not + pageant-poet, but chronologer to the City of London; and that, on the + accession of the new king, he came soon to triumph over Daniel as the + accepted entertainer of royalty. +
++ "Cynthia's Revels," the second "comical satire," was acted in 1600, and, + as a play, is even more lengthy, elaborate, and impossible than "Every Man + Out of His Humour." Here personal satire seems to have absorbed + everything, and while much of the caricature is admirable, especially in + the detail of witty and trenchantly satirical dialogue, the central idea + of a fountain of self-love is not very well carried out, and the persons + revert at times to abstractions, the action to allegory. It adds to our + wonder that this difficult drama should have been acted by the Children of + Queen Elizabeth's Chapel, among them Nathaniel Field with whom Jonson read + Horace and Martial, and whom he taught later how to make plays. Another of + these precocious little actors was Salathiel Pavy, who died before he was + thirteen, already famed for taking the parts of old men. Him Jonson + immortalised in one of the sweetest of his epitaphs. An interesting + sidelight is this on the character of this redoubtable and rugged + satirist, that he should thus have befriended and tenderly remembered + these little theatrical waifs, some of whom (as we know) had been + literally kidnapped to be pressed into the service of the theatre and + whipped to the conning of their difficult parts. To the caricature of + Daniel and Munday in "Cynthia's Revels" must be added Anaides (impudence), + here assuredly Marston, and Asotus (the prodigal), interpreted as Lodge + or, more perilously, Raleigh. Crites, like Asper-Macilente in "Every Man + Out of His Humour," is Jonson's self-complaisant portrait of himself, the + just, wholly admirable, and judicious scholar, holding his head high above + the pack of the yelping curs of envy and detraction, but careless of their + puny attacks on his perfections with only too mindful a neglect. +
++ The third and last of the "comical satires" is "Poetaster," acted, once + more, by the Children of the Chapel in 1601, and Jonson's only avowed + contribution to the fray. According to the author's own account, this play + was written in fifteen weeks on a report that his enemies had entrusted to + Dekker the preparation of "Satiromastix, the Untrussing of the Humorous + Poet," a dramatic attack upon himself. In this attempt to forestall his + enemies Jonson succeeded, and "Poetaster" was an immediate and deserved + success. While hardly more closely knit in structure than its earlier + companion pieces, "Poetaster" is planned to lead up to the ludicrous final + scene in which, after a device borrowed from the "Lexiphanes" of Lucian, + the offending poetaster, Marston-Crispinus, is made to throw up the + difficult words with which he had overburdened his stomach as well as + overlarded his vocabulary. In the end Crispinus with his fellow, + Dekker-Demetrius, is bound over to keep the peace and never thenceforward + "malign, traduce, or detract the person or writings of Quintus Horatius + Flaccus [Jonson] or any other eminent man transcending you in merit." One + of the most diverting personages in Jonson's comedy is Captain Tucca. "His + peculiarity" has been well described by Ward as "a buoyant blackguardism + which recovers itself instantaneously from the most complete exposure, and + a picturesqueness of speech like that of a walking dictionary of slang." +
++ It was this character, Captain Tucca, that Dekker hit upon in his reply, + "Satiromastix," and he amplified him, turning his abusive vocabulary back + upon Jonson and adding "an immodesty to his dialogue that did not enter + into Jonson's conception." It has been held, altogether plausibly, that + when Dekker was engaged professionally, so to speak, to write a dramatic + reply to Jonson, he was at work on a species of chronicle history, dealing + with the story of Walter Terill in the reign of William Rufus. This he + hurriedly adapted to include the satirical characters suggested by + "Poetaster," and fashioned to convey the satire of his reply. The + absurdity of placing Horace in the court of a Norman king is the result. + But Dekker's play is not without its palpable hits at the arrogance, the + literary pride, and self-righteousness of Jonson-Horace, whose "ningle" or + pal, the absurd Asinius Bubo, has recently been shown to figure forth, in + all likelihood, Jonson's friend, the poet Drayton. Slight and hastily + adapted as is "Satiromastix," especially in a comparison with the better + wrought and more significant satire of "Poetaster," the town awarded the + palm to Dekker, not to Jonson; and Jonson gave over in consequence his + practice of "comical satire." Though Jonson was cited to appear before the + Lord Chief Justice to answer certain charges to the effect that he had + attacked lawyers and soldiers in "Poetaster," nothing came of this + complaint. It may be suspected that much of this furious clatter and + give-and-take was pure playing to the gallery. The town was agog with the + strife, and on no less an authority than Shakespeare ("Hamlet," ii. 2), we + learn that the children's company (acting the plays of Jonson) did "so + berattle the common stages...that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of + goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither." +
++ Several other plays have been thought to bear a greater or less part in + the war of the theatres. Among them the most important is a college play, + entitled "The Return from Parnassus," dating 1601-02. In it a much-quoted + passage makes Burbage, as a character, declare: "Why here's our fellow + Shakespeare puts them all down; aye and Ben Jonson, too. O that Ben Jonson + is a pestilent fellow; he brought up Horace, giving the poets a pill, but + our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him bewray his + credit." Was Shakespeare then concerned in this war of the stages? And + what could have been the nature of this "purge"? Among several + suggestions, "Troilus and Cressida" has been thought by some to be the + play in which Shakespeare thus "put down" his friend, Jonson. A wiser + interpretation finds the "purge" in "Satiromastix," which, though not + written by Shakespeare, was staged by his company, and therefore with his + approval and under his direction as one of the leaders of that company. +
++ The last years of the reign of Elizabeth thus saw Jonson recognised as a + dramatist second only to Shakespeare, and not second even to him as a + dramatic satirist. But Jonson now turned his talents to new fields. Plays + on subjects derived from classical story and myth had held the stage from + the beginning of the drama, so that Shakespeare was making no new + departure when he wrote his "Julius Caesar" about 1600. Therefore when + Jonson staged "Sejanus," three years later and with Shakespeare's company + once more, he was only following in the elder dramatist's footsteps. But + Jonson's idea of a play on classical history, on the one hand, and + Shakespeare's and the elder popular dramatists, on the other, were very + different. Heywood some years before had put five straggling plays on the + stage in quick succession, all derived from stories in Ovid and dramatised + with little taste or discrimination. Shakespeare had a finer conception of + form, but even he was contented to take all his ancient history from + North's translation of Plutarch and dramatise his subject without further + inquiry. Jonson was a scholar and a classical antiquarian. He reprobated + this slipshod amateurishness, and wrote his "Sejanus" like a scholar, + reading Tacitus, Suetonius, and other authorities, to be certain of his + facts, his setting, and his atmosphere, and somewhat pedantically noting + his authorities in the margin when he came to print. "Sejanus" is a + tragedy of genuine dramatic power in which is told with discriminating + taste the story of the haughty favourite of Tiberius with his tragical + overthrow. Our drama presents no truer nor more painstaking representation + of ancient Roman life than may be found in Jonson's "Sejanus" and + "Catiline his Conspiracy," which followed in 1611. A passage in the + address of the former play to the reader, in which Jonson refers to a + collaboration in an earlier version, has led to the surmise that + Shakespeare may have been that "worthier pen." There is no evidence to + determine the matter. +
++ In 1605, we find Jonson in active collaboration with Chapman and Marston + in the admirable comedy of London life entitled "Eastward Hoe." In the + previous year, Marston had dedicated his "Malcontent," in terms of fervid + admiration, to Jonson; so that the wounds of the war of the theatres must + have been long since healed. Between Jonson and Chapman there was the + kinship of similar scholarly ideals. The two continued friends throughout + life. "Eastward Hoe" achieved the extraordinary popularity represented in + a demand for three issues in one year. But this was not due entirely to + the merits of the play. In its earliest version a passage which an + irritable courtier conceived to be derogatory to his nation, the Scots, + sent both Chapman and Jonson to jail; but the matter was soon patched up, + for by this time Jonson had influence at court. +
++ With the accession of King James, Jonson began his long and successful + career as a writer of masques. He wrote more masques than all his + competitors together, and they are of an extraordinary variety and poetic + excellence. Jonson did not invent the masque; for such premeditated + devices to set and frame, so to speak, a court ball had been known and + practised in varying degrees of elaboration long before his time. But + Jonson gave dramatic value to the masque, especially in his invention of + the antimasque, a comedy or farcical element of relief, entrusted to + professional players or dancers. He enhanced, as well, the beauty and + dignity of those portions of the masque in which noble lords and ladies + took their parts to create, by their gorgeous costumes and artistic + grouping and evolutions, a sumptuous show. On the mechanical and scenic + side Jonson had an inventive and ingenious partner in Inigo Jones, the + royal architect, who more than any one man raised the standard of stage + representation in the England of his day. Jonson continued active in the + service of the court in the writing of masques and other entertainments + far into the reign of King Charles; but, towards the end, a quarrel with + Jones embittered his life, and the two testy old men appear to have become + not only a constant irritation to each other, but intolerable bores at + court. In "Hymenaei," "The Masque of Queens," "Love Freed from Ignorance," + "Lovers made Men," "Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue," and many more will be + found Jonson's aptitude, his taste, his poetry and inventiveness in these + by-forms of the drama; while in "The Masque of Christmas," and "The + Gipsies Metamorphosed" especially, is discoverable that power of broad + comedy which, at court as well as in the city, was not the least element + of Jonson's contemporary popularity. +
++ But Jonson had by no means given up the popular stage when he turned to + the amusement of King James. In 1605 "Volpone" was produced, "The Silent + Woman" in 1609, "The Alchemist" in the following year. These comedies, + with "Bartholomew Fair," 1614, represent Jonson at his height, and for + constructive cleverness, character successfully conceived in the manner of + caricature, wit and brilliancy of dialogue, they stand alone in English + drama. "Volpone, or the Fox," is, in a sense, a transition play from the + dramatic satires of the war of the theatres to the purer comedy + represented in the plays named above. Its subject is a struggle of wit + applied to chicanery; for among its dramatis personae, from the villainous + Fox himself, his rascally servant Mosca, Voltore (the vulture), Corbaccio + and Corvino (the big and the little raven), to Sir Politic Would-be and + the rest, there is scarcely a virtuous character in the play. Question has + been raised as to whether a story so forbidding can be considered a + comedy, for, although the plot ends in the discomfiture and imprisonment + of the most vicious, it involves no mortal catastrophe. But Jonson was on + sound historical ground, for "Volpone" is conceived far more logically on + the lines of the ancients' theory of comedy than was ever the romantic + drama of Shakespeare, however repulsive we may find a philosophy of life + that facilely divides the world into the rogues and their dupes, and, + identifying brains with roguery and innocence with folly, admires the + former while inconsistently punishing them. +
++ "The Silent Woman" is a gigantic farce of the most ingenious construction. + The whole comedy hinges on a huge joke, played by a heartless nephew on + his misanthropic uncle, who is induced to take to himself a wife, young, + fair, and warranted silent, but who, in the end, turns out neither silent + nor a woman at all. In "The Alchemist," again, we have the utmost + cleverness in construction, the whole fabric building climax on climax, + witty, ingenious, and so plausibly presented that we forget its departures + from the possibilities of life. In "The Alchemist" Jonson represented, + none the less to the life, certain sharpers of the metropolis, revelling + in their shrewdness and rascality and in the variety of the stupidity and + wickedness of their victims. We may object to the fact that the only + person in the play possessed of a scruple of honesty is discomfited, and + that the greatest scoundrel of all is approved in the end and rewarded. + The comedy is so admirably written and contrived, the personages stand out + with such lifelike distinctness in their several kinds, and the whole is + animated with such verve and resourcefulness that "The Alchemist" is a new + marvel every time it is read. Lastly of this group comes the tremendous + comedy, "Bartholomew Fair," less clear cut, less definite, and less + structurally worthy of praise than its three predecessors, but full of the + keenest and cleverest of satire and inventive to a degree beyond any + English comedy save some other of Jonson's own. It is in "Bartholomew + Fair" that we are presented to the immortal caricature of the Puritan, + Zeal-in-the-Land Busy, and the Littlewits that group about him, and it is + in this extraordinary comedy that the humour of Jonson, always open to + this danger, loosens into the Rabelaisian mode that so delighted King + James in "The Gipsies Metamorphosed." Another comedy of less merit is "The + Devil is an Ass," acted in 1616. It was the failure of this play that + caused Jonson to give over writing for the public stage for a period of + nearly ten years. +
++ "Volpone" was laid as to scene in Venice. Whether because of the success + of "Eastward Hoe" or for other reasons, the other three comedies declare + in the words of the prologue to "The Alchemist": +
+"Our scene is London, 'cause we would make known + No country's mirth is better than our own." ++
+ Indeed Jonson went further when he came to revise his plays for collected + publication in his folio of 1616, he transferred the scene of "Every Man + in His Humour" from Florence to London also, converting Signior Lorenzo di + Pazzi to Old Kno'well, Prospero to Master Welborn, and Hesperida to Dame + Kitely "dwelling i' the Old Jewry." +
++ In his comedies of London life, despite his trend towards caricature, + Jonson has shown himself a genuine realist, drawing from the life about + him with an experience and insight rare in any generation. A happy + comparison has been suggested between Ben Jonson and Charles Dickens. Both + were men of the people, lowly born and hardly bred. Each knew the London + of his time as few men knew it; and each represented it intimately and in + elaborate detail. Both men were at heart moralists, seeking the truth by + the exaggerated methods of humour and caricature; perverse, even + wrong-headed at times, but possessed of a true pathos and largeness of + heart, and when all has been said—though the Elizabethan ran to + satire, the Victorian to sentimentality—leaving the world better for + the art that they practised in it. +
++ In 1616, the year of the death of Shakespeare, Jonson collected his plays, + his poetry, and his masques for publication in a collective edition. This + was an unusual thing at the time and had been attempted by no dramatist + before Jonson. This volume published, in a carefully revised text, all the + plays thus far mentioned, excepting "The Case is Altered," which Jonson + did not acknowledge, "Bartholomew Fair," and "The Devil is an Ass," which + was written too late. It included likewise a book of some hundred and + thirty odd "Epigrams," in which form of brief and pungent writing Jonson + was an acknowledged master; "The Forest," a smaller collection of lyric + and occasional verse and some ten "Masques" and "Entertainments." In this + same year Jonson was made poet laureate with a pension of one hundred + marks a year. This, with his fees and returns from several noblemen, and + the small earnings of his plays must have formed the bulk of his income. + The poet appears to have done certain literary hack-work for others, as, + for example, parts of the Punic Wars contributed to Raleigh's "History of + the World." We know from a story, little to the credit of either, that + Jonson accompanied Raleigh's son abroad in the capacity of a tutor. In + 1618 Jonson was granted the reversion of the office of Master of the + Revels, a post for which he was peculiarly fitted; but he did not live to + enjoy its perquisites. Jonson was honoured with degrees by both + universities, though when and under what circumstances is not known. It + has been said that he narrowly escaped the honour of knighthood, which the + satirists of the day averred King James was wont to lavish with an + indiscriminate hand. Worse men were made knights in his day than worthy + Ben Jonson. +
++ From 1616 to the close of the reign of King James, Jonson produced nothing + for the stage. But he "prosecuted" what he calls "his wonted studies" with + such assiduity that he became in reality, as by report, one of the most + learned men of his time. Jonson's theory of authorship involved a wide + acquaintance with books and "an ability," as he put it, "to convert the + substance or riches of another poet to his own use." Accordingly Jonson + read not only the Greek and Latin classics down to the lesser writers, but + he acquainted himself especially with the Latin writings of his learned + contemporaries, their prose as well as their poetry, their antiquities and + curious lore as well as their more solid learning. Though a poor man, + Jonson was an indefatigable collector of books. He told Drummond that "the + Earl of Pembroke sent him 20 pounds every first day of the new year to buy + new books." Unhappily, in 1623, his library was destroyed by fire, an + accident serio-comically described in his witty poem, "An Execration upon + Vulcan." Yet even now a book turns up from time to time in which is + inscribed, in fair large Italian lettering, the name, Ben Jonson. With + respect to Jonson's use of his material, Dryden said memorably of him: + "[He] was not only a professed imitator of Horace, but a learned plagiary + of all the others; you track him everywhere in their snow....But he has + done his robberies so openly that one sees he fears not to be taxed by any + law. He invades authors like a monarch, and what would be theft in other + poets is only victory in him." And yet it is but fair to say that Jonson + prided himself, and justly, on his originality. In "Catiline," he not only + uses Sallust's account of the conspiracy, but he models some of the + speeches of Cicero on the Roman orator's actual words. In "Poetaster," he + lifts a whole satire out of Horace and dramatises it effectively for his + purposes. The sophist Libanius suggests the situation of "The Silent + Woman"; a Latin comedy of Giordano Bruno, "Il Candelaio," the relation of + the dupes and the sharpers in "The Alchemist," the "Mostellaria" of + Plautus, its admirable opening scene. But Jonson commonly bettered his + sources, and putting the stamp of his sovereignty on whatever bullion he + borrowed made it thenceforward to all time current and his own. +
++ The lyric and especially the occasional poetry of Jonson has a peculiar + merit. His theory demanded design and the perfection of literary finish. + He was furthest from the rhapsodist and the careless singer of an idle + day; and he believed that Apollo could only be worthily served in singing + robes and laurel crowned. And yet many of Jonson's lyrics will live as + long as the language. Who does not know "Queen and huntress, chaste and + fair." "Drink to me only with thine eyes," or "Still to be neat, still to + be dressed"? Beautiful in form, deft and graceful in expression, with not + a word too much or one that bears not its part in the total effect, there + is yet about the lyrics of Jonson a certain stiffness and formality, a + suspicion that they were not quite spontaneous and unbidden, but that they + were carved, so to speak, with disproportionate labour by a potent man of + letters whose habitual thought is on greater things. It is for these + reasons that Jonson is even better in the epigram and in occasional verse + where rhetorical finish and pointed wit less interfere with the + spontaneity and emotion which we usually associate with lyrical poetry. + There are no such epitaphs as Ben Jonson's, witness the charming ones on + his own children, on Salathiel Pavy, the child-actor, and many more; and + this even though the rigid law of mine and thine must now restore to + William Browne of Tavistock the famous lines beginning: "Underneath this + sable hearse." Jonson is unsurpassed, too, in the difficult poetry of + compliment, seldom falling into fulsome praise and disproportionate + similitude, yet showing again and again a generous appreciation of worth + in others, a discriminating taste and a generous personal regard. There + was no man in England of his rank so well known and universally beloved as + Ben Jonson. The list of his friends, of those to whom he had written + verses, and those who had written verses to him, includes the name of + every man of prominence in the England of King James. And the tone of many + of these productions discloses an affectionate familiarity that speaks for + the amiable personality and sound worth of the laureate. In 1619, growing + unwieldy through inactivity, Jonson hit upon the heroic remedy of a + journey afoot to Scotland. On his way thither and back he was hospitably + received at the houses of many friends and by those to whom his friends + had recommended him. When he arrived in Edinburgh, the burgesses met to + grant him the freedom of the city, and Drummond, foremost of Scottish + poets, was proud to entertain him for weeks as his guest at Hawthornden. + Some of the noblest of Jonson's poems were inspired by friendship. Such is + the fine "Ode to the memory of Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Moryson," and + that admirable piece of critical insight and filial affection, prefixed to + the first Shakespeare folio, "To the memory of my beloved master, William + Shakespeare, and what he hath left us," to mention only these. Nor can the + earlier "Epode," beginning "Not to know vice at all," be matched in + stately gravity and gnomic wisdom in its own wise and stately age. +
++ But if Jonson had deserted the stage after the publication of his folio + and up to the end of the reign of King James, he was far from inactive; + for year after year his inexhaustible inventiveness continued to + contribute to the masquing and entertainment at court. In "The Golden Age + Restored," Pallas turns the Iron Age with its attendant evils into statues + which sink out of sight; in "Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue," Atlas figures + represented as an old man, his shoulders covered with snow, and Comus, + "the god of cheer or the belly," is one of the characters, a circumstance + which an imaginative boy of ten, named John Milton, was not to forget. + "Pan's Anniversary," late in the reign of James, proclaimed that Jonson + had not yet forgotten how to write exquisite lyrics, and "The Gipsies + Metamorphosed" displayed the old drollery and broad humorous stroke still + unimpaired and unmatchable. These, too, and the earlier years of Charles + were the days of the Apollo Room of the Devil Tavern where Jonson + presided, the absolute monarch of English literary Bohemia. We hear of a + room blazoned about with Jonson's own judicious "Leges Convivales" in + letters of gold, of a company made up of the choicest spirits of the time, + devotedly attached to their veteran dictator, his reminiscences, opinions, + affections, and enmities. And we hear, too, of valorous potations; but in + the words of Herrick addressed to his master, Jonson, at the Devil Tavern, + as at the Dog, the Triple Tun, and at the Mermaid, +
+"We such clusters had + As made us nobly wild, not mad, + And yet each verse of thine + Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine." ++
+ But the patronage of the court failed in the days of King Charles, though + Jonson was not without royal favours; and the old poet returned to the + stage, producing, between 1625 and 1633, "The Staple of News," "The New + Inn," "The Magnetic Lady," and "The Tale of a Tub," the last doubtless + revised from a much earlier comedy. None of these plays met with any + marked success, although the scathing generalisation of Dryden that + designated them "Jonson's dotages" is unfair to their genuine merits. Thus + the idea of an office for the gathering, proper dressing, and promulgation + of news (wild flight of the fancy in its time) was an excellent subject + for satire on the existing absurdities among newsmongers; although as much + can hardly be said for "The Magnetic Lady," who, in her bounty, draws to + her personages of differing humours to reconcile them in the end according + to the alternative title, or "Humours Reconciled." These last plays of the + old dramatist revert to caricature and the hard lines of allegory; the + moralist is more than ever present, the satire degenerates into personal + lampoon, especially of his sometime friend, Inigo Jones, who appears + unworthily to have used his influence at court against the broken-down old + poet. And now disease claimed Jonson, and he was bedridden for months. He + had succeeded Middleton in 1628 as Chronologer to the City of London, but + lost the post for not fulfilling its duties. King Charles befriended him, + and even commissioned him to write still for the entertainment of the + court; and he was not without the sustaining hand of noble patrons and + devoted friends among the younger poets who were proud to be "sealed of + the tribe of Ben." +
++ Jonson died, August 6, 1637, and a second folio of his works, which he had + been some time gathering, was printed in 1640, bearing in its various + parts dates ranging from 1630 to 1642. It included all the plays mentioned + in the foregoing paragraphs, excepting "The Case is Altered;" the masques, + some fifteen, that date between 1617 and 1630; another collection of + lyrics and occasional poetry called "Underwoods," including some further + entertainments; a translation of "Horace's Art of Poetry" (also published + in a vicesimo quarto in 1640), and certain fragments and ingatherings + which the poet would hardly have included himself. These last comprise the + fragment (less than seventy lines) of a tragedy called "Mortimer his + Fall," and three acts of a pastoral drama of much beauty and poetic + spirit, "The Sad Shepherd." There is also the exceedingly interesting + "English Grammar" "made by Ben Jonson for the benefit of all strangers out + of his observation of the English language now spoken and in use," in + Latin and English; and "Timber, or Discoveries" "made upon men and matter + as they have flowed out of his daily reading, or had their reflux to his + peculiar notion of the times." The "Discoveries," as it is usually called, + is a commonplace book such as many literary men have kept, in which their + reading was chronicled, passages that took their fancy translated or + transcribed, and their passing opinions noted. Many passages of Jonson's + "Discoveries" are literal translations from the authors he chanced to be + reading, with the reference, noted or not, as the accident of the moment + prescribed. At times he follows the line of Macchiavelli's argument as to + the nature and conduct of princes; at others he clarifies his own + conception of poetry and poets by recourse to Aristotle. He finds a choice + paragraph on eloquence in Seneca the elder and applies it to his own + recollection of Bacon's power as an orator; and another on facile and + ready genius, and translates it, adapting it to his recollection of his + fellow-playwright, Shakespeare. To call such passages—which Jonson + never intended for publication—plagiarism, is to obscure the + significance of words. To disparage his memory by citing them is a + preposterous use of scholarship. Jonson's prose, both in his dramas, in + the descriptive comments of his masques, and in the "Discoveries," is + characterised by clarity and vigorous directness, nor is it wanting in a + fine sense of form or in the subtler graces of diction. +
++ When Jonson died there was a project for a handsome monument to his + memory. But the Civil War was at hand, and the project failed. A memorial, + not insufficient, was carved on the stone covering his grave in one of the + aisles of Westminster Abbey: +
++ "O rare Ben Jonson." +
+
+ FELIX E. SCHELLING. THE COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+ The following is a complete list of his published works:— +
+DRAMAS: + Every Man in his Humour, 4to, 1601; + The Case is Altered, 4to, 1609; + Every Man out of his Humour, 4to, 1600; + Cynthia's Revels, 4to, 1601; + Poetaster, 4to, 1602; + Sejanus, 4to, 1605; + Eastward Ho (with Chapman and Marston), 4to, 1605; + Volpone, 4to, 1607; + Epicoene, or the Silent Woman, 4to, 1609 (?), fol., 1616; + The Alchemist, 4to, 1612; + Catiline, his Conspiracy, 4to, 1611; + Bartholomew Fayre, 4to, 1614 (?), fol., 1631; + The Divell is an Asse, fol., 1631; + The Staple of Newes, fol., 1631; + The New Sun, 8vo, 1631, fol., 1692; + The Magnetic Lady, or Humours Reconcild, fol., 1640; + A Tale of a Tub, fol., 1640; + The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood, fol., 1641; + Mortimer his Fall (fragment), fol., 1640. + + To Jonson have also been attributed additions to Kyd's Jeronymo, + and collaboration in The Widow with Fletcher and Middleton, and + in the Bloody Brother with Fletcher. + + POEMS: + Epigrams, The Forrest, Underwoods, published in fols., 1616, 1640; + Selections: Execration against Vulcan, and Epigrams, 1640; + G. Hor. Flaccus his art of Poetry, Englished by Ben Jonson, 1640; + Leges Convivialis, fol., 1692. + Other minor poems first appeared in Gifford's edition of Works. + + PROSE: + Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter, fol., 1641; + The English Grammar, made by Ben Jonson for the benefit of + Strangers, fol., 1640. + + Masques and Entertainments were published in the early folios. + + WORKS: + Fol., 1616, volume. 2, 1640 (1631-41); + fol., 1692, 1716-19, 1729; + edited by P. Whalley, 7 volumes., 1756; + by Gifford (with Memoir), 9 volumes., 1816, 1846; + re-edited by F. Cunningham, 3 volumes., 1871; + in 9 volumes., 1875; + by Barry Cornwall (with Memoir), 1838; + by B. Nicholson (Mermaid Series), with Introduction by + C. H. Herford, 1893, etc.; + Nine Plays, 1904; + ed. H. C. Hart (Standard Library), 1906, etc; + Plays and Poems, with Introduction by H. Morley (Universal + Library), 1885; + Plays (7) and Poems (Newnes), 1905; + Poems, with Memoir by H. Bennett (Carlton Classics), 1907; + Masques and Entertainments, ed. by H. Morley, 1890. + + SELECTIONS: + J. A. Symonds, with Biographical and Critical Essay, + (Canterbury Poets), 1886; + Grosart, Brave Translunary Things, 1895; + Arber, Jonson Anthology, 1901; + Underwoods, Cambridge University Press, 1905; + Lyrics (Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher), the Chap Books, + No. 4, 1906; + Songs (from Plays, Masques, etc.), with earliest known + setting, Eragny Press, 1906. + + LIFE: + See Memoirs affixed to Works; + J. A. Symonds (English Worthies), 1886; + Notes of Ben Jonson Conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden; + Shakespeare Society, 1842; + ed. with Introduction and Notes by P. Sidney, 1906; + Swinburne, A Study of Ben Jonson, 1889. ++
+
+
+
THE ALCHEMIST TO THE LADY MOST DESERVING HER NAME AND BLOOD:
+ LADY MARY WROTH.
+
+ Madam, +
++ In the age of sacrifices, the truth of religion was not in the greatness + and fat of the offerings, but in the devotion and zeal of the sacrificers: + else what could a handle of gums have done in the sight of a hecatomb? or + how might I appear at this altar, except with those affections that no + less love the light and witness, than they have the conscience of your + virtue? If what I offer bear an acceptable odour, and hold the first + strength, it is your value of it, which remembers where, when, and to whom + it was kindled. Otherwise, as the times are, there comes rarely forth that + thing so full of authority or example, but by assiduity and custom grows + less, and loses. This, yet, safe in your judgment (which is a Sidney's) is + forbidden to speak more, lest it talk or look like one of the ambitious + faces of the time, who, the more they paint, are the less themselves. +
++ Your ladyship's true honourer, +
+
+ BEN JONSON.
+
+
+
+
+ If thou beest more, thou art an understander, and then I trust thee. If + thou art one that takest up, and but a pretender, beware of what hands + thou receivest thy commodity; for thou wert never more fair in the way to + be cozened, than in this age, in poetry, especially in plays: wherein, now + the concupiscence of dances and of antics so reigneth, as to run away from + nature, and be afraid of her, is the only point of art that tickles the + spectators. But how out of purpose, and place, do I name art? When the + professors are grown so obstinate contemners of it, and presumers on their + own naturals, as they are deriders of all diligence that way, and, by + simple mocking at the terms, when they understand not the things, think to + get off wittily with their ignorance. Nay, they are esteemed the more + learned, and sufficient for this, by the many, through their excellent + vice of judgment. For they commend writers, as they do fencers or + wrestlers; who if they come in robustuously, and put for it with a great + deal of violence, are received for the braver fellows: when many times + their own rudeness is the cause of their disgrace, and a little touch of + their adversary gives all that boisterous force the foil. I deny not, but + that these men, who always seek to do more than enough, may some time + happen on some thing that is good, and great; but very seldom; and when it + comes it doth not recompense the rest of their ill. It sticks out, + perhaps, and is more eminent, because all is sordid and vile about it: as + lights are more discerned in a thick darkness, than a faint shadow. I + speak not this, out of a hope to do good to any man against his will; for + I know, if it were put to the question of theirs and mine, the worse would + find more suffrages: because the most favour common errors. But I give + thee this warning, that there is a great difference between those, that, + to gain the opinion of copy, utter all they can, however unfitly; and + those that use election and a mean. For it is only the disease of the + unskilful, to think rude things greater than polished; or scattered more + numerous than composed. +
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ FACE, the Housekeeper. +
++ DOL COMMON, their Colleague. +
++ DAPPER, a Lawyer's Clerk. +
++ DRUGGER, a Tobacco Man. +
++ LOVEWIT, Master of the House. +
++ SIR EPICURE MAMMON, a Knight. +
++ PERTINAX SURLY, a Gamester. +
++ TRIBULATION WHOLESOME, a Pastor of Amsterdam. +
++ ANANIAS, a Deacon there. +
++ KASTRIL, the angry Boy. +
++ DAME PLIANT, his Sister, a Widow. +
++ Neighbours. +
++ Officers, Attendants, etc. +
++ SCENE,—LONDON. + +
+T he sickness hot, a master quit, for fear, + H is house in town, and left one servant there; + E ase him corrupted, and gave means to know + + A Cheater, and his punk; who now brought low, + L eaving their narrow practice, were become + C ozeners at large; and only wanting some + H ouse to set up, with him they here contract, + E ach for a share, and all begin to act. + M uch company they draw, and much abuse, + I n casting figures, telling fortunes, news, + S elling of flies, flat bawdry with the stone, + T ill it, and they, and all in fume are gone. ++
+ + +
+Fortune, that favours fools, these two short hours, + We wish away, both for your sakes and ours, + Judging spectators; and desire, in place, + To the author justice, to ourselves but grace. + Our scene is London, 'cause we would make known, + No country's mirth is better than our own: + No clime breeds better matter for your whore, + Bawd, squire, impostor, many persons more, + Whose manners, now call'd humours, feed the stage; + And which have still been subject for the rage + Or spleen of comic writers. Though this pen + Did never aim to grieve, but better men; + Howe'er the age he lives in doth endure + The vices that she breeds, above their cure. + But when the wholesome remedies are sweet, + And in their working gain and profit meet, + He hopes to find no spirit so much diseased, + But will with such fair correctives be pleased: + For here he doth not fear who can apply. + If there be any that will sit so nigh + Unto the stream, to look what it doth run, + They shall find things, they'd think or wish were done; + They are so natural follies, but so shewn, + As even the doers may see, and yet not own. ++
+ + +
+A ROOM IN LOVEWIT'S HOUSE. + + ENTER FACE, IN A CAPTAIN'S UNIFORM, WITH HIS SWORD DRAWN, AND + SUBTLE WITH A VIAL, QUARRELLING, AND FOLLOWED BY DOL COMMON. + + FACE. Believe 't, I will. + + SUB. Thy worst. I fart at thee. + + DOL. Have you your wits? why, gentlemen! for love— + + FACE. Sirrah, I'll strip you— + + SUB. What to do? lick figs + Out at my— + + FACE. Rogue, rogue!—out of all your sleights. + + DOL. Nay, look ye, sovereign, general, are you madmen? + + SUB. O, let the wild sheep loose. I'll gum your silks + With good strong water, an you come. + + DOL. Will you have + The neighbours hear you? will you betray all? + Hark! I hear somebody. + + FACE. Sirrah— + + SUB. I shall mar + All that the tailor has made, if you approach. + + FACE. You most notorious whelp, you insolent slave, + Dare you do this? + + SUB. Yes, faith; yes, faith. + + FACE. Why, who + Am I, my mungrel? who am I? + + SUB. I'll tell you., + Since you know not yourself. + + FACE. Speak lower, rogue. + + SUB. Yes, you were once (time's not long past) the good, + Honest, plain, livery-three-pound-thrum, that kept + Your master's worship's house here in the Friars, + For the vacations— + + FACE. Will you be so loud? + + SUB. Since, by my means, translated suburb-captain. + + FACE. By your means, doctor dog! + + SUB. Within man's memory, + All this I speak of. + + FACE. Why, I pray you, have I + Been countenanced by you, or you by me? + Do but collect, sir, where I met you first. + + SUB. I do not hear well. + + FACE. Not of this, I think it. + But I shall put you in mind, sir;—at Pie-corner, + Taking your meal of steam in, from cooks' stalls, + Where, like the father of hunger, you did walk + Piteously costive, with your pinch'd-horn-nose, + And your complexion of the Roman wash, + Stuck full of black and melancholic worms, + Like powder corns shot at the artillery-yard. + + SUB. I wish you could advance your voice a little. + + FACE. When you went pinn'd up in the several rags + You had raked and pick'd from dunghills, before day; + Your feet in mouldy slippers, for your kibes; + A felt of rug, and a thin threaden cloke, + That scarce would cover your no buttocks— + + SUB. So, sir! + + FACE. When all your alchemy, and your algebra, + Your minerals, vegetals, and animals, + Your conjuring, cozening, and your dozen of trades, + Could not relieve your corps with so much linen + Would make you tinder, but to see a fire; + I gave you countenance, credit for your coals, + Your stills, your glasses, your materials; + Built you a furnace, drew you customers, + Advanced all your black arts; lent you, beside, + A house to practise in— + + SUB. Your master's house! + + FACE. Where you have studied the more thriving skill + Of bawdry since. + + SUB. Yes, in your master's house. + You and the rats here kept possession. + Make it not strange. I know you were one could keep + The buttery-hatch still lock'd, and save the chippings, + Sell the dole beer to aqua-vitae men, + The which, together with your Christmas vails + At post-and-pair, your letting out of counters, + Made you a pretty stock, some twenty marks, + And gave you credit to converse with cobwebs, + Here, since your mistress' death hath broke up house. + + FACE. You might talk softlier, rascal. + + SUB. No, you scarab, + I'll thunder you in pieces: I will teach you + How to beware to tempt a Fury again, + That carries tempest in his hand and voice. + + FACE. The place has made you valiant. + + SUB. No, your clothes.— + Thou vermin, have I ta'en thee out of dung, + So poor, so wretched, when no living thing + Would keep thee company, but a spider, or worse? + Rais'd thee from brooms, and dust, and watering-pots, + Sublimed thee, and exalted thee, and fix'd thee + In the third region, call'd our state of grace? + Wrought thee to spirit, to quintessence, with pains + Would twice have won me the philosopher's work? + Put thee in words and fashion, made thee fit + For more than ordinary fellowships? + Giv'n thee thy oaths, thy quarrelling dimensions, + Thy rules to cheat at horse-race, cock-pit, cards, + Dice, or whatever gallant tincture else? + Made thee a second in mine own great art? + And have I this for thanks! Do you rebel, + Do you fly out in the projection? + Would you be gone now? + + DOL. Gentlemen, what mean you? + Will you mar all? + + SUB. Slave, thou hadst had no name— + + DOL. Will you undo yourselves with civil war? + + SUB. Never been known, past equi clibanum, + The heat of horse-dung, under ground, in cellars, + Or an ale-house darker than deaf John's; been lost + To all mankind, but laundresses and tapsters, + Had not I been. + + DOL. Do you know who hears you, sovereign? + + FACE. Sirrah— + + DOL. Nay, general, I thought you were civil. + + FACE. I shall turn desperate, if you grow thus loud. + + SUB. And hang thyself, I care not. + + FACE. Hang thee, collier, + And all thy pots, and pans, in picture, I will, + Since thou hast moved me— + + DOL. O, this will o'erthrow all. + + FACE. Write thee up bawd in Paul's, have all thy tricks + Of cozening with a hollow cole, dust, scrapings, + Searching for things lost, with a sieve and sheers, + Erecting figures in your rows of houses, + And taking in of shadows with a glass, + Told in red letters; and a face cut for thee, + Worse than Gamaliel Ratsey's. + + DOL. Are you sound? + Have you your senses, masters? + + FACE. I will have + A book, but barely reckoning thy impostures, + Shall prove a true philosopher's stone to printers. + + SUB. Away, you trencher-rascal! + + FACE. Out, you dog-leech! + The vomit of all prisons— + + DOL. Will you be + Your own destructions, gentlemen? + + FACE. Still spew'd out + For lying too heavy on the basket. + + SUB. Cheater! + + FACE. Bawd! + + SUB. Cow-herd! + + FACE. Conjurer! + + SUB. Cut-purse! + + FACE. Witch! + + DOL. O me! + We are ruin'd, lost! have you no more regard + To your reputations? where's your judgment? 'slight, + Have yet some care of me, of your republic— + + FACE. Away, this brach! I'll bring thee, rogue, within + The statute of sorcery, tricesimo tertio + Of Harry the Eighth: ay, and perhaps thy neck + Within a noose, for laundring gold and barbing it. + + DOL [SNATCHES FACE'S SWORD]. You'll bring your head within + a cockscomb, will you? + And you, sir, with your menstrue— + [DASHES SUBTLE'S VIAL OUT OF HIS HAND.] + Gather it up.— + 'Sdeath, you abominable pair of stinkards, + Leave off your barking, and grow one again, + Or, by the light that shines, I'll cut your throats. + I'll not be made a prey unto the marshal, + For ne'er a snarling dog-bolt of you both. + Have you together cozen'd all this while, + And all the world, and shall it now be said, + You've made most courteous shift to cozen yourselves? + [TO FACE.] + You will accuse him! you will "bring him in + Within the statute!" Who shall take your word? + A whoreson, upstart, apocryphal captain, + Whom not a Puritan in Blackfriars will trust + So much as for a feather: + [TO SUBTLE.] + and you, too, + Will give the cause, forsooth! you will insult, + And claim a primacy in the divisions! + You must be chief! as if you only had + The powder to project with, and the work + Were not begun out of equality? + The venture tripartite? all things in common? + Without priority? 'Sdeath! you perpetual curs, + Fall to your couples again, and cozen kindly, + And heartily, and lovingly, as you should, + And lose not the beginning of a term, + Or, by this hand, I shall grow factious too, + And take my part, and quit you. + + FACE. 'Tis his fault; + He ever murmurs, and objects his pains, + And says, the weight of all lies upon him. + + SUB. Why, so it does. + + DOL. How does it? do not we + Sustain our parts? + + SUB. Yes, but they are not equal. + + DOL. Why, if your part exceed to-day, I hope + Ours may, to-morrow match it. + + SUB. Ay, they MAY. + + DOL. May, murmuring mastiff! ay, and do. Death on me! + Help me to throttle him. + + [SEIZES SUB. BY THE THROAT.] + + SUB. Dorothy! mistress Dorothy! + 'Ods precious, I'll do any thing. What do you mean? + + DOL. Because o' your fermentation and cibation? + + SUB. Not I, by heaven— + + DOL. Your Sol and Luna + [TO FACE.] + —help me. + + SUB. Would I were hang'd then? I'll conform myself. + + DOL. Will you, sir? do so then, and quickly: swear. + + SUB. What should I swear? + + DOL. To leave your faction, sir, + And labour kindly in the common work. + + SUB. Let me not breathe if I meant aught beside. + I only used those speeches as a spur + To him. + + DOL. I hope we need no spurs, sir. Do we? + + FACE. 'Slid, prove to-day, who shall shark best. + + SUB. Agreed. + + DOL. Yes, and work close and friendly. + + SUB. 'Slight, the knot + Shall grow the stronger for this breach, with me. + + [THEY SHAKE HANDS.] + + DOL. Why, so, my good baboons! Shall we go make + A sort of sober, scurvy, precise neighbours, + That scarce have smiled twice since the king came in, + A feast of laughter at our follies? Rascals, + Would run themselves from breath, to see me ride, + Or you t' have but a hole to thrust your heads in, + For which you should pay ear-rent? No, agree. + And may don Provost ride a feasting long, + In his old velvet jerkin and stain'd scarfs, + My noble sovereign, and worthy general, + Ere we contribute a new crewel garter + To his most worsted worship. + + SUB. Royal Dol! + Spoken like Claridiana, and thyself. + + FACE. For which at supper, thou shalt sit in triumph, + And not be styled Dol Common, but Dol Proper, + Dol Singular: the longest cut at night, + Shall draw thee for his Doll Particular. + + [BELL RINGS WITHOUT.] + + SUB. Who's that? one rings. To the window, Dol: + [EXIT DOL.] + —pray heaven, + The master do not trouble us this quarter. + + FACE. O, fear not him. While there dies one a week + O' the plague, he's safe, from thinking toward London. + Beside, he's busy at his hop-yards now; + I had a letter from him. If he do, + He'll send such word, for airing of the house, + As you shall have sufficient time to quit it: + Though we break up a fortnight, 'tis no matter. + + [RE-ENTER DOL.] + + SUB. Who is it, Dol? + + DOL. A fine young quodling. + + FACE. O, + My lawyer's clerk, I lighted on last night, + In Holborn, at the Dagger. He would have + (I told you of him) a familiar, + To rifle with at horses, and win cups. + + DOL. O, let him in. + + SUB. Stay. Who shall do't? + + FACE. Get you + Your robes on: I will meet him as going out. + + DOL. And what shall I do? + + FACE. Not be seen; away! + [EXIT DOL.] + Seem you very reserv'd. + + SUB. Enough. + + [EXIT.] + + FACE [ALOUD AND RETIRING]. God be wi' you, sir, + I pray you let him know that I was here: + His name is Dapper. I would gladly have staid, but— + + DAP [WITHIN]. Captain, I am here. + + FACE. Who's that?—He's come, I think, doctor. + + [ENTER DAPPER.] + + Good faith, sir, I was going away. + + DAP. In truth + I am very sorry, captain. + + FACE. But I thought + Sure I should meet you. + + DAP. Ay, I am very glad. + I had a scurvy writ or two to make, + And I had lent my watch last night to one + That dines to-day at the sheriff's, and so was robb'd + Of my past-time. + [RE-ENTER SUBTLE IN HIS VELVET CAP AND GOWN.] + Is this the cunning-man? + + FACE. This is his worship. + + DAP. Is he a doctor? + + FACE. Yes. + + DAP. And have you broke with him, captain? + + FACE. Ay. + + DAP. And how? + + FACE. Faith, he does make the matter, sir, so dainty + I know not what to say. + + DAP. Not so, good captain. + + FACE. Would I were fairly rid of it, believe me. + + DAP. Nay, now you grieve me, sir. Why should you wish so? + I dare assure you, I'll not be ungrateful. + + FACE. I cannot think you will, sir. But the law + Is such a thing—and then he says, Read's matter + Falling so lately. + + DAP. Read! he was an ass, + And dealt, sir, with a fool. + + FACE. It was a clerk, sir. + + DAP. A clerk! + + FACE. Nay, hear me, sir. You know the law + Better, I think— + + DAP. I should, sir, and the danger: + You know, I shewed the statute to you. + + FACE. You did so. + + DAP. And will I tell then! By this hand of flesh, + Would it might never write good court-hand more, + If I discover. What do you think of me, + That I am a chiaus? + + FACE. What's that? + + DAP. The Turk was here. + As one would say, do you think I am a Turk? + + FACE. I'll tell the doctor so. + + DAP. Do, good sweet captain. + + FACE. Come, noble doctor, pray thee let's prevail; + This is the gentleman, and he is no chiaus. + + SUB. Captain, I have return'd you all my answer. + I would do much, sir, for your love—But this + I neither may, nor can. + + FACE. Tut, do not say so. + You deal now with a noble fellow, doctor, + One that will thank you richly; and he is no chiaus: + Let that, sir, move you. + + SUB. Pray you, forbear— + + FACE. He has + Four angels here. + + SUB. You do me wrong, good sir. + + FACE. Doctor, wherein? to tempt you with these spirits? + + SUB. To tempt my art and love, sir, to my peril. + Fore heaven, I scarce can think you are my friend, + That so would draw me to apparent danger. + + FACE. I draw you! a horse draw you, and a halter, + You, and your flies together— + + DAP. Nay, good captain. + + FACE. That know no difference of men. + + SUB. Good words, sir. + + FACE. Good deeds, sir, doctor dogs-meat. 'Slight, I bring you + No cheating Clim o' the Cloughs or Claribels, + That look as big as five-and-fifty, and flush; + And spit out secrets like hot custard— + + DAP. Captain! + + FACE. Nor any melancholic under-scribe, + Shall tell the vicar; but a special gentle, + That is the heir to forty marks a year, + Consorts with the small poets of the time, + Is the sole hope of his old grandmother; + That knows the law, and writes you six fair hands, + Is a fine clerk, and has his cyphering perfect. + Will take his oath o' the Greek Testament, + If need be, in his pocket; and can court + His mistress out of Ovid. + + DAP. Nay, dear captain— + + FACE. Did you not tell me so? + + DAP. Yes; but I'd have you + Use master doctor with some more respect. + + FACE. Hang him, proud stag, with his broad velvet head!— + But for your sake, I'd choak, ere I would change + An article of breath with such a puckfist: + Come, let's be gone. + + [GOING.] + + SUB. Pray you let me speak with you. + + DAP. His worship calls you, captain. + + FACE. I am sorry + I e'er embark'd myself in such a business. + + DAP. Nay, good sir; he did call you. + + FACE. Will he take then? + + SUB. First, hear me— + + FACE. Not a syllable, 'less you take. + + SUB. Pray you, sir— + + FACE. Upon no terms but an assumpsit. + + SUB. Your humour must be law. + [HE TAKES THE FOUR ANGELS.] + + FACE. Why now, sir, talk. + Now I dare hear you with mine honour. Speak. + So may this gentleman too. + + SUB. Why, sir— + [OFFERING TO WHISPER FACE.] + + FACE. No whispering. + + SUB. Fore heaven, you do not apprehend the loss + You do yourself in this. + + FACE. Wherein? for what? + + SUB. Marry, to be so importunate for one, + That, when he has it, will undo you all: + He'll win up all the money in the town. + + FACE. How! + + SUB. Yes, and blow up gamester after gamester, + As they do crackers in a puppet-play. + If I do give him a familiar, + Give you him all you play for; never set him: + For he will have it. + + FACE. You are mistaken, doctor. + Why he does ask one but for cups and horses, + A rifling fly; none of your great familiars. + + DAP. Yes, captain, I would have it for all games. + + SUB. I told you so. + + FACE [TAKING DAP. ASIDE]. 'Slight, that is a new business! + I understood you, a tame bird, to fly + Twice in a term, or so, on Friday nights, + When you had left the office, for a nag + Of forty or fifty shillings. + + DAP. Ay, 'tis true, sir; + But I do think now I shall leave the law, + And therefore— + + FACE. Why, this changes quite the case. + Do you think that I dare move him? + + DAP. If you please, sir; + All's one to him, I see. + + FACE. What! for that money? + I cannot with my conscience; nor should you + Make the request, methinks. + + DAP. No, sir, I mean + To add consideration. + + FACE. Why then, sir, + I'll try.— + [GOES TO SUBTLE.] + Say that it were for all games, doctor. + + SUB. I say then, not a mouth shall eat for him + At any ordinary, but on the score, + That is a gaming mouth, conceive me. + + FACE. Indeed! + + SUB. He'll draw you all the treasure of the realm, + If it be set him. + + FACE. Speak you this from art? + + SUB. Ay, sir, and reason too, the ground of art. + He is of the only best complexion, + The queen of Fairy loves. + + FACE. What! is he? + + SUB. Peace. + He'll overhear you. Sir, should she but see him— + + FACE. What? + + SUB. Do not you tell him. + + FACE. Will he win at cards too? + + SUB. The spirits of dead Holland, living Isaac, + You'd swear, were in him; such a vigorous luck + As cannot be resisted. 'Slight, he'll put + Six of your gallants to a cloke, indeed. + + FACE. A strange success, that some man shall be born to. + + SUB. He hears you, man— + + DAP. Sir, I'll not be ingrateful. + + FACE. Faith, I have confidence in his good nature: + You hear, he says he will not be ingrateful. + + SUB. Why, as you please; my venture follows yours. + + FACE. Troth, do it, doctor; think him trusty, and make him. + He may make us both happy in an hour; + Win some five thousand pound, and send us two on't. + + DAP. Believe it, and I will, sir. + + FACE. And you shall, sir. + [TAKES HIM ASIDE.] + You have heard all? + + DAP. No, what was't? Nothing, I, sir. + + FACE. Nothing! + + DAP. A little, sir. + + FACE. Well, a rare star + Reign'd at your birth. + + DAP. At mine, sir! No. + + FACE. The doctor + Swears that you are— + + SUB. Nay, captain, you'll tell all now. + + FACE. Allied to the queen of Fairy. + + DAP. Who! that I am? + Believe it, no such matter— + + FACE. Yes, and that + You were born with a cawl on your head. + + DAP. Who says so? + + FACE. Come, + You know it well enough, though you dissemble it. + + DAP. I'fac, I do not; you are mistaken. + + FACE. How! + Swear by your fac, and in a thing so known + Unto the doctor? How shall we, sir, trust you + In the other matter? can we ever think, + When you have won five or six thousand pound, + You'll send us shares in't, by this rate? + + DAP. By Jove, sir, + I'll win ten thousand pound, and send you half. + I'fac's no oath. + + SUB. No, no, he did but jest. + + FACE. Go to. Go thank the doctor: he's your friend, + To take it so. + + DAP. I thank his worship. + + FACE. So! + Another angel. + + DAP. Must I? + + FACE. Must you! 'slight, + What else is thanks? will you be trivial?—Doctor, + [DAPPER GIVES HIM THE MONEY.] + When must he come for his familiar? + + DAP. Shall I not have it with me? + + SUB. O, good sir! + There must a world of ceremonies pass; + You must be bath'd and fumigated first: + Besides the queen of Fairy does not rise + Till it be noon. + + FACE. Not, if she danced, to-night. + + SUB. And she must bless it. + + FACE. Did you never see + Her royal grace yet? + + DAP. Whom? + + FACE. Your aunt of Fairy? + + SUB. Not since she kist him in the cradle, captain; + I can resolve you that. + + FACE. Well, see her grace, + Whate'er it cost you, for a thing that I know. + It will be somewhat hard to compass; but + However, see her. You are made, believe it, + If you can see her. Her grace is a lone woman, + And very rich; and if she take a fancy, + She will do strange things. See her, at any hand. + 'Slid, she may hap to leave you all she has: + It is the doctor's fear. + + DAP. How will't be done, then? + + FACE. Let me alone, take you no thought. Do you + But say to me, captain, I'll see her grace. + + DAP. "Captain, I'll see her grace." + + FACE. Enough. + + [KNOCKING WITHIN.] + + SUB. Who's there? + Anon. + [ASIDE TO FACE.] + —Conduct him forth by the back way.— + Sir, against one o'clock prepare yourself; + Till when you must be fasting; only take + Three drops of vinegar in at your nose, + Two at your mouth, and one at either ear; + Then bathe your fingers' ends and wash your eyes, + To sharpen your five senses, and cry "hum" + Thrice, and then "buz" as often; and then come. + + [EXIT.] + + FACE. Can you remember this? + + DAP. I warrant you. + + FACE. Well then, away. It is but your bestowing + Some twenty nobles 'mong her grace's servants, + And put on a clean shirt: you do not know + What grace her grace may do you in clean linen. + + [EXEUNT FACE AND DAPPER.] + + SUB [WITHIN]. Come in! Good wives, I pray you forbear me now; + Troth I can do you no good till afternoon— + [RE-ENTERS, FOLLOWED BY DRUGGER.] + What is your name, say you? Abel Drugger? + + DRUG. Yes, sir. + + SUB. A seller of tobacco? + + DRUG. Yes, sir. + + SUB. Umph! + Free of the grocers? + + DRUG. Ay, an't please you. + + SUB. Well— + Your business, Abel? + + DRUG. This, an't please your worship; + I am a young beginner, and am building + Of a new shop, an't like your worship, just + At corner of a street:—Here is the plot on't— + And I would know by art, sir, of your worship, + Which way I should make my door, by necromancy, + And where my shelves; and which should be for boxes, + And which for pots. I would be glad to thrive, sir: + And I was wish'd to your worship by a gentleman, + One captain Face, that says you know men's planets, + And their good angels, and their bad. + + SUB. I do, + If I do see them— + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. What! my honest Abel? + Though art well met here. + + DRUG. Troth, sir, I was speaking, + Just as your worship came here, of your worship: + I pray you speak for me to master doctor. + + FACE. He shall do any thing.—Doctor, do you hear? + This is my friend, Abel, an honest fellow; + He lets me have good tobacco, and he does not + Sophisticate it with sack-lees or oil, + Nor washes it in muscadel and grains, + Nor buries it in gravel, under ground, + Wrapp'd up in greasy leather, or piss'd clouts: + But keeps it in fine lily pots, that, open'd, + Smell like conserve of roses, or French beans. + He has his maple block, his silver tongs, + Winchester pipes, and fire of Juniper: + A neat, spruce, honest fellow, and no goldsmith. + + SUB. He is a fortunate fellow, that I am sure on. + + FACE. Already, sir, have you found it? Lo thee, Abel! + + SUB. And in right way toward riches— + + FACE. Sir! + + SUB. This summer + He will be of the clothing of his company, + And next spring call'd to the scarlet; spend what he can. + + FACE. What, and so little beard? + + SUB. Sir, you must think, + He may have a receipt to make hair come: + But he'll be wise, preserve his youth, and fine for't; + His fortune looks for him another way. + + FACE. 'Slid, doctor, how canst thou know this so soon? + I am amused at that! + + SUB. By a rule, captain, + In metoposcopy, which I do work by; + A certain star in the forehead, which you see not. + Your chestnut or your olive-colour'd face + Does never fail: and your long ear doth promise. + I knew't by certain spots, too, in his teeth, + And on the nail of his mercurial finger. + + FACE. Which finger's that? + + SUB. His little finger. Look. + You were born upon a Wednesday? + + DRUG. Yes, indeed, sir. + + SUB. The thumb, in chiromancy, we give Venus; + The fore-finger, to Jove; the midst, to Saturn; + The ring, to Sol; the least, to Mercury, + Who was the lord, sir, of his horoscope, + His house of life being Libra; which fore-shew'd, + He should be a merchant, and should trade with balance. + + FACE. Why, this is strange! Is it not, honest Nab? + + SUB. There is a ship now, coming from Ormus, + That shall yield him such a commodity + Of drugs + [POINTING TO THE PLAN.] + —This is the west, and this the south? + + DRUG. Yes, sir. + + SUB. And those are your two sides? + + DRUG. Ay, sir. + + SUB. Make me your door, then, south; your broad side, west: + And on the east side of your shop, aloft, + Write Mathlai, Tarmiel, and Baraborat; + Upon the north part, Rael, Velel, Thiel. + They are the names of those mercurial spirits, + That do fright flies from boxes. + + DRUG. Yes, sir. + + SUB. And + Beneath your threshold, bury me a load-stone + To draw in gallants that wear spurs: the rest, + They'll seem to follow. + + FACE. That's a secret, Nab! + + SUB. And, on your stall, a puppet, with a vice + And a court-fucus to call city-dames: + You shall deal much with minerals. + + DRUG. Sir, I have. + At home, already— + + SUB. Ay, I know you have arsenic, + Vitriol, sal-tartar, argaile, alkali, + Cinoper: I know all.—This fellow, captain, + Will come, in time, to be a great distiller, + And give a say—I will not say directly, + But very fair—at the philosopher's stone. + + FACE. Why, how now, Abel! is this true? + + DRUG [ASIDE TO FACE]. Good captain, + What must I give? + + FACE. Nay, I'll not counsel thee. + Thou hear'st what wealth (he says, spend what thou canst,) + Thou'rt like to come to. + + DRUG. I would gi' him a crown. + + FACE. A crown! and toward such a fortune? heart, + Thou shalt rather gi' him thy shop. No gold about thee? + + DRUG. Yes, I have a portague, I have kept this half-year. + + FACE. Out on thee, Nab! 'Slight, there was such an offer— + Shalt keep't no longer, I'll give't him for thee. Doctor, + Nab prays your worship to drink this, and swears + He will appear more grateful, as your skill + Does raise him in the world. + + DRUG. I would entreat + Another favour of his worship. + + FACE. What is't, Nab? + + DRUG. But to look over, sir, my almanack, + And cross out my ill-days, that I may neither + Bargain, nor trust upon them. + + FACE. That he shall, Nab: + Leave it, it shall be done, 'gainst afternoon. + + SUB. And a direction for his shelves. + + FACE. Now, Nab, + Art thou well pleased, Nab? + + DRUG. 'Thank, sir, both your worships. + + FACE. Away. + [EXIT DRUGGER.] + Why, now, you smoaky persecutor of nature! + Now do you see, that something's to be done, + Beside your beech-coal, and your corsive waters, + Your crosslets, crucibles, and cucurbites? + You must have stuff brought home to you, to work on: + And yet you think, I am at no expense + In searching out these veins, then following them, + Then trying them out. 'Fore God, my intelligence + Costs me more money, than my share oft comes to, + In these rare works. + + SUB. You are pleasant, sir. + [RE-ENTER DOL.] + —How now! + What says my dainty Dolkin? + + DOL. Yonder fish-wife + Will not away. And there's your giantess, + The bawd of Lambeth. + + SUB. Heart, I cannot speak with them. + + DOL. Not afore night, I have told them in a voice, + Thorough the trunk, like one of your familiars. + But I have spied sir Epicure Mammon— + + SUB. Where? + + DOL. Coming along, at far end of the lane, + Slow of his feet, but earnest of his tongue + To one that's with him. + + SUB. Face, go you and shift. + [EXIT FACE.] + Dol, you must presently make ready, too. + + DOL. Why, what's the matter? + + SUB. O, I did look for him + With the sun's rising: 'marvel he could sleep, + This is the day I am to perfect for him + The magisterium, our great work, the stone; + And yield it, made, into his hands: of which + He has, this month, talked as he were possess'd. + And now he's dealing pieces on't away.— + Methinks I see him entering ordinaries, + Dispensing for the pox, and plaguy houses, + Reaching his dose, walking Moorfields for lepers, + And offering citizens' wives pomander-bracelets, + As his preservative, made of the elixir; + Searching the spittal, to make old bawds young; + And the highways, for beggars, to make rich. + I see no end of his labours. He will make + Nature asham'd of her long sleep: when art, + Who's but a step-dame, shall do more than she, + In her best love to mankind, ever could: + If his dream lasts, he'll turn the age to gold. + + [EXEUNT.] ++
+ + +
+AN OUTER ROOM IN LOVEWIT'S HOUSE. + + ENTER SIR EPICURE MAMMON AND SURLY. + + MAM. Come on, sir. Now, you set your foot on shore + In Novo Orbe; here's the rich Peru: + And there within, sir, are the golden mines, + Great Solomon's Ophir! he was sailing to't, + Three years, but we have reached it in ten months. + This is the day, wherein, to all my friends, + I will pronounce the happy word, BE RICH; + THIS DAY YOU SHALL BE SPECTATISSIMI. + You shall no more deal with the hollow dye, + Or the frail card. No more be at charge of keeping + The livery-punk for the young heir, that must + Seal, at all hours, in his shirt: no more, + If he deny, have him beaten to't, as he is + That brings him the commodity. No more + Shall thirst of satin, or the covetous hunger + Of velvet entrails for a rude-spun cloke, + To be display'd at madam Augusta's, make + The sons of Sword and Hazard fall before + The golden calf, and on their knees, whole nights + Commit idolatry with wine and trumpets: + Or go a feasting after drum and ensign. + No more of this. You shall start up young viceroys, + And have your punks, and punketees, my Surly. + And unto thee I speak it first, BE RICH. + Where is my Subtle, there? Within, ho! + + FACE [WITHIN]. Sir, he'll come to you by and by. + + MAM. That is his fire-drake, + His Lungs, his Zephyrus, he that puffs his coals, + Till he firk nature up, in her own centre. + You are not faithful, sir. This night, I'll change + All that is metal, in my house, to gold: + And, early in the morning, will I send + To all the plumbers and the pewterers, + And by their tin and lead up; and to Lothbury + For all the copper. + + SUR. What, and turn that too? + + MAM. Yes, and I'll purchase Devonshire and Cornwall, + And make them perfect Indies! you admire now? + + SUR. No, faith. + + MAM. But when you see th' effects of the Great Medicine, + Of which one part projected on a hundred + Of Mercury, or Venus, or the moon, + Shall turn it to as many of the sun; + Nay, to a thousand, so ad infinitum: + You will believe me. + + SUR. Yes, when I see't, I will. + But if my eyes do cozen me so, and I + Giving them no occasion, sure I'll have + A whore, shall piss them out next day. + + MAM. Ha! why? + Do you think I fable with you? I assure you, + He that has once the flower of the sun, + The perfect ruby, which we call elixir, + Not only can do that, but, by its virtue, + Can confer honour, love, respect, long life; + Give safety, valour, yea, and victory, + To whom he will. In eight and twenty days, + I'll make an old man of fourscore, a child. + + SUR. No doubt; he's that already. + + MAM. Nay, I mean, + Restore his years, renew him, like an eagle, + To the fifth age; make him get sons and daughters, + Young giants; as our philosophers have done, + The ancient patriarchs, afore the flood, + But taking, once a week, on a knife's point, + The quantity of a grain of mustard of it; + Become stout Marses, and beget young Cupids. + + SUR. The decay'd vestals of Pict-hatch would thank you, + That keep the fire alive, there. + + MAM. 'Tis the secret + Of nature naturis'd 'gainst all infections, + Cures all diseases coming of all causes; + A month's grief in a day, a year's in twelve; + And, of what age soever, in a month: + Past all the doses of your drugging doctors. + I'll undertake, withal, to fright the plague + Out of the kingdom in three months. + + SUR. And I'll + Be bound, the players shall sing your praises, then, + Without their poets. + + MAM. Sir, I'll do't. Mean time, + I'll give away so much unto my man, + Shall serve the whole city, with preservative + Weekly; each house his dose, and at the rate— + + SUR. As he that built the Water-work, does with water? + + MAM. You are incredulous. + + SUR. Faith I have a humour, + I would not willingly be gull'd. Your stone + Cannot transmute me. + + MAM. Pertinax, [my] Surly, + Will you believe antiquity? records? + I'll shew you a book where Moses and his sister, + And Solomon have written of the art; + Ay, and a treatise penn'd by Adam— + + SUR. How! + + MAM. Of the philosopher's stone, and in High Dutch. + + SUR. Did Adam write, sir, in High Dutch? + + MAM. He did; + Which proves it was the primitive tongue. + + SUR. What paper? + + MAM. On cedar board. + + SUR. O that, indeed, they say, + Will last 'gainst worms. + + MAM. 'Tis like your Irish wood, + 'Gainst cob-webs. I have a piece of Jason's fleece, too, + Which was no other than a book of alchemy, + Writ in large sheep-skin, a good fat ram-vellum. + Such was Pythagoras' thigh, Pandora's tub, + And, all that fable of Medea's charms, + The manner of our work; the bulls, our furnace, + Still breathing fire; our argent-vive, the dragon: + The dragon's teeth, mercury sublimate, + That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the biting; + And they are gathered into Jason's helm, + The alembic, and then sow'd in Mars his field, + And thence sublimed so often, till they're fixed. + Both this, the Hesperian garden, Cadmus' story, + Jove's shower, the boon of Midas, Argus' eyes, + Boccace his Demogorgon, thousands more, + All abstract riddles of our stone. + [ENTER FACE, AS A SERVANT.] + —How now! + Do we succeed? Is our day come? and holds it? + + FACE. The evening will set red upon you, sir; + You have colour for it, crimson: the red ferment + Has done his office; three hours hence prepare you + To see projection. + + MAM. Pertinax, my Surly. + Again I say to thee, aloud, Be rich. + This day, thou shalt have ingots; and to-morrow, + Give lords th' affront.—Is it, my Zephyrus, right? + Blushes the bolt's-head? + + FACE. Like a wench with child, sir, + That were but now discover'd to her master. + + MAM. Excellent witty Lungs!—my only care + Where to get stuff enough now, to project on; + This town will not half serve me. + + FACE. No, sir! buy + The covering off o' churches. + + MAM. That's true. + + FACE. Yes. + Let them stand bare, as do their auditory; + Or cap them, new, with shingles. + + MAM. No, good thatch: + Thatch will lie light upon the rafters, Lungs.— + Lungs, I will manumit thee from the furnace; + I will restore thee thy complexion, Puffe, + Lost in the embers; and repair this brain, + Hurt with the fume o' the metals. + + FACE. I have blown, sir, + Hard for your worship; thrown by many a coal, + When 'twas not beech; weigh'd those I put in, just, + To keep your heat still even; these blear'd eyes + Have wak'd to read your several colours, sir, + Of the pale citron, the green lion, the crow, + The peacock's tail, the plumed swan. + + MAM. And, lastly, + Thou hast descry'd the flower, the sanguis agni? + + FACE. Yes, sir. + + MAM. Where's master? + + FACE. At his prayers, sir, he; + Good man, he's doing his devotions + For the success. + + MAM. Lungs, I will set a period + To all thy labours; thou shalt be the master + Of my seraglio. + + FACE. Good, sir. + + MAM. But do you hear? + I'll geld you, Lungs. + + FACE. Yes, sir. + + MAM. For I do mean + To have a list of wives and concubines, + Equal with Solomon, who had the stone + Alike with me; and I will make me a back + With the elixir, that shall be as tough + As Hercules, to encounter fifty a night.— + Thou'rt sure thou saw'st it blood? + + FACE. Both blood and spirit, sir. + + MAM. I will have all my beds blown up, not stuft; + Down is too hard: and then, mine oval room + Fill'd with such pictures as Tiberius took + From Elephantis, and dull Aretine + But coldly imitated. Then, my glasses + Cut in more subtle angles, to disperse + And multiply the figures, as I walk + Naked between my succubae. My mists + I'll have of perfume, vapour'd 'bout the room, + To lose ourselves in; and my baths, like pits + To fall into; from whence we will come forth, + And roll us dry in gossamer and roses.— + Is it arrived at ruby?—Where I spy + A wealthy citizen, or [a] rich lawyer, + Have a sublimed pure wife, unto that fellow + I'll send a thousand pound to be my cuckold. + + FACE. And I shall carry it? + + MAM. No. I'll have no bawds, + But fathers and mothers: they will do it best, + Best of all others. And my flatterers + Shall be the pure and gravest of divines, + That I can get for money. My mere fools, + Eloquent burgesses, and then my poets + The same that writ so subtly of the fart, + Whom I will entertain still for that subject. + The few that would give out themselves to be + Court and town-stallions, and, each-where, bely + Ladies who are known most innocent for them; + Those will I beg, to make me eunuchs of: + And they shall fan me with ten estrich tails + A-piece, made in a plume to gather wind. + We will be brave, Puffe, now we have the med'cine. + My meat shall all come in, in Indian shells, + Dishes of agat set in gold, and studded + With emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies. + The tongues of carps, dormice, and camels' heels, + Boil'd in the spirit of sol, and dissolv'd pearl, + Apicius' diet, 'gainst the epilepsy: + And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber, + Headed with diamond and carbuncle. + My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calver'd salmons, + Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have + The beards of barbels served, instead of sallads; + Oil'd mushrooms; and the swelling unctuous paps + Of a fat pregnant sow, newly cut off, + Drest with an exquisite, and poignant sauce; + For which, I'll say unto my cook, "There's gold, + Go forth, and be a knight." + + FACE. Sir, I'll go look + A little, how it heightens. + + [EXIT.] + + MAM. Do.—My shirts + I'll have of taffeta-sarsnet, soft and light + As cobwebs; and for all my other raiment, + It shall be such as might provoke the Persian, + Were he to teach the world riot anew. + My gloves of fishes' and birds' skins, perfumed + With gums of paradise, and eastern air— + + SUR. And do you think to have the stone with this? + + MAM. No, I do think t' have all this with the stone. + + SUR. Why, I have heard he must be homo frugi, + A pious, holy, and religious man, + One free from mortal sin, a very virgin. + + MAM. That makes it, sir; he is so: but I buy it; + My venture brings it me. He, honest wretch, + A notable, superstitious, good soul, + Has worn his knees bare, and his slippers bald, + With prayer and fasting for it: and, sir, let him + Do it alone, for me, still. Here he comes. + Not a profane word afore him: 'tis poison.— + [ENTER SUBTLE.] + Good morrow, father. + + SUB. Gentle son, good morrow, + And to your friend there. What is he, is with you? + + MAM. An heretic, that I did bring along, + In hope, sir, to convert him. + + SUB. Son, I doubt + You are covetous, that thus you meet your time + In the just point: prevent your day at morning. + This argues something, worthy of a fear + Of importune and carnal appetite. + Take heed you do not cause the blessing leave you, + With your ungovern'd haste. I should be sorry + To see my labours, now even at perfection, + Got by long watching and large patience, + Not prosper where my love and zeal hath placed them. + Which (heaven I call to witness, with your self, + To whom I have pour'd my thoughts) in all my ends, + Have look'd no way, but unto public good, + To pious uses, and dear charity + Now grown a prodigy with men. Wherein + If you, my son, should now prevaricate, + And, to your own particular lusts employ + So great and catholic a bliss, be sure + A curse will follow, yea, and overtake + Your subtle and most secret ways. + + MAM. I know, sir; + You shall not need to fear me; I but come, + To have you confute this gentleman. + + SUR. Who is, + Indeed, sir, somewhat costive of belief + Toward your stone; would not be gull'd. + + SUB. Well, son, + All that I can convince him in, is this, + The WORK IS DONE, bright sol is in his robe. + We have a medicine of the triple soul, + The glorified spirit. Thanks be to heaven, + And make us worthy of it!—Ulen Spiegel! + + FACE [WITHIN]. Anon, sir. + + SUB. Look well to the register. + And let your heat still lessen by degrees, + To the aludels. + + FACE [WITHIN]. Yes, sir. + + SUB. Did you look + On the bolt's-head yet? + + FACE [WITHIN]. Which? on D, sir? + + SUB. Ay; + What's the complexion? + + FACE [WITHIN]. Whitish. + + SUB. Infuse vinegar, + To draw his volatile substance and his tincture: + And let the water in glass E be filter'd, + And put into the gripe's egg. Lute him well; + And leave him closed in balneo. + + FACE [WITHIN]. I will, sir. + + SUR. What a brave language here is! next to canting. + + SUB. I have another work, you never saw, son, + That three days since past the philosopher's wheel, + In the lent heat of Athanor; and's become + Sulphur of Nature. + + MAM. But 'tis for me? + + SUB. What need you? + You have enough in that is perfect. + + MAM. O but— + + SUB. Why, this is covetise! + + MAM. No, I assure you, + I shall employ it all in pious uses, + Founding of colleges and grammar schools, + Marrying young virgins, building hospitals, + And now and then a church. + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + SUB. How now! + + FACE. Sir, please you, + Shall I not change the filter? + + SUB. Marry, yes; + And bring me the complexion of glass B. + + [EXIT FACE.] + + MAM. Have you another? + + SUB. Yes, son; were I assured— + Your piety were firm, we would not want + The means to glorify it: but I hope the best.— + I mean to tinct C in sand-heat to-morrow, + And give him imbibition. + + MAM. Of white oil? + + SUB. No, sir, of red. F is come over the helm too, + I thank my Maker, in S. Mary's bath, + And shews lac virginis. Blessed be heaven! + I sent you of his faeces there calcined: + Out of that calx, I have won the salt of mercury. + + MAM. By pouring on your rectified water? + + SUB. Yes, and reverberating in Athanor. + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + How now! what colour says it? + + FACE. The ground black, sir. + + MAM. That's your crow's head? + + SUR. Your cock's-comb's, is it not? + + SUB. No, 'tis not perfect. Would it were the crow! + That work wants something. + + SUR [ASIDE]. O, I looked for this. + The hay's a pitching. + + SUB. Are you sure you loosed them + In their own menstrue? + + FACE. Yes, sir, and then married them, + And put them in a bolt's-head nipp'd to digestion, + According as you bade me, when I set + The liquor of Mars to circulation + In the same heat. + + SUB. The process then was right. + + FACE. Yes, by the token, sir, the retort brake, + And what was saved was put into the pellican, + And sign'd with Hermes' seal. + + SUB. I think 'twas so. + We should have a new amalgama. + + SUR [ASIDE]. O, this ferret + Is rank as any pole-cat. + + SUB. But I care not: + Let him e'en die; we have enough beside, + In embrion. H has his white shirt on? + + FACE. Yes, sir, + He's ripe for inceration, he stands warm, + In his ash-fire. I would not you should let + Any die now, if I might counsel, sir, + For luck's sake to the rest: it is not good. + + MAM. He says right. + + SUR [ASIDE]. Ay, are you bolted? + + FACE. Nay, I know't, sir, + I have seen the ill fortune. What is some three ounces + Of fresh materials? + + MAM. Is't no more? + + FACE. No more, sir. + Of gold, t'amalgame with some six of mercury. + + MAM. Away, here's money. What will serve? + + FACE. Ask him, sir. + + MAM. How much? + + SUB. Give him nine pound:—you may give him ten. + + SUR. Yes, twenty, and be cozen'd, do. + + MAM. There 'tis. + [GIVES FACE THE MONEY.] + + SUB. This needs not; but that you will have it so, + To see conclusions of all: for two + Of our inferior works are at fixation, + A third is in ascension. Go your ways. + Have you set the oil of luna in kemia? + + FACE. Yes, sir. + + SUB. And the philosopher's vinegar? + + FACE. Ay. + + [EXIT.] + + SUR. We shall have a sallad! + + MAM. When do you make projection? + + SUB. Son, be not hasty, I exalt our med'cine, + By hanging him in balneo vaporoso, + And giving him solution; then congeal him; + And then dissolve him; then again congeal him; + For look, how oft I iterate the work, + So many times I add unto his virtue. + As, if at first one ounce convert a hundred, + After his second loose, he'll turn a thousand; + His third solution, ten; his fourth, a hundred: + After his fifth, a thousand thousand ounces + Of any imperfect metal, into pure + Silver or gold, in all examinations, + As good as any of the natural mine. + Get you your stuff here against afternoon, + Your brass, your pewter, and your andirons. + + MAM. Not those of iron? + + SUB. Yes, you may bring them too: + We'll change all metals. + + SUR. I believe you in that. + + MAM. Then I may send my spits? + + SUB. Yes, and your racks. + + SUR. And dripping-pans, and pot-hangers, and hooks? + Shall he not? + + SUB. If he please. + + SUR.—To be an ass. + + SUB. How, sir! + + MAM. This gentleman you must bear withal: + I told you he had no faith. + + SUR. And little hope, sir; + But much less charity, should I gull myself. + + SUB. Why, what have you observ'd, sir, in our art, + Seems so impossible? + + SUR. But your whole work, no more. + That you should hatch gold in a furnace, sir, + As they do eggs in Egypt! + + SUB. Sir, do you + Believe that eggs are hatch'd so? + + SUR. If I should? + + SUB. Why, I think that the greater miracle. + No egg but differs from a chicken more + Than metals in themselves. + + SUR. That cannot be. + The egg's ordain'd by nature to that end, + And is a chicken in potentia. + + SUB. The same we say of lead and other metals, + Which would be gold, if they had time. + + MAM. And that + Our art doth further. + + SUB. Ay, for 'twere absurb + To think that nature in the earth bred gold + Perfect in the instant: something went before. + There must be remote matter. + + SUR. Ay, what is that? + + SUB. Marry, we say— + + MAM. Ay, now it heats: stand, father, + Pound him to dust. + + SUB. It is, of the one part, + A humid exhalation, which we call + Material liquida, or the unctuous water; + On the other part, a certain crass and vicious + Portion of earth; both which, concorporate, + Do make the elementary matter of gold; + Which is not yet propria materia, + But common to all metals and all stones; + For, where it is forsaken of that moisture, + And hath more driness, it becomes a stone: + Where it retains more of the humid fatness, + It turns to sulphur, or to quicksilver, + Who are the parents of all other metals. + Nor can this remote matter suddenly + Progress so from extreme unto extreme, + As to grow gold, and leap o'er all the means. + Nature doth first beget the imperfect, then + Proceeds she to the perfect. Of that airy + And oily water, mercury is engender'd; + Sulphur of the fat and earthy part; the one, + Which is the last, supplying the place of male, + The other of the female, in all metals. + Some do believe hermaphrodeity, + That both do act and suffer. But these two + Make the rest ductile, malleable, extensive. + And even in gold they are; for we do find + Seeds of them, by our fire, and gold in them; + And can produce the species of each metal + More perfect thence, than nature doth in earth. + Beside, who doth not see in daily practice + Art can beget bees, hornets, beetles, wasps, + Out of the carcases and dung of creatures; + Yea, scorpions of an herb, being rightly placed? + And these are living creatures, far more perfect + And excellent than metals. + + MAM. Well said, father! + Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument, + He'll bray you in a mortar. + + SUR. Pray you, sir, stay. + Rather than I'll be brayed, sir, I'll believe + That Alchemy is a pretty kind of game, + Somewhat like tricks o' the cards, to cheat a man + With charming. + + SUB. Sir? + + SUR. What else are all your terms, + Whereon no one of your writers 'grees with other? + Of your elixir, your lac virginis, + Your stone, your med'cine, and your chrysosperm, + Your sal, your sulphur, and your mercury, + Your oil of height, your tree of life, your blood, + Your marchesite, your tutie, your magnesia, + Your toad, your crow, your dragon, and your panther; + Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your adrop, + Your lato, azoch, zernich, chibrit, heautarit, + And then your red man, and your white woman, + With all your broths, your menstrues, and materials, + Of piss and egg-shells, women's terms, man's blood, + Hair o' the head, burnt clouts, chalk, merds, and clay, + Powder of bones, scalings of iron, glass, + And worlds of other strange ingredients, + Would burst a man to name? + + SUB. And all these named, + Intending but one thing; which art our writers + Used to obscure their art. + + MAM. Sir, so I told him— + Because the simple idiot should not learn it, + And make it vulgar. + + SUB. Was not all the knowledge + Of the Aegyptians writ in mystic symbols? + Speak not the scriptures oft in parables? + Are not the choicest fables of the poets, + That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom, + Wrapp'd in perplexed allegories? + + MAM. I urg'd that, + And clear'd to him, that Sisyphus was damn'd + To roll the ceaseless stone, only because + He would have made Ours common. + + DOL [APPEARS AT THE DOOR].— + Who is this? + + SUB. 'Sprecious!—What do you mean? go in, good lady, + Let me entreat you. + [DOL RETIRES.] + —Where's this varlet? + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. Sir. + + SUB. You very knave! do you use me thus? + + FACE. Wherein, sir? + + SUB. Go in and see, you traitor. Go! + + [EXIT FACE.] + + MAM. Who is it, sir? + + SUB. Nothing, sir; nothing. + + MAM. What's the matter, good sir? + I have not seen you thus distemper'd: who is't? + + SUB. All arts have still had, sir, their adversaries; + But ours the most ignorant.— + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + What now? + + FACE. 'Twas not my fault, sir; she would speak with you. + + SUB. Would she, sir! Follow me. + + [EXIT.] + + MAM [STOPPING HIM]. Stay, Lungs. + + FACE. I dare not, sir. + + MAM. Stay, man; what is she? + + FACE. A lord's sister, sir. + + MAM. How! pray thee, stay. + + FACE. She's mad, sir, and sent hither— + He'll be mad too.— + + MAM. I warrant thee.— + Why sent hither? + + FACE. Sir, to be cured. + + SUB [WITHIN]. Why, rascal! + + FACE. Lo you!—Here, sir! + + [EXIT.] + + MAM. 'Fore God, a Bradamante, a brave piece. + + SUR. Heart, this is a bawdy-house! I will be burnt else. + + MAM. O, by this light, no: do not wrong him. He's + Too scrupulous that way: it is his vice. + No, he's a rare physician, do him right, + An excellent Paracelsian, and has done + Strange cures with mineral physic. He deals all + With spirits, he; he will not hear a word + Of Galen; or his tedious recipes.— + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + How now, Lungs! + + FACE. Softly, sir; speak softly. I meant + To have told your worship all. This must not hear. + + MAM. No, he will not be "gull'd;" let him alone. + + FACE. You are very right, sir, she is a most rare scholar, + And is gone mad with studying Broughton's works. + If you but name a word touching the Hebrew, + She falls into her fit, and will discourse + So learnedly of genealogies, + As you would run mad too, to hear her, sir. + + MAM. How might one do t' have conference with her, Lungs? + + FACE. O divers have run mad upon the conference: + I do not know, sir. I am sent in haste, + To fetch a vial. + + SUR. Be not gull'd, sir Mammon. + + MAM. Wherein? pray ye, be patient. + + SUR. Yes, as you are, + And trust confederate knaves and bawds and whores. + + MAM. You are too foul, believe it.—Come here, Ulen, + One word. + + FACE. I dare not, in good faith. + [GOING.] + + MAM. Stay, knave. + + FACE. He is extreme angry that you saw her, sir. + + MAM. Drink that. + [GIVES HIM MONEY.] + What is she when she's out of her fit? + + FACE. O, the most affablest creature, sir! so merry! + So pleasant! she'll mount you up, like quicksilver, + Over the helm; and circulate like oil, + A very vegetal: discourse of state, + Of mathematics, bawdry, any thing— + + MAM. Is she no way accessible? no means, + No trick to give a man a taste of her—wit— + Or so? + + SUB [WITHIN]. Ulen! + + FACE. I'll come to you again, sir. + + [EXIT.] + + MAM. Surly, I did not think one of your breeding + Would traduce personages of worth. + + SUR. Sir Epicure, + Your friend to use; yet still loth to be gull'd: + I do not like your philosophical bawds. + Their stone is letchery enough to pay for, + Without this bait. + + MAM. 'Heart, you abuse yourself. + I know the lady, and her friends, and means, + The original of this disaster. Her brother + Has told me all. + + SUR. And yet you never saw her + Till now! + + MAM. O yes, but I forgot. I have, believe it, + One of the treacherousest memories, I do think, + Of all mankind. + + SUR. What call you her brother? + + MAM. My lord— + He will not have his name known, now I think on't. + + SUR. A very treacherous memory! + + MAM. On my faith— + + SUR. Tut, if you have it not about you, pass it, + Till we meet next. + + MAM. Nay, by this hand, 'tis true. + He's one I honour, and my noble friend; + And I respect his house. + + SUR. Heart! can it be, + That a grave sir, a rich, that has no need, + A wise sir, too, at other times, should thus, + With his own oaths, and arguments, make hard means + To gull himself? An this be your elixir, + Your lapis mineralis, and your lunary, + Give me your honest trick yet at primero, + Or gleek; and take your lutum sapientis, + Your menstruum simplex! I'll have gold before you, + And with less danger of the quicksilver, + Or the hot sulphur. + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. Here's one from Captain Face, sir, + [TO SURLY.] + Desires you meet him in the Temple-church, + Some half-hour hence, and upon earnest business. + Sir, + [WHISPERS MAMMON.] + if you please to quit us, now; and come + Again within two hours, you shall have + My master busy examining o' the works; + And I will steal you in, unto the party, + That you may see her converse.—Sir, shall I say, + You'll meet the captain's worship? + + SUR. Sir, I will.— + [WALKS ASIDE.] + But, by attorney, and to a second purpose. + Now, I am sure it is a bawdy-house; + I'll swear it, were the marshal here to thank me: + The naming this commander doth confirm it. + Don Face! why, he's the most authentic dealer + In these commodities, the superintendant + To all the quainter traffickers in town! + He is the visitor, and does appoint, + Who lies with whom, and at what hour; what price; + Which gown, and in what smock; what fall; what tire. + Him will I prove, by a third person, to find + The subtleties of this dark labyrinth: + Which if I do discover, dear sir Mammon, + You'll give your poor friend leave, though no philosopher, + To laugh: for you that are, 'tis thought, shall weep. + + FACE. Sir, he does pray, you'll not forget. + + SUR. I will not, sir. + Sir Epicure, I shall leave you. + + [EXIT.] + + MAM. I follow you, straight. + + FACE. But do so, good sir, to avoid suspicion. + This gentleman has a parlous head. + + MAM. But wilt thou Ulen, + Be constant to thy promise? + + FACE. As my life, sir. + + MAM. And wilt thou insinuate what I am, and praise me, + And say, I am a noble fellow? + + FACE. O, what else, sir? + And that you'll make her royal with the stone, + An empress; and yourself, King of Bantam. + + MAM. Wilt thou do this? + + FACE. Will I, sir! + + MAM. Lungs, my Lungs! + I love thee. + + FACE. Send your stuff, sir, that my master + May busy himself about projection. + + MAM. Thou hast witch'd me, rogue: take, go. + [GIVES HIM MONEY.] + + FACE. Your jack, and all, sir. + + MAM. Thou art a villain—I will send my jack, + And the weights too. Slave, I could bite thine ear. + Away, thou dost not care for me. + + FACE. Not I, sir! + + MAM. Come, I was born to make thee, my good weasel, + Set thee on a bench, and have thee twirl a chain + With the best lord's vermin of 'em all. + + FACE. Away, sir. + + MAM. A count, nay, a count palatine— + + FACE. Good, sir, go. + + MAM. Shall not advance thee better: no, nor faster. + + [EXIT.] + + [RE-ENTER SUBTLE AND DOL.] + + SUB. Has he bit? has he bit? + + FACE. And swallowed, too, my Subtle. + I have given him line, and now he plays, i'faith. + + SUB. And shall we twitch him? + + FACE. Thorough both the gills. + A wench is a rare bait, with which a man + No sooner's taken, but he straight firks mad. + + SUB. Dol, my Lord What'ts'hums sister, you must now + Bear yourself statelich. + + DOL. O let me alone. + I'll not forget my race, I warrant you. + I'll keep my distance, laugh and talk aloud; + Have all the tricks of a proud scurvy lady, + And be as rude as her woman. + + FACE. Well said, sanguine! + + SUB. But will he send his andirons? + + FACE. His jack too, + And's iron shoeing-horn; I have spoke to him. Well, + I must not lose my wary gamester yonder. + + SUB. O monsieur Caution, that WILL NOT BE GULL'D? + + FACE. Ay, + If I can strike a fine hook into him, now! + The Temple-church, there I have cast mine angle. + Well, pray for me. I'll about it. + [KNOCKING WITHOUT.] + + SUB. What, more gudgeons! + Dol, scout, scout! + [DOL GOES TO THE WINDOW.] + Stay, Face, you must go to the door, + 'Pray God it be my anabaptist—Who is't, Dol? + + DOL. I know him not: he looks like a gold-endman. + + SUB. Ods so! 'tis he, he said he would send what call you him? + The sanctified elder, that should deal + For Mammon's jack and andirons. Let him in. + Stay, help me off, first, with my gown. + [EXIT FACE WITH THE GOWN.] + Away, + Madam, to your withdrawing chamber. + [EXIT DOL.] + Now, + In a new tune, new gesture, but old language.— + This fellow is sent from one negociates with me + About the stone too, for the holy brethren + Of Amsterdam, the exiled saints, that hope + To raise their discipline by it. I must use him + In some strange fashion, now, to make him admire me.— + [ENTER ANANIAS.] + [ALOUD.] + Where is my drudge? + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. Sir! + + SUB. Take away the recipient, + And rectify your menstrue from the phlegma. + Then pour it on the Sol, in the cucurbite, + And let them macerate together. + + FACE. Yes, sir. + And save the ground? + + SUB. No: terra damnata + Must not have entrance in the work.—Who are you? + + ANA. A faithful brother, if it please you. + + SUB. What's that? + A Lullianist? a Ripley? Filius artis? + Can you sublime and dulcify? calcine? + Know you the sapor pontic? sapor stiptic? + Or what is homogene, or heterogene? + + ANA. I understand no heathen language, truly. + + SUB. Heathen! you Knipper-doling? is Ars sacra, + Or chrysopoeia, or spagyrica, + Or the pamphysic, or panarchic knowledge, + A heathen language? + + ANA. Heathen Greek, I take it. + + SUB. How! heathen Greek? + + ANA. All's heathen but the Hebrew. + + SUB. Sirrah, my varlet, stand you forth and speak to him, + Like a philosopher: answer in the language. + Name the vexations, and the martyrisations + Of metals in the work. + + FACE. Sir, putrefaction, + Solution, ablution, sublimation, + Cohobation, calcination, ceration, and + Fixation. + + SUB. This is heathen Greek to you, now!— + And when comes vivification? + + FACE. After mortification. + + SUB. What's cohobation? + + FACE. 'Tis the pouring on + Your aqua regis, and then drawing him off, + To the trine circle of the seven spheres. + + SUB. What's the proper passion of metals? + + FACE. Malleation. + + SUB. What's your ultimum supplicium auri? + + FACE. Antimonium. + + SUB. This is heathen Greek to you!—And what's your mercury? + + FACE. A very fugitive, he will be gone, sir. + + SUB. How know you him? + + FACE. By his viscosity, + His oleosity, and his suscitability. + + SUB. How do you sublime him? + + FACE. With the calce of egg-shells, + White marble, talc. + + SUB. Your magisterium now, + What's that? + + FACE. Shifting, sir, your elements, + Dry into cold, cold into moist, moist into hot, + Hot into dry. + + SUB. This is heathen Greek to you still! + Your lapis philosophicus? + + FACE. 'Tis a stone, + And not a stone; a spirit, a soul, and a body: + Which if you do dissolve, it is dissolved; + If you coagulate, it is coagulated; + If you make it to fly, it flieth. + + SUB. Enough. + [EXIT FACE.] + This is heathen Greek to you! What are you, sir? + + ANA. Please you, a servant of the exiled brethren, + That deal with widows' and with orphans' goods, + And make a just account unto the saints: + A deacon. + + SUB. O, you are sent from master Wholesome, + Your teacher? + + ANA. From Tribulation Wholesome, + Our very zealous pastor. + + SUB. Good! I have + Some orphans' goods to come here. + + ANA. Of what kind, sir? + + SUB. Pewter and brass, andirons and kitchen-ware, + Metals, that we must use our medicine on: + Wherein the brethren may have a pennyworth + For ready money. + + ANA. Were the orphans' parents + Sincere professors? + + SUB. Why do you ask? + + ANA. Because + We then are to deal justly, and give, in truth, + Their utmost value. + + SUB. 'Slid, you'd cozen else, + And if their parents were not of the faithful!— + I will not trust you, now I think on it, + 'Till I have talked with your pastor. Have you brought money + To buy more coals? + + ANA. No, surely. + + SUB. No! how so? + + ANA. The brethren bid me say unto you, sir, + Surely, they will not venture any more, + Till they may see projection. + + SUB. How! + + ANA. You have had, + For the instruments, as bricks, and lome, and glasses, + Already thirty pound; and for materials, + They say, some ninety more: and they have heard since, + That one at Heidelberg, made it of an egg, + And a small paper of pin-dust. + + SUB. What's your name? + + ANA. My name is Ananias. + + SUB. Out, the varlet + That cozen'd the apostles! Hence, away! + Flee, mischief! had your holy consistory + No name to send me, of another sound, + Than wicked Ananias? send your elders + Hither to make atonement for you quickly, + And give me satisfaction; or out goes + The fire; and down th' alembics, and the furnace, + Piger Henricus, or what not. Thou wretch! + Both sericon and bufo shall be lost, + Tell them. All hope of rooting out the bishops, + Or the antichristian hierarchy, shall perish, + If they stay threescore minutes: the aqueity, + Terreity, and sulphureity + Shall run together again, and all be annull'd, + Thou wicked Ananias! + [EXIT ANANIAS.] + This will fetch 'em, + And make them haste towards their gulling more. + A man must deal like a rough nurse, and fright + Those that are froward, to an appetite. + + [RE-ENTER FACE, IN HIS UNIFORM, FOLLOWED BY DRUGGER.] + + FACE. He is busy with his spirits, but we'll upon him. + + SUB. How now! what mates, what Baiards have we here? + + FACE. I told you, he would be furious.—Sir, here's Nab, + Has brought you another piece of gold to look on: + —We must appease him. Give it me,—and prays you, + You would devise—what is it, Nab? + + DRUG. A sign, sir. + + FACE. Ay, a good lucky one, a thriving sign, doctor. + + SUB. I was devising now. + + FACE. 'Slight, do not say so, + He will repent he gave you any more— + What say you to his constellation, doctor, + The Balance? + + SUB. No, that way is stale, and common. + A townsman born in Taurus, gives the bull, + Or the bull's-head: in Aries, the ram, + A poor device! No, I will have his name + Form'd in some mystic character; whose radii, + Striking the senses of the passers by, + Shall, by a virtual influence, breed affections, + That may result upon the party owns it: + As thus— + + FACE. Nab! + + SUB. He shall have "a bell," that's "Abel;" + And by it standing one whose name is "Dee," + In a "rug" gown, there's "D," and "Rug," that's "drug:" + And right anenst him a dog snarling "er;" + There's "Drugger," Abel Drugger. That's his sign. + And here's now mystery and hieroglyphic! + + FACE. Abel, thou art made. + + DRUG. Sir, I do thank his worship. + + FACE. Six o' thy legs more will not do it, Nab. + He has brought you a pipe of tobacco, doctor. + + DRUG. Yes, sir; + I have another thing I would impart— + + FACE. Out with it, Nab. + + DRUG. Sir, there is lodged, hard by me, + A rich young widow— + + FACE. Good! a bona roba? + + DRUG. But nineteen, at the most. + + FACE. Very good, Abel. + + DRUG. Marry, she's not in fashion yet; she wears + A hood, but it stands a cop. + + FACE. No matter, Abel. + + DRUG. And I do now and then give her a fucus— + + FACE. What! dost thou deal, Nab? + + SUB. I did tell you, captain. + + DRUG. And physic too, sometime, sir; for which she trusts me + With all her mind. She's come up here of purpose + To learn the fashion. + + FACE. Good (his match too!)—On, Nab. + + DRUG. And she does strangely long to know her fortune. + + FACE. Ods lid, Nab, send her to the doctor, hither. + + DRUG. Yes, I have spoke to her of his worship already; + But she's afraid it will be blown abroad, + And hurt her marriage. + + FACE. Hurt it! 'tis the way + To heal it, if 'twere hurt; to make it more + Follow'd and sought: Nab, thou shalt tell her this. + She'll be more known, more talk'd of; and your widows + Are ne'er of any price till they be famous; + Their honour is their multitude of suitors. + Send her, it may be thy good fortune. What! + Thou dost not know. + + DRUG. No, sir, she'll never marry + Under a knight: her brother has made a vow. + + FACE. What! and dost thou despair, my little Nab, + Knowing what the doctor has set down for thee, + And seeing so many of the city dubb'd? + One glass o' thy water, with a madam I know, + Will have it done, Nab: what's her brother, a knight? + + DRUG. No, sir, a gentleman newly warm in his land, sir, + Scarce cold in his one and twenty, that does govern + His sister here; and is a man himself + Of some three thousand a year, and is come up + To learn to quarrel, and to live by his wits, + And will go down again, and die in the country. + + FACE. How! to quarrel? + + DRUG. Yes, sir, to carry quarrels, + As gallants do; to manage them by line. + + FACE. 'Slid, Nab, the doctor is the only man + In Christendom for him. He has made a table, + With mathematical demonstrations, + Touching the art of quarrels: he will give him + An instrument to quarrel by. Go, bring them both, + Him and his sister. And, for thee, with her + The doctor happ'ly may persuade. Go to: + 'Shalt give his worship a new damask suit + Upon the premises. + + SUB. O, good captain! + + FACE. He shall; + He is the honestest fellow, doctor.—Stay not, + No offers; bring the damask, and the parties. + + DRUG. I'll try my power, sir. + + FACE. And thy will too, Nab. + + SUB. 'Tis good tobacco, this! What is't an ounce? + + FACE. He'll send you a pound, doctor. + + SUB. O no. + + FACE. He will do't. + It is the goodest soul!—Abel, about it. + Thou shalt know more anon. Away, be gone. + [EXIT ABEL.] + A miserable rogue, and lives with cheese, + And has the worms. That was the cause, indeed, + Why he came now: he dealt with me in private, + To get a med'cine for them. + + SUB. And shall, sir. This works. + + FACE. A wife, a wife for one on us, my dear Subtle! + We'll e'en draw lots, and he that fails, shall have + The more in goods, the other has in tail. + + SUB. Rather the less: for she may be so light + She may want grains. + + FACE. Ay, or be such a burden, + A man would scarce endure her for the whole. + + SUB. Faith, best let's see her first, and then determine. + + FACE. Content: but Dol must have no breath on't. + + SUB. Mum. + Away you, to your Surly yonder, catch him. + + FACE. 'Pray God I have not staid too long. + + SUB. I fear it. + + [EXEUNT.] ++
+ + +
+THE LANE BEFORE LOVEWIT'S HOUSE. + + ENTER TRIBULATION WHOLESOME AND ANANIAS. + + TRI. These chastisements are common to the saints, + And such rebukes, we of the separation + Must bear with willing shoulders, as the trials + Sent forth to tempt our frailties. + + ANA. In pure zeal, + I do not like the man; he is a heathen, + And speaks the language of Canaan, truly. + + TRI. I think him a profane person indeed. + + ANA. He bears + The visible mark of the beast in his forehead. + And for his stone, it is a work of darkness, + And with philosophy blinds the eyes of man. + + TRI. Good brother, we must bend unto all means, + That may give furtherance to the holy cause. + + ANA. Which his cannot: the sanctified cause + Should have a sanctified course. + + TRI. Not always necessary: + The children of perdition are oft-times + Made instruments even of the greatest works: + Beside, we should give somewhat to man's nature, + The place he lives in, still about the fire, + And fume of metals, that intoxicate + The brain of man, and make him prone to passion. + Where have you greater atheists than your cooks? + Or more profane, or choleric, than your glass-men? + More antichristian than your bell-founders? + What makes the devil so devilish, I would ask you, + Sathan, our common enemy, but his being + Perpetually about the fire, and boiling + Brimstone and arsenic? We must give, I say, + Unto the motives, and the stirrers up + Of humours in the blood. It may be so, + When as the work is done, the stone is made, + This heat of his may turn into a zeal, + And stand up for the beauteous discipline, + Against the menstruous cloth and rag of Rome. + We must await his calling, and the coming + Of the good spirit. You did fault, t' upbraid him + With the brethren's blessing of Heidelberg, weighing + What need we have to hasten on the work, + For the restoring of the silenced saints, + Which ne'er will be, but by the philosopher's stone. + And so a learned elder, one of Scotland, + Assured me; aurum potabile being + The only med'cine, for the civil magistrate, + T' incline him to a feeling of the cause; + And must be daily used in the disease. + + ANA. I have not edified more, truly, by man; + Not since the beautiful light first shone on me: + And I am sad my zeal hath so offended. + + TRI. Let us call on him then. + + ANA. The motion's good, + And of the spirit; I will knock first. + [KNOCKS.] + Peace be within! + + [THE DOOR IS OPENED, AND THEY ENTER.] ++
SCENE 3.2. + + A ROOM IN LOVEWIT'S HOUSE. + + ENTER SUBTLE, FOLLOWED BY TRIBULATION AND ANANIAS. + + SUB. O, are you come? 'twas time. Your threescore minutes + Were at last thread, you see: and down had gone + Furnus acediae, turris circulatorius: + Lembec, bolt's-head, retort and pelican + Had all been cinders.—Wicked Ananias! + Art thou return'd? nay then, it goes down yet. + + TRI. Sir, be appeased; he is come to humble + Himself in spirit, and to ask your patience, + If too much zeal hath carried him aside + From the due path. + + SUB. Why, this doth qualify! + + TRI. The brethren had no purpose, verily, + To give you the least grievance; but are ready + To lend their willing hands to any project + The spirit and you direct. + + SUB. This qualifies more! + + TRI. And for the orphans' goods, let them be valued, + Or what is needful else to the holy work, + It shall be numbered; here, by me, the saints, + Throw down their purse before you. + + SUB. This qualifies most! + Why, thus it should be, now you understand. + Have I discours'd so unto you of our stone, + And of the good that it shall bring your cause? + Shew'd you (beside the main of hiring forces + Abroad, drawing the Hollanders, your friends, + From the Indies, to serve you, with all their fleet) + That even the med'cinal use shall make you a faction, + And party in the realm? As, put the case, + That some great man in state, he have the gout, + Why, you but send three drops of your elixir, + You help him straight: there you have made a friend. + Another has the palsy or the dropsy, + He takes of your incombustible stuff, + He's young again: there you have made a friend, + A lady that is past the feat of body, + Though not of mind, and hath her face decay'd + Beyond all cure of paintings, you restore, + With the oil of talc: there you have made a friend; + And all her friends. A lord that is a leper, + A knight that has the bone-ache, or a squire + That hath both these, you make them smooth and sound, + With a bare fricace of your med'cine: still + You increase your friends. + + TRI. Ay, it is very pregnant. + + SUB. And then the turning of this lawyer's pewter + To plate at Christmas.— + + ANA. Christ-tide, I pray you. + + SUB. Yet, Ananias! + + ANA. I have done. + + SUB. Or changing + His parcel gilt to massy gold. You cannot + But raise you friends. Withal, to be of power + To pay an army in the field, to buy + The king of France out of his realms, or Spain + Out of his Indies. What can you not do + Against lords spiritual or temporal, + That shall oppone you? + + TRI. Verily, 'tis true. + We may be temporal lords ourselves, I take it. + + SUB. You may be any thing, and leave off to make + Long-winded exercises; or suck up + Your "ha!" and "hum!" in a tune. I not deny, + But such as are not graced in a state, + May, for their ends, be adverse in religion, + And get a tune to call the flock together: + For, to say sooth, a tune does much with women, + And other phlegmatic people; it is your bell. + + ANA. Bells are profane; a tune may be religious. + + SUB. No warning with you! then farewell my patience. + 'Slight, it shall down: I will not be thus tortured. + + TRI. I pray you, sir. + + SUB. All shall perish. I have spoken it. + + TRI. Let me find grace, sir, in your eyes; the man + He stands corrected: neither did his zeal, + But as your self, allow a tune somewhere. + Which now, being tow'rd the stone, we shall not need. + + SUB. No, nor your holy vizard, to win widows + To give you legacies; or make zealous wives + To rob their husbands for the common cause: + Nor take the start of bonds broke but one day, + And say, they were forfeited by providence. + Nor shall you need o'er night to eat huge meals, + To celebrate your next day's fast the better; + The whilst the brethren and the sisters humbled, + Abate the stiffness of the flesh. Nor cast + Before your hungry hearers scrupulous bones; + As whether a Christian may hawk or hunt, + Or whether matrons of the holy assembly + May lay their hair out, or wear doublets, + Or have that idol starch about their linen. + + ANA. It is indeed an idol. + + TRI. Mind him not, sir. + I do command thee, spirit of zeal, but trouble, + To peace within him! Pray you, sir, go on. + + SUB. Nor shall you need to libel 'gainst the prelates, + And shorten so your ears against the hearing + Of the next wire-drawn grace. Nor of necessity + Rail against plays, to please the alderman + Whose daily custard you devour; nor lie + With zealous rage till you are hoarse. Not one + Of these so singular arts. Nor call yourselves + By names of Tribulation, Persecution, + Restraint, Long-patience, and such-like, affected + By the whole family or wood of you, + Only for glory, and to catch the ear + Of the disciple. + + TRI. Truly, sir, they are + Ways that the godly brethren have invented, + For propagation of the glorious cause, + As very notable means, and whereby also + Themselves grow soon, and profitably, famous. + + SUB. O, but the stone, all's idle to it! nothing! + The art of angels' nature's miracle, + The divine secret that doth fly in clouds + From east to west: and whose tradition + Is not from men, but spirits. + + ANA. I hate traditions; + I do not trust them— + + TRI. Peace! + + ANA. They are popish all. + I will not peace: I will not— + + TRI. Ananias! + + ANA. Please the profane, to grieve the godly; I may not. + + SUB. Well, Ananias, thou shalt overcome. + + TRI. It is an ignorant zeal that haunts him, sir; + But truly, else, a very faithful brother, + A botcher, and a man, by revelation, + That hath a competent knowledge of the truth. + + SUB. Has he a competent sum there in the bag + To buy the goods within? I am made guardian, + And must, for charity, and conscience sake, + Now see the most be made for my poor orphan; + Though I desire the brethren too good gainers: + There they are within. When you have view'd and bought 'em, + And ta'en the inventory of what they are, + They are ready for projection; there's no more + To do: cast on the med'cine, so much silver + As there is tin there, so much gold as brass, + I'll give't you in by weight. + + TRI. But how long time, + Sir, must the saints expect yet? + + SUB. Let me see, + How's the moon now? Eight, nine, ten days hence, + He will be silver potate; then three days + Before he citronise: Some fifteen days, + The magisterium will be perfected. + + ANA. About the second day of the third week, + In the ninth month? + + SUB. Yes, my good Ananias. + + TRI. What will the orphan's goods arise to, think you? + + SUB. Some hundred marks, as much as fill'd three cars, + Unladed now: you'll make six millions of them.— + But I must have more coals laid in. + + TRI. How? + + SUB. Another load, + And then we have finish'd. We must now increase + Our fire to ignis ardens; we are past + Fimus equinus, balnei, cineris, + And all those lenter heats. If the holy purse + Should with this draught fall low, and that the saints + Do need a present sum, I have a trick + To melt the pewter, you shall buy now, instantly, + And with a tincture make you as good Dutch dollars + As any are in Holland. + + TRI. Can you so? + + SUB. Ay, and shall 'bide the third examination. + + ANA. It will be joyful tidings to the brethren. + + SUB. But you must carry it secret. + + TRI. Ay; but stay, + This act of coining, is it lawful? + + ANA. Lawful! + We know no magistrate; or, if we did, + This is foreign coin. + + SUB. It is no coining, sir. + It is but casting. + + TRI. Ha! you distinguish well: + Casting of money may be lawful. + + ANA. 'Tis, sir. + + TRI. Truly, I take it so. + + SUB. There is no scruple, + Sir, to be made of it; believe Ananias: + This case of conscience he is studied in. + + TRI. I'll make a question of it to the brethren. + + ANA. The brethren shall approve it lawful, doubt not. + Where shall it be done? + + [KNOCKING WITHOUT.] + + SUB. For that we'll talk anon. + There's some to speak with me. Go in, I pray you, + And view the parcels. That's the inventory. + I'll come to you straight. + [EXEUNT TRIB. AND ANA.] + Who is it?—Face! appear. + [ENTER FACE IN HIS UNIFORM.] + How now! good prize? + + FACE. Good pox! yond' costive cheater + Never came on. + + SUB. How then? + + FACE. I have walk'd the round + Till now, and no such thing. + + SUB. And have you quit him? + + FACE. Quit him! an hell would quit him too, he were happy. + 'Slight! would you have me stalk like a mill-jade, + All day, for one that will not yield us grains? + I know him of old. + + SUB. O, but to have gull'd him, + Had been a mastery. + + FACE. Let him go, black boy! + And turn thee, that some fresh news may possess thee. + A noble count, a don of Spain, my dear + Delicious compeer, and my party-bawd, + Who is come hither private for his conscience, + And brought munition with him, six great slops, + Bigger than three Dutch hoys, beside round trunks, + Furnished with pistolets, and pieces of eight, + Will straight be here, my rogue, to have thy bath, + (That is the colour,) and to make his battery + Upon our Dol, our castle, our cinque-port, + Our Dover pier, our what thou wilt. Where is she? + She must prepare perfumes, delicate linen, + The bath in chief, a banquet, and her wit, + For she must milk his epididimis. + Where is the doxy? + + SUB. I'll send her to thee: + And but despatch my brace of little John Leydens, + And come again my self. + + FACE. Are they within then? + + SUB. Numbering the sum. + + FACE. How much? + + SUB. A hundred marks, boy. + + [EXIT.] + + FACE. Why, this is a lucky day. Ten pounds of Mammon! + Three of my clerk! A portague of my grocer! + This of the brethren! beside reversions, + And states to come in the widow, and my count! + My share to-day will not be bought for forty— + + [ENTER DOL.] + + DOL. What? + + FACE. Pounds, dainty Dorothy! art thou so near? + + DOL. Yes; say, lord general, how fares our camp? + + FACE. As with the few that had entrench'd themselves + Safe, by their discipline, against a world, Dol, + And laugh'd within those trenches, and grew fat + With thinking on the booties, Dol, brought in + Daily by their small parties. This dear hour, + A doughty don is taken with my Dol; + And thou mayst make his ransom what thou wilt, + My Dousabel; he shall be brought here fetter'd + With thy fair looks, before he sees thee; and thrown + In a down-bed, as dark as any dungeon; + Where thou shalt keep him waking with thy drum; + Thy drum, my Dol, thy drum; till he be tame + As the poor black-birds were in the great frost, + Or bees are with a bason; and so hive him + In the swan-skin coverlid, and cambric sheets, + Till he work honey and wax, my little God's-gift. + + DOL. What is he, general? + + FACE. An adalantado, + A grandee, girl. Was not my Dapper here yet? + + DOL. No. + + FACE. Nor my Drugger? + + DOL. Neither. + + FACE. A pox on 'em, + They are so long a furnishing! such stinkards + Would not be seen upon these festival days.— + [RE-ENTER SUBTLE.] + How now! have you done? + + SUB. Done. They are gone: the sum + Is here in bank, my Face. I would we knew + Another chapman now would buy 'em outright. + + FACE. 'Slid, Nab shall do't against he have the widow, + To furnish household. + + SUB. Excellent, well thought on: + Pray God he come! + + FACE. I pray he keep away + Till our new business be o'erpast. + + SUB. But, Face, + How cam'st thou by this secret don? + + FACE. A spirit + Brought me th' intelligence in a paper here, + As I was conjuring yonder in my circle + For Surly; I have my flies abroad. Your bath + Is famous, Subtle, by my means. Sweet Dol, + You must go tune your virginal, no losing + O' the least time: and, do you hear? good action. + Firk, like a flounder; kiss, like a scallop, close; + And tickle him with thy mother tongue. His great + Verdugoship has not a jot of language; + So much the easier to be cozen'd, my Dolly. + He will come here in a hired coach, obscure, + And our own coachman, whom I have sent as guide, + No creature else. + [KNOCKING WITHOUT.] + Who's that? + + [EXIT DOL.] + + SUB. It is not he? + + FACE. O no, not yet this hour. + + [RE-ENTER DOL.] + + SUB. Who is't? + + DOL. Dapper, + Your clerk. + + FACE. God's will then, queen of Fairy, + On with your tire; + [EXIT DOL.] + and, doctor, with your robes. + Let's dispatch him for God's sake. + + SUB. 'Twill be long. + + FACE. I warrant you, take but the cues I give you, + It shall be brief enough. + [GOES TO THE WINDOW.] + 'Slight, here are more! + Abel, and I think the angry boy, the heir, + That fain would quarrel. + + SUB. And the widow? + + FACE. No, + Not that I see. Away! + [EXIT SUB.] + [ENTER DAPPER.] + O sir, you are welcome. + The doctor is within a moving for you; + I have had the most ado to win him to it!— + He swears you'll be the darling of the dice: + He never heard her highness dote till now. + Your aunt has given you the most gracious words + That can be thought on. + + DAP. Shall I see her grace? + + FACE. See her, and kiss her too.— + [ENTER ABEL, FOLLOWED BY KASTRIL.] + What, honest Nab! + Hast brought the damask? + + NAB. No, sir; here's tobacco. + + FACE. 'Tis well done, Nab; thou'lt bring the damask too? + + DRUG. Yes: here's the gentleman, captain, master Kastril, + I have brought to see the doctor. + + FACE. Where's the widow? + + DRUG. Sir, as he likes, his sister, he says, shall come. + + FACE. O, is it so? good time. Is your name Kastril, sir? + + KAS. Ay, and the best of the Kastrils, I'd be sorry else, + By fifteen hundred a year. Where is the doctor? + My mad tobacco-boy, here, tells me of one + That can do things: has he any skill? + + FACE. Wherein, sir? + + KAS. To carry a business, manage a quarrel fairly, + Upon fit terms. + + FACE. It seems, sir, you are but young + About the town, that can make that a question. + + KAS. Sir, not so young, but I have heard some speech + Of the angry boys, and seen them take tobacco; + And in his shop; and I can take it too. + And I would fain be one of 'em, and go down + And practise in the country. + + FACE. Sir, for the duello, + The doctor, I assure you, shall inform you, + To the least shadow of a hair; and shew you + An instrument he has of his own making, + Wherewith no sooner shall you make report + Of any quarrel, but he will take the height on't + Most instantly, and tell in what degree + Of safety it lies in, or mortality. + And how it may be borne, whether in a right line, + Or a half circle; or may else be cast + Into an angle blunt, if not acute: + And this he will demonstrate. And then, rules + To give and take the lie by. + + KAS. How! to take it? + + FACE. Yes, in oblique he'll shew you, or in circle; + But never in diameter. The whole town + Study his theorems, and dispute them ordinarily + At the eating academies. + + KAS. But does he teach + Living by the wits too? + + FACE. Anything whatever. + You cannot think that subtlety, but he reads it. + He made me a captain. I was a stark pimp, + Just of your standing, 'fore I met with him; + It is not two months since. I'll tell you his method: + First, he will enter you at some ordinary. + + KAS. No, I'll not come there: you shall pardon me. + + FACE. For why, sir? + + KAS. There's gaming there, and tricks. + + FACE. Why, would you be + A gallant, and not game? + + KAS. Ay, 'twill spend a man. + + FACE. Spend you! it will repair you when you are spent: + How do they live by their wits there, that have vented + Six times your fortunes? + + KAS. What, three thousand a-year! + + FACE. Ay, forty thousand. + + KAS. Are there such? + + FACE. Ay, sir, + And gallants yet. Here's a young gentleman + Is born to nothing,— + [POINTS TO DAPPER.] + forty marks a year, + Which I count nothing:—he is to be initiated, + And have a fly of the doctor. He will win you, + By unresistible luck, within this fortnight, + Enough to buy a barony. They will set him + Upmost, at the groom porter's, all the Christmas: + And for the whole year through, at every place, + Where there is play, present him with the chair; + The best attendance, the best drink; sometimes + Two glasses of Canary, and pay nothing; + The purest linen, and the sharpest knife, + The partridge next his trencher: and somewhere + The dainty bed, in private, with the dainty. + You shall have your ordinaries bid for him, + As play-houses for a poet; and the master + Pray him aloud to name what dish he affects, + Which must be butter'd shrimps: and those that drink + To no mouth else, will drink to his, as being + The goodly president mouth of all the board. + + KAS. Do you not gull one? + + FACE. 'Ods my life! do you think it? + You shall have a cast commander, (can but get + In credit with a glover, or a spurrier, + For some two pair of either's ware aforehand,) + Will, by most swift posts, dealing [but] with him, + Arrive at competent means to keep himself, + His punk and naked boy, in excellent fashion, + And be admired for't. + + KAS. Will the doctor teach this? + + FACE. He will do more, sir: when your land is gone, + As men of spirit hate to keep earth long, + In a vacation, when small money is stirring, + And ordinaries suspended till the term, + He'll shew a perspective, where on one side + You shall behold the faces and the persons + Of all sufficient young heirs in town, + Whose bonds are current for commodity; + On th' other side, the merchants' forms, and others, + That without help of any second broker, + Who would expect a share, will trust such parcels: + In the third square, the very street and sign + Where the commodity dwells, and does but wait + To be deliver'd, be it pepper, soap, + Hops, or tobacco, oatmeal, woad, or cheeses. + All which you may so handle, to enjoy + To your own use, and never stand obliged. + + KAS. I'faith! is he such a fellow? + + FACE. Why, Nab here knows him. + And then for making matches for rich widows, + Young gentlewomen, heirs, the fortunat'st man! + He's sent to, far and near, all over England, + To have his counsel, and to know their fortunes. + + KAS. God's will, my suster shall see him. + + FACE. I'll tell you, sir, + What he did tell me of Nab. It's a strange thing:— + By the way, you must eat no cheese, Nab, it breeds melancholy, + And that same melancholy breeds worms; but pass it:— + He told me, honest Nab here was ne'er at tavern + But once in's life! + + DRUG. Truth, and no more I was not. + + FACE. And then he was so sick— + + DRUG. Could he tell you that too? + + FACE. How should I know it? + + DRUG. In troth we had been a shooting, + And had a piece of fat ram-mutton to supper, + That lay so heavy o' my stomach— + + FACE. And he has no head + To bear any wine; for what with the noise of the fidlers, + And care of his shop, for he dares keep no servants— + + DRUG. My head did so ach— + + FACE. And he was fain to be brought home, + The doctor told me: and then a good old woman— + + DRUG. Yes, faith, she dwells in Sea-coal-lane,—did cure me, + With sodden ale, and pellitory of the wall; + Cost me but two-pence. I had another sickness + Was worse than that. + + FACE. Ay, that was with the grief + Thou took'st for being cess'd at eighteen-pence, + For the water-work. + + DRUG. In truth, and it was like + T' have cost me almost my life. + + FACE. Thy hair went off? + + DRUG. Yes, sir; 'twas done for spight. + + FACE. Nay, so says the doctor. + + KAS. Pray thee, tobacco-boy, go fetch my suster; + I'll see this learned boy before I go; + And so shall she. + + FACE. Sir, he is busy now: + But if you have a sister to fetch hither, + Perhaps your own pains may command her sooner; + And he by that time will be free. + + KAS. I go. + + [EXIT.] + + FACE. Drugger, she's thine: the damask!— + [EXIT ABEL.] + Subtle and I + Must wrestle for her. + [ASIDE.] + —Come on, master Dapper, + You see how I turn clients here away, + To give your cause dispatch; have you perform'd + The ceremonies were enjoin'd you? + + DAP. Yes, of the vinegar, + And the clean shirt. + + FACE. 'Tis well: that shirt may do you + More worship than you think. Your aunt's a-fire, + But that she will not shew it, t' have a sight of you. + Have you provided for her grace's servants? + + DAP. Yes, here are six score Edward shillings. + + FACE. Good! + + DAP. And an old Harry's sovereign. + + FACE. Very good! + + DAP. And three James shillings, and an Elizabeth groat, + Just twenty nobles. + + FACE. O, you are too just. + I would you had had the other noble in Maries. + + DAP. I have some Philip and Maries. + + FACE. Ay, those same + Are best of all: where are they? Hark, the doctor. + + [ENTER SUBTLE, DISGUISED LIKE A PRIEST OF FAIRY, + WITH A STRIPE OF CLOTH.] + + SUB [IN A FEIGNED VOICE]. Is yet her grace's cousin come? + + FACE. He is come. + + SUB. And is he fasting? + + FACE. Yes. + + SUB. And hath cried hum? + + FACE. Thrice, you must answer. + + DAP. Thrice. + + SUB. And as oft buz? + + FACE. If you have, say. + + DAP. I have. + + SUB. Then, to her cuz, + Hoping that he hath vinegar'd his senses, + As he was bid, the Fairy queen dispenses, + By me, this robe, the petticoat of fortune; + Which that he straight put on, she doth importune. + And though to fortune near be her petticoat, + Yet nearer is her smock, the queen doth note: + And therefore, ev'n of that a piece she hath sent + Which, being a child, to wrap him in was rent; + And prays him for a scarf he now will wear it, + With as much love as then her grace did tear it, + About his eyes, + [THEY BLIND HIM WITH THE RAG,] + to shew he is fortunate. + And, trusting unto her to make his state, + He'll throw away all worldly pelf about him; + Which that he will perform, she doth not doubt him. + + FACE. She need not doubt him, sir. Alas, he has nothing, + But what he will part withal as willingly, + Upon her grace's word—throw away your purse— + As she would ask it;—handkerchiefs and all— + [HE THROWS AWAY, AS THEY BID HIM.] + She cannot bid that thing, but he'll obey.— + If you have a ring about you, cast it off, + Or a silver seal at your wrist; her grace will send + Her fairies here to search you, therefore deal + Directly with her highness: if they find + That you conceal a mite, you are undone. + + DAP. Truly, there's all. + + FACE. All what? + + DAP. My money; truly. + + FACE. Keep nothing that is transitory about you. + [ASIDE TO SUBTLE.] + Bid Dol play music.— + [DOL PLAYS ON THE CITTERN WITHIN.] + Look, the elves are come. + To pinch you, if you tell not truth. Advise you. + + [THEY PINCH HIM.] + + DAP. O! I have a paper with a spur-ryal in't. + + FACE. Ti, ti. + They knew't, they say. + + SUB. Ti, ti, ti, ti. He has more yet. + + FACE. Ti, ti-ti-ti. + [ASIDE TO SUB.] + In the other pocket. + + SUB. Titi, titi, titi, titi, titi. + They must pinch him or he will never confess, they say. + + [THEY PINCH HIM AGAIN.] + + DAP. O, O! + + FACE. Nay, pray you, hold: he is her grace's nephew, + Ti, ti, ti? What care you? good faith, you shall care.— + Deal plainly, sir, and shame the fairies. Shew + You are innocent. + + DAP. By this good light, I have nothing. + + SUB. Ti, ti, ti, ti, to, ta. He does equivocate she says: + Ti, ti do ti, ti ti do, ti da; + and swears by the LIGHT when he is blinded. + + DAP. By this good DARK, I have nothing but a half-crown + Of gold about my wrist, that my love gave me; + And a leaden heart I wore since she forsook me. + + FACE. I thought 'twas something. And would you incur + Your aunt's displeasure for these trifles? Come, + I had rather you had thrown away twenty half-crowns. + [TAKES IT OFF.] + You may wear your leaden heart still.— + [ENTER DOL HASTILY.] + How now! + + SUB. What news, Dol? + + DOL. Yonder's your knight, sir Mammon. + + FACE. 'Ods lid, we never thought of him till now! + Where is he? + + DOL. Here hard by: he is at the door. + + SUB. And you are not ready now! Dol, get his suit. + [EXIT DOL.] + He must not be sent back. + + FACE. O, by no means. + What shall we do with this same puffin here, + Now he's on the spit? + + SUB. Why, lay him back awhile, + With some device. + [RE-ENTER DOL, WITH FACE'S CLOTHES.] + —Ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, ti, Would her grace speak with me? + I come.—Help, Dol! + + [KNOCKING WITHOUT.] + + FACE [SPEAKS THROUGH THE KEYHOLE]. Who's there? sir Epicure, + My master's in the way. Please you to walk + Three or four turns, but till his back be turned, + And I am for you.—Quickly, Dol! + + SUB. Her grace + Commends her kindly to you, master Dapper. + + DAP. I long to see her grace. + + SUB. She now is set + At dinner in her bed, and she has sent you + From her own private trencher, a dead mouse, + And a piece of gingerbread, to be merry withal, + And stay your stomach, lest you faint with fasting: + Yet if you could hold out till she saw you, she says, + It would be better for you. + + FACE. Sir, he shall + Hold out, an 'twere this two hours, for her highness; + I can assure you that. We will not lose + All we have done.— + + SUB. He must not see, nor speak + To any body, till then. + + FACE. For that we'll put, sir, + A stay in's mouth. + + SUB. Of what? + + FACE. Of gingerbread. + Make you it fit. He that hath pleas'd her grace + Thus far, shall not now crincle for a little.— + Gape, sir, and let him fit you. + + [THEY THRUST A GAG OF GINGERBREAD IN HIS MOUTH.] + + SUB. Where shall we now + Bestow him? + + DOL. In the privy. + + SUB. Come along, sir, + I now must shew you Fortune's privy lodgings. + + FACE. Are they perfumed, and his bath ready? + + SUB. All: + Only the fumigation's somewhat strong. + + FACE [SPEAKING THROUGH THE KEYHOLE]. + Sir Epicure, I am yours, sir, by and by. + + [EXEUNT WITH DAPPER.] ++
+ + +
+A ROOM IN LOVEWIT'S HOUSE. + + ENTER FACE AND MAMMON. + + FACE. O sir, you're come in the only finest time.— + + MAM. Where's master? + + FACE. Now preparing for projection, sir. + Your stuff will be all changed shortly. + + MAM. Into gold? + + FACE. To gold and silver, sir. + + MAM. Silver I care not for. + + FACE. Yes, sir, a little to give beggars. + + MAM. Where's the lady? + + FACE. At hand here. I have told her such brave things of you, + Touching your bounty, and your noble spirit— + + MAM. Hast thou? + + FACE. As she is almost in her fit to see you. + But, good sir, no divinity in your conference, + For fear of putting her in rage.— + + MAM. I warrant thee. + + FACE. Six men [sir] will not hold her down: and then, + If the old man should hear or see you— + + MAM. Fear not. + + FACE. The very house, sir, would run mad. You know it, + How scrupulous he is, and violent, + 'Gainst the least act of sin. Physic, or mathematics, + Poetry, state, or bawdry, as I told you, + She will endure, and never startle; but + No word of controversy. + + MAM. I am school'd, good Ulen. + + FACE. And you must praise her house, remember that, + And her nobility. + + MAM. Let me alone: + No herald, no, nor antiquary, Lungs, + Shall do it better. Go. + + FACE [ASIDE]. Why, this is yet + A kind of modern happiness, to have + Dol Common for a great lady. + + [EXIT.] + + MAM. Now, Epicure, + Heighten thyself, talk to her all in gold; + Rain her as many showers as Jove did drops + Unto his Danae; shew the god a miser, + Compared with Mammon. What! the stone will do't. + + She shall feel gold, taste gold, hear gold, sleep gold; + Nay, we will concumbere gold: I will be puissant, + And mighty in my talk to her.— + [RE-ENTER FACE, WITH DOL RICHLY DRESSED.] + Here she comes. + + FACE. To him, Dol, suckle him.—This is the noble knight, + I told your ladyship— + + MAM. Madam, with your pardon, + I kiss your vesture. + + DOL. Sir, I were uncivil + If I would suffer that; my lip to you, sir. + + MAM. I hope my lord your brother be in health, lady. + + DOL. My lord, my brother is, though I no lady, sir. + + FACE [ASIDE]. Well said, my Guinea bird. + + MAM. Right noble madam— + + FACE [ASIDE]. O, we shall have most fierce idolatry. + + MAM. 'Tis your prerogative. + + DOL. Rather your courtesy. + + MAM. Were there nought else to enlarge your virtues to me, + These answers speak your breeding and your blood. + + DOL. Blood we boast none, sir, a poor baron's daughter. + + MAM. Poor! and gat you? profane not. Had your father + Slept all the happy remnant of his life + After that act, lien but there still, and panted, + He had done enough to make himself, his issue, + And his posterity noble. + + DOL. Sir, although + We may be said to want the gilt and trappings, + The dress of honour, yet we strive to keep + The seeds and the materials. + + MAM. I do see + The old ingredient, virtue, was not lost, + Nor the drug money used to make your compound. + There is a strange nobility in your eye, + This lip, that chin! methinks you do resemble + One of the Austriac princes. + + FACE. Very like! + [ASIDE.] + Her father was an Irish costermonger. + + MAM. The house of Valois just had such a nose, + And such a forehead yet the Medici + Of Florence boast. + + DOL. Troth, and I have been liken'd + To all these princes. + + FACE [ASIDE]. I'll be sworn, I heard it. + + MAM. I know not how! it is not any one, + But e'en the very choice of all their features. + + FACE [ASIDE]. I'll in, and laugh. + + [EXIT.] + + MAM. A certain touch, or air, + That sparkles a divinity, beyond + An earthly beauty! + + DOL. O, you play the courtier. + + MAM. Good lady, give me leave— + + DOL. In faith, I may not, + To mock me, sir. + + MAM. To burn in this sweet flame; + The phoenix never knew a nobler death. + + DOL. Nay, now you court the courtier, and destroy + What you would build. This art, sir, in your words, + Calls your whole faith in question. + + MAM. By my soul— + + DOL. Nay, oaths are made of the same air, sir. + + MAM. Nature + Never bestow'd upon mortality + A more unblamed, a more harmonious feature; + She play'd the step-dame in all faces else: + Sweet Madam, let me be particular— + + DOL. Particular, sir! I pray you know your distance. + + MAM. In no ill sense, sweet lady; but to ask + How your fair graces pass the hours? I see + You are lodged here, in the house of a rare man, + An excellent artist; but what's that to you? + + DOL. Yes, sir; I study here the mathematics, + And distillation. + + MAM. O, I cry your pardon. + He's a divine instructor! can extract + The souls of all things by his art; call all + The virtues, and the miracles of the sun, + Into a temperate furnace; teach dull nature + What her own forces are. A man, the emperor + Has courted above Kelly; sent his medals + And chains, to invite him. + + DOL. Ay, and for his physic, sir— + + MAM. Above the art of Aesculapius, + That drew the envy of the thunderer! + I know all this, and more. + + DOL. Troth, I am taken, sir, + Whole with these studies, that contemplate nature. + + MAM. It is a noble humour; but this form + Was not intended to so dark a use. + Had you been crooked, foul, of some coarse mould + A cloister had done well; but such a feature + That might stand up the glory of a kingdom, + To live recluse! is a mere soloecism, + Though in a nunnery. It must not be. + I muse, my lord your brother will permit it: + You should spend half my land first, were I he. + Does not this diamond better on my finger, + Than in the quarry? + + DOL. Yes. + + MAM. Why, you are like it. + You were created, lady, for the light. + Here, you shall wear it; take it, the first pledge + Of what I speak, to bind you to believe me. + + DOL. In chains of adamant? + + MAM. Yes, the strongest bands. + And take a secret too—here, by your side, + Doth stand this hour, the happiest man in Europe. + + DOL. You are contended, sir! + + MAM. Nay, in true being, + The envy of princes and the fear of states. + + DOL. Say you so, sir Epicure? + + MAM. Yes, and thou shalt prove it, + Daughter of honour. I have cast mine eye + Upon thy form, and I will rear this beauty + Above all styles. + + DOL. You mean no treason, sir? + + MAM. No, I will take away that jealousy. + I am the lord of the philosopher's stone, + And thou the lady. + + DOL. How, sir! have you that? + + MAM. I am the master of the mystery. + This day the good old wretch here o' the house + Has made it for us: now he's at projection. + Think therefore thy first wish now, let me hear it; + And it shall rain into thy lap, no shower, + But floods of gold, whole cataracts, a deluge, + To get a nation on thee. + + DOL. You are pleased, sir, + To work on the ambition of our sex. + + MAM. I am pleased the glory of her sex should know, + This nook, here, of the Friars is no climate + For her to live obscurely in, to learn + Physic and surgery, for the constable's wife + Of some odd hundred in Essex; but come forth, + And taste the air of palaces; eat, drink + The toils of empirics, and their boasted practice; + Tincture of pearl, and coral, gold, and amber; + Be seen at feasts and triumphs; have it ask'd, + What miracle she is; set all the eyes + Of court a-fire, like a burning glass, + And work them into cinders, when the jewels + Of twenty states adorn thee, and the light + Strikes out the stars! that when thy name is mention'd, + Queens may look pale; and we but shewing our love, + Nero's Poppaea may be lost in story! + Thus will we have it. + + DOL. I could well consent, sir. + But, in a monarchy, how will this be? + The prince will soon take notice, and both seize + You and your stone, it being a wealth unfit + For any private subject. + + MAM. If he knew it. + + DOL. Yourself do boast it, sir. + + MAM. To thee, my life. + + DOL. O, but beware, sir! You may come to end + The remnants of your days in a loth'd prison, + By speaking of it. + + MAM. 'Tis no idle fear. + We'll therefore go withal, my girl, and live + In a free state, where we will eat our mullets, + Soused in high-country wines, sup pheasants' eggs, + And have our cockles boil'd in silver shells; + Our shrimps to swim again, as when they liv'd, + In a rare butter made of dolphins' milk, + Whose cream does look like opals; and with these + Delicate meats set ourselves high for pleasure, + And take us down again, and then renew + Our youth and strength with drinking the elixir, + And so enjoy a perpetuity + Of life and lust! And thou shalt have thy wardrobe + Richer than nature's, still to change thy self, + And vary oftener, for thy pride, than she, + Or art, her wise and almost-equal servant. + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. Sir, you are too loud. I hear you every word + Into the laboratory. Some fitter place; + The garden, or great chamber above. How like you her? + + MAM. Excellent! Lungs. There's for thee. + + [GIVES HIM MONEY.] + + FACE. But do you hear? + Good sir, beware, no mention of the rabbins. + + MAM. We think not on 'em. + + [EXEUNT MAM. AND DOL.] + + FACE. O, it is well, sir.—Subtle! + [ENTER SUBTLE.] + Dost thou not laugh? + + SUB. Yes; are they gone? + + FACE. All's clear. + + SUB. The widow is come. + + FACE. And your quarrelling disciple? + + SUB. Ay. + + FACE. I must to my captainship again then. + + SUB. Stay, bring them in first. + + FACE. So I meant. What is she? + A bonnibel? + + SUB. I know not. + + FACE. We'll draw lots: + You'll stand to that? + + SUB. What else? + + FACE. O, for a suit, + To fall now like a curtain, flap! + + SUB. To the door, man. + + FACE. You'll have the first kiss, 'cause I am not ready. + + [EXIT.] + + SUB. Yes, and perhaps hit you through both the nostrils. + + FACE [WITHIN]. Who would you speak with? + + KAS [WITHIN]. Where's the captain? + + FACE [WITHIN]. Gone, sir, + About some business. + + KAS [WITHIN]. Gone! + + FACE [WITHIN]. He'll return straight. + But master doctor, his lieutenant, is here. + + [ENTER KASTRIL, FOLLOWED BY DAME PLIANT.] + + SUB. Come near, my worshipful boy, my terrae fili, + That is, my boy of land; make thy approaches: + Welcome; I know thy lusts, and thy desires, + And I will serve and satisfy them. Begin, + Charge me from thence, or thence, or in this line; + Here is my centre: ground thy quarrel. + + KAS. You lie. + + SUB. How, child of wrath and anger! the loud lie? + For what, my sudden boy? + + KAS. Nay, that look you to, + I am afore-hand. + + SUB. O, this is no true grammar, + And as ill logic! You must render causes, child, + Your first and second intentions, know your canons + And your divisions, moods, degrees, and differences, + Your predicaments, substance, and accident, + Series, extern and intern, with their causes, + Efficient, material, formal, final, + And have your elements perfect. + + KAS [ASIDE]. What is this? + The angry tongue he talks in? + + SUB. That false precept, + Of being afore-hand, has deceived a number, + And made them enter quarrels, often-times, + Before they were aware; and afterward, + Against their wills. + + KAS. How must I do then, sir? + + SUB. I cry this lady mercy: she should first + Have been saluted. + [KISSES HER.] + I do call you lady, + Because you are to be one, ere't be long, + My soft and buxom widow. + + KAS. Is she, i'faith? + + SUB. Yes, or my art is an egregious liar. + + KAS. How know you? + + SUB. By inspection on her forehead, + And subtlety of her lip, which must be tasted + Often to make a judgment. + [KISSES HER AGAIN.] + 'Slight, she melts + Like a myrobolane:—here is yet a line, + In rivo frontis, tells me he is no knight. + + DAME P. What is he then, sir? + + SUB. Let me see your hand. + O, your linea fortunae makes it plain; + And stella here in monte Veneris. + But, most of all, junctura annularis. + He is a soldier, or a man of art, lady, + But shall have some great honour shortly. + + DAME P. Brother, + He's a rare man, believe me! + + [RE-ENTER FACE, IN HIS UNIFORM.] + + KAS. Hold your peace. + Here comes the t'other rare man.—'Save you, captain. + + FACE. Good master Kastril! Is this your sister? + + KAS. Ay, sir. + Please you to kuss her, and be proud to know her. + + FACE. I shall be proud to know you, lady. + + [KISSES HER.] + + DAME P. Brother, + He calls me lady too. + + KAS. Ay, peace: I heard it. + + [TAKES HER ASIDE.] + + FACE. The count is come. + + SUB. Where is he? + + FACE. At the door. + + SUB. Why, you must entertain him. + + FACE. What will you do + With these the while? + + SUB. Why, have them up, and shew them + Some fustian book, or the dark glass. + + FACE. 'Fore God, + She is a delicate dab-chick! I must have her. + + [EXIT.] + + SUB. Must you! ay, if your fortune will, you must.— + Come, sir, the captain will come to us presently: + I'll have you to my chamber of demonstrations, + Where I will shew you both the grammar and logic, + And rhetoric of quarrelling; my whole method + Drawn out in tables; and my instrument, + That hath the several scales upon't, shall make you + Able to quarrel at a straw's-breadth by moon-light. + And, lady, I'll have you look in a glass, + Some half an hour, but to clear your eye-sight, + Against you see your fortune; which is greater, + Than I may judge upon the sudden, trust me. + + [EXIT, FOLLOWED BY KAST. AND DAME P.] + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. Where are you, doctor? + + SUB [WITHIN]. I'll come to you presently. + + FACE. I will have this same widow, now I have seen her, + On any composition. + + [RE-ENTER SUBTLE.] + + SUB. What do you say? + + FACE. Have you disposed of them? + + SUB. I have sent them up. + + FACE. Subtle, in troth, I needs must have this widow. + + SUB. Is that the matter? + + FACE. Nay, but hear me. + + SUB. Go to. + If you rebel once, Dol shall know it all: + Therefore be quiet, and obey your chance. + + FACE. Nay, thou art so violent now—Do but conceive, + Thou art old, and canst not serve— + + SUB. Who cannot? I? + 'Slight, I will serve her with thee, for a— + + FACE. Nay, + But understand: I'll give you composition. + + SUB. I will not treat with thee; what! sell my fortune? + 'Tis better than my birth-right. Do not murmur: + Win her, and carry her. If you grumble, Dol + Knows it directly. + + FACE. Well, sir, I am silent. + Will you go help to fetch in Don in state? + + [EXIT.] + + SUB. I follow you, sir. We must keep Face in awe, + Or he will over-look us like a tyrant. + [RE-ENTER FACE, INTRODUCING SURLY DISGUISED AS A SPANIARD.] + Brain of a tailor! who comes here? Don John! + + SUR. Senores, beso las manos a vuestras mercedes. + + SUB. Would you had stoop'd a little, and kist our anos! + + FACE. Peace, Subtle. + + SUB. Stab me; I shall never hold, man. + He looks in that deep ruff like a head in a platter, + Serv'd in by a short cloke upon two trestles. + + FACE. Or, what do you say to a collar of brawn, cut down + Beneath the souse, and wriggled with a knife? + + SUB. 'Slud, he does look too fat to be a Spaniard. + + FACE. Perhaps some Fleming or some Hollander got him + In d'Alva's time; count Egmont's bastard. + + SUB. Don, + Your scurvy, yellow, Madrid face is welcome. + + SUR. Gratia. + + SUB. He speaks out of a fortification. + Pray God he have no squibs in those deep sets. + + SUR. Por dios, senores, muy linda casa! + + SUB. What says he? + + FACE. Praises the house, I think; + I know no more but's action. + + SUB. Yes, the casa, + My precious Diego, will prove fair enough + To cozen you in. Do you mark? you shall + Be cozen'd, Diego. + + FACE. Cozen'd, do you see, + My worthy Donzel, cozen'd. + + SUR. Entiendo. + + SUB. Do you intend it? so do we, dear Don. + Have you brought pistolets, or portagues, + My solemn Don?—Dost thou feel any? + + FACE [FEELS HIS POCKETS]. Full. + + SUB. You shall be emptied, Don, pumped and drawn + Dry, as they say. + + FACE. Milked, in troth, sweet Don. + + SUB. See all the monsters; the great lion of all, Don. + + SUR. Con licencia, se puede ver a esta senora? + + SUB. What talks he now? + + FACE. Of the sennora. + + SUB. O, Don, + This is the lioness, which you shall see + Also, my Don. + + FACE. 'Slid, Subtle, how shall we do? + + SUB. For what? + + FACE. Why Dol's employ'd, you know. + + SUB. That's true. + 'Fore heaven, I know not: he must stay, that's all. + + FACE. Stay! that he must not by no means. + + SUB. No! why? + + FACE. Unless you'll mar all. 'Slight, he will suspect it: + And then he will not pay, not half so well. + This is a travelled punk-master, and does know + All the delays; a notable hot rascal, + And looks already rampant. + + SUB. 'Sdeath, and Mammon + Must not be troubled. + + FACE. Mammon! in no case. + + SUB. What shall we do then? + + FACE. Think: you must be sudden. + + SUR. Entiendo que la senora es tan hermosa, que codicio tan + verla, como la bien aventuranza de mi vida. + + FACE. Mi vida! 'Slid, Subtle, he puts me in mind of the widow. + What dost thou say to draw her to it, ha! + And tell her 'tis her fortune? all our venture + Now lies upon't. It is but one man more, + Which of us chance to have her: and beside, + There is no maidenhead to be fear'd or lost. + What dost thou think on't, Subtle? + + SUB. Who? I? why— + + FACE. The credit of our house too is engaged. + + SUB. You made me an offer for my share erewhile. + What wilt thou give me, i'faith? + + FACE. O, by that light + I'll not buy now: You know your doom to me. + E'en take your lot, obey your chance, sir; win her, + And wear her out, for me. + + SUB. 'Slight, I'll not work her then. + + FACE. It is the common cause; therefore bethink you. + Dol else must know it, as you said. + + SUB. I care not. + + SUR. Senores, porque se tarda tanto? + + SUB. Faith, I am not fit, I am old. + + FACE. That's now no reason, sir. + + SUR. Puede ser de hazer burla de mi amor? + + FACE. You hear the Don too? by this air, I call, + And loose the hinges: Dol! + + SUB. A plague of hell— + + FACE. Will you then do? + + SUB. You are a terrible rogue! + I'll think of this: will you, sir, call the widow? + + FACE. Yes, and I'll take her too with all her faults, + Now I do think on't better. + + SUB. With all my heart, sir; + Am I discharged o' the lot? + + FACE. As you please. + + SUB. Hands. + + [THEY TAKE HANDS.] + + FACE. Remember now, that upon any change, + You never claim her. + + SUB. Much good joy, and health to you, sir, + Marry a whore! fate, let me wed a witch first. + + SUR. Por estas honradas barbas— + + SUB. He swears by his beard. + Dispatch, and call the brother too. + + [EXIT FACE.] + + SUR. Tengo duda, senores, que no me hagan alguna traycion. + + SUB. How, issue on? yes, praesto, sennor. Please you + Enthratha the chambrata, worthy don: + Where if you please the fates, in your bathada, + You shall be soked, and stroked, and tubb'd and rubb'd, + And scrubb'd, and fubb'd, dear don, before you go. + You shall in faith, my scurvy baboon don, + Be curried, claw'd, and flaw'd, and taw'd, indeed. + I will the heartlier go about it now, + And make the widow a punk so much the sooner, + To be revenged on this impetuous Face: + The quickly doing of it is the grace. + + [EXEUNT SUB. AND SURLY.] ++
SCENE 4.2. + + ANOTHER ROOM IN THE SAME. + + ENTER FACE, KASTRIL, AND DAME PLIANT. + + FACE. Come, lady: I knew the Doctor would not leave, + Till he had found the very nick of her fortune. + + KAS. To be a countess, say you, a Spanish countess, sir? + + DAME P. Why, is that better than an English countess? + + FACE. Better! 'Slight, make you that a question, lady? + + KAS. Nay, she is a fool, captain, you must pardon her. + + FACE. Ask from your courtier, to your inns-of-court-man, + To your mere milliner; they will tell you all, + Your Spanish gennet is the best horse; your Spanish + Stoup is the best garb; your Spanish beard + Is the best cut; your Spanish ruffs are the best + Wear; your Spanish pavin the best dance; + Your Spanish titillation in a glove + The best perfume: and for your Spanish pike, + And Spanish blade, let your poor captain speak— + Here comes the doctor. + + [ENTER SUBTLE, WITH A PAPER.] + + SUB. My most honour'd lady, + For so I am now to style you, having found + By this my scheme, you are to undergo + An honourable fortune, very shortly. + What will you say now, if some— + + FACE. I have told her all, sir, + And her right worshipful brother here, that she shall be + A countess; do not delay them, sir; a Spanish countess. + + SUB. Still, my scarce-worshipful captain, you can keep + No secret! Well, since he has told you, madam, + Do you forgive him, and I do. + + KAS. She shall do that, sir; + I'll look to it, 'tis my charge. + + SUB. Well then: nought rests + But that she fit her love now to her fortune. + + DAME P. Truly I shall never brook a Spaniard. + + SUB. No! + + DAME P. Never since eighty-eight could I abide them, + And that was some three year afore I was born, in truth. + + SUB. Come, you must love him, or be miserable, + Choose which you will. + + FACE. By this good rush, persuade her, + She will cry strawberries else within this twelvemonth. + + SUB. Nay, shads and mackerel, which is worse. + + FACE. Indeed, sir! + + KAS. Od's lid, you shall love him, or I'll kick you. + + DAME P. Why, + I'll do as you will have me, brother. + + KAS. Do, + Or by this hand I'll maul you. + + FACE. Nay, good sir, + Be not so fierce. + + SUB. No, my enraged child; + She will be ruled. What, when she comes to taste + The pleasures of a countess! to be courted— + + FACE. And kiss'd, and ruffled! + + SUB. Ay, behind the hangings. + + FACE. And then come forth in pomp! + + SUB. And know her state! + + FACE. Of keeping all the idolaters of the chamber + Barer to her, than at their prayers! + + SUB. Is serv'd + Upon the knee! + + FACE. And has her pages, ushers, + Footmen, and coaches— + + SUB. Her six mares— + + FACE. Nay, eight! + + SUB. To hurry her through London, to the Exchange, + Bethlem, the china-houses— + + FACE. Yes, and have + The citizens gape at her, and praise her tires, + And my lord's goose-turd bands, that ride with her! + + KAS. Most brave! By this hand, you are not my suster, + If you refuse. + + DAME P. I will not refuse, brother. + + [ENTER SURLY.] + + SUR. Que es esto, senores, que no venga? + Esta tardanza me mata! + + FACE. It is the count come: + The doctor knew he would be here, by his art. + + SUB. En gallanta madama, Don! gallantissima! + + SUR. Por todos los dioses, la mas acabada hermosura, que he visto + en mi vida! + + FACE. Is't not a gallant language that they speak? + + KAS. An admirable language! Is't not French? + + FACE. No, Spanish, sir. + + KAS. It goes like law-French, + And that, they say, is the courtliest language. + + FACE. List, sir. + + SUR. El sol ha perdido su lumbre, con el esplandor que trae + esta dama! Valgame dios! + + FACE. He admires your sister. + + KAS. Must not she make curt'sy? + + SUB. Ods will, she must go to him, man, and kiss him! + It is the Spanish fashion, for the women + To make first court. + + FACE. 'Tis true he tells you, sir: + His art knows all. + + SUR. Porque no se acude? + + KAS. He speaks to her, I think. + + FACE. That he does, sir. + + SUR. Por el amor de dios, que es esto que se tarda? + + KAS. Nay, see: she will not understand him! gull, + Noddy. + + DAME P. What say you, brother? + + KAS. Ass, my suster. + Go kuss him, as the cunning man would have you; + I'll thrust a pin in your buttocks else. + + FACE. O no, sir. + + SUR. Senora mia, mi persona esta muy indigna de allegar + a tanta hermosura. + + FACE. Does he not use her bravely? + + KAS. Bravely, i'faith! + + FACE. Nay, he will use her better. + + KAS. Do you think so? + + SUR. Senora, si sera servida, entremonos. + + [EXIT WITH DAME PLIANT.] + + KAS. Where does he carry her? + + FACE. Into the garden, sir; + Take you no thought: I must interpret for her. + + SUB. Give Dol the word. + [ASIDE TO FACE, WHO GOES OUT.] + —Come, my fierce child, advance, + We'll to our quarrelling lesson again. + + KAS. Agreed. + I love a Spanish boy with all my heart. + + SUB. Nay, and by this means, sir, you shall be brother + To a great count. + + KAS. Ay, I knew that at first, + This match will advance the house of the Kastrils. + + SUB. 'Pray God your sister prove but pliant! + + KAS. Why, + Her name is so, by her other husband. + + SUB. How! + + KAS. The widow Pliant. Knew you not that? + + SUB. No, faith, sir; + Yet, by erection of her figure, I guest it. + Come, let's go practise. + + KAS. Yes, but do you think, doctor, + I e'er shall quarrel well? + + SUB. I warrant you. + + [EXEUNT.] ++
SCENE 4.3. + + ANOTHER ROOM IN THE SAME. + + ENTER DOL IN HER FIT OF RAVING, FOLLOWED BY MAMMON. + + DOL. "For after Alexander's death"— + + MAM. Good lady— + + DOL. "That Perdiccas and Antigonus, were slain, + The two that stood, Seleuc', and Ptolomee"— + + MAM. Madam— + + DOL. "Made up the two legs, and the fourth beast, + That was Gog-north, and Egypt-south: which after + Was call'd Gog-iron-leg and South-iron-leg"— + + MAM. Lady— + + DOL. "And then Gog-horned. So was Egypt, too: + Then Egypt-clay-leg, and Gog-clay-leg"— + + MAM. Sweet madam— + + DOL. "And last Gog-dust, and Egypt-dust, which fall + In the last link of the fourth chain. And these + Be stars in story, which none see, or look at"— + + MAM. What shall I do? + + DOL. "For," as he says, "except + We call the rabbins, and the heathen Greeks"— + + MAM. Dear lady— + + DOL. "To come from Salem, and from Athens, + And teach the people of Great Britain"— + + [ENTER FACE, HASTILY, IN HIS SERVANT'S DRESS.] + + FACE. What's the matter, sir? + + DOL. "To speak the tongue of Eber, and Javan"— + + MAM. O, + She's in her fit. + + DOL. "We shall know nothing"— + + FACE. Death, sir, + We are undone! + + DOL. "Where then a learned linguist + Shall see the ancient used communion + Of vowels and consonants"— + + FACE. My master will hear! + + DOL. "A wisdom, which Pythagoras held most high"— + + MAM. Sweet honourable lady! + + DOL. "To comprise + All sounds of voices, in few marks of letters"— + + FACE. Nay, you must never hope to lay her now. + + [THEY ALL SPEAK TOGETHER.] + + DOL. "And so we may arrive by Talmud skill, + And profane Greek, to raise the building up + Of Helen's house against the Ismaelite, + King of Thogarma, and his habergions + Brimstony, blue, and fiery; and the force + Of king Abaddon, and the beast of Cittim: + Which rabbi David Kimchi, Onkelos, + And Aben Ezra do interpret Rome." + + FACE. How did you put her into't? + + MAM. Alas, I talk'd + Of a fifth monarchy I would erect, + With the philosopher's stone, by chance, and she + Falls on the other four straight. + + FACE. Out of Broughton! + I told you so. 'Slid, stop her mouth. + + MAM. Is't best? + + FACE. She'll never leave else. If the old man hear her, + We are but faeces, ashes. + + SUB [WITHIN]. What's to do there? + + FACE. O, we are lost! Now she hears him, she is quiet. + + [ENTER SUBTLE, THEY RUN DIFFERENT WAYS.] + + MAM. Where shall I hide me! + + SUB. How! what sight is here? + Close deeds of darkness, and that shun the light! + Bring him again. Who is he? What, my son! + O, I have lived too long. + + MAM. Nay, good, dear father, + There was no unchaste purpose. + + SUB. Not? and flee me + When I come in? + + MAM. That was my error. + + SUB. Error? + Guilt, guilt, my son: give it the right name. No marvel, + If I found check in our great work within, + When such affairs as these were managing! + + MAM. Why, have you so? + + SUB. It has stood still this half hour: + And all the rest of our less works gone back. + Where is the instrument of wickedness, + My lewd false drudge? + + MAM. Nay, good sir, blame not him; + Believe me, 'twas against his will or knowledge: + I saw her by chance. + + SUB. Will you commit more sin, + To excuse a varlet? + + MAM. By my hope, 'tis true, sir. + + SUB. Nay, then I wonder less, if you, for whom + The blessing was prepared, would so tempt heaven, + And lose your fortunes. + + MAM. Why, sir? + + SUB. This will retard + The work a month at least. + + MAM. Why, if it do, + What remedy? But think it not, good father: + Our purposes were honest. + + SUB. As they were, + So the reward will prove. + [A LOUD EXPLOSION WITHIN.] + —How now! ah me! + God, and all saints be good to us.— + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + What's that? + + FACE. O, sir, we are defeated! all the works + Are flown in fumo, every glass is burst; + Furnace, and all rent down, as if a bolt + Of thunder had been driven through the house. + Retorts, receivers, pelicans, bolt-heads, + All struck in shivers! + [SUBTLE FALLS DOWN AS IN A SWOON.] + Help, good sir! alas, + Coldness and death invades him. Nay, sir Mammon, + Do the fair offices of a man! you stand, + As you were readier to depart than he. + [KNOCKING WITHIN.] + Who's there? my lord her brother is come. + + MAM. Ha, Lungs! + + FACE. His coach is at the door. Avoid his sight, + For he's as furious as his sister's mad. + + MAM. Alas! + + FACE. My brain is quite undone with the fume, sir, + I ne'er must hope to be mine own man again. + + MAM. Is all lost, Lungs? will nothing be preserv'd + Of all our cost? + + FACE. Faith, very little, sir; + A peck of coals or so, which is cold comfort, sir. + + MAM. O, my voluptuous mind! I am justly punish'd. + + FACE. And so am I, sir. + + MAM. Cast from all my hopes— + + FACE. Nay, certainties, sir. + + MAM. By mine own base affections. + + SUB [SEEMING TO COME TO HIMSELF]. + O, the curst fruits of vice and lust! + + MAM. Good father, + It was my sin. Forgive it. + + SUB. Hangs my roof + Over us still, and will not fall, O justice, + Upon us, for this wicked man! + + FACE. Nay, look, sir, + You grieve him now with staying in his sight: + Good sir, the nobleman will come too, and take you, + And that may breed a tragedy. + + MAM. I'll go. + + FACE. Ay, and repent at home, sir. It may be, + For some good penance you may have it yet; + A hundred pound to the box at Bethlem— + + MAM. Yes. + + FACE. For the restoring such as—have their wits. + + MAM. I'll do't. + + FACE. I'll send one to you to receive it. + + MAM. Do. + Is no projection left? + + FACE. All flown, or stinks, sir. + + MAM. Will nought be sav'd that's good for med'cine, + think'st thou? + + FACE. I cannot tell, sir. There will be perhaps, + Something about the scraping of the shards, + Will cure the itch,—though not your itch of mind, sir. + [ASIDE.] + It shall be saved for you, and sent home. Good sir, + This way, for fear the lord should meet you. + + [EXIT MAMMON.] + + SUB [RAISING HIS HEAD]. Face! + + FACE. Ay. + + SUB. Is he gone? + + FACE. Yes, and as heavily + As all the gold he hoped for were in's blood. + Let us be light though. + + SUB [LEAPING UP]. Ay, as balls, and bound + And hit our heads against the roof for joy: + There's so much of our care now cast away. + + FACE. Now to our don. + + SUB. Yes, your young widow by this time + Is made a countess, Face; she has been in travail + Of a young heir for you. + + FACE. Good sir. + + SUB. Off with your case, + And greet her kindly, as a bridegroom should, + After these common hazards. + + FACE. Very well, sir. + Will you go fetch Don Diego off, the while? + + SUB. And fetch him over too, if you'll be pleased, sir: + Would Dol were in her place, to pick his pockets now! + + FACE. Why, you can do't as well, if you would set to't. + I pray you prove your virtue. + + SUB. For your sake sir. + + [EXEUNT.] ++
SCENE 4.4. + + ANOTHER ROOM IN THE SAME. + + [ENTER SURLY AND DAME PLIANT.] + + SUR. Lady, you see into what hands you are fall'n; + 'Mongst what a nest of villains! and how near + Your honour was t' have catch'd a certain clap, + Through your credulity, had I but been + So punctually forward, as place, time, + And other circumstances would have made a man; + For you're a handsome woman: would you were wise too! + I am a gentleman come here disguised, + Only to find the knaveries of this citadel; + And where I might have wrong'd your honour, and have not, + I claim some interest in your love. You are, + They say, a widow, rich: and I'm a batchelor, + Worth nought: your fortunes may make me a man, + As mine have preserv'd you a woman. Think upon it, + And whether I have deserv'd you or no. + + DAME P. I will, sir. + + SUR. And for these household-rogues, let me alone + To treat with them. + + [ENTER SUBTLE.] + + SUB. How doth my noble Diego, + And my dear madam countess? hath the count + Been courteous, lady? liberal, and open? + Donzel, methinks you look melancholic, + After your coitum, and scurvy: truly, + I do not like the dulness of your eye; + It hath a heavy cast, 'tis upsee Dutch, + And says you are a lumpish whore-master. + Be lighter, and I will make your pockets so. + [ATTEMPTS TO PICK THEM.] + + SUR [THROWS OPEN HIS CLOAK]. Will you, don bawd and + pickpurse? + [STRIKES HIM DOWN.] + how now! reel you? + Stand up, sir, you shall find, since I am so heavy, + I'll give you equal weight. + + SUB. Help! murder! + + SUR. No, sir, + There's no such thing intended: a good cart, + And a clean whip shall ease you of that fear. + I am the Spanish don "that should be cozen'd, + Do you see, cozen'd?" Where's your Captain Face, + That parcel broker, and whole-bawd, all rascal! + + [ENTER FACE, IN HIS UNIFORM.] + + FACE. How, Surly! + + SUR. O, make your approach, good captain. + I have found from whence your copper rings and spoons + Come, now, wherewith you cheat abroad in taverns. + 'Twas here you learned t' anoint your boot with brimstone, + Then rub men's gold on't for a kind of touch, + And say 'twas naught, when you had changed the colour, + That you might have't for nothing. And this doctor, + Your sooty, smoky-bearded compeer, he + Will close you so much gold, in a bolt's-head, + And, on a turn, convey in the stead another + With sublimed mercury, that shall burst in the heat, + And fly out all in fumo! Then weeps Mammon; + Then swoons his worship. + [FACE SLIPS OUT.] + Or, he is the Faustus, + That casteth figures and can conjure, cures + Plagues, piles, and pox, by the ephemerides, + And holds intelligence with all the bawds + And midwives of three shires: while you send in— + Captain!—what! is he gone?—damsels with child, + Wives that are barren, or the waiting-maid + With the green sickness. + [SEIZES SUBTLE AS HE IS RETIRING.] + —Nay, sir, you must tarry, + Though he be scaped; and answer by the ears, sir. + + [RE-ENTER FACE, WITH KASTRIL.] + + FACE. Why, now's the time, if ever you will quarrel + Well, as they say, and be a true-born child: + The doctor and your sister both are abused. + + KAS. Where is he? which is he? he is a slave, + Whate'er he is, and the son of a whore.—Are you + The man, sir, I would know? + + SUR. I should be loth, sir, + To confess so much. + + KAS. Then you lie in your throat. + + SUR. How! + + FACE [TO KASTRIL]. A very errant rogue, sir, and a cheater, + Employ'd here by another conjurer + That does not love the doctor, and would cross him, + If he knew how. + + SUR. Sir, you are abused. + + KAS. You lie: + And 'tis no matter. + + FACE. Well said, sir! He is + The impudent'st rascal— + + SUR. You are indeed: Will you hear me, sir? + + FACE. By no means: bid him be gone. + + KAS. Begone, sir, quickly. + + SUR. This 's strange!—Lady, do you inform your brother. + + FACE. There is not such a foist in all the town, + The doctor had him presently; and finds yet, + The Spanish count will come here. + [ASIDE.] + —Bear up, Subtle. + + SUB. Yes, sir, he must appear within this hour. + + FACE. And yet this rogue would come in a disguise, + By the temptation of another spirit, + To trouble our art, though he could not hurt it! + + KAS. Ay, + I know—Away, + [TO HIS SISTER.] + you talk like a foolish mauther. + + SUR. Sir, all is truth she says. + + FACE. Do not believe him, sir. + He is the lying'st swabber! Come your ways, sir. + + SUR. You are valiant out of company! + + KAS. Yes, how then, sir? + + [ENTER DRUGGER, WITH A PIECE OF DAMASK.] + + FACE. Nay, here's an honest fellow, too, that knows him, + And all his tricks. Make good what I say, Abel, + This cheater would have cozen'd thee o' the widow.— + [ASIDE TO DRUG.] + He owes this honest Drugger here, seven pound, + He has had on him, in two-penny'orths of tobacco. + + DRUG. Yes, sir. + And he has damn'd himself three terms to pay me. + + FACE. And what does he owe for lotium? + + DRUG. Thirty shillings, sir; + And for six syringes. + + SUR. Hydra of villainy! + + FACE. Nay, sir, you must quarrel him out o' the house. + + KAS. I will: + —Sir, if you get not out of doors, you lie; + And you are a pimp. + + SUR. Why, this is madness, sir, + Not valour in you; I must laugh at this. + + KAS. It is my humour: you are a pimp and a trig, + And an Amadis de Gaul, or a Don Quixote. + + DRUG. Or a knight o' the curious coxcomb, do you see? + + [ENTER ANANIAS.] + + ANA. Peace to the household! + + KAS. I'll keep peace for no man. + + ANA. Casting of dollars is concluded lawful. + + KAS. Is he the constable? + + SUB. Peace, Ananias. + + FACE. No, sir. + + KAS. Then you are an otter, and a shad, a whit, + A very tim. + + SUR. You'll hear me, sir? + + KAS. I will not. + + ANA. What is the motive? + + SUB. Zeal in the young gentleman, + Against his Spanish slops. + + ANA. They are profane, + Lewd, superstitious, and idolatrous breeches. + + SUR. New rascals! + + KAS. Will you begone, sir? + + ANA. Avoid, Sathan! + Thou art not of the light: That ruff of pride + About thy neck, betrays thee; and is the same + With that which the unclean birds, in seventy-seven, + Were seen to prank it with on divers coasts: + Thou look'st like antichrist, in that lewd hat. + + SUR. I must give way. + + KAS. Be gone, sir. + + SUR. But I'll take + A course with you— + + ANA. Depart, proud Spanish fiend! + + SUR. Captain and doctor. + + ANA. Child of perdition! + + KAS. Hence, sir!— + [EXIT SURLY.] + Did I not quarrel bravely? + + FACE. Yes, indeed, sir. + + KAS. Nay, an I give my mind to't, I shall do't. + + FACE. O, you must follow, sir, and threaten him tame: + He'll turn again else. + + KAS. I'll re-turn him then. + + [EXIT.] + + [SUBTLE TAKES ANANIAS ASIDE.] + + FACE. Drugger, this rogue prevented us for thee: + We had determin'd that thou should'st have come + In a Spanish suit, and have carried her so; and he, + A brokerly slave! goes, puts it on himself. + Hast brought the damask? + + DRUG. Yes, sir. + + FACE. Thou must borrow + A Spanish suit. Hast thou no credit with the players? + + DRUG. Yes, sir; did you never see me play the Fool? + + FACE. I know not, Nab:—Thou shalt, if I can help it.— + [ASIDE.] + Hieronimo's old cloak, ruff, and hat will serve; + I'll tell thee more when thou bring'st 'em. + [EXIT DRUGGER.] + + ANA. Sir, I know + The Spaniard hates the brethren, and hath spies + Upon their actions: and that this was one + I make no scruple.—But the holy synod + Have been in prayer and meditation for it; + And 'tis revealed no less to them than me, + That casting of money is most lawful. + + SUB. True. + But here I cannot do it: if the house + Shou'd chance to be suspected, all would out, + And we be locked up in the Tower for ever, + To make gold there for the state, never come out; + And then are you defeated. + + ANA. I will tell + This to the elders and the weaker brethren, + That the whole company of the separation + May join in humble prayer again. + + SUB. And fasting. + + ANA. Yea, for some fitter place. The peace of mind + Rest with these walls! + + [EXIT.] + + SUB. Thanks, courteous Ananias. + + FACE. What did he come for? + + SUB. About casting dollars, + Presently out of hand. And so I told him, + A Spanish minister came here to spy, + Against the faithful— + + FACE. I conceive. Come, Subtle, + Thou art so down upon the least disaster! + How wouldst thou ha' done, if I had not help't thee out? + + SUB. I thank thee, Face, for the angry boy, i'faith. + + FACE. Who would have look'd it should have been that rascal, + Surly? he had dyed his beard and all. Well, sir. + Here's damask come to make you a suit. + + SUB. Where's Drugger? + + FACE. He is gone to borrow me a Spanish habit; + I'll be the count, now. + + SUB. But where's the widow? + + FACE. Within, with my lord's sister; madam Dol + Is entertaining her. + + SUB. By your favour, Face, + Now she is honest, I will stand again. + + FACE. You will not offer it. + + SUB. Why? + + FACE. Stand to your word, + Or—here comes Dol, she knows— + + SUB. You are tyrannous still. + + [ENTER DOL, HASTILY.] + + FACE. Strict for my right.—How now, Dol! + Hast [thou] told her, + The Spanish count will come? + + DOL. Yes; but another is come, + You little look'd for! + + FACE. Who's that? + + DOL. Your master; + The master of the house. + + SUB. How, Dol! + + FACE. She lies, + This is some trick. Come, leave your quiblins, Dorothy. + + DOL. Look out, and see. + + [FACE GOES TO THE WINDOW.] + + SUB. Art thou in earnest? + + DOL. 'Slight, + Forty of the neighbours are about him, talking. + + FACE. 'Tis he, by this good day. + + DOL. 'Twill prove ill day + For some on us. + + FACE. We are undone, and taken. + + DOL. Lost, I'm afraid. + + SUB. You said he would not come, + While there died one a week within the liberties. + + FACE. No: 'twas within the walls. + + SUB. Was't so! cry you mercy. + I thought the liberties. What shall we do now, Face? + + FACE. Be silent: not a word, if he call or knock. + I'll into mine old shape again and meet him, + Of Jeremy, the butler. In the mean time, + Do you two pack up all the goods and purchase, + That we can carry in the two trunks. I'll keep him + Off for to-day, if I cannot longer: and then + At night, I'll ship you both away to Ratcliff, + Where we will meet to-morrow, and there we'll share. + Let Mammon's brass and pewter keep the cellar; + We'll have another time for that. But, Dol, + 'Prythee go heat a little water quickly; + Subtle must shave me: all my captain's beard + Must off, to make me appear smooth Jeremy. + You'll do it? + + SUB. Yes, I'll shave you, as well as I can. + + FACE. And not cut my throat, but trim me? + + SUB. You shall see, sir. + + [EXEUNT.] ++
+ + +
+BEFORE LOVEWIT'S DOOR. + + ENTER LOVEWIT, WITH SEVERAL OF THE NEIGHBOURS. + + LOVE. Has there been such resort, say you? + + 1 NEI. Daily, sir. + + 2 NEI. And nightly, too. + + 3 NEI. Ay, some as brave as lords. + + 4 NEI. Ladies and gentlewomen. + + 5 NEI. Citizens' wives. + + 1 NEI. And knights. + + 6 NEI. In coaches. + + 2 NEI. Yes, and oyster women. + + 1 NEI. Beside other gallants. + + 3 NEI. Sailors' wives. + + 4 NEI. Tobacco men. + + 5 NEI. Another Pimlico! + + LOVE. What should my knave advance, + To draw this company? he hung out no banners + Of a strange calf with five legs to be seen, + Or a huge lobster with six claws? + + 6 NEI. No, sir. + + 3 NEI. We had gone in then, sir. + + LOVE. He has no gift + Of teaching in the nose that e'er I knew of. + You saw no bills set up that promised cure + Of agues, or the tooth-ach? + + 2 NEI. No such thing, sir! + + LOVE. Nor heard a drum struck for baboons or puppets? + + 5 NEI. Neither, sir. + + LOVE. What device should he bring forth now? + I love a teeming wit as I love my nourishment: + 'Pray God he have not kept such open house, + That he hath sold my hangings, and my bedding! + I left him nothing else. If he have eat them, + A plague o' the moth, say I! Sure he has got + Some bawdy pictures to call all this ging! + The friar and the nun; or the new motion + Of the knight's courser covering the parson's mare; + Or 't may be, he has the fleas that run at tilt + Upon a table, or some dog to dance. + When saw you him? + + 1 NEI. Who, sir, Jeremy? + + 2 NEI. Jeremy butler? + We saw him not this month. + + LOVE. How! + + 4 NEI. Not these five weeks, sir. + + 6 NEI. These six weeks at the least. + + LOVE. You amaze me, neighbours! + + 5 NEI. Sure, if your worship know not where he is, + He's slipt away. + + 6 NEI. Pray God, he be not made away. + + LOVE. Ha! it's no time to question, then. + + [KNOCKS AT THE DOOR.] + + 6 NEI. About + Some three weeks since, I heard a doleful cry, + As I sat up a mending my wife's stockings. + + LOVE. 'Tis strange that none will answer! Didst thou hear + A cry, sayst thou? + + 6 NEI. Yes, sir, like unto a man + That had been strangled an hour, and could not speak. + + 2 NEI. I heard it too, just this day three weeks, at two o'clock + Next morning. + + LOVE. These be miracles, or you make them so! + A man an hour strangled, and could not speak, + And both you heard him cry? + + 3 NEI. Yes, downward, sir. + + Love, Thou art a wise fellow. Give me thy hand, I pray thee. + What trade art thou on? + + 3 NEI. A smith, an't please your worship. + + LOVE. A smith! then lend me thy help to get this door open. + + 3 NEI. That I will presently, sir, but fetch my tools— + + [EXIT.] + + 1 NEI. Sir, best to knock again, afore you break it. + + LOVE [KNOCKS AGAIN]. I will. + + [ENTER FACE, IN HIS BUTLER'S LIVERY.] + + FACE. What mean you, sir? + + 1, 2, 4 NEI. O, here's Jeremy! + + FACE. Good sir, come from the door. + + LOVE. Why, what's the matter? + + FACE. Yet farther, you are too near yet. + + LOVE. In the name of wonder, + What means the fellow! + + FACE. The house, sir, has been visited. + + LOVE. What, with the plague? stand thou then farther. + + FACE. No, sir, + I had it not. + + LOVE. Who had it then? I left + None else but thee in the house. + + FACE. Yes, sir, my fellow, + The cat that kept the buttery, had it on her + A week before I spied it; but I got her + Convey'd away in the night: and so I shut + The house up for a month— + + LOVE. How! + + FACE. Purposing then, sir, + To have burnt rose-vinegar, treacle, and tar, + And have made it sweet, that you shou'd ne'er have known it; + Because I knew the news would but afflict you, sir. + + LOVE. Breathe less, and farther off! Why this is stranger: + The neighbours tell me all here that the doors + Have still been open— + + FACE. How, sir! + + LOVE. Gallants, men and women, + And of all sorts, tag-rag, been seen to flock here + In threaves, these ten weeks, as to a second Hogsden, + In days of Pimlico and Eye-bright. + + FACE. Sir, + Their wisdoms will not say so. + + LOVE. To-day they speak + Of coaches and gallants; one in a French hood + Went in, they tell me; and another was seen + In a velvet gown at the window: divers more + Pass in and out. + + FACE. They did pass through the doors then, + Or walls, I assure their eye-sights, and their spectacles; + For here, sir, are the keys, and here have been, + In this my pocket, now above twenty days: + And for before, I kept the fort alone there. + But that 'tis yet not deep in the afternoon, + I should believe my neighbours had seen double + Through the black pot, and made these apparitions! + For, on my faith to your worship, for these three weeks + And upwards the door has not been open'd. + + LOVE. Strange! + + 1 NEI. Good faith, I think I saw a coach. + + 2 NEI. And I too, + I'd have been sworn. + + LOVE. Do you but think it now? + And but one coach? + + 4 NEI. We cannot tell, sir: Jeremy + Is a very honest fellow. + + FACE. Did you see me at all? + + 1 NEI. No; that we are sure on. + + 2 NEI. I'll be sworn o' that. + + LOVE. Fine rogues to have your testimonies built on! + + [RE-ENTER THIRD NEIGHBOUR, WITH HIS TOOLS.] + + 3 NEI. Is Jeremy come! + + 1 NEI. O yes; you may leave your tools; + We were deceived, he says. + + 2 NEI. He has had the keys; + And the door has been shut these three weeks. + + 3 NEI. Like enough. + + LOVE. Peace, and get hence, you changelings. + + [ENTER SURLY AND MAMMON.] + + FACE [ASIDE]. Surly come! + And Mammon made acquainted! they'll tell all. + How shall I beat them off? what shall I do? + Nothing's more wretched than a guilty conscience. + + SUR. No, sir, he was a great physician. This, + It was no bawdy-house, but a mere chancel! + You knew the lord and his sister. + + MAM. Nay, good Surly.— + + SUR. The happy word, BE RICH— + + MAM. Play not the tyrant.— + + SUR. "Should be to-day pronounced to all your friends." + And where be your andirons now? and your brass pots, + That should have been golden flagons, and great wedges? + + MAM. Let me but breathe. What, they have shut their doors, + Methinks! + + SUR. Ay, now 'tis holiday with them. + + MAM. Rogues, + [HE AND SURLY KNOCK.] + Cozeners, impostors, bawds! + + FACE. What mean you, sir? + + MAM. To enter if we can. + + FACE. Another man's house! + Here is the owner, sir: turn you to him, + And speak your business. + + MAM. Are you, sir, the owner? + + LOVE. Yes, sir. + + MAM. And are those knaves within your cheaters! + + LOVE. What knaves, what cheaters? + + MAM. Subtle and his Lungs. + + FACE. The gentleman is distracted, sir! No lungs, + Nor lights have been seen here these three weeks, sir, + Within these doors, upon my word. + + SUR. Your word, + Groom arrogant! + + FACE. Yes, sir, I am the housekeeper, + And know the keys have not been out of my hands. + + SUR. This is a new Face. + + FACE. You do mistake the house, sir: + What sign was't at? + + SUR. You rascal! this is one + Of the confederacy. Come, let's get officers, + And force the door. + + LOVE. 'Pray you stay, gentlemen. + + SUR. No, sir, we'll come with warrant. + + MAM. Ay, and then + We shall have your doors open. + + [EXEUNT MAM. AND SUR.] + + LOVE. What means this? + + FACE. I cannot tell, sir. + + I NEI. These are two of the gallants + That we do think we saw. + + FACE. Two of the fools! + Your talk as idly as they. Good faith, sir, + I think the moon has crazed 'em all.— + [ASIDE.] + O me, + [ENTER KASTRIL.] + The angry boy come too! He'll make a noise, + And ne'er away till he have betray'd us all. + + KAS [KNOCKING]. What rogues, bawds, slaves, + you'll open the door, anon! + Punk, cockatrice, my suster! By this light + I'll fetch the marshal to you. You are a whore + To keep your castle— + + FACE. Who would you speak with, sir? + + KAS. The bawdy doctor, and the cozening captain, + And puss my suster. + + LOVE. This is something, sure. + + FACE. Upon my trust, the doors were never open, sir. + + KAS. I have heard all their tricks told me twice over, + By the fat knight and the lean gentleman. + + LOVE. Here comes another. + + [ENTER ANANIAS AND TRIBULATION.] + + FACE. Ananias too! + And his pastor! + + TRI [BEATING AT THE DOOR]. The doors are shut against us. + + ANA. Come forth, you seed of sulphur, sons of fire! + Your stench it is broke forth; abomination + Is in the house. + + KAS. Ay, my suster's there. + + ANA. The place, + It is become a cage of unclean birds. + + KAS. Yes, I will fetch the scavenger, and the constable. + + TRI. You shall do well. + + ANA. We'll join to weed them out. + + KAS. You will not come then, punk devise, my sister! + + ANA. Call her not sister; she's a harlot verily. + + KAS. I'll raise the street. + + LOVE. Good gentlemen, a word. + + ANA. Satan avoid, and hinder not our zeal! + + [EXEUNT ANA., TRIB., AND KAST.] + + LOVE. The world's turn'd Bethlem. + + FACE. These are all broke loose, + Out of St. Katherine's, where they use to keep + The better sort of mad-folks. + + 1 NEI. All these persons + We saw go in and out here. + + 2 NEI. Yes, indeed, sir. + + 3 NEI. These were the parties. + + FACE. Peace, you drunkards! Sir, + I wonder at it: please you to give me leave + To touch the door, I'll try an the lock be chang'd. + + LOVE. It mazes me! + + FACE [GOES TO THE DOOR]. Good faith, sir, I believe + There's no such thing: 'tis all deceptio visus.— + [ASIDE.] + Would I could get him away. + + DAP [WITHIN]. Master captain! master doctor! + + LOVE. Who's that? + + FACE. Our clerk within, that I forgot! + [ASIDE.] + I know not, sir. + + DAP [WITHIN]. For God's sake, when will her grace be at leisure? + + FACE. Ha! + Illusions, some spirit o' the air— + [ASIDE.] + His gag is melted, + And now he sets out the throat. + + DAP [WITHIN]. I am almost stifled— + + FACE [ASIDE]. Would you were altogether. + + LOVE. 'Tis in the house. + Ha! list. + + FACE. Believe it, sir, in the air. + + LOVE. Peace, you. + + DAP [WITHIN]. Mine aunt's grace does not use me well. + + SUB [WITHIN]. You fool, + Peace, you'll mar all. + + FACE [SPEAKS THROUGH THE KEYHOLE, + WHILE LOVEWIT ADVANCES TO THE DOOR UNOBSERVED]. + Or you will else, you rogue. + + LOVE. O, is it so? Then you converse with spirits!— + Come, sir. No more of your tricks, good Jeremy. + The truth, the shortest way. + + FACE. Dismiss this rabble, sir.— + [ASIDE.] + What shall I do? I am catch'd. + + LOVE. Good neighbours, + I thank you all. You may depart. + [EXEUNT NEIGHBOURS.] + —Come, sir, + You know that I am an indulgent master; + And therefore conceal nothing. What's your medicine, + To draw so many several sorts of wild fowl? + + FACE. Sir, you were wont to affect mirth and wit— + But here's no place to talk on't in the street. + Give me but leave to make the best of my fortune, + And only pardon me the abuse of your house: + It's all I beg. I'll help you to a widow, + In recompence, that you shall give me thanks for, + Will make you seven years younger, and a rich one. + 'Tis but your putting on a Spanish cloak: + I have her within. You need not fear the house; + It was not visited. + + LOVE. But by me, who came + Sooner than you expected. + + FACE. It is true, sir. + 'Pray you forgive me. + + LOVE. Well: let's see your widow. + + [EXEUNT.] ++
SCENE 5.2. + + A ROOM IN THE SAME. + + ENTER SUBTLE, LEADING IN DAPPER, WITH HIS EYES BOUND AS BEFORE. + + SUB. How! you have eaten your gag? + + DAP. Yes faith, it crumbled + Away in my mouth. + + SUB. You have spoil'd all then. + + DAP. No! + I hope my aunt of Fairy will forgive me. + + SUB. Your aunt's a gracious lady; but in troth + You were to blame. + + DAP. The fume did overcome me, + And I did do't to stay my stomach. 'Pray you + So satisfy her grace. + [ENTER FACE, IN HIS UNIFORM.] + Here comes the captain. + + FACE. How now! is his mouth down? + + SUB. Ay, he has spoken! + + FACE. A pox, I heard him, and you too. + —He's undone then.— + I have been fain to say, the house is haunted + With spirits, to keep churl back. + + SUB. And hast thou done it? + + FACE. Sure, for this night. + + SUB. Why, then triumph and sing + Of Face so famous, the precious king + Of present wits. + + FACE. Did you not hear the coil + About the door? + + SUB. Yes, and I dwindled with it. + + FACE. Show him his aunt, and let him be dispatch'd: + I'll send her to you. + + [EXIT FACE.] + + SUB. Well, sir, your aunt her grace + Will give you audience presently, on my suit, + And the captain's word that you did not eat your gag + In any contempt of her highness. + + [UNBINDS HIS EYES.] + + DAP. Not I, in troth, sir. + + [ENTER DOL, LIKE THE QUEEN OF FAIRY.] + + SUB. Here she is come. Down o' your knees and wriggle: + She has a stately presence. + [DAPPER KNEELS, AND SHUFFLES TOWARDS HER.] + Good! Yet nearer, + And bid, God save you! + + DAP. Madam! + + SUB. And your aunt. + + DAP. And my most gracious aunt, God save your grace. + + DOL. Nephew, we thought to have been angry with you; + But that sweet face of yours hath turn'd the tide, + And made it flow with joy, that ebb'd of love. + Arise, and touch our velvet gown. + + SUB. The skirts, + And kiss 'em. So! + + DOL. Let me now stroak that head. + "Much, nephew, shalt thou win, much shalt thou spend, + Much shalt thou give away, much shalt thou lend." + + SUB [ASIDE]. Ay, much! indeed.— + Why do you not thank her grace? + + DAP. I cannot speak for joy. + + SUB. See, the kind wretch! + Your grace's kinsman right. + + DOL. Give me the bird. + Here is your fly in a purse, about your neck, cousin; + Wear it, and feed it about this day sev'n-night, + On your right wrist— + + SUB. Open a vein with a pin, + And let it suck but once a week; till then, + You must not look on't. + + DOL. No: and kinsman, + Bear yourself worthy of the blood you come on. + + SUB. Her grace would have you eat no more Woolsack pies, + Nor Dagger frumety. + + DOL. Nor break his fast + In Heaven and Hell. + + SUB. She's with you every where! + Nor play with costarmongers, at mum-chance, tray-trip, + God make you rich; (when as your aunt has done it); + But keep + The gallant'st company, and the best games— + + DAP. Yes, sir. + + SUB. Gleek and primero; and what you get, be true to us. + + DAP. By this hand, I will. + + SUB. You may bring's a thousand pound + Before to-morrow night, if but three thousand + Be stirring, an you will. + + DAP. I swear I will then. + + SUB. Your fly will learn you all games. + + FACE [WITHIN]. Have you done there? + + SUB. Your grace will command him no more duties? + + DOL. No: + But come, and see me often. I may chance + To leave him three or four hundred chests of treasure, + And some twelve thousand acres of fairy land, + If he game well and comely with good gamesters. + + SUB. There's a kind aunt! kiss her departing part.— + But you must sell your forty mark a year, now. + + DAP. Ay, sir, I mean. + + SUB. Or, give't away; pox on't! + + DAP. I'll give't mine aunt. I'll go and fetch the writings. + + [EXIT.] + + SUB. 'Tis well—away! + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. Where's Subtle? + + SUB. Here: what news? + + FACE. Drugger is at the door, go take his suit, + And bid him fetch a parson, presently; + Say, he shall marry the widow. Thou shalt spend + A hundred pound by the service! + [EXIT SUBTLE.] + Now, queen Dol, + Have you pack'd up all? + + DOL. Yes. + + FACE. And how do you like + The lady Pliant? + + DOL. A good dull innocent. + + [RE-ENTER SUBTLE.] + + SUB. Here's your Hieronimo's cloak and hat. + + FACE. Give me them. + + SUB. And the ruff too? + + FACE. Yes; I'll come to you presently. + + [EXIT.] + + SUB. Now he is gone about his project, Dol, + I told you of, for the widow. + + DOL. 'Tis direct + Against our articles. + + SUB. Well, we will fit him, wench. + Hast thou gull'd her of her jewels or her bracelets? + + DOL. No; but I will do't. + + SUB. Soon at night, my Dolly, + When we are shipp'd, and all our goods aboard, + Eastward for Ratcliff, we will turn our course + To Brainford, westward, if thou sayst the word, + And take our leaves of this o'er-weening rascal, + This peremptory Face. + + DOL. Content, I'm weary of him. + + SUB. Thou'st cause, when the slave will run a wiving, Dol, + Against the instrument that was drawn between us. + + DOL. I'll pluck his bird as bare as I can. + + SUB. Yes, tell her, + She must by any means address some present + To the cunning man, make him amends for wronging + His art with her suspicion; send a ring, + Or chain of pearl; she will be tortured else + Extremely in her sleep, say, and have strange things + Come to her. Wilt thou? + + DOL. Yes. + + SUB. My fine flitter-mouse, + My bird o' the night! we'll tickle it at the Pigeons, + When we have all, and may unlock the trunks, + And say, this's mine, and thine; and thine, and mine. + + [THEY KISS.] + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. What now! a billing? + + SUB. Yes, a little exalted + In the good passage of our stock-affairs. + + FACE. Drugger has brought his parson; take him in, Subtle, + And send Nab back again to wash his face. + + SUB. I will: and shave himself? + + [EXIT.] + + FACE. If you can get him. + + DOL. You are hot upon it, Face, whate'er it is! + + FACE. A trick that Dol shall spend ten pound a month by. + [RE-ENTER SUBTLE.] + Is he gone? + + SUB. The chaplain waits you in the hall, sir. + + FACE. I'll go bestow him. + + [EXIT.] + + DOL. He'll now marry her, instantly. + + SUB. He cannot yet, he is not ready. Dear Dol, + Cozen her of all thou canst. To deceive him + Is no deceit, but justice, that would break + Such an inextricable tie as ours was. + + DOL. Let me alone to fit him. + + [RE-ENTER FACE.] + + FACE. Come, my venturers, + You have pack'd up all? where be the trunks? bring forth. + + SUB. Here. + + FACE. Let us see them. Where's the money? + + SUB. Here, + In this. + + FACE. Mammon's ten pound; eight score before: + The brethren's money, this. Drugger's and Dapper's. + What paper's that? + + DOL. The jewel of the waiting maid's, + That stole it from her lady, to know certain— + + FACE. If she should have precedence of her mistress? + + DOL. Yes. + + FACE. What box is that? + + SUB. The fish-wives' rings, I think, + And the ale-wives' single money. Is't not, Dol? + + DOL. Yes; and the whistle that the sailor's wife + Brought you to know an her husband were with Ward. + + FACE. We'll wet it to-morrow; and our silver-beakers + And tavern cups. Where be the French petticoats, + And girdles and hangers? + + SUB. Here, in the trunk, + And the bolts of lawn. + + FACE. Is Drugger's damask there, + And the tobacco? + + SUB. Yes. + + FACE. Give me the keys. + + DOL. Why you the keys? + + SUB. No matter, Dol; because + We shall not open them before he comes. + + FACE. 'Tis true, you shall not open them, indeed; + Nor have them forth, do you see? Not forth, Dol. + + DOL. No! + + FACE. No, my smock rampant. The right is, my master + Knows all, has pardon'd me, and he will keep them; + Doctor, 'tis true—you look—for all your figures: + I sent for him, indeed. Wherefore, good partners, + Both he and she be satisfied; for here + Determines the indenture tripartite + 'Twixt Subtle, Dol, and Face. All I can do + Is to help you over the wall, o' the back-side, + Or lend you a sheet to save your velvet gown, Dol. + Here will be officers presently, bethink you + Of some course suddenly to 'scape the dock: + For thither you will come else. + [LOUD KNOCKING.] + Hark you, thunder. + + SUB. You are a precious fiend! + + OFFI [WITHOUT]. Open the door. + + FACE. Dol, I am sorry for thee i'faith; but hear'st thou? + It shall go hard but I will place thee somewhere: + Thou shalt have my letter to mistress Amo— + + DOL. Hang you! + + FACE. Or madam Caesarean. + + DOL. Pox upon you, rogue, + Would I had but time to beat thee! + + FACE. Subtle, + Let's know where you set up next; I will send you + A customer now and then, for old acquaintance: + What new course have you? + + SUB. Rogue, I'll hang myself; + That I may walk a greater devil than thou, + And haunt thee in the flock-bed and the buttery. + + [EXEUNT.] ++
SCENE 5.3. + + AN OUTER ROOM IN THE SAME. + + ENTER LOVEWIT IN THE SPANISH DRESS, WITH THE PARSON. + + LOUD KNOCKING AT THE DOOR. + + LOVE. What do you mean, my masters? + + MAM [WITHOUT]. Open your door, + Cheaters, bawds, conjurers. + + OFFI [WITHOUT]. Or we will break it open. + + LOVE. What warrant have you? + + OFFI [WITHOUT]. Warrant enough, sir, doubt not, + If you'll not open it. + + LOVE. Is there an officer, there? + + OFFI [WITHOUT]. Yes, two or three for failing. + + LOVE. Have but patience, + And I will open it straight. + + [ENTER FACE, AS BUTLER.] + + FACE. Sir, have you done? + Is it a marriage? perfect? + + LOVE. Yes, my brain. + + FACE. Off with your ruff and cloak then; be yourself, sir. + + SUR [WITHOUT]. Down with the door. + + KAS [WITHOUT]. 'Slight, ding it open. + + LOVE [OPENING THE DOOR]. Hold, + Hold, gentlemen, what means this violence? + + [MAMMON, SURLY, KASTRIL, ANANIAS, TRIBULATION, + AND OFFICERS, RUSH IN.] + + MAM. Where is this collier? + + SUR. And my captain Face? + + MAM. These day owls. + + SUR. That are birding in men's purses. + + MAM. Madam suppository. + + KAS. Doxy, my suster. + + ANA. Locusts + Of the foul pit. + + TRI. Profane as Bel and the dragon. + + ANA. Worse than the grasshoppers, or the lice of Egypt. + + LOVE. Good gentlemen, hear me. Are you officers, + And cannot stay this violence? + + 1 OFFI. Keep the peace. + + LOVE. Gentlemen, what is the matter? whom do you seek? + + MAM. The chemical cozener. + + SUR. And the captain pander. + + KAS. The nun my suster. + + MAM. Madam Rabbi. + + ANA. Scorpions, + And caterpillars. + + LOVE. Fewer at once, I pray you. + + 2 OFFI. One after another, gentlemen, I charge you, + By virtue of my staff. + + ANA. They are the vessels + Of pride, lust, and the cart. + + LOVE. Good zeal, lie still + A little while. + + TRI. Peace, deacon Ananias. + + LOVE. The house is mine here, and the doors are open; + If there be any such persons as you seek for, + Use your authority, search on o' God's name. + I am but newly come to town, and finding + This tumult 'bout my door, to tell you true, + It somewhat mazed me; till my man, here, fearing + My more displeasure, told me he had done + Somewhat an insolent part, let out my house + (Belike, presuming on my known aversion + From any air o' the town while there was sickness,) + To a doctor and a captain: who, what they are + Or where they be, he knows not. + + MAM. Are they gone? + + LOVE. You may go in and search, sir. + [MAMMON, ANA., AND TRIB. GO IN.] + Here, I find + The empty walls worse than I left them, smoak'd, + A few crack'd pots, and glasses, and a furnace: + The ceiling fill'd with poesies of the candle, + And madam with a dildo writ o' the walls: + Only one gentlewoman, I met here, + That is within, that said she was a widow— + + KAS. Ay, that's my suster; I'll go thump her. Where is she? + + [GOES IN.] + + LOVE. And should have married a Spanish count, but he, + When he came to't, neglected her so grossly, + That I, a widower, am gone through with her. + + SUR. How! have I lost her then? + + LOVE. Were you the don, sir? + Good faith, now, she does blame you extremely, and says + You swore, and told her you had taken the pains + To dye your beard, and umber o'er your face, + Borrowed a suit, and ruff, all for her love; + And then did nothing. What an oversight, + And want of putting forward, sir, was this! + Well fare an old harquebuzier, yet, + Could prime his powder, and give fire, and hit, + All in a twinkling! + + [RE-ENTER MAMMON.] + + MAM. The whole nest are fled! + + LOVE. What sort of birds were they? + + MAM. A kind of choughs, + Or thievish daws, sir, that have pick'd my purse + Of eight score and ten pounds within these five weeks, + Beside my first materials; and my goods, + That lie in the cellar, which I am glad they have left, + I may have home yet. + + LOVE. Think you so, sir? + + MAM. Ay. + + LOVE. By order of law, sir, but not otherwise. + + MAM. Not mine own stuff! + + LOVE. Sir, I can take no knowledge + That they are yours, but by public means. + If you can bring certificate that you were gull'd of them, + Or any formal writ out of a court, + That you did cozen your self, I will not hold them. + + MAM. I'll rather lose them. + + LOVE. That you shall not, sir, + By me, in troth: upon these terms, they are yours. + What! should they have been, sir, turn'd into gold, all? + + MAM. No, + I cannot tell—It may be they should.—What then? + + LOVE. What a great loss in hope have you sustain'd! + + MAM. Not I, the commonwealth has. + + FACE. Ay, he would have built + The city new; and made a ditch about it + Of silver, should have run with cream from Hogsden; + That every Sunday, in Moorfields, the younkers, + And tits and tom-boys should have fed on, gratis. + + MAM. I will go mount a turnip-cart, and preach + The end of the world, within these two months. Surly, + What! in a dream? + + SUR. Must I needs cheat myself, + With that same foolish vice of honesty! + Come, let us go and hearken out the rogues: + That Face I'll mark for mine, if e'er I meet him. + + FACE. If I can hear of him, sir, I'll bring you word, + Unto your lodging; for in troth, they were strangers + To me, I thought them honest as my self, sir. + + [EXEUNT MAM. AND SUR.] + + [RE-ENTER ANANIAS AND TRIBULATION.] + + TRI. 'Tis well, the saints shall not lose all yet. Go, + And get some carts— + + LOVE. For what, my zealous friends? + + ANA. To bear away the portion of the righteous + Out of this den of thieves. + + LOVE. What is that portion? + + ANA. The goods sometimes the orphan's, that the brethren + Bought with their silver pence. + + LOVE. What, those in the cellar, + The knight sir Mammon claims? + + ANA. I do defy + The wicked Mammon, so do all the brethren, + Thou profane man! I ask thee with what conscience + Thou canst advance that idol against us, + That have the seal? were not the shillings number'd, + That made the pounds; were not the pounds told out, + Upon the second day of the fourth week, + In the eighth month, upon the table dormant, + The year of the last patience of the saints, + Six hundred and ten? + + LOVE. Mine earnest vehement botcher, + And deacon also, I cannot dispute with you: + But if you get you not away the sooner, + I shall confute you with a cudgel. + + ANA. Sir! + + TRI. Be patient, Ananias. + + ANA. I am strong, + And will stand up, well girt, against an host + That threaten Gad in exile. + + LOVE. I shall send you + To Amsterdam, to your cellar. + + ANA. I will pray there, + Against thy house: may dogs defile thy walls, + And wasps and hornets breed beneath thy roof, + This seat of falsehood, and this cave of cozenage! + + [EXEUNT ANA. AND TRIB.] + + [ENTER DRUGGER.] + + LOVE. Another too? + + DRUG. Not I, sir, I am no brother. + + LOVE [BEATS HIM]. Away, you Harry Nicholas! do you talk? + + [EXIT DRUG.] + + FACE. No, this was Abel Drugger. Good sir, go, + [TO THE PARSON.] + And satisfy him; tell him all is done: + He staid too long a washing of his face. + The doctor, he shall hear of him at West-chester; + And of the captain, tell him, at Yarmouth, or + Some good port-town else, lying for a wind. + [EXIT PARSON.] + If you can get off the angry child, now, sir— + + [ENTER KASTRIL, DRAGGING IN HIS SISTER.] + + KAS. Come on, you ewe, you have match'd most sweetly, + have you not? + Did not I say, I would never have you tupp'd + But by a dubb'd boy, to make you a lady-tom? + 'Slight, you are a mammet! O, I could touse you, now. + Death, mun' you marry, with a pox! + + LOVE. You lie, boy; + As sound as you; and I'm aforehand with you. + + KAS. Anon! + + LOVE. Come, will you quarrel? I will feize you, sirrah; + Why do you not buckle to your tools? + + KAS. Od's light, + This is a fine old boy as e'er I saw! + + LOVE. What, do you change your copy now? proceed; + Here stands my dove: stoop at her, if you dare. + + KAS. 'Slight, I must love him! I cannot choose, i'faith, + An I should be hang'd for't! Suster, I protest, + I honour thee for this match. + + LOVE. O, do you so, sir? + + KAS. Yes, an thou canst take tobacco and drink, old boy, + I'll give her five hundred pound more to her marriage, + Than her own state. + + LOVE. Fill a pipe full, Jeremy. + + FACE. Yes; but go in and take it, sir. + + LOVE. We will— + I will be ruled by thee in any thing, Jeremy. + + KAS. 'Slight, thou art not hide-bound, thou art a jovy boy! + Come, let us in, I pray thee, and take our whiffs. + + LOVE. Whiff in with your sister, brother boy. + [EXEUNT KAS. AND DAME P.] + That master + That had received such happiness by a servant, + In such a widow, and with so much wealth, + Were very ungrateful, if he would not be + A little indulgent to that servant's wit, + And help his fortune, though with some small strain + Of his own candour. + [ADVANCING.] + —"Therefore, gentlemen, + And kind spectators, if I have outstript + An old man's gravity, or strict canon, think + What a young wife and a good brain may do; + Stretch age's truth sometimes, and crack it too. + Speak for thy self, knave." + + FACE. "So I will, sir." + [ADVANCING TO THE FRONT OF THE STAGE.] + "Gentlemen, + My part a little fell in this last scene, + Yet 'twas decorum. And though I am clean + Got off from Subtle, Surly, Mammon, Dol, + Hot Ananias, Dapper, Drugger, all + With whom I traded: yet I put my self + On you, that are my country: and this pelf + Which I have got, if you do quit me, rests + To feast you often, and invite new guests." ++
[EXEUNT.] ++
+ + +
++ ABATE, cast down, subdue. +
++ ABHORRING, repugnant (to), at variance. +
++ ABJECT, base, degraded thing, outcast. +
++ ABRASE, smooth, blank. +
++ ABSOLUTE(LY), faultless(ly). +
++ ABSTRACTED, abstract, abstruse. +
++ ABUSE, deceive, insult, dishonour, make ill use of. +
++ ACATER, caterer. +
++ ACATES, cates. +
++ ACCEPTIVE, willing, ready to accept, receive. +
++ ACCOMMODATE, fit, befitting. (The word was a fashionable one and used on + all occasions. See "Henry IV.," pt. 2, iii. 4). +
++ ACCOST, draw near, approach. +
++ ACKNOWN, confessedly acquainted with. +
++ ACME, full maturity. +
++ ADALANTADO, lord deputy or governor of a Spanish province. +
++ ADJECTION, addition. +
++ ADMIRATION, astonishment. +
++ ADMIRE, wonder, wonder at. +
++ ADROP, philosopher's stone, or substance from which obtained. +
++ ADSCRIVE, subscribe. +
++ ADULTERATE, spurious, counterfeit. +
++ ADVANCE, lift. +
++ ADVERTISE, inform, give intelligence. +
++ ADVERTISED, "be—," be it known to you. +
++ ADVERTISEMENT, intelligence. +
++ ADVISE, consider, bethink oneself, deliberate. +
++ ADVISED, informed, aware; "are you—?" have you found that out? +
++ AFFECT, love, like; aim at; move. +
++ AFFECTED, disposed; beloved. +
++ AFFECTIONATE, obstinate; prejudiced. +
++ AFFECTS, affections. +
++ AFFRONT, "give the—," face. +
++ AFFY, have confidence in; betroth. +
++ AFTER, after the manner of. +
++ AGAIN, AGAINST, in anticipation of. +
++ AGGRAVATE, increase, magnify, enlarge upon. +
++ AGNOMINATION. See Paranomasie. +
++ AIERY, nest, brood. +
++ AIM, guess. +
++ ALL HID, children's cry at hide-and-seek. +
++ ALL-TO, completely, entirely ("all-to-be-laden"). +
++ ALLOWANCE, approbation, recognition. +
++ ALMA-CANTARAS (astronomy), parallels of altitude. +
++ ALMAIN, name of a dance. +
++ ALMUTEN, planet of chief influence in the horoscope. +
++ ALONE, unequalled, without peer. +
++ ALUDELS, subliming pots. +
++ AMAZED, confused, perplexed. +
++ AMBER, AMBRE, ambergris. +
++ AMBREE, MARY, a woman noted for her valour at the siege of Ghent, 1458. +
++ AMES-ACE, lowest throw at dice. +
++ AMPHIBOLIES, ambiguities. +
++ AMUSED, bewildered, amazed. +
++ AN, if. +
++ ANATOMY, skeleton, or dissected body. +
++ ANDIRONS, fire-dogs. +
++ ANGEL, gold coin worth 10 shillings, stamped with the figure of the + archangel Michael. +
++ ANNESH CLEARE, spring known as Agnes le Clare. +
++ ANSWER, return hit in fencing. +
++ ANTIC, ANTIQUE, clown, buffoon. +
++ ANTIC, like a buffoon. +
++ ANTIPERISTASIS, an opposition which enhances the quality it opposes. +
++ APOZEM, decoction. +
++ APPERIL, peril. +
++ APPLE-JOHN, APPLE-SQUIRE, pimp, pander. +
++ APPLY, attach. +
++ APPREHEND, take into custody. +
++ APPREHENSIVE, quick of perception; able to perceive and appreciate. +
++ APPROVE, prove, confirm. +
++ APT, suit, adapt; train, prepare; dispose, incline. +
++ APT(LY), suitable(y), opportune(ly). +
++ APTITUDE, suitableness. +
++ ARBOR, "make the—," cut up the game (Gifford). +
++ ARCHES, Court of Arches. +
++ ARCHIE, Archibald Armstrong, jester to James I. and Charles I. +
++ ARGAILE, argol, crust or sediment in wine casks. +
++ ARGENT-VIVE, quicksilver. +
++ ARGUMENT, plot of a drama; theme, subject; matter in question; token, + proof. +
++ ARRIDE, please. +
++ ARSEDINE, mixture of copper and zinc, used as an imitation of gold-leaf. +
++ ARTHUR, PRINCE, reference to an archery show by a society who assumed + arms, etc., of Arthur's knights. +
++ ARTICLE, item. +
++ ARTIFICIALLY, artfully. +
++ ASCENSION, evaporation, distillation. +
++ ASPIRE, try to reach, obtain, long for. +
++ ASSALTO (Italian), assault. +
++ ASSAY, draw a knife along the belly of the deer, a ceremony of the + hunting-field. +
++ ASSOIL, solve. +
++ ASSURE, secure possession or reversion of. +
++ ATHANOR, a digesting furnace, calculated to keep up a constant heat. +
++ ATONE, reconcile. +
++ ATTACH, attack, seize. +
++ AUDACIOUS, having spirit and confidence. +
++ AUTHENTIC(AL), of authority, authorised, trustworthy, genuine. +
++ AVISEMENT, reflection, consideration. +
++ AVOID, begone! get rid of. +
++ AWAY WITH, endure. +
++ AZOCH, Mercurius Philosophorum. +
++ BABION, baboon. +
++ BABY, doll. +
++ BACK-SIDE, back premises. +
++ BAFFLE, treat with contempt. +
++ BAGATINE, Italian coin, worth about the third of a farthing. +
++ BAIARD, horse of magic powers known to old romance. +
++ BALDRICK, belt worn across the breast to support bugle, etc. +
++ BALE (of dice), pair. +
++ BALK, overlook, pass by, avoid. +
++ BALLACE, ballast. +
++ BALLOO, game at ball. +
++ BALNEUM (BAIN MARIE), a vessel for holding hot water in which other + vessels are stood for heating. +
++ BANBURY, "brother of—," Puritan. +
++ BANDOG, dog tied or chained up. +
++ BANE, woe, ruin. +
++ BANQUET, a light repast; dessert. +
++ BARB, to clip gold. +
++ BARBEL, fresh-water fish. +
++ BARE, meer; bareheaded; it was "a particular mark of state and grandeur + for the coachman to be uncovered" (Gifford). +
++ BARLEY-BREAK, game somewhat similar to base. +
++ BASE, game of prisoner's base. +
++ BASES, richly embroidered skirt reaching to the knees, or lower. +
++ BASILISK, fabulous reptile, believed to slay with its eye. +
++ BASKET, used for the broken provision collected for prisoners. +
++ BASON, basons, etc., were beaten by the attendant mob when bad characters + were "carted." +
++ BATE, be reduced; abate, reduce. +
++ BATOON, baton, stick. +
++ BATTEN, feed, grow fat. +
++ BAWSON, badger. +
++ BEADSMAN, prayer-man, one engaged to pray for another. +
++ BEAGLE, small hound; fig. spy. +
++ BEAR IN HAND, keep in suspense, deceive with false hopes. +
++ BEARWARD, bear leader. +
++ BEDPHERE. See Phere. +
++ BEDSTAFF, (?) wooden pin in the side of the bedstead for supporting the + bedclothes (Johnson); one of the sticks or "laths"; a stick used in making + a bed. +
++ BEETLE, heavy mallet. +
++ BEG, "I'd—him," the custody of minors and idiots was begged for; + likewise property fallen forfeit to the Crown ("your house had been + begged"). +
++ BELL-MAN, night watchman. +
++ BENJAMIN, an aromatic gum. +
++ BERLINA, pillory. +
++ BESCUMBER, defile. +
++ BESLAVE, beslabber. +
++ BESOGNO, beggar. +
++ BESPAWLE, bespatter. +
++ BETHLEHEM GABOR, Transylvanian hero, proclaimed King of Hungary. +
++ BEVER, drinking. +
++ BEVIS, SIR, knight of romance whose horse was equally celebrated. +
++ BEWRAY, reveal, make known. +
++ BEZANT, heraldic term: small gold circle. +
++ BEZOAR'S STONE, a remedy known by this name was a supposed antidote to + poison. +
++ BID-STAND, highwayman. +
++ BIGGIN, cap, similar to that worn by the Beguines; nightcap. +
++ BILIVE (belive), with haste. +
++ BILK, nothing, empty talk. +
++ BILL, kind of pike. +
++ BILLET, wood cut for fuel, stick. +
++ BIRDING, thieving. +
++ BLACK SANCTUS, burlesque hymn, any unholy riot. +
++ BLANK, originally a small French coin. +
++ BLANK, white. +
++ BLANKET, toss in a blanket. +
++ BLAZE, outburst of violence. +
++ BLAZE, (her.) blazon; publish abroad. +
++ BLAZON, armorial bearings; fig. all that pertains to good birth and + breeding. +
++ BLIN, "withouten—," without ceasing. +
++ BLOW, puff up. +
++ BLUE, colour of servants' livery, hence "—order," "—waiters." +
++ BLUSHET, blushing one. +
++ BOB, jest, taunt. +
++ BOB, beat, thump. +
++ BODGE, measure. +
++ BODKIN, dagger, or other short, pointed weapon; long pin with which the + women fastened up their hair. +
++ BOLT, roll (of material). +
++ BOLT, dislodge, rout out; sift (boulting-tub). +
++ BOLT'S-HEAD, long, straight-necked vessel for distillation. +
++ BOMBARD SLOPS, padded, puffed-out breeches. +
++ BONA ROBA, "good, wholesome, plum-cheeked wench" (Johnson) —not + always used in compliment. +
++ BONNY-CLABBER, sour butter-milk. +
++ BOOKHOLDER, prompter. +
++ BOOT, "to—," into the bargain; "no—," of no avail. +
++ BORACHIO, bottle made of skin. +
++ BORDELLO, brothel. +
++ BORNE IT, conducted, carried it through. +
++ BOTTLE (of hay), bundle, truss. +
++ BOTTOM, skein or ball of thread; vessel. +
++ BOURD, jest. +
++ BOVOLI, snails or cockles dressed in the Italian manner (Gifford). +
++ BOW-POT, flower vase or pot. +
++ BOYS, "terrible—," "angry—," roystering young bucks. (See + Nares). +
++ BRABBLES (BRABBLESH), brawls. +
++ BRACH, bitch. +
++ BRADAMANTE, a heroine in "Orlando Furioso." +
++ BRADLEY, ARTHUR OF, a lively character commemorated in ballads. +
++ BRAKE, frame for confining a horse's feet while being shod, or strong curb + or bridle; trap. +
++ BRANCHED, with "detached sleeve ornaments, projecting from the shoulders + of the gown" (Gifford). +
++ BRANDISH, flourish of weapon. +
++ BRASH, brace. +
++ BRAVE, bravado, braggart speech. +
++ BRAVE (adv.), gaily, finely (apparelled). +
++ BRAVERIES, gallants. +
++ BRAVERY, extravagant gaiety of apparel. +
++ BRAVO, bravado, swaggerer. +
++ BRAZEN-HEAD, speaking head made by Roger Bacon. +
++ BREATHE, pause for relaxation; exercise. +
++ BREATH UPON, speak dispraisingly of. +
++ BREND, burn. +
++ BRIDE-ALE, wedding feast. +
++ BRIEF, abstract; (mus.) breve. +
++ BRISK, smartly dressed. +
++ BRIZE, breese, gadfly. +
++ BROAD-SEAL, state seal. +
++ BROCK, badger (term of contempt). +
++ BROKE, transact business as a broker. +
++ BROOK, endure, put up with. +
++ BROUGHTON, HUGH, an English divine and Hebrew scholar. +
++ BRUIT, rumour. +
++ BUCK, wash. +
++ BUCKLE, bend. +
++ BUFF, leather made of buffalo skin, used for military and serjeants' + coats, etc. +
++ BUFO, black tincture. +
++ BUGLE, long-shaped bead. +
++ BULLED, (?) bolled, swelled. +
++ BULLIONS, trunk hose. +
++ BULLY, term of familiar endearment. +
++ BUNGY, Friar Bungay, who had a familiar in the shape of a dog. +
++ BURDEN, refrain, chorus. +
++ BURGONET, closely-fitting helmet with visor. +
++ BURGULLION, braggadocio. +
++ BURN, mark wooden measures ("—ing of cans"). +
++ BURROUGH, pledge, security. +
++ BUSKIN, half-boot, foot gear reaching high up the leg. +
++ BUTT-SHAFT, barbless arrow for shooting at butts. +
++ BUTTER, NATHANIEL ("Staple of News"), a compiler of general news. (See + Cunningham). +
++ BUTTERY-HATCH, half-door shutting off the buttery, where provisions and + liquors were stored. +
++ BUY, "he bought me," formerly the guardianship of wards could be bought. +
++ BUZ, exclamation to enjoin silence. +
++ BUZZARD, simpleton. +
++ BY AND BY, at once. +
++ BY(E), "on the __," incidentally, as of minor or secondary importance; at + the side. +
++ BY-CHOP, by-blow, bastard. +
++ CADUCEUS, Mercury's wand. +
++ CALIVER, light kind of musket. +
++ CALLET, woman of ill repute. +
++ CALLOT, coif worn on the wigs of our judges or serjeants-at-law (Gifford). +
++ CALVERED, crimped, or sliced and pickled. (See Nares). +
++ CAMOUCCIO, wretch, knave. +
++ CAMUSED, flat. +
++ CAN, knows. +
++ CANDLE-RENT, rent from house property. +
++ CANDLE-WASTER, one who studies late. +
++ CANTER, sturdy beggar. +
++ CAP OF MAINTENCE, an insignia of dignity, a cap of state borne before + kings at their coronation; also an heraldic term. +
++ CAPABLE, able to comprehend, fit to receive instruction, impression. +
++ CAPANEUS, one of the "Seven against Thebes." +
++ CARACT, carat, unit of weight for precious stones, etc.; value, worth. +
++ CARANZA, Spanish author of a book on duelling. +
++ CARCANET, jewelled ornament for the neck. +
++ CARE, take care; object. +
++ CAROSH, coach, carriage. +
++ CARPET, table-cover. +
++ CARRIAGE, bearing, behaviour. +
++ CARWHITCHET, quip, pun. +
++ CASAMATE, casemate, fortress. +
++ CASE, a pair. +
++ CASE, "in—," in condition. +
++ CASSOCK, soldier's loose overcoat. +
++ CAST, flight of hawks, couple. +
++ CAST, throw dice; vomit; forecast, calculate. +
++ CAST, cashiered. +
++ CASTING-GLASS, bottle for sprinkling perfume. +
++ CASTRIL, kestrel, falcon. +
++ CAT, structure used in sieges. +
++ CATAMITE, old form of "ganymede." +
++ CATASTROPHE, conclusion. +
++ CATCHPOLE, sheriff's officer. +
++ CATES, dainties, provisions. +
++ CATSO, rogue, cheat. +
++ CAUTELOUS, crafty, artful. +
++ CENSURE, criticism; sentence. +
++ CENSURE, criticise; pass sentence, doom. +
++ CERUSE, cosmetic containing white lead. +
++ CESS, assess. +
++ CHANGE, "hunt—," follow a fresh scent. +
++ CHAPMAN, retail dealer. +
++ CHARACTER, handwriting. +
++ CHARGE, expense. +
++ CHARM, subdue with magic, lay a spell on, silence. +
++ CHARMING, exercising magic power. +
++ CHARTEL, challenge. +
++ CHEAP, bargain, market. +
++ CHEAR, CHEER, comfort, encouragement; food, entertainment. +
++ CHECK AT, aim reproof at. +
++ CHEQUIN, gold Italian coin. +
++ CHEVRIL, from kidskin, which is elastic and pliable. +
++ CHIAUS, Turkish envoy; used for a cheat, swindler. +
++ CHILDERMASS DAY, Innocents' Day. +
++ CHOKE-BAIL, action which does not allow of bail. +
++ CHRYSOPOEIA, alchemy. +
++ CHRYSOSPERM, ways of producing gold. +
++ CIBATION, adding fresh substances to supply the waste of evaporation. +
++ CIMICI, bugs. +
++ CINOPER, cinnabar. +
++ CIOPPINI, chopine, lady's high shoe. +
++ CIRCLING BOY, "a species of roarer; one who in some way drew a man into a + snare, to cheat or rob him" (Nares). +
++ CIRCUMSTANCE, circumlocution, beating about the bush; ceremony, everything + pertaining to a certain condition; detail, particular. +
++ CITRONISE, turn citron colour. +
++ CITTERN, kind of guitar. +
++ CITY-WIRES, woman of fashion, who made use of wires for hair and dress. +
++ CIVIL, legal. +
++ CLAP, clack, chatter. +
++ CLAPPER-DUDGEON, downright beggar. +
++ CLAPS HIS DISH, a clap, or clack, dish (dish with a movable lid) was + carried by beggars and lepers to show that the vessel was empty, and to + give sound of their approach. +
++ CLARIDIANA, heroine of an old romance. +
++ CLARISSIMO, Venetian noble. +
++ CLEM, starve. +
++ CLICKET, latch. +
++ CLIM O' THE CLOUGHS, etc., wordy heroes of romance. +
++ CLIMATE, country. +
++ CLOSE, secret, private; secretive. +
++ CLOSENESS, secrecy. +
++ CLOTH, arras, hangings. +
++ CLOUT, mark shot at, bull's eye. +
++ CLOWN, countryman, clodhopper. +
++ COACH-LEAVES, folding blinds. +
++ COALS, "bear no—," submit to no affront. +
++ COAT-ARMOUR, coat of arms. +
++ COAT-CARD, court-card. +
++ COB-HERRING, HERRING-COB, a young herring. +
++ COB-SWAN, male swan. +
++ COCK-A-HOOP, denoting unstinted jollity; thought to be derived from + turning on the tap that all might drink to the full of the flowing liquor. +
++ COCKATRICE, reptile supposed to be produced from a cock's egg and to kill + by its eye—used as a term of reproach for a woman. +
++ COCK-BRAINED, giddy, wild. +
++ COCKER, pamper. +
++ COCKSCOMB, fool's cap. +
++ COCKSTONE, stone said to be found in a cock's gizzard, and to possess + particular virtues. +
++ CODLING, softening by boiling. +
++ COFFIN, raised crust of a pie. +
++ COG, cheat, wheedle. +
++ COIL, turmoil, confusion, ado. +
++ COKELY, master of a puppet-show (Whalley). +
++ COKES, fool, gull. +
++ COLD-CONCEITED, having cold opinion of, coldly affected towards. +
++ COLE-HARBOUR, a retreat for people of all sorts. +
++ COLLECTION, composure; deduction. +
++ COLLOP, small slice, piece of flesh. +
++ COLLY, blacken. +
++ COLOUR, pretext. +
++ COLOURS, "fear no—," no enemy (quibble). +
++ COLSTAFF, cowlstaff, pole for carrying a cowl=tub. +
++ COME ABOUT, charge, turn round. +
++ COMFORTABLE BREAD, spiced gingerbread. +
++ COMING, forward, ready to respond, complaisant. +
++ COMMENT, commentary; "sometime it is taken for a lie or fayned tale" + (Bullokar, 1616). +
++ COMMODITY, "current for—," allusion to practice of money-lenders, + who forced the borrower to take part of the loan in the shape of worthless + goods on which the latter had to make money if he could. +
++ COMMUNICATE, share. +
++ COMPASS, "in—," within the range, sphere. +
++ COMPLEMENT, completion, completement; anything required for the perfecting + or carrying out of a person or affair; accomplishment. +
++ COMPLEXION, natural disposition, constitution. +
++ COMPLIMENT, See Complement. +
++ COMPLIMENTARIES, masters of accomplishments. +
++ COMPOSITION, constitution; agreement, contract. +
++ COMPOSURE, composition. +
++ COMPTER, COUNTER, debtors' prison. +
++ CONCEALMENT, a certain amount of church property had been retained at the + dissolution of the monasteries; Elizabeth sent commissioners to search it + out, and the courtiers begged for it. +
++ CONCEIT, idea, fancy, witty invention, conception, opinion. +
++ CONCEIT, apprehend. +
++ CONCEITED, fancifully, ingeniously devised or conceived; possessed of + intelligence, witty, ingenious (hence well conceited, etc.); disposed to + joke; of opinion, possessed of an idea. +
++ CONCEIVE, understand. +
++ CONCENT, harmony, agreement. +
++ CONCLUDE, infer, prove. +
++ CONCOCT, assimilate, digest. +
++ CONDEN'T, probably conducted. +
++ CONDUCT, escort, conductor. +
++ CONEY-CATCH, cheat. +
++ CONFECT, sweetmeat. +
++ CONFER, compare. +
++ CONGIES, bows. +
++ CONNIVE, give a look, wink, of secret intelligence. +
++ CONSORT, company, concert. +
++ CONSTANCY, fidelity, ardour, persistence. +
++ CONSTANT, confirmed, persistent, faithful. +
++ CONSTANTLY, firmly, persistently. +
++ CONTEND, strive. +
++ CONTINENT, holding together. +
++ CONTROL (the point), bear or beat down. +
++ CONVENT, assembly, meeting. +
++ CONVERT, turn (oneself). +
++ CONVEY, transmit from one to another. +
++ CONVINCE, evince, prove; overcome, overpower; convict. +
++ COP, head, top; tuft on head of birds; "a cop" may have reference to one + or other meaning; Gifford and others interpret as "conical, terminating in + a point." +
++ COPE-MAN, chapman. +
++ COPESMATE, companion. +
++ COPY (Lat. copia), abundance, copiousness. +
++ CORN ("powder—"), grain. +
++ COROLLARY, finishing part or touch. +
++ CORSIVE, corrosive. +
++ CORTINE, curtain, (arch.) wall between two towers, etc. +
++ CORYAT, famous for his travels, published as "Coryat's Crudities." +
++ COSSET, pet lamb, pet. +
++ COSTARD, head. +
++ COSTARD-MONGER, apple-seller, coster-monger. +
++ COSTS, ribs. +
++ COTE, hut. +
++ COTHURNAL, from "cothurnus," a particular boot worn by actors in Greek + tragedy. +
++ COTQUEAN, hussy. +
++ COUNSEL, secret. +
++ COUNTENANCE, means necessary for support; credit, standing. +
++ COUNTER. See Compter. +
++ COUNTER, pieces of metal or ivory for calculating at play. +
++ COUNTER, "hunt—," follow scent in reverse direction. +
++ COUNTERFEIT, false coin. +
++ COUNTERPANE, one part or counterpart of a deed or indenture. +
++ COUNTERPOINT, opposite, contrary point. +
++ COURT-DISH, a kind of drinking-cup (Halliwell); N.E.D. quotes from Bp. + Goodman's "Court of James I.": "The king...caused his carver to cut him + out a court-dish, that is, something of every dish, which he sent him as + part of his reversion," but this does not sound like short allowance or + small receptacle. +
++ COURT-DOR, fool. +
++ COURTEAU, curtal, small horse with docked tail. +
++ COURTSHIP, courtliness. +
++ COVETISE, avarice. +
++ COWSHARD, cow dung. +
++ COXCOMB, fool's cap, fool. +
++ COY, shrink; disdain. +
++ COYSTREL, low varlet. +
++ COZEN, cheat. +
++ CRACK, lively young rogue, wag. +
++ CRACK, crack up, boast; come to grief. +
++ CRAMBE, game of crambo, in which the players find rhymes for a given word. +
++ CRANCH, craunch. +
++ CRANION, spider-like; also fairy appellation for a fly (Gifford, who + refers to lines in Drayton's "Nimphidia"). +
++ CRIMP, game at cards. +
++ CRINCLE, draw back, turn aside. +
++ CRISPED, with curled or waved hair. +
++ CROP, gather, reap. +
++ CROPSHIRE, a kind of herring. (See N.E.D.) +
++ CROSS, any piece of money, many coins being stamped with a cross. +
++ CROSS AND PILE, heads and tails. +
++ CROSSLET, crucible. +
++ CROWD, fiddle. +
++ CRUDITIES, undigested matter. +
++ CRUMP, curl up. +
++ CRUSADO, Portuguese gold coin, marked with a cross. +
++ CRY ("he that cried Italian"), "speak in a musical cadence," intone, or + declaim (?); cry up. +
++ CUCKING-STOOL, used for the ducking of scolds, etc. +
++ CUCURBITE, a gourd-shaped vessel used for distillation. +
++ CUERPO, "in—," in undress. +
++ CULLICE, broth. +
++ CULLION, base fellow, coward. +
++ CULLISEN, badge worn on their arm by servants. +
++ CULVERIN, kind of cannon. +
++ CUNNING, skill. +
++ CUNNING, skilful. +
++ CUNNING-MAN, fortune-teller. +
++ CURE, care for. +
++ CURIOUS(LY), scrupulous, particular; elaborate, elegant(ly), dainty(ly) + (hence "in curious"). +
++ CURST, shrewish, mischievous. +
++ CURTAL, dog with docked tail, of inferior sort. +
++ CUSTARD, "quaking—," "—politic," reference to a large custard + which formed part of a city feast and afforded huge entertainment, for the + fool jumped into it, and other like tricks were played. (See "All's Well, + etc." ii. 5, 40.) +
++ CUTWORK, embroidery, open-work. +
++ CYPRES (CYPRUS) (quibble), cypress (or cyprus) being a transparent + material, and when black used for mourning. +
++ DAGGER ("—frumety"), name of tavern. +
++ DARGISON, apparently some person known in ballad or tale. +
++ DAUPHIN MY BOY, refrain of old comic song. +
++ DAW, daunt. +
++ DEAD LIFT, desperate emergency. +
++ DEAR, applied to that which in any way touches us nearly. +
++ DECLINE, turn off from; turn away, aside. +
++ DEFALK, deduct, abate. +
++ DEFEND, forbid. +
++ DEGENEROUS, degenerate. +
++ DEGREES, steps. +
++ DELATE, accuse. +
++ DEMI-CULVERIN, cannon carrying a ball of about ten pounds. +
++ DENIER, the smallest possible coin, being the twelfth part of a sou. +
++ DEPART, part with. +
++ DEPENDANCE, ground of quarrel in duello language. +
++ DESERT, reward. +
++ DESIGNMENT, design. +
++ DESPERATE, rash, reckless. +
++ DETECT, allow to be detected, betray, inform against. +
++ DETERMINE, terminate. +
++ DETRACT, draw back, refuse. +
++ DEVICE, masque, show; a thing moved by wires, etc., puppet. +
++ DEVISE, exact in every particular. +
++ DEVISED, invented. +
++ DIAPASM, powdered aromatic herbs, made into balls of perfumed paste. (See + Pomander.) +
++ DIBBLE, (?) moustache (N.E.D.); (?) dagger (Cunningham). +
++ DIFFUSED, disordered, scattered, irregular. +
++ DIGHT, dressed. +
++ DILDO, refrain of popular songs; vague term of low meaning. +
++ DIMBLE, dingle, ravine. +
++ DIMENSUM, stated allowance. +
++ DISBASE, debase. +
++ DISCERN, distinguish, show a difference between. +
++ DISCHARGE, settle for. +
++ DISCIPLINE, reformation; ecclesiastical system. +
++ DISCLAIM, renounce all part in. +
++ DISCOURSE, process of reasoning, reasoning faculty. +
++ DISCOURTSHIP, discourtesy. +
++ DISCOVER, betray, reveal; display. +
++ DISFAVOUR, disfigure. +
++ DISPARAGEMENT, legal term applied to the unfitness in any way of a + marriage arranged for in the case of wards. +
++ DISPENSE WITH, grant dispensation for. +
++ DISPLAY, extend. +
++ DIS'PLE, discipline, teach by the whip. +
++ DISPOSED, inclined to merriment. +
++ DISPOSURE, disposal. +
++ DISPRISE, depreciate. +
++ DISPUNCT, not punctilious. +
++ DISQUISITION, search. +
++ DISSOLVED, enervated by grief. +
++ DISTANCE, (?) proper measure. +
++ DISTASTE, offence, cause of offence. +
++ DISTASTE, render distasteful. +
++ DISTEMPERED, upset, out of humour. +
++ DIVISION (mus.), variation, modulation. +
++ DOG-BOLT, term of contempt. +
++ DOLE, given in dole, charity. +
++ DOLE OF FACES, distribution of grimaces. +
++ DOOM, verdict, sentence. +
++ DOP, dip, low bow. +
++ DOR, beetle, buzzing insect, drone, idler. +
++ DOR, (?) buzz; "give the—," make a fool of. +
++ DOSSER, pannier, basket. +
++ DOTES, endowments, qualities. +
++ DOTTEREL, plover; gull, fool. +
++ DOUBLE, behave deceitfully. +
++ DOXY, wench, mistress. +
++ DRACHM, Greek silver coin. +
++ DRESS, groom, curry. +
++ DRESSING, coiffure. +
++ DRIFT, intention. +
++ DRYFOOT, track by mere scent of foot. +
++ DUCKING, punishment for minor offences. +
++ DUILL, grieve. +
++ DUMPS, melancholy, originally a mournful melody. +
++ DURINDANA, Orlando's sword. +
++ DWINDLE, shrink away, be overawed. +
++ EAN, yean, bring forth young. +
++ EASINESS, readiness. +
++ EBOLITION, ebullition. +
++ EDGE, sword. +
++ EECH, eke. +
++ EGREGIOUS, eminently excellent. +
++ EKE, also, moreover. +
++ E-LA, highest note in the scale. +
++ EGGS ON THE SPIT, important business on hand. +
++ ELF-LOCK, tangled hair, supposed to be the work of elves. +
++ EMMET, ant. +
++ ENGAGE, involve. +
++ ENGHLE. See Ingle. +
++ ENGHLE, cajole; fondle. +
++ ENGIN(E), device, contrivance; agent; ingenuity, wit. +
++ ENGINER, engineer, deviser, plotter. +
++ ENGINOUS, crafty, full of devices; witty, ingenious. +
++ ENGROSS, monopolise. +
++ ENS, an existing thing, a substance. +
++ ENSIGNS, tokens, wounds. +
++ ENSURE, assure. +
++ ENTERTAIN, take into service. +
++ ENTREAT, plead. +
++ ENTREATY, entertainment. +
++ ENTRY, place where a deer has lately passed. +
++ ENVOY, denouement, conclusion. +
++ ENVY, spite, calumny, dislike, odium. +
++ EPHEMERIDES, calendars. +
++ EQUAL, just, impartial. +
++ ERECTION, elevation in esteem. +
++ ERINGO, candied root of the sea-holly, formerly used as a sweetmeat and + aphrodisiac. +
++ ERRANT, arrant. +
++ ESSENTIATE, become assimilated. +
++ ESTIMATION, esteem. +
++ ESTRICH, ostrich. +
++ ETHNIC, heathen. +
++ EURIPUS, flux and reflux. +
++ EVEN, just equable. +
++ EVENT, fate, issue. +
++ EVENT(ED), issue(d). +
++ EVERT, overturn. +
++ EXACUATE, sharpen. +
++ EXAMPLESS, without example or parallel. +
++ EXCALIBUR, King Arthur's sword. +
++ EXEMPLIFY, make an example of. +
++ EXEMPT, separate, exclude. +
++ EXEQUIES, obsequies. +
++ EXHALE, drag out. +
++ EXHIBITION, allowance for keep, pocket-money. +
++ EXORBITANT, exceeding limits of propriety or law, inordinate. +
++ EXORNATION, ornament. +
++ EXPECT, wait. +
++ EXPIATE, terminate. +
++ EXPLICATE, explain, unfold. +
++ EXTEMPORAL, extempore, unpremeditated. +
++ EXTRACTION, essence. +
++ EXTRAORDINARY, employed for a special or temporary purpose. +
++ EXTRUDE, expel. +
++ EYE, "in—," in view. +
++ EYEBRIGHT, (?) a malt liquor in which the herb of this name was infused, + or a person who sold the same (Gifford). +
++ EYE-TINGE, least shade or gleam. +
++ FACE, appearance. +
++ FACES ABOUT, military word of command. +
++ FACINOROUS, extremely wicked. +
++ FACKINGS, faith. +
++ FACT, deed, act, crime. +
++ FACTIOUS, seditious, belonging to a party, given to party feeling. +
++ FAECES, dregs. +
++ FAGIOLI, French beans. +
++ FAIN, forced, necessitated. +
++ FAITHFUL, believing. +
++ FALL, ruff or band turned back on the shoulders; or, veil. +
++ FALSIFY, feign (fencing term). +
++ FAME, report. +
++ FAMILIAR, attendant spirit. +
++ FANTASTICAL, capricious, whimsical. +
++ FARCE, stuff. +
++ FAR-FET. See Fet. +
++ FARTHINGAL, hooped petticoat. +
++ FAUCET, tapster. +
++ FAULT, lack; loss, break in line of scent; "for—," in default of. +
++ FAUTOR, partisan. +
++ FAYLES, old table game similar to backgammon. +
++ FEAR(ED), affright(ed). +
++ FEAT, activity, operation; deed, action. +
++ FEAT, elegant, trim. +
++ FEE, "in—" by feudal obligation. +
++ FEIZE, beat, belabour. +
++ FELLOW, term of contempt. +
++ FENNEL, emblem of flattery. +
++ FERE, companion, fellow. +
++ FERN-SEED, supposed to have power of rendering invisible. +
++ FET, fetched. +
++ FETCH, trick. +
++ FEUTERER (Fr. vautrier), dog-keeper. +
++ FEWMETS, dung. +
++ FICO, fig. +
++ FIGGUM, (?) jugglery. +
++ FIGMENT, fiction, invention. +
++ FIRK, frisk, move suddenly, or in jerks; "—up," stir up, rouse; + "firks mad," suddenly behaves like a madman. +
++ FIT, pay one out, punish. +
++ FITNESS, readiness. +
++ FITTON (FITTEN), lie, invention. +
++ FIVE-AND-FIFTY, "highest number to stand on at primero" (Gifford). +
++ FLAG, to fly low and waveringly. +
++ FLAGON CHAIN, for hanging a smelling-bottle (Fr. flacon) round the neck + (?). (See N.E.D.). +
++ FLAP-DRAGON, game similar to snap-dragon. +
++ FLASKET, some kind of basket. +
++ FLAW, sudden gust or squall of wind. +
++ FLAWN, custard. +
++ FLEA, catch fleas. +
++ FLEER, sneer, laugh derisively. +
++ FLESH, feed a hawk or dog with flesh to incite it to the chase; initiate + in blood-shed; satiate. +
++ FLICKER-MOUSE, bat. +
++ FLIGHT, light arrow. +
++ FLITTER-MOUSE, bat. +
++ FLOUT, mock, speak and act contemptuously. +
++ FLOWERS, pulverised substance. +
++ FLY, familiar spirit. +
++ FOIL, weapon used in fencing; that which sets anything off to advantage. +
++ FOIST, cut-purse, sharper. +
++ FOND(LY), foolish(ly). +
++ FOOT-CLOTH, housings of ornamental cloth which hung down on either side a + horse to the ground. +
++ FOOTING, foothold; footstep; dancing. +
++ FOPPERY, foolery. +
++ FOR, "—failing," for fear of failing. +
++ FORBEAR, bear with; abstain from. +
++ FORCE, "hunt at—," run the game down with dogs. +
++ FOREHEAD, modesty; face, assurance, effrontery. +
++ FORESLOW, delay. +
++ FORESPEAK, bewitch; foretell. +
++ FORETOP, front lock of hair which fashion required to be worn upright. +
++ FORGED, fabricated. +
++ FORM, state formally. +
++ FORMAL, shapely; normal; conventional. +
++ FORTHCOMING, produced when required. +
++ FOUNDER, disable with over-riding. +
++ FOURM, form, lair. +
++ FOX, sword. +
++ FRAIL, rush basket in which figs or raisins were packed. +
++ FRAMPULL, peevish, sour-tempered. +
++ FRAPLER, blusterer, wrangler. +
++ FRAYING, "a stag is said to fray his head when he rubs it against a tree + to...cause the outward coat of the new horns to fall off" (Gifford). +
++ FREIGHT (of the gazetti), burden (of the newspapers). +
++ FREQUENT, full. +
++ FRICACE, rubbing. +
++ FRICATRICE, woman of low character. +
++ FRIPPERY, old clothes shop. +
++ FROCK, smock-frock. +
++ FROLICS, (?) humorous verses circulated at a feast (N.E.D.); couplets + wrapped round sweetmeats (Cunningham). +
++ FRONTLESS, shameless. +
++ FROTED, rubbed. +
++ FRUMETY, hulled wheat boiled in milk and spiced. +
++ FRUMP, flout, sneer. +
++ FUCUS, dye. +
++ FUGEAND, (?) figent: fidgety, restless (N.E.D.). +
++ FULLAM, false dice. +
++ FULMART, polecat. +
++ FULSOME, foul, offensive. +
++ FURIBUND, raging, furious. +
++ GALLEY-FOIST, city-barge, used on Lord Mayor's Day, when he was sworn into + his office at Westminster (Whalley). +
++ GALLIARD, lively dance in triple time. +
++ GAPE, be eager after. +
++ GARAGANTUA, Rabelais' giant. +
++ GARB, sheaf (Fr. gerbe); manner, fashion, behaviour. +
++ GARD, guard, trimming, gold or silver lace, or other ornament. +
++ GARDED, faced or trimmed. +
++ GARNISH, fee. +
++ GAVEL-KIND, name of a land-tenure existing chiefly in Kent; from 16th + century often used to denote custom of dividing a deceased man's property + equally among his sons (N.E.D.). +
++ GAZETTE, small Venetian coin worth about three-farthings. +
++ GEANCE, jaunt, errand. +
++ GEAR (GEER), stuff, matter, affair. +
++ GELID, frozen. +
++ GEMONIES, steps from which the bodies of criminals were thrown into the + river. +
++ GENERAL, free, affable. +
++ GENIUS, attendant spirit. +
++ GENTRY, gentlemen; manners characteristic of gentry, good breeding. +
++ GIB-CAT, tom-cat. +
++ GIGANTOMACHIZE, start a giants' war. +
++ GIGLOT, wanton. +
++ GIMBLET, gimlet. +
++ GING, gang. +
++ GLASS ("taking in of shadows, etc."), crystal or beryl. +
++ GLEEK, card game played by three; party of three, trio; side glance. +
++ GLICK (GLEEK), jest, gibe. +
++ GLIDDER, glaze. +
++ GLORIOUSLY, of vain glory. +
++ GODWIT, bird of the snipe family. +
++ GOLD-END-MAN, a buyer of broken gold and silver. +
++ GOLL, hand. +
++ GONFALIONIER, standard-bearer, chief magistrate, etc. +
++ GOOD, sound in credit. +
++ GOOD-YEAR, good luck. +
++ GOOSE-TURD, colour of. (See Turd). +
++ GORCROW, carrion crow. +
++ GORGET, neck armour. +
++ GOSSIP, godfather. +
++ GOWKED, from "gowk," to stand staring and gaping like a fool. +
++ GRANNAM, grandam. +
++ GRASS, (?) grease, fat. +
++ GRATEFUL, agreeable, welcome. +
++ GRATIFY, give thanks to. +
++ GRATITUDE, gratuity. +
++ GRATULATE, welcome, congratulate. +
++ GRAVITY, dignity. +
++ GRAY, badger. +
++ GRICE, cub. +
++ GRIEF, grievance. +
++ GRIPE, vulture, griffin. +
++ GRIPE'S EGG, vessel in shape of. +
++ GROAT, fourpence. +
++ GROGRAN, coarse stuff made of silk and mohair, or of coarse silk. +
++ GROOM-PORTER, officer in the royal household. +
++ GROPE, handle, probe. +
++ GROUND, pit (hence "grounded judgments"). +
++ GUARD, caution, heed. +
++ GUARDANT, heraldic term: turning the head only. +
++ GUILDER, Dutch coin worth about 4d. +
++ GULES, gullet, throat; heraldic term for red. +
++ GULL, simpleton, dupe. +
++ GUST, taste. +
++ HAB NAB, by, on, chance. +
++ HABERGEON, coat of mail. +
++ HAGGARD, wild female hawk; hence coy, wild. +
++ HALBERD, combination of lance and battle-axe. +
++ HALL, "a—!" a cry to clear the room for the dancers. +
++ HANDSEL, first money taken. +
++ HANGER, loop or strap on a sword-belt from which the sword was suspended. +
++ HAP, fortune, luck. +
++ HAPPILY, haply. +
++ HAPPINESS, appropriateness, fitness. +
++ HAPPY, rich. +
++ HARBOUR, track, trace (an animal) to its shelter. +
++ HARD-FAVOURED, harsh-featured. +
++ HARPOCRATES, Horus the child, son of Osiris, figured with a finger + pointing to his mouth, indicative of silence. +
++ HARRINGTON, a patent was granted to Lord H. for the coinage of tokens + (q.v.). +
++ HARROT, herald. +
++ HARRY NICHOLAS, founder of a community called the "Family of Love." +
++ HAY, net for catching rabbits, etc. +
++ HAY! (Ital. hai!), you have it (a fencing term). +
++ HAY IN HIS HORN, ill-tempered person. +
++ HAZARD, game at dice; that which is staked. +
++ HEAD, "first—," young deer with antlers first sprouting; fig. a + newly-ennobled man. +
++ HEADBOROUGH, constable. +
++ HEARKEN AFTER, inquire; "hearken out," find, search out. +
++ HEARTEN, encourage. +
++ HEAVEN AND HELL ("Alchemist"), names of taverns. +
++ HECTIC, fever. +
++ HEDGE IN, include. +
++ HELM, upper part of a retort. +
++ HER'NSEW, hernshaw, heron. +
++ HIERONIMO (JERONIMO), hero of Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy." +
++ HOBBY, nag. +
++ HOBBY-HORSE, imitation horse of some light material, fastened round the + waist of the morrice-dancer, who imitated the movements of a skittish + horse. +
++ HODDY-DODDY, fool. +
++ HOIDEN, hoyden, formerly applied to both sexes (ancient term for leveret? + Gifford). +
++ HOLLAND, name of two famous chemists. +
++ HONE AND HONERO, wailing expressions of lament or discontent. +
++ HOOD-WINK'D, blindfolded. +
++ HORARY, hourly. +
++ HORN-MAD, stark mad (quibble). +
++ HORN-THUMB, cut-purses were in the habit of wearing a horn shield on the + thumb. +
++ HORSE-BREAD-EATING, horses were often fed on coarse bread. +
++ HORSE-COURSER, horse-dealer. +
++ HOSPITAL, Christ's Hospital. +
++ HOWLEGLAS, Eulenspiegel, the hero of a popular German tale which relates + his buffooneries and knavish tricks. +
++ HUFF, hectoring, arrogance. +
++ HUFF IT, swagger. +
++ HUISHER (Fr. huissier), usher. +
++ HUM, beer and spirits mixed together. +
++ HUMANITIAN, humanist, scholar. +
++ HUMOROUS, capricious, moody, out of humour; moist. +
++ HUMOUR, a word used in and out of season in the time of Shakespeare and + Ben Jonson, and ridiculed by both. +
++ HUMOURS, manners. +
++ HUMPHREY, DUKE, those who were dinnerless spent the dinner-hour in a part + of St. Paul's where stood a monument said to be that of the duke's; hence + "dine with Duke Humphrey," to go hungry. +
++ HURTLESS, harmless. +
++ IDLE, useless, unprofitable. +
++ ILL-AFFECTED, ill-disposed. +
++ ILL-HABITED, unhealthy. +
++ ILLUSTRATE, illuminate. +
++ IMBIBITION, saturation, steeping. +
++ IMBROCATA, fencing term: a thrust in tierce. +
++ IMPAIR, impairment. +
++ IMPART, give money. +
++ IMPARTER, any one ready to be cheated and to part with his money. +
++ IMPEACH, damage. +
++ IMPERTINENCIES, irrelevancies. +
++ IMPERTINENT(LY), irrelevant(ly), without reason or purpose. +
++ IMPOSITION, duty imposed by. +
++ IMPOTENTLY, beyond power of control. +
++ IMPRESS, money in advance. +
++ IMPULSION, incitement. +
++ IN AND IN, a game played by two or three persons with four dice. +
++ INCENSE, incite, stir up. +
++ INCERATION, act of covering with wax; or reducing a substance to softness + of wax. +
++ INCH, "to their—es," according to their stature, capabilities. +
++ INCH-PIN, sweet-bread. +
++ INCONVENIENCE, inconsistency, absurdity. +
++ INCONY, delicate, rare (used as a term of affection). +
++ INCUBEE, incubus. +
++ INCUBUS, evil spirit that oppresses us in sleep, nightmare. +
++ INCURIOUS, unfastidious, uncritical. +
++ INDENT, enter into engagement. +
++ INDIFFERENT, tolerable, passable. +
++ INDIGESTED, shapeless, chaotic. +
++ INDUCE, introduce. +
++ INDUE, supply. +
++ INEXORABLE, relentless. +
++ INFANTED, born, produced. +
++ INFLAME, augment charge. +
++ INGENIOUS, used indiscriminantly for ingenuous; intelligent, talented. +
++ INGENUITY, ingenuousness. +
++ INGENUOUS, generous. +
++ INGINE. See Engin. +
++ INGINER, engineer. (See Enginer). +
++ INGLE, OR ENGHLE, bosom friend, intimate, minion. +
++ INHABITABLE, uninhabitable. +
++ INJURY, insult, affront. +
++ IN-MATE, resident, indwelling. +
++ INNATE, natural. +
++ INNOCENT, simpleton. +
++ INQUEST, jury, or other official body of inquiry. +
++ INQUISITION, inquiry. +
++ INSTANT, immediate. +
++ INSTRUMENT, legal document. +
++ INSURE, assure. +
++ INTEGRATE, complete, perfect. +
++ INTELLIGENCE, secret information, news. +
++ INTEND, note carefully, attend, give ear to, be occupied with. +
++ INTENDMENT, intention. +
++ INTENT, intention, wish. +
++ INTENTION, concentration of attention or gaze. +
++ INTENTIVE, attentive. +
++ INTERESSED, implicated. +
++ INTRUDE, bring in forcibly or without leave. +
++ INVINCIBLY, invisibly. +
++ INWARD, intimate. +
++ IRPE (uncertain), "a fantastic grimace, or contortion of the body: + (Gifford). +
++ JACK, Jack o' the clock, automaton figure that strikes the hour; + Jack-a-lent, puppet thrown at in Lent. +
++ JACK, key of a virginal. +
++ JACOB'S STAFF, an instrument for taking altitudes and distances. +
++ JADE, befool. +
++ JEALOUSY, JEALOUS, suspicion, suspicious. +
++ JERKING, lashing. +
++ JEW'S TRUMP, Jew's harp. +
++ JIG, merry ballad or tune; a fanciful dialogue or light comic act + introduced at the end or during an interlude of a play. +
++ JOINED (JOINT)-STOOL, folding stool. +
++ JOLL, jowl. +
++ JOLTHEAD, blockhead. +
++ JUMP, agree, tally. +
++ JUST YEAR, no one was capable of the consulship until he was forty-three. +
++ KELL, cocoon. +
++ KELLY, an alchemist. +
++ KEMB, comb. +
++ KEMIA, vessel for distillation. +
++ KIBE, chap, sore. +
++ KILDERKIN, small barrel. +
++ KILL, kiln. +
++ KIND, nature; species; "do one's—," act according to one's nature. +
++ KIRTLE, woman's gown of jacket and petticoat. +
++ KISS OR DRINK AFORE ME, "this is a familiar expression, employed when what + the speaker is just about to say is anticipated by another" (Gifford). +
++ KIT, fiddle. +
++ KNACK, snap, click. +
++ KNIPPER-DOLING, a well-known Anabaptist. +
++ KNITTING CUP, marriage cup. +
++ KNOCKING, striking, weighty. +
++ KNOT, company, band; a sandpiper or robin snipe (Tringa canutus); + flower-bed laid out in fanciful design. +
++ KURSINED, KYRSIN, christened. +
++ LABOURED, wrought with labour and care. +
++ LADE, load(ed). +
++ LADING, load. +
++ LAID, plotted. +
++ LANCE-KNIGHT (Lanzknecht), a German mercenary foot-soldier. +
++ LAP, fold. +
++ LAR, household god. +
++ LARD, garnish. +
++ LARGE, abundant. +
++ LARUM, alarum, call to arms. +
++ LATTICE, tavern windows were furnished with lattices of various colours. +
++ LAUNDER, to wash gold in aqua regia, so as imperceptibly to extract some + of it. +
++ LAVE, ladle, bale. +
++ LAW, "give—," give a start (term of chase). +
++ LAXATIVE, loose. +
++ LAY ABOARD, run alongside generally with intent to board. +
++ LEAGUER, siege, or camp of besieging army. +
++ LEASING, lying. +
++ LEAVE, leave off, desist. +
++ LEER, leering or "empty, hence, perhaps, leer horse, a horse without a + rider; leer is an adjective meaning uncontrolled, hence 'leer drunkards'" + (Halliwell); according to Nares, a leer (empty) horse meant also a led + horse; leeward, left. +
++ LEESE, lose. +
++ LEGS, "make—," do obeisance. +
++ LEIGER, resident representative. +
++ LEIGERITY, legerdemain. +
++ LEMMA, subject proposed, or title of the epigram. +
++ LENTER, slower. +
++ LET, hinder. +
++ LET, hindrance. +
++ LEVEL COIL, a rough game...in which one hunted another from his seat. + Hence used for any noisy riot (Halliwell). +
++ LEWD, ignorant. +
++ LEYSTALLS, receptacles of filth. +
++ LIBERAL, ample. +
++ LIEGER, ledger, register. +
++ LIFT(ING), steal(ing); theft. +
++ LIGHT, alight. +
++ LIGHTLY, commonly, usually, often. +
++ LIKE, please. +
++ LIKELY, agreeable, pleasing. +
++ LIME-HOUND, leash-, blood-hound. +
++ LIMMER, vile, worthless. +
++ LIN, leave off. +
++ Line, "by—," by rule. +
++ LINSTOCK, staff to stick in the ground, with forked head to hold a lighted + match for firing cannon. +
++ LIQUID, clear. +
++ LIST, listen, hark; like, please. +
++ LIVERY, legal term, delivery of the possession, etc. +
++ LOGGET, small log, stick. +
++ LOOSE, solution; upshot, issue; release of an arrow. +
++ LOSE, give over, desist from; waste. +
++ LOUTING, bowing, cringing. +
++ LUCULENT, bright of beauty. +
++ LUDGATHIANS, dealers on Ludgate Hill. +
++ LURCH, rob, cheat. +
++ LUTE, to close a vessel with some kind of cement. +
++ MACK, unmeaning expletive. +
++ MADGE-HOWLET or OWL, barn-owl. +
++ MAIM, hurt, injury. +
++ MAIN, chief concern (used as a quibble on heraldic term for "hand"). +
++ MAINPRISE, becoming surety for a prisoner so as to procure his release. +
++ MAINTENANCE, giving aid, or abetting. +
++ MAKE, mate. +
++ MAKE, MADE, acquaint with business, prepare(d), instruct(ed). +
++ MALLANDERS, disease of horses. +
++ MALT HORSE, dray horse. +
++ MAMMET, puppet. +
++ MAMMOTHREPT, spoiled child. +
++ MANAGE, control (term used for breaking-in horses); handling, + administration. +
++ MANGO, slave-dealer. +
++ MANGONISE, polish up for sale. +
++ MANIPLES, bundles, handfuls. +
++ MANKIND, masculine, like a virago. +
++ MANKIND, humanity. +
++ MAPLE FACE, spotted face (N.E.D.). +
++ MARCHPANE, a confection of almonds, sugar, etc. +
++ MARK, "fly to the—," "generally said of a goshawk when, having 'put + in' a covey of partridges, she takes stand, marking the spot where they + disappeared from view until the falconer arrives to put them out to her" + (Harting, Bibl. Accip. Gloss. 226). +
++ MARLE, marvel. +
++ MARROW-BONE MAN, one often on his knees for prayer. +
++ MARRY! exclamation derived from the Virgin's name. +
++ MARRY GIP, "probably originated from By Mary Gipcy = St. Mary of Egypt, + (N.E.D.). +
++ MARTAGAN, Turk's cap lily. +
++ MARYHINCHCO, stringhalt. +
++ MASORETH, Masora, correct form of the scriptural text according to Hebrew + tradition. +
++ MASS, abb. for master. +
++ MAUND, beg. +
++ MAUTHER, girl, maid. +
++ MEAN, moderation. +
++ MEASURE, dance, more especially a stately one. +
++ MEAT, "carry—in one's mouth," be a source of money or entertainment. +
++ MEATH, metheglin. +
++ MECHANICAL, belonging to mechanics, mean, vulgar. +
++ MEDITERRANEO, middle aisle of St. Paul's, a general resort for business + and amusement. +
++ MEET WITH, even with. +
++ MELICOTTON, a late kind of peach. +
++ MENSTRUE, solvent. +
++ MERCAT, market. +
++ MERD, excrement. +
++ MERE, undiluted; absolute, unmitigated. +
++ MESS, party of four. +
++ METHEGLIN, fermented liquor, of which one ingredient was honey. +
++ METOPOSCOPY, study of physiognomy. +
++ MIDDLING GOSSIP, go-between. +
++ MIGNIARD, dainty, delicate. +
++ MILE-END, training-ground of the city. +
++ MINE-MEN, sappers. +
++ MINION, form of cannon. +
++ MINSITIVE, (?) mincing, affected (N.E.D.). +
++ MISCELLANY MADAM, "a female trader in miscellaneous articles; a dealer in + trinkets or ornaments of various kinds, such as kept shops in the New + Exchange" (Nares). +
++ MISCELLINE, mixed grain; medley. +
++ MISCONCEIT, misconception. +
++ MISPRISE, MISPRISION, mistake, misunderstanding. +
++ MISTAKE AWAY, carry away as if by mistake. +
++ MITHRIDATE, an antidote against poison. +
++ MOCCINIGO, small Venetian coin, worth about ninepence. +
++ MODERN, in the mode; ordinary, commonplace. +
++ MOMENT, force or influence of value. +
++ MONTANTO, upward stroke. +
++ MONTH'S MIND, violent desire. +
++ MOORISH, like a moor or waste. +
++ MORGLAY, sword of Bevis of Southampton. +
++ MORRICE-DANCE, dance on May Day, etc., in which certain personages were + represented. +
++ MORTALITY, death. +
++ MORT-MAL, old sore, gangrene. +
++ MOSCADINO, confection flavoured with musk. +
++ MOTHER, Hysterica passio. +
++ MOTION, proposal, request; puppet, puppet-show; "one of the small figures + on the face of a large clock which was moved by the vibration of the + pendulum" (Whalley). +
++ MOTION, suggest, propose. +
++ MOTLEY, parti-coloured dress of a fool; hence used to signify pertaining + to, or like, a fool. +
++ MOTTE, motto. +
++ MOURNIVAL, set of four aces or court cards in a hand; a quartette. +
++ MOW, setord hay or sheaves of grain. +
++ MUCH! expressive of irony and incredulity. +
++ MUCKINDER, handkerchief. +
++ MULE, "born to ride on—," judges or serjeants-at-law formerly rode + on mules when going in state to Westminster (Whally). +
++ MULLETS, small pincers. +
++ MUM-CHANCE, game of chance, played in silence. +
++ MUN, must. +
++ MUREY, dark crimson red. +
++ MUSCOVY-GLASS, mica. +
++ MUSE, wonder. +
++ MUSICAL, in harmony. +
++ MUSS, mouse; scramble. +
++ MYROBOLANE, foreign conserve, "a dried plum, brought from the Indies." +
++ MYSTERY, art, trade, profession. +
++ NAIL, "to the—" (ad unguem), to perfection, to the very utmost. +
++ NATIVE, natural. +
++ NEAT, cattle. +
++ NEAT, smartly apparelled; unmixed; dainty. +
++ NEATLY, neatly finished. +
++ NEATNESS, elegance. +
++ NEIS, nose, scent. +
++ NEUF (NEAF, NEIF), fist. +
++ NEUFT, newt. +
++ NIAISE, foolish, inexperienced person. +
++ NICE, fastidious, trivial, finical, scrupulous. +
++ NICENESS, fastidiousness. +
++ NICK, exact amount; right moment; "set in the—," meaning uncertain. +
++ NICE, suit, fit; hit, seize the right moment, etc., exactly hit on, hit + off. +
++ NOBLE, gold coin worth 6s. 8d. +
++ NOCENT, harmful. +
++ NIL, not will. +
++ NOISE, company of musicians. +
++ NOMENTACK, an Indian chief from Virginia. +
++ NONES, nonce. +
++ NOTABLE, egregious. +
++ NOTE, sign, token. +
++ NOUGHT, "be—," go to the devil, be hanged, etc. +
++ NOWT-HEAD, blockhead. +
++ NUMBER, rhythm. +
++ NUPSON, oaf, simpleton. +
++ OADE, woad. +
++ OBARNI, preparation of mead. +
++ OBJECT, oppose; expose; interpose. +
++ OBLATRANT, barking, railing. +
++ OBNOXIOUS, liable, exposed; offensive. +
++ OBSERVANCE, homage, devoted service. +
++ OBSERVANT, attentive, obsequious. +
++ OBSERVE, show deference, respect. +
++ OBSERVER, one who shows deference, or waits upon another. +
++ OBSTANCY, legal phrase, "juridical opposition." +
++ OBSTREPEROUS, clamorous, vociferous. +
++ OBSTUPEFACT, stupefied. +
++ ODLING, (?) "must have some relation to tricking and cheating" (Nares). +
++ OMINOUS, deadly, fatal. +
++ ONCE, at once; for good and all; used also for additional emphasis. +
++ ONLY, pre-eminent, special. +
++ OPEN, make public; expound. +
++ OPPILATION, obstruction. +
++ OPPONE, oppose. +
++ OPPOSITE, antagonist. +
++ OPPRESS, suppress. +
++ ORIGINOUS, native. +
++ ORT, remnant, scrap. +
++ OUT, "to be—," to have forgotten one's part; not at one with each + other. +
++ OUTCRY, sale by auction. +
++ OUTRECUIDANCE, arrogance, presumption. +
++ OUTSPEAK, speak more than. +
++ OVERPARTED, given too difficult a part to play. +
++ OWLSPIEGEL. See Howleglass. +
++ OYEZ! (O YES!), hear ye! call of the public crier when about to make a + proclamation. +
++ PACKING PENNY, "give a—," dismiss, send packing. +
++ PAD, highway. +
++ PAD-HORSE, road-horse. +
++ PAINED (PANED) SLOPS, full breeches made of strips of different colour and + material. +
++ PAINFUL, diligent, painstaking. +
++ PAINT, blush. +
++ PALINODE, ode of recantation. +
++ PALL, weaken, dim, make stale. +
++ PALM, triumph. +
++ PAN, skirt of dress or coat. +
++ PANNEL, pad, or rough kind of saddle. +
++ PANNIER-ALLY, inhabited by tripe-sellers. +
++ PANNIER-MAN, hawker; a man employed about the inns of court to bring in + provisions, set the table, etc. +
++ PANTOFLE, indoor shoe, slipper. +
++ PARAMENTOS, fine trappings. +
++ PARANOMASIE, a play upon words. +
++ PARANTORY, (?) peremptory. +
++ PARCEL, particle, fragment (used contemptuously); article. +
++ PARCEL, part, partly. +
++ PARCEL-POET, poetaster. +
++ PARERGA, subordinate matters. +
++ PARGET, to paint or plaster the face. +
++ PARLE, parley. +
++ PARLOUS, clever, shrewd. +
++ PART, apportion. +
++ PARTAKE, participate in. +
++ + +
++ PARTIZAN, kind of halberd. +
++ PARTRICH, partridge. +
++ PARTS, qualities, endowments. +
++ PASH, dash, smash. +
++ PASS, care, trouble oneself. +
++ PASSADO, fencing term: a thrust. +
++ PASSAGE, game at dice. +
++ PASSINGLY, exceedingly. +
++ PASSION, effect caused by external agency. +
++ PASSION, "in—," in so melancholy a tone, so pathetically. +
++ PATOUN, (?) Fr. Paton, pellet of dough; perhaps the "moulding of the + tobacco...for the pipe" (Gifford); (?) variant of Petun, South American + name of tobacco. +
++ PATRICO, the recorder, priest, orator of strolling beggars or gipsies. +
++ PATTEN, shoe with wooden sole; "go—," keep step with, accompany. +
++ PAUCA VERBA, few words. +
++ PAVIN, a stately dance. +
++ PEACE, "with my master's—," by leave, favour. +
++ PECULIAR, individual, single. +
++ PEDANT, teacher of the languages. +
++ PEEL, baker's shovel. +
++ PEEP, speak in a small or shrill voice. +
++ PEEVISH(LY), foolish(ly), capricious(ly); childish(ly). +
++ PELICAN, a retort fitted with tube or tubes, for continuous distillation. +
++ PENCIL, small tuft of hair. +
++ PERDUE, soldier accustomed to hazardous service. +
++ PEREMPTORY, resolute, bold; imperious; thorough, utter, absolute(ly). +
++ PERIMETER, circumference of a figure. +
++ PERIOD, limit, end. +
++ PERK, perk up. +
++ PERPETUANA, "this seems to be that glossy kind of stuff now called + everlasting, and anciently worn by serjeants and other city officers" + (Gifford). +
++ PERSPECTIVE, a view, scene or scenery; an optical device which gave a + distortion to the picture unless seen from a particular point; a relief, + modelled to produce an optical illusion. +
++ PERSPICIL, optic glass. +
++ PERSTRINGE, criticise, censure. +
++ PERSUADE, inculcate, commend. +
++ PERSWAY, mitigate. +
++ PERTINACY, pertinacity. +
++ PESTLING, pounding, pulverising, like a pestle. +
++ PETASUS, broad-brimmed hat or winged cap worn by Mercury. +
++ PETITIONARY, supplicatory. +
++ PETRONEL, a kind of carbine or light gun carried by horsemen. +
++ PETULANT, pert, insolent. +
++ PHERE. See Fere. +
++ PHLEGMA, watery distilled liquor (old chem. "water"). +
++ PHRENETIC, madman. +
++ PICARDIL, stiff upright collar fastened on to the coat (Whalley). +
++ PICT-HATCH, disreputable quarter of London. +
++ PIECE, person, used for woman or girl; a gold coin worth in Jonson's time + 20s. or 22s. +
++ PIECES OF EIGHT, Spanish coin: piastre equal to eight reals. +
++ PIED, variegated. +
++ PIE-POUDRES (Fr. pied-poudreux, dusty-foot), court held at fairs to + administer justice to itinerant vendors and buyers. +
++ PILCHER, term of contempt; one who wore a buff or leather jerkin, as did + the serjeants of the counter; a pilferer. +
++ PILED, pilled, peeled, bald. +
++ PILL'D, polled, fleeced. +
++ PIMLICO, "sometimes spoken of as a person—perhaps master of a house + famous for a particular ale" (Gifford). +
++ PINE, afflict, distress. +
++ PINK, stab with a weapon; pierce or cut in scallops for ornament. +
++ PINNACE, a go-between in infamous sense. +
++ PISMIRE, ant. +
++ PISTOLET, gold coin, worth about 6s. +
++ PITCH, height of a bird of prey's flight. +
++ PLAGUE, punishment, torment. +
++ PLAIN, lament. +
++ PLAIN SONG, simple melody. +
++ PLAISE, plaice. +
++ PLANET, "struck with a—," planets were supposed to have powers of + blasting or exercising secret influences. +
++ PLAUSIBLE, pleasing. +
++ PLAUSIBLY, approvingly. +
++ PLOT, plan. +
++ PLY, apply oneself to. +
++ POESIE, posy, motto inside a ring. +
++ POINT IN HIS DEVICE, exact in every particular. +
++ POINTS, tagged laces or cords for fastening the breeches to the doublet. +
++ POINT-TRUSSER, one who trussed (tied) his master's points (q.v.). +
++ POISE, weigh, balance. +
++ POKING-STICK, stick used for setting the plaits of ruffs. +
++ POLITIC, politician. +
++ POLITIC, judicious, prudent, political. +
++ POLITICIAN, plotter, intriguer. +
++ POLL, strip, plunder, gain by extortion. +
++ POMANDER, ball of perfume, worn or hung about the person to prevent + infection, or for foppery. +
++ POMMADO, vaulting on a horse without the aid of stirrups. +
++ PONTIC, sour. +
++ POPULAR, vulgar, of the populace. +
++ POPULOUS, numerous. +
++ PORT, gate; print of a deer's foot. +
++ PORT, transport. +
++ PORTAGUE, Portuguese gold coin, worth over 3 or 4 pounds. +
++ PORTCULLIS, "—of coin," some old coins have a portcullis stamped on + their reverse (Whalley). +
++ PORTENT, marvel, prodigy; sinister omen. +
++ PORTENTOUS, prophesying evil, threatening. +
++ PORTER, references appear "to allude to Parsons, the king's porter, who + was...near seven feet high" (Whalley). +
++ POSSESS, inform, acquaint. +
++ POST AND PAIR, a game at cards. +
++ POSY, motto. (See Poesie). +
++ POTCH, poach. +
++ POULT-FOOT, club-foot. +
++ POUNCE, claw, talon. +
++ PRACTICE, intrigue, concerted plot. +
++ PRACTISE, plot, conspire. +
++ PRAGMATIC, an expert, agent. +
++ PRAGMATIC, officious, conceited, meddling. +
++ PRECEDENT, record of proceedings. +
++ PRECEPT, warrant, summons. +
++ PRECISIAN(ISM), Puritan(ism), preciseness. +
++ PREFER, recommend. +
++ PRESENCE, presence chamber. +
++ PRESENT(LY), immediate(ly), without delay; at the present time; actually. +
++ PRESS, force into service. +
++ PREST, ready. +
++ PRETEND, assert, allege. +
++ PREVENT, anticipate. +
++ PRICE, worth, excellence. +
++ PRICK, point, dot used in the writing of Hebrew and other languages. +
++ PRICK, prick out, mark off, select; trace, track; "—away," make off + with speed. +
++ PRIMERO, game of cards. +
++ PRINCOX, pert boy. +
++ PRINT, "in—," to the letter, exactly. +
++ PRISTINATE, former. +
++ PRIVATE, private interests. +
++ PRIVATE, privy, intimate. +
++ PROCLIVE, prone to. +
++ PRODIGIOUS, monstrous, unnatural. +
++ PRODIGY, monster. +
++ PRODUCED, prolonged. +
++ PROFESS, pretend. +
++ PROJECTION, the throwing of the "powder of projection" into the crucible + to turn the melted metal into gold or silver. +
++ PROLATE, pronounce drawlingly. +
++ PROPER, of good appearance, handsome; own, particular. +
++ PROPERTIES, stage necessaries. +
++ PROPERTY, duty; tool. +
++ PRORUMPED, burst out. +
++ PROTEST, vow, proclaim (an affected word of that time); formally declare + non-payment, etc., of bill of exchange; fig. failure of personal credit, + etc. +
++ PROVANT, soldier's allowance—hence, of common make. +
++ PROVIDE, foresee. +
++ PROVIDENCE, foresight, prudence. +
++ PUBLICATION, making a thing public of common property (N.E.D.). +
++ PUCKFIST, puff-ball; insipid, insignificant, boasting fellow. +
++ PUFF-WING, shoulder puff. +
++ PUISNE, judge of inferior rank, a junior. +
++ PULCHRITUDE, beauty. +
++ PUMP, shoe. +
++ PUNGENT, piercing. +
++ PUNTO, point, hit. +
++ PURCEPT, precept, warrant. +
++ PURE, fine, capital, excellent. +
++ PURELY, perfectly, utterly. +
++ PURL, pleat or fold of a ruff. +
++ PURSE-NET, net of which the mouth is drawn together with a string. +
++ PURSUIVANT, state messenger who summoned the persecuted seminaries; + warrant officer. +
++ PURSY, PURSINESS, shortwinded(ness). +
++ PUT, make a push, exert yourself (N.E.D.). +
++ PUT OFF, excuse, shift. +
++ PUT ON, incite, encourage; proceed with, take in hand, try. +
++ QUACKSALVER, quack. +
++ QUAINT, elegant, elaborated, ingenious, clever. +
++ QUAR, quarry. +
++ QUARRIED, seized, or fed upon, as prey. +
++ QUEAN, hussy, jade. +
++ QUEASY, hazardous, delicate. +
++ QUELL, kill, destroy. +
++ QUEST, request; inquiry. +
++ QUESTION, decision by force of arms. +
++ QUESTMAN, one appointed to make official inquiry. +
++ QUIB, QUIBLIN, quibble, quip. +
++ QUICK, the living. +
++ QUIDDIT, quiddity, legal subtlety. +
++ QUIRK, clever turn or trick. +
++ QUIT, requite, repay; acquit, absolve; rid; forsake, leave. +
++ QUITTER-BONE, disease of horses. +
++ QUODLING, codling. +
++ QUOIT, throw like a quoit, chuck. +
++ QUOTE, take note, observe, write down. +
++ RACK, neck of mutton or pork (Halliwell). +
++ RAKE UP, cover over. +
++ RAMP, rear, as a lion, etc. +
++ RAPT, carry away. +
++ RAPT, enraptured. +
++ RASCAL, young or inferior deer. +
++ RASH, strike with a glancing oblique blow, as a boar with its tusk. +
++ RATSEY, GOMALIEL, a famous highwayman. +
++ RAVEN, devour. +
++ REACH, understand. +
++ REAL, regal. +
++ REBATU, ruff, turned-down collar. +
++ RECTOR, RECTRESS, director, governor. +
++ REDARGUE, confute. +
++ REDUCE, bring back. +
++ REED, rede, counsel, advice. +
++ REEL, run riot. +
++ REFEL, refute. +
++ REFORMADOES, disgraced or disbanded soldiers. +
++ REGIMENT, government. +
++ REGRESSION, return. +
++ REGULAR ("Tale of a Tub"), regular noun (quibble) (N.E.D.). +
++ RELIGION, "make—of," make a point of, scruple of. +
++ RELISH, savour. +
++ REMNANT, scrap of quotation. +
++ REMORA, species of fish. +
++ RENDER, depict, exhibit, show. +
++ REPAIR, reinstate. +
++ REPETITION, recital, narration. +
++ REREMOUSE, bat. +
++ RESIANT, resident. +
++ RESIDENCE, sediment. +
++ RESOLUTION, judgment, decision. +
++ RESOLVE, inform; assure; prepare, make up one's mind; dissolve; come to a + decision, be convinced; relax, set at ease. +
++ RESPECTIVE, worthy of respect; regardful, discriminative. +
++ RESPECTIVELY, with reverence. +
++ RESPECTLESS, regardless. +
++ RESPIRE, exhale; inhale. +
++ RESPONSIBLE, correspondent. +
++ REST, musket-rest. +
++ REST, "set up one's—," venture one's all, one's last stake (from + game of primero). +
++ REST, arrest. +
++ RESTIVE, RESTY, dull, inactive. +
++ RETCHLESS(NESS), reckless(ness). +
++ RETIRE, cause to retire. +
++ RETRICATO, fencing term. +
++ RETRIEVE, rediscovery of game once sprung. +
++ RETURNS, ventures sent abroad, for the safe return of which so much money + is received. +
++ REVERBERATE, dissolve or blend by reflected heat. +
++ REVERSE, REVERSO, back-handed thrust, etc., in fencing. +
++ REVISE, reconsider a sentence. +
++ RHEUM, spleen, caprice. +
++ RIBIBE, abusive term for an old woman. +
++ RID, destroy, do away with. +
++ RIFLING, raffling, dicing. +
++ RING, "cracked within the—," coins so cracked were unfit for + currency. +
++ RISSE, risen, rose. +
++ RIVELLED, wrinkled. +
++ ROARER, swaggerer. +
++ ROCHET, fish of the gurnet kind. +
++ ROCK, distaff. +
++ RODOMONTADO, braggadocio. +
++ ROGUE, vagrant, vagabond. +
++ RONDEL, "a round mark in the score of a public-house" (Nares); roundel. +
++ ROOK, sharper; fool, dupe. +
++ ROSAKER, similar to ratsbane. +
++ ROSA-SOLIS, a spiced spirituous liquor. +
++ ROSES, rosettes. +
++ ROUND, "gentlemen of the—," officers of inferior rank. +
++ ROUND TRUNKS, trunk hose, short loose breeches reaching almost or quite to + the knees. +
++ ROUSE, carouse, bumper. +
++ ROVER, arrow used for shooting at a random mark at uncertain distance. +
++ ROWLY-POWLY, roly-poly. +
++ RUDE, RUDENESS, unpolished, rough(ness), coarse(ness). +
++ RUFFLE, flaunt, swagger. +
++ RUG, coarse frieze. +
++ RUG-GOWNS, gown made of rug. +
++ RUSH, reference to rushes with which the floors were then strewn. +
++ RUSHER, one who strewed the floor with rushes. +
++ RUSSET, homespun cloth of neutral or reddish-brown colour. +
++ SACK, loose, flowing gown. +
++ SADLY, seriously, with gravity. +
++ SAD(NESS), sober, serious(ness). +
++ SAFFI, bailiffs. +
++ ST. THOMAS A WATERINGS, place in Surrey where criminals were executed. +
++ SAKER, small piece of ordnance. +
++ SALT, leap. +
++ SALT, lascivious. +
++ SAMPSUCHINE, sweet marjoram. +
++ SARABAND, a slow dance. +
++ SATURNALS, began December 17. +
++ SAUCINESS, presumption, insolence. +
++ SAUCY, bold, impudent, wanton. +
++ SAUNA (Lat.), a gesture of contempt. +
++ SAVOUR, perceive; gratify, please; to partake of the nature. +
++ SAY, sample. +
++ SAY, assay, try. +
++ SCALD, word of contempt, implying dirt and disease. +
++ SCALLION, shalot, small onion. +
++ SCANDERBAG, "name which the Turks (in allusion to Alexander the Great) + gave to the brave Castriot, chief of Albania, with whom they had continual + wars. His romantic life had just been translated" (Gifford). +
++ SCAPE, escape. +
++ SCARAB, beetle. +
++ SCARTOCCIO, fold of paper, cover, cartouch, cartridge. +
++ SCONCE, head. +
++ SCOPE, aim. +
++ SCOT AND LOT, tax, contribution (formerly a parish assessment). +
++ SCOTOMY, dizziness in the head. +
++ SCOUR, purge. +
++ SCOURSE, deal, swap. +
++ SCRATCHES, disease of horses. +
++ SCROYLE, mean, rascally fellow. +
++ SCRUPLE, doubt. +
++ SEAL, put hand to the giving up of property or rights. +
++ SEALED, stamped as genuine. +
++ SEAM-RENT, ragged. +
++ SEAMING LACES, insertion or edging. +
++ SEAR UP, close by searing, burning. +
++ SEARCED, sifted. +
++ SECRETARY, able to keep a secret. +
++ SECULAR, worldly, ordinary, commonplace. +
++ SECURE, confident. +
++ SEELIE, happy, blest. +
++ SEISIN, legal term: possession. +
++ SELLARY, lewd person. +
++ SEMBLABLY, similarly. +
++ SEMINARY, a Romish priest educated in a foreign seminary. +
++ SENSELESS, insensible, without sense or feeling. +
++ SENSIBLY, perceptibly. +
++ SENSIVE, sensitive. +
++ SENSUAL, pertaining to the physical or material. +
++ SERENE, harmful dew of evening. +
++ SERICON, red tincture. +
++ SERVANT, lover. +
++ SERVICES, doughty deeds of arms. +
++ SESTERCE, Roman copper coin. +
++ SET, stake, wager. +
++ SET UP, drill. +
++ SETS, deep plaits of the ruff. +
++ SEWER, officer who served up the feast, and brought water for the hands of + the guests. +
++ SHAPE, a suit by way of disguise. +
++ SHIFT, fraud, dodge. +
++ SHIFTER, cheat. +
++ SHITTLE, shuttle; "shittle-cock," shuttlecock. +
++ SHOT, tavern reckoning. +
++ SHOT-CLOG, one only tolerated because he paid the shot (reckoning) for the + rest. +
++ SHOT-FREE, scot-free, not having to pay. +
++ SHOVE-GROAT, low kind of gambling amusement, perhaps somewhat of the + nature of pitch and toss. +
++ SHOT-SHARKS, drawers. +
++ SHREWD, mischievous, malicious, curst. +
++ SHREWDLY, keenly, in a high degree. +
++ SHRIVE, sheriff; posts were set up before his door for proclamations, or + to indicate his residence. +
++ SHROVING, Shrovetide, season of merriment. +
++ SIGILLA, seal, mark. +
++ SILENCED BRETHERN, MINISTERS, those of the Church or Nonconformists who + had been silenced, deprived, etc. +
++ SILLY, simple, harmless. +
++ SIMPLE, silly, witless; plain, true. +
++ SIMPLES, herbs. +
++ SINGLE, term of chase, signifying when the hunted stag is separated from + the herd, or forced to break covert. +
++ SINGLE, weak, silly. +
++ SINGLE-MONEY, small change. +
++ SINGULAR, unique, supreme. +
++ SI-QUIS, bill, advertisement. +
++ SKELDRING, getting money under false pretences; swindling. +
++ SKILL, "it—s not," matters not. +
++ SKINK(ER), pour, draw(er), tapster. +
++ SKIRT, tail. +
++ SLEEK, smooth. +
++ SLICE, fire shovel or pan (dial.). +
++ SLICK, sleek, smooth. +
++ 'SLID, 'SLIGHT, 'SPRECIOUS, irreverent oaths. +
++ SLIGHT, sleight, cunning, cleverness; trick. +
++ SLIP, counterfeit coin, bastard. +
++ SLIPPERY, polished and shining. +
++ SLOPS, large loose breeches. +
++ SLOT, print of a stag's foot. +
++ SLUR, put a slur on; cheat (by sliding a die in some way). +
++ SMELT, gull, simpleton. +
++ SNORLE, "perhaps snarl, as Puppy is addressed" (Cunningham). +
++ SNOTTERIE, filth. +
++ SNUFF, anger, resentment; "take in—," take offence at. +
++ SNUFFERS, small open silver dishes for holding snuff, or receptacle for + placing snuffers in (Halliwell). +
++ SOCK, shoe worn by comic actors. +
++ SOD, seethe. +
++ SOGGY, soaked, sodden. +
++ SOIL, "take—," said of a hunted stag when he takes to the water for + safety. +
++ SOL, sou. +
++ SOLDADOES, soldiers. +
++ SOLICIT, rouse, excite to action. +
++ SOOTH, flattery, cajolery. +
++ SOOTHE, flatter, humour. +
++ SOPHISTICATE, adulterate. +
++ SORT, company, party; rank, degree. +
++ SORT, suit, fit; select. +
++ SOUSE, ear. +
++ SOUSED ("Devil is an Ass"), fol. read "sou't," which Dyce interprets as "a + variety of the spelling of "shu'd": to "shu" is to scare a bird away." + (See his "Webster," page 350). +
++ SOWTER, cobbler. +
++ SPAGYRICA, chemistry according to the teachings of Paracelsus. +
++ SPAR, bar. +
++ SPEAK, make known, proclaim. +
++ SPECULATION, power of sight. +
++ SPED, to have fared well, prospered. +
++ SPEECE, species. +
++ SPIGHT, anger, rancour. +
++ SPINNER, spider. +
++ SPINSTRY, lewd person. +
++ SPITTLE, hospital, lazar-house. +
++ SPLEEN, considered the seat of the emotions. +
++ SPLEEN, caprice, humour, mood. +
++ SPRUNT, spruce. +
++ SPURGE, foam. +
++ SPUR-RYAL, gold coin worth 15s. +
++ SQUIRE, square, measure; "by the—," exactly. +
++ STAGGERING, wavering, hesitating. +
++ STAIN, disparagement, disgrace. +
++ STALE, decoy, or cover, stalking-horse. +
++ STALE, make cheap, common. +
++ STALK, approach stealthily or under cover. +
++ STALL, forestall. +
++ STANDARD, suit. +
++ STAPLE, market, emporium. +
++ STARK, downright. +
++ STARTING-HOLES, loopholes of escape. +
++ STATE, dignity; canopied chair of state; estate. +
++ STATUMINATE, support vines by poles or stakes; used by Pliny (Gifford). +
++ STAY, gag. +
++ STAY, await; detain. +
++ STICKLER, second or umpire. +
++ STIGMATISE, mark, brand. +
++ STILL, continual(ly), constant(ly). +
++ STINKARD, stinking fellow. +
++ STINT, stop. +
++ STIPTIC, astringent. +
++ STOCCATA, thrust in fencing. +
++ STOCK-FISH, salted and dried fish. +
++ STOMACH, pride, valour. +
++ STOMACH, resent. +
++ STOOP, swoop down as a hawk. +
++ STOP, fill, stuff. +
++ STOPPLE, stopper. +
++ STOTE, stoat, weasel. +
++ STOUP, stoop, swoop=bow. +
++ STRAIGHT, straightway. +
++ STRAMAZOUN (Ital. stramazzone), a down blow, as opposed to the thrust. +
++ STRANGE, like a stranger, unfamiliar. +
++ STRANGENESS, distance of behaviour. +
++ STREIGHTS, OR BERMUDAS, labyrinth of alleys and courts in the Strand. +
++ STRIGONIUM, Grau in Hungary, taken from the Turks in 1597. +
++ STRIKE, balance (accounts). +
++ STRINGHALT, disease of horses. +
++ STROKER, smoother, flatterer. +
++ STROOK, p.p. of "strike." +
++ STRUMMEL-PATCHED, strummel is glossed in dialect dicts. as "a long, loose + and dishevelled head of hair." +
++ STUDIES, studious efforts. +
++ STYLE, title; pointed instrument used for writing on wax tablets. +
++ SUBTLE, fine, delicate, thin; smooth, soft. +
++ SUBTLETY (SUBTILITY), subtle device. +
++ SUBURB, connected with loose living. +
++ SUCCUBAE, demons in form of women. +
++ SUCK, extract money from. +
++ SUFFERANCE, suffering. +
++ SUMMED, term of falconry: with full-grown plumage. +
++ SUPER-NEGULUM, topers turned the cup bottom up when it was empty. +
++ SUPERSTITIOUS, over-scrupulous. +
++ SUPPLE, to make pliant. +
++ SURBATE, make sore with walking. +
++ SURCEASE, cease. +
++ SUR-REVERENCE, save your reverence. +
++ SURVISE, peruse. +
++ SUSCITABILITY, excitability. +
++ SUSPECT, suspicion. +
++ SUSPEND, suspect. +
++ SUSPENDED, held over for the present. +
++ SUTLER, victualler. +
++ SWAD, clown, boor. +
++ SWATH BANDS, swaddling clothes. +
++ SWINGE, beat. +
++ TABERD, emblazoned mantle or tunic worn by knights and heralds. +
++ TABLE(S), "pair of—," tablets, note-book. +
++ TABOR, small drum. +
++ TABRET, tabor. +
++ TAFFETA, silk; "tuft-taffeta," a more costly silken fabric. +
++ TAINT, "—a staff," break a lance at tilting in an unscientific or + dishonourable manner. +
++ TAKE IN, capture, subdue. +
++ TAKE ME WITH YOU, let me understand you. +
++ TAKE UP, obtain on credit, borrow. +
++ TALENT, sum or weight of Greek currency. +
++ TALL, stout, brave. +
++ TANKARD-BEARERS, men employed to fetch water from the conduits. +
++ TARLETON, celebrated comedian and jester. +
++ TARTAROUS, like a Tartar. +
++ TAVERN-TOKEN, "to swallow a—," get drunk. +
++ TELL, count. +
++ TELL-TROTH, truth-teller. +
++ TEMPER, modify, soften. +
++ TENDER, show regard, care for, cherish; manifest. +
++ TENT, "take—," take heed. +
++ TERSE, swept and polished. +
++ TERTIA, "that portion of an army levied out of one particular district or + division of a country" (Gifford). +
++ TESTON, tester, coin worth 6d. +
++ THIRDBOROUGH, constable. +
++ THREAD, quality. +
++ THREAVES, droves. +
++ THREE-FARTHINGS, piece of silver current under Elizabeth. +
++ THREE-PILED, of finest quality, exaggerated. +
++ THRIFTILY, carefully. +
++ THRUMS, ends of the weaver's warp; coarse yarn made from. +
++ THUMB-RING, familiar spirits were supposed capable of being carried about + in various ornaments or parts of dress. +
++ TIBICINE, player on the tibia, or pipe. +
++ TICK-TACK, game similar to backgammon. +
++ TIGHTLY, promptly. +
++ TIM, (?) expressive of a climax of nonentity. +
++ TIMELESS, untimely, unseasonable. +
++ TINCTURE, an essential or spiritual principle supposed by alchemists to be + transfusible into material things; an imparted characteristic or tendency. +
++ TINK, tinkle. +
++ TIPPET, "turn—," change behaviour or way of life. +
++ TIPSTAFF, staff tipped with metal. +
++ TIRE, head-dress. +
++ TIRE, feed ravenously, like a bird of prey. +
++ TITILLATION, that which tickles the senses, as a perfume. +
++ TOD, fox. +
++ TOILED, worn out, harassed. +
++ TOKEN, piece of base metal used in place of very small coin, when this was + scarce. +
++ TONNELS, nostrils. +
++ TOP, "parish—," large top kept in villages for amusement and + exercise in frosty weather when people were out of work. +
++ TOTER, tooter, player on a wind instrument. +
++ TOUSE, pull, rend. +
++ TOWARD, docile, apt; on the way to; as regards; present, at hand. +
++ TOY, whim; trick; term of contempt. +
++ TRACT, attraction. +
++ TRAIN, allure, entice. +
++ TRANSITORY, transmittable. +
++ TRANSLATE, transform. +
++ TRAY-TRIP, game at dice (success depended on throwing a three) (Nares). +
++ TREACHOUR (TRECHER), traitor. +
++ TREEN, wooden. +
++ TRENCHER, serving-man who carved or served food. +
++ TRENDLE-TAIL, trundle-tail, curly-tailed. +
++ TRICK (TRICKING), term of heraldry: to draw outline of coat of arms, etc., + without blazoning. +
++ TRIG, a spruce, dandified man. +
++ TRILL, trickle. +
++ TRILLIBUB, tripe, any worthless, trifling thing. +
++ TRIPOLY, "come from—," able to perform feats of agility, a "jest + nominal," depending on the first part of the word (Gifford). +
++ TRITE, worn, shabby. +
++ TRIVIA, three-faced goddess (Hecate). +
++ TROJAN, familiar term for an equal or inferior; thief. +
++ TROLL, sing loudly. +
++ TROMP, trump, deceive. +
++ TROPE, figure of speech. +
++ TROW, think, believe, wonder. +
++ TROWLE, troll. +
++ TROWSES, breeches, drawers. +
++ TRUCHMAN, interpreter. +
++ TRUNDLE, JOHN, well-known printer. +
++ TRUNDLE, roll, go rolling along. +
++ TRUNDLING CHEATS, term among gipsies and beggars for carts or coaches + (Gifford). +
++ TRUNK, speaking-tube. +
++ TRUSS, tie the tagged laces that fastened the breeches to the doublet. +
++ TUBICINE, trumpeter. +
++ TUCKET (Ital. toccato), introductory flourish on the trumpet. +
++ TUITION, guardianship. +
++ TUMBLER, a particular kind of dog so called from the mode of his hunting. +
++ TUMBREL-SLOP, loose, baggy breeches. +
++ TURD, excrement. +
++ TUSK, gnash the teeth (Century Dict.). +
++ TWIRE, peep, twinkle. +
++ TWOPENNY ROOM, gallery. +
++ TYRING-HOUSE, attiring-room. +
++ ULENSPIEGEL. See Howleglass. +
++ UMBRATILE, like or pertaining to a shadow. +
++ UMBRE, brown dye. +
++ UNBATED, unabated. +
++ UNBORED, (?) excessively bored. +
++ UNCARNATE, not fleshly, or of flesh. +
++ UNCOUTH, strange, unusual. +
++ UNDERTAKER, "one who undertook by his influence in the House of Commons to + carry things agreeably to his Majesty's wishes" (Whalley); one who becomes + surety for. +
++ UNEQUAL, unjust. +
++ UNEXCEPTED, no objection taken at. +
++ UNFEARED, unaffrighted. +
++ UNHAPPILY, unfortunately. +
++ UNICORN'S HORN, supposed antidote to poison. +
++ UNKIND(LY), unnatural(ly). +
++ UNMANNED, untamed (term in falconry). +
++ UNQUIT, undischarged. +
++ UNREADY, undressed. +
++ UNRUDE, rude to an extreme. +
++ UNSEASONED, unseasonable, unripe. +
++ UNSEELED, a hawk's eyes were "seeled" by sewing the eyelids together with + fine thread. +
++ UNTIMELY, unseasonably. +
++ UNVALUABLE, invaluable. +
++ UPBRAID, make a matter of reproach. +
++ UPSEE, heavy kind of Dutch beer (Halliwell); "—Dutch," in the Dutch + fashion. +
++ UPTAILS ALL, refrain of a popular song. +
++ URGE, allege as accomplice, instigator. +
++ URSHIN, URCHIN, hedgehog. +
++ USE, interest on money; part of sermon dealing with the practical + application of doctrine. +
++ USE, be in the habit of, accustomed to; put out to interest. +
++ USQUEBAUGH, whisky. +
++ USURE, usury. +
++ UTTER, put in circulation, make to pass current; put forth for sale. +
++ VAIL, bow, do homage. +
++ VAILS, tips, gratuities. +
++ VALL. See Vail. +
++ VALLIES (Fr. valise), portmanteau, bag. +
++ VAPOUR(S) (n. and v.), used affectedly, like "humour," in many senses, + often very vaguely and freely ridiculed by Jonson; humour, disposition, + whims, brag(ging), hector(ing), etc. +
++ VARLET, bailiff, or serjeant-at-mace. +
++ VAUT, vault. +
++ VEER (naut.), pay out. +
++ VEGETAL, vegetable; person full of life and vigour. +
++ VELLUTE, velvet. +
++ VELVET CUSTARD. Cf. "Taming of the Shrew," iv. 3, 82, "custard coffin," + coffin being the raised crust over a pie. +
++ VENT, vend, sell; give outlet to; scent, snuff up. +
++ VENUE, bout (fencing term). +
++ VERDUGO (Span.), hangman, executioner. +
++ VERGE, "in the—," within a certain distance of the court. +
++ VEX, agitate, torment. +
++ VICE, the buffoon of old moralities; some kind of machinery for moving a + puppet (Gifford). +
++ VIE AND REVIE, to hazard a certain sum, and to cover it with a larger one. +
++ VINCENT AGAINST YORK, two heralds-at-arms. +
++ VINDICATE, avenge. +
++ VIRGE, wand, rod. +
++ VIRGINAL, old form of piano. +
++ VIRTUE, valour. +
++ VIVELY, in lifelike manner, livelily. +
++ VIZARD, mask. +
++ VOGUE, rumour, gossip. +
++ VOICE, vote. +
++ VOID, leave, quit. +
++ VOLARY, cage, aviary. +
++ VOLLEY, "at—," "o' the volee," at random (from a term of tennis). +
++ VORLOFFE, furlough. +
++ WADLOE, keeper of the Devil Tavern, where Jonson and his friends met in + the 'Apollo' room (Whalley). +
++ WAIGHTS, waits, night musicians, "band of musical watchmen" (Webster), or + old form of "hautboys." +
++ WANNION, "vengeance," "plague" (Nares). +
++ WARD, a famous pirate. +
++ WARD, guard in fencing. +
++ WATCHET, pale, sky blue. +
++ WEAL, welfare. +
++ WEED, garment. +
++ WEFT, waif. +
++ WEIGHTS, "to the gold—," to every minute particular. +
++ WELKIN, sky. +
++ WELL-SPOKEN, of fair speech. +
++ WELL-TORNED, turned and polished, as on a wheel. +
++ WELT, hem, border of fur. +
++ WHER, whether. +
++ WHETSTONE, GEORGE, an author who lived 1544(?) to 1587(?). +
++ WHIFF, a smoke, or drink; "taking the—," inhaling the tobacco smoke + or some such accomplishment. +
++ WHIGH-HIES, neighings, whinnyings. +
++ WHIMSY, whim, "humour." +
++ WHINILING, (?) whining, weakly. +
++ WHIT, (?) a mere jot. +
++ WHITEMEAT, food made of milk or eggs. +
++ WICKED, bad, clumsy. +
++ WICKER, pliant, agile. +
++ WILDING, esp. fruit of wild apple or crab tree (Webster). +
++ WINE, "I have the—for you," Prov.: I have the perquisites (of the + office) which you are to share (Cunningham). +
++ WINNY, "same as old word "wonne," to stay, etc." (Whalley). +
++ WISE-WOMAN, fortune-teller. +
++ WISH, recommend. +
++ WISS (WUSSE), "I—," certainly, of a truth. +
++ WITHOUT, beyond. +
++ WITTY, cunning, ingenious, clever. +
++ WOOD, collection, lot. +
++ WOODCOCK, term of contempt. +
++ WOOLSACK ("—pies"), name of tavern. +
++ WORT, unfermented beer. +
++ WOUNDY, great, extreme. +
++ WREAK, revenge. +
++ WROUGHT, wrought upon. +
++ WUSSE, interjection. (See Wiss). +
++ YEANLING, lamb, kid. +
++ ZANY, an inferior clown, who attended upon the chief fool and mimicked his + tricks. +
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