And they come headlong all their good turns move not,

Or very slowly.

Plu. Yet, sweet father, trust him.

Gilt. Well, I will think. [They walk aside.
Ever. Come, you must do't, sir.

I am undone else, and your lady Tailbush
Has sent for me to dinner, and my clothes
Are all at pawn. I had sent out this morning,
Before I heard you were come to town, some
twenty

Of my epistles, and no one return

Meer. Why, I have told you of this. This comes of wearing

Scarlet, gold lace, and cut-works! your fine gartering,

With your blown roses, cousin! and your eating Pheasant, and godwit, here in London, haunting The Globes and Mermaids,' wedging in with lords Still at the table, and affecting letchery

In velvet! where, could you have contented. yourself

With cheese, salt butter, and a pickled herring, In the Low Countries; there worn cloth and fustian,

Been satisfied with a leap o' your host's daughter, In garrison, a wench of a storer, or

Your sutler's wife in the leaguer, of two blanks !*

3 The Globes and Mermaids.] Playhouses and taverns. The Globe was on the Bank-side, the Mermaid (tavern) in Cornhill. a wench of a storer; or

4

Your sutler's wife in the leaguer, of two blanks!] Whalley says, in the margin of his copy, he "suspects a line to be dropt here, as he cannot make out the poet's meaning." The poet's meaning is clear enough, and to a scholar, like Whalley, ought to have presented no difficulty. Jonson had Horace in his thoughts, and has, not without some ingenuity, parodied several loose passages of one of his satires. Either by accident or design,

You never then had run upon this flat,

To write your letters missive, and send out
Your privy seals, that thus have frighted off
All your acquaintance, that they shun you at
distance,

Worse than you do the bailiffs.
Ever. Pox upon you!

I come not to you for counsel, I lack money.
Meer. You do not think what you owe me already.
Ever. I!

They owe you that mean to pay you: I'll be sworn
I never meant it. Come, you will project,
I shall undo your practice, for this month, else:
You know me.

Meer. Ay, you are a right sweet nature!
Ever. Well, that's all one!

Meer. You'll leave this empire one day;
You will not ever have this tribute paid
Your scepter of the sword!

Ever. Tie up your wit,

Do, and provoke me not-

Meer. Will you, sir, help.

To what I shall provoke another for you?

Ever. I cannot tell; try me: I think I am not

So utterly, of an ore un-to-be-melted,

But I can do myself good, on occasions.

Enter FITZDOTTREL.

Meer. Strike in, then, for your part. [They go up to Fitz.]-Master Fitzdottrel,

If I transgress in point of manners, afford me Your best construction; I must beg my freedom From your affairs, this day.

Whalley reads storer for stoter, and I have retained his variation. Leaguer, as every one knows, is camp; blanks are silver coins worth about as much as the livre. They were struck in France by Hen. V. and never had much currency in this country.

VOL. V.

G

Fitz. How, sir!

Meer. It is

In succour of this gentleman's occasions,
My kinsman-

Fitz. You'll not do me that affront, sir?
Meer. I am sorry you should so interpret it.
But, sir, it stands upon his being invested
In a new office, he has stood for, long:
Master of the Dependences! a place
Of my projection too, sir, and hath met
Much opposition; but the state, now, sees
That great necessity of it, as after all
Their writing, and their speaking against duels,
They have erected it. His book is drawn-
For, since there will be differences daily
'Twixt gentlemen, and that the roaring manner
Is grown offensive; that those few, we call
The civil men of the sword, abhor the vapours;
They shall refer now, hither, for their process;
And such as trespass 'gainst the rule of court
Are to be fined.

Fitz. In troth, a pretty place!

Meer. A kind of arbitrary court 'twill be, sir. Fitz. I shall have matter for it, I believe, Ere it be long; I had a distaste."

Meer. But now, sir,

My learned counsel, they must have a feeling, They'll part, sir, with no books, without the hand

gout

Be oil'd: and I must furnish. If't be money, To me straight; I am mine, mint, and exchequer, To supply all. What is't, a hundred pound? Ever. No, the harpy now stands on a hundred pieces.

I had a distaste.] i. e. an insult offered me: he alludes to his quarrel with Wittipol.

6 What is't, a hundred pound?

No, the harpy now stands on a hundred pieces.] It may be

Meer. Why, he must have them, if he will.
To-morrow, sir,

Will equally serve your occasions—

And therefore, let me obtain, that you will yield
To timing a poor gentleman's distresses,
In terms of hazard.

Fitz. By no means.

Meer. I must

Get him this money, and will-—-
Fitz. Sir, I protest,

I had rather stand engaged for it myself;
Than you should leave me.

Meer. O good sir! do you think

So coarsely of our manners, that we would,
For any need of ours, be prest to take it;
Though you be pleased to offer it?

Fitz. Why, by heaven,

I mean it.

Meer. I can never believe less.

But we, sir, must preserve our dignity,

As you do publish yours: by your fair leave, sir.

[Offers to be gone. Fitz. As I am a gentleman, if you do offer To leave me now, or if you do refuse me, I will not think you love me.

Meer. Sir, I honour you,

And with just reason, for these noble notes
Of the nobility you pretend to: but, sir,

I would know why? a motive (he a stranger)
You should do this?

Ever. [Aside to Meer.] You'll mar all with your fineness."

necessary to observe, once for all, that the piece (the double sovereign) went for two and twenty shillings: a hundred pieces, therefore, were equivalent to a hundred and ten pounds.

7 You'll mar all with your fineness.] Mr. Sympson imagines it should be finesse; but that word, I believe, came into use since

Fitz. Why that's all one, if 'twere, sir, but my fancy.

But I have a business, that perhaps I would have Brought to his office.

Meer. O sir! I have done then ; If he can be made profitable to you.

Fitz. Yes, and it shall be one of my ambitions To have it the first business: may I not?

Ever. So you do mean to make't a perfect business.

Fitz. Nay, I'll do that, assure you; shew me

once.

Meer. Sir, it concerns, the first be a perfect business,

For his own honour.

Ever. Ay, and the reputation Too, of my place.

Fitz. Why, why do I take this course, else? I am not altogether an ass, good gentlemen. Wherefore should I consult you, do you think? To make a song on't? How's your manner? tell us. Meer. Do, satisfy him; give him the whole

course.

Ever. First, by request, or otherwise, you offer Your business to the court; wherein you crave The judgment of the master and the assistants. Fitz. Well, that is done now; what do you upon it?

our author's days. Fineness is the same with shyness, or coyness; and that sense is not incongruous to the rest of the passage.

WHAL.

Neither Whalley nor Sympson seems to have entered into the poet's meaning. The words are evidently directed, in a side speech, to Meercraft, by his confederate, who is apprehensive that he will refine too much; in other words, carry his pretended refusal too far. Fineness, of which both the commentators have mistaken the sense, is an overstrained and factitious scrupulousness.