I'll home, and think at liberty. Yet, certain,
'Tis not so far night as I thought; for, see,
A fair house yet stands open; yet all about it
Are close, and no lights stirring: There may be foul
play.

I'll venture to look in; if there be knaves,
I may do a good office.

Woman. [Within.] Signor?

John. What? How is this?

Woman. [Within.] Signor Fabritio ?
John. I'll go nearer.

Woman. [Within.] Fabritio?

John. This is a woman's tongue; here may be good done.

Woman. [Within.] Who's there? Fabritio?
John. Ay.

Woman. [Within.] Where are you?

John. Here.

Woman. [Within.] Oh, come, for Heaven's sake! John. I must see what this means.

Enter Woman, with a Bundle from the House.

Woman. I have staid this long hour for you.
Make no noise,

For things are in strange trouble. Here; be secret; 'Tis worth your care. Be gone now: More eyes [Gives him the bundle.

watch us

Woman. Peace! Good night.

[Exit.

John. She is gone, and I am loaden; Fortune

for me!

It weighs well, and it feels well; it may chance
To be some pack of worth: By th' mass, 'tis heavy!
If it be coin or jewels, 'tis worth welcome;
I'll ne'er refuse a fortune: I am confident

'Tis of no common price. Now to my lodging! If it hit right, I'll bless this night.

[Exit.

Enter FREDERIC.

Fred. 'Tis strange

I cannot meet him; sure he has encounter'd
Some light-o'-love or other, and there means
To play at in and in for this night. Well, Don John,
If you do spring a leak, or get an itch,

Till ye claw off your curl'd pate, thank your night-walks ;

You must be still a boot-halling. One round more,
Though it be late, I'll venture, to discover you.
I do not like your out-leaps.

Exit.

7 Some light-o'-love or other.] The tune of Light-o'-love was very popular, and is frequently alluded to in these plays, as in The Noble Gentleman and The Two Noble Kinsmen. It is printed from an ancient MS. by Sir John Hawkins (Shakspeare, VI. 109.) The name of it became, of course, a denomination for a courtezan, as in the text, and in the following passage quoted by Mr Douce, from a puritan tract entitled, The Glasse of Man's Follie, 1615-4. "There be wealthy hous-wifes, and good housekeepers, that use no starch, but faire water: their linen is white, and they look more Christian-like in small ruffles than Light of Love lookes in her great starched ruffs, looke she never so hie, with eye-lids awrye."

8 Boot-halling.] Most probably an indecent allusion. In Monsieur Thomas, one of Hylas's objections to matrimony is, because he would not cobble other men's old BOOTS. Ed. 1778. The allusion is certainly indecent, but the reference to Monsieur Thomas contributes little to the explanation of the term. Cotgrave explains picoreur, "A boot-haler, in a friend's country, a ravening, or filching souldier." So in the Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse, Jack Dapper says, "Sirrah, captain, mad Mary, the gull my own father (Dapper Sir Davy) laid these London boot-halers the catchpoles in ambush to set upon me.”

SCENE IV.

A Room in the Duke's Lodgings.

Enter Duke and three Gentlemen.

Duke. Welcome to town. Are ye all fit?
i Gent. To point, sir.

9

Duke. Where are the horses?

2 Gent. Where they were appointed.

Duke. Be private all; and whatsoever fortune Offer itself, let's stand sure.

3 Gent. Fear not us:

Ere you shall be endanger'd, or deluded,
We'll make a black night on't.

Duke. No more; I know it.

You know your quarters?

1 Gent. Will you go alone, sir?

Duke. Ye shall not be far from me; the least noise

Shall bring ye to my rescue.

2 Gent. We are counsell'd.

SCENE V.

A Street.

[Exeunt.

Enter DON JOHN, with a Child in his Arms.

John. Was ever man so paid for being curious,

9 To point] Signifies completely, as we now say, to a hair. Ed. 1778. It is a literal translation of the French a point.

Ever so bobb'd for searching out adventures,

As I am? Did the devil lead me? Must I needs be peeping

Into men's houses, where I had no business,
And make myself a mischief? 'Tis well carried!
I must take other men's occasions on me,
And be I know not whom! Most finely handled!
What have I got by this now? what's the purchase?'
A piece of evening arras-work, a child,
Indeed an infidel: This comes of peeping!
A lump got out of laziness.-Good White-bread,
Let's have no bawling with you!-'Sdeath, have I
Known wenches thus long, all the ways of wenches,
Their snares and subtilties; have I read over
All their school-learnings, dived into their quiddits,
And am I now bum-fiddled with a bastard?
Fetch'd over with a card of five, and in mine old days,
After the dire massacre of a million

Of maidenheads, caught the common way? i' th' night too,

Under another's name, to make the matter
Carry more weight about it? Well, Don John,
You will be wiser one day, when you have purchased
A bevy of these butter-prints together,

With searching out conceal'd iniquities,

Without commission. Why, it would never grieve

me,

If I had got this gingerbread; never stirr'd me, So I had had a stroke for't; it had been justice Then to have kept it: But to raise a dairy

'What's the purchase?] Purchase was used as a general term for property illegally acquired. In the sequel of this soliloquy the word is again used as a verb, with a similar meaning.

A bevy of these butter-prints.] It has been already observed, that this was a favourite word with Fletcher for a child.

For other men's adulteries, consume myself in cau

dles,3

And scow'ring-works, in nurses, bells, and babies,
Only for charity, for mere I thank you,'

A little troubles me: The least touch for it,
Had but my breeches got it, had contented me.
Whose-e'er it is, sure 't had a wealthy mother;
For 'tis well clothed, and, if I be not cozen'd,
Well lined within. To leave it here were barbarous,
And ten to one would kill it; a more sin
Than his that got it: Well, I will dispose on't,
And keep it, as they keep deaths' heads in rings,
To cry Memento to me; no more peeping!
Now all the danger is to qualify

The good old gentlewoman, at whose house we live,
For she will fall upon me with a catechism
Of four hours long: I must endure all ;

For I will know this mother.-Come, good wonder,
Let you and I be jogging; your starved treble
Will waken the rude watch else.-All that be
Curious night-walkers, may they find my fee! [Exit.

SCENE VI.

Another Street before Constantia's House.

Enter FREDERIC.

Fred. Sure he's gone home: I have beaten all the purlieus,

3 Consume myself in candles.] The variation in the text was recommended by Sympson, and rejected by the last editors, who refer to a passage in the Lovers' Progress, where the word candles occurs in a similar manner. It is however self-evident that Sympson is right.