Meer. I had indeed.

Ever. And now you crack for't.
Meer. Do not upbraid me.

Ever. Come, you must be told on't;
You are so covetous still to embrace
More than you can, that you lose all.
Meer. 'Tis right:

What would you more than guilty?

succours.

Now, your [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. A Cell in Newgate.

Enter SHACKLES, with Pug in chains.

Shackles.

ERE you are lodged, sir; you must send your garnish,

If you'll be private.

Pug. There it is, sir: leave me. [Exit SHACKLES. To Newgate brought! how is the name of devil Discredited in me! what a lost fiend

Shall I be on return! my chief will roar
In triumph, now, that I have been on earth
A day, and done no noted thing, but brought
That body back here, was hang'd out this morning.
Well! would it once were midnight, that I knew
My utmost. I think Time be drunk and sleeps,
He is so still, and moves not! I do glory
Now in my torment. Neither can I expect it,
I have it with my fact.

Enter INIQUITY.

Iniq. Child of hell, be thou merry:

Put a look on as round, boy, and red as a cherry.
Cast care at thy posterns, and firk in thy fetters :

They are ornaments, baby, have graced thy betters: Look upon me, and hearken. Our chief doth salute thee,

And lest the cold iron should chance to confute thee," He hath sent thee grant-parole by me, to stay longer A month here on earth, against cold, child, or hunger. Pug. How! longer here a month?

Iniq. Yes, boy, till the session,

That so thou mayst have a triumphal egression.
Pug. In a cart, to be hang'd!

Iniq. No, child, in a car,

The chariot of triumph, which most of them are.
And in the mean time, to be greasy, and bouzy,

And nasty, and filthy, and ragged, and lousy,

With damn me! renounce me! and all the fine phrases,

That bring unto Tyburn the plentiful gazes.
Pug. He is a devil, and may be our chief,
The great superior devil, for his malice!
Arch-devil! I acknowledge him. He knew
What I would suffer, when he tied me up
thus
In a rogue's body; and he has, I thank him,
His tyrannous pleasure on me, to confine me
To the unlucky carcase of a cut-purse,
Wherein I could do nothing.

Enter SATAN.

Sat. Impudent fiend,

Stop thy lewd mouth.

tremble

Dost thou not shame and

7 Our chief doth salute thee,

And lest the cold iron should chance to confute thee.] This is a pure Latinism. Confutare is properly to pour cold water into a pot, to prevent it from boiling over; and hence metaphorically, the signification of confuting, reproving, or controlling. So Tully uses the expression, confutare audaciam. WHAL.

8 Stop thy lewd mouth,] i. e. thy licentious and ignorant censure. I should scarcely have thought this worthy of a note, had not the

To lay thine own dull, damn'd defects upon
An innocent case there? Why, thou heavy slave!
The spirit that did possess that flesh before,
Put more true life in a finger and a thumb,
Than thou in the whole mass: yet thou rebell'st
And murmur'st! What one proffer hast thou made,
Wicked enough, this day, that might be call'd
Worthy thine own, much less the name that sent thee?
First, thou didst help thyself into a beating,
Promptly, and with't endangered'st too thy tongue :
A devil, and could not keep a body entire

One day! that, for our credit: and to vindicate it,
Hinder'dst, for aught thou know'st, a deed of dark-

ness:

Which was an act of that egregious folly,

As no one, toward the devil, could have thought on.

last editor of Beaumont and Fletcher, with his usual ill fortune, stumbled upon this word and misinterpreted it. "Lewd (he says) is continually used for idle by old authors. So in Ben Jonson's Volpone:

"they are most lewd impostors,

Made all of terms and shreds.'"

Vol. xiv.

p. 58.

This interpretation proves one of two things, either that Mr. Weber never read the passage in Jonson, or that he does not understand it perhaps it proves both. Sir Politick and Peregrine are talking of Mountebanks. The former observes :

66

They are the only knowing men of Europe,

Great general scholars, excellent physicians,
Most admired statesmen," &c.

To this the latter replies:

"And I have heard they are most lewd impostors,
Made all of terms and shreds."

What, in the name of consistency, has idle to do here? Can any thing be clearer than that lewd is used in its genuine and ancient sense, of ignorant and illiterate? It is quite enough for Mr. Weber to explain Fletcher and Ford: the author of Volpone is almost as much above his comprehension as he has proved to be above his malice; and prudence, no less than justice, should have checked his meddling.

This for your acting.-But, for suffering!-why
Thou hast been cheated on, with a false beard,
And a turn'd cloke: faith, would your predecessor
The cut-purse, think you, have been so? Out upon
thee!

The hurt thou hast done, to let men know their

strength,

And that they are able to outdo a devil

Put in a body, will for ever be

A scar upon our name! Whom hast thou dealt with,
Woman or man, this day, but have outgone thee
Some way, and most have proved the better fiends?
Yet you would be employ'd! yes; hell shall make you
Provincial of the cheaters, or bawd-ledger,

For this side of the town! no doubt, you'll render
A rare account of things! Bane of your itch,
And scratching for employment! I'll have brimstone
To allay it sure, and fire to singe your nails off.—
But that I would not such a damn'd dishonour
Stick on our state, as that the devil were hang'd,
And could not save a body, that he took
From Tyburn, but it must come thither again;
You should e'en ride. But up, away with him—
[INIQUITY takes him on his back.
Iniq. Mount, dearling of darkness, my shoulders

are broad:

He that carries the fiend, is sure of his load.
The devil was wont to carry away the Evil,
But now the Evil outcarries the devil.

[Exeunt.

[A loud explosion, smoke, &c.

Enter SHACKLES, and the Under-keepers, affrighted.

Shack. O me!

1 Keep. What's this?

2 Keep. A piece of Justice-hall

9 Justice-hall.] The name of the Sessions-house in the Old Bailey.

Is broken down.

3 Keep. Fough! what a steam of brimstone Is here!

4 Keep. The prisoner's dead, came in but now. Shack. Ha! where?

4 Keep. Look here.

1 Keep. 'Slid, I should know his countenance : It is Gill Cutpurse, was hang'd out this morning. Shack. 'Tis he!

2 Keep. The devil sure has a hand in this! 3 Keep. What shall we do?

Shack. Carry the news of it

Unto the sheriffs.

1 Keep. And to the justices.

4 Keep. This is strange.

3 Keep. And savours of the devil strongly.

2 Keep. I have the sulphur of hell-coal in my nose. 1 Keep. Fough!

Shack. Carry him in.

1 Keep. Away.

2 Keep. How rank it is!

[Exeunt with the body.

SCENE V. A Room in FITZDOTTREL's House.

FITZDOTTREL discovered in bed; Lady EITHERSIDE, TAILBUSH, AMBLER, TRAINS, and PITFALL, standing by him.

Enter Sir PAUL EITHERSIDE, MEERCRAFT, and
EVERILL.

Sir P. Eitherside.

HIS was the notablest conspiracy

That e'er I heard of.

Meer. Sir, they had given him potions,

That did enamour him on the counterfeit lady