Good meal in his sleep, but sells the acates are sent

him,1

Fish, fowl, and venison, and preserves himself,
Like an old hoary rat, with mouldy pie-crust!"
This I do hear, rejoicing I can suffer

This, and much more for your good grace's sake.
Pec. Why do you so, my guardian? I not bid you:
Cannot my grace be gotten, and held too,
Without your self-tormentings and your watches,
Your macerating of your body thus,

With cares and scantings of your diet and rest?
P. sen. O no, your services, my princely lady,
Cannot with too much zeal of rites be done,
They are so sacred.

Pec. But my reputation

May suffer, and the worship of my family,
When by so servile means they both are sought.
P. sen. You are a noble, young, free, gracious lady,
And would be every body's in your bounty,
But you must not be so. They are a few
That know your merit, lady, and can value it.
Yourself scarce understands your proper powers,
They are all-mighty, and that we, your servants,
That have the honour here to stand so near you,
Know and can use too. All this nether world 2

1

sells the acates are sent him,

Fish, fowl, and venison, and preserves himself

With mouldy pie-crust!] Pope has very happily transferred this (for he did not find it in Horace) to the character of Avidienus, whom, like Pennyboy, he makes to

2

Is

"Sell his presented partridges and fruits,

And humbly live on rabbits and on roots."

All this nether world

yours, you command it, &c.]

Omnis enim res,

Virtus, fama, decus, divina humanaque pulchris
Divitiis parent. Hor. L. ii. Sat. 3.

it ;

Is yours, you command it, and do sway
The honour of it, and the honesty,
The reputation, ay, and the religion,
(I was about to say, and had not err'd,)
Is queen Pecunia's: for that style is yours,
If mortals knew your grace, or their own good.
Mor. Please your grace to retire.

Band. I fear your grace

Hath ta'en too much of the sharp air.
Pec. O, no!

I could endure to take a great deal more,
(And with my constitution,) were it left

Under my choice: what think you of it, Statute? Sta. A little now and then does well, and keeps Your grace in your complexion.

Band. And true temper.

Mor. But too much, madam, may increase cold rheums,

Nourish catarrhs, green sicknesses, and agues,
And put you in consumption.

P. sen. Best to take

Advice of your grave women, noble madam,

They know the state of your body, and have studied Your grace's health.

Band. And honour. Here'll be visitants, And again:

fidemque et amicos,

Et genus, et formam, Regina Pecunia donat. Lib. i. Ep. 6. But Jonson has an eye constantly on Aristophanes, and has introduced various allusions to the highly humorous scene in which Chremylus and his servant let Plutus into the secret of his own importance.

Χρ.

ώστε του Διος

Την δυναμιν, ην λυπῃ τι, καταλύσεις μονος.
Πλ. Τί λέγεις; δι' εμε θύουσιν αυτῳ ;

Χρ. Φημ' εγω.

Και νη

Δί', ει τι γ' εστι λαμπρον και καλον,
Η χαριεν ανθρωποισι, δια σε γιγνεται.

'H

Απαντα TW πλουτειν γαρ εσθ ̓ ὑπηκοα. κ. τ. α. 145.

Or suitors by and by; and 'tis not fit

They find you here.

Sta. 'Twill make your grace too cheap

To give them audience presently.

Mor. Leave your secretary

To answer them.

Pec. Wait you here, Broker.

Bro. I shall, madam, [Exeunt all but BROKER. And do your grace's trusts with diligence.

Enter PIEDMANTLE.

Pie. What luck is this? I am come an inch too late! Do you hear, sir? is your worship of the family Unto the lady Pecunia?

Bro. I serve her grace, sir,

Aurelia Clara Pecunia, the Infanta.

Pie. Has she all those titles, and her grace besides? I must correct that ignorance and oversight,

Before I do present. Sir, I have drawn

A pedigree for her grace, though yet a novice
In that so noble study.

Bro. A herald at arms?

Pie. No, sir, a pursuivant, my name is Piedmantle. Bro. Good master Piedmantle.

Pie. I have deduced her—

Bro. From all the Spanish mines in the West-
Indies,

I hope; for she comes that way by her mother,
But by her grandmother she is duchess of mines.

Pie. From man's creation I have brought her.
Bro. No farther!

Before, sir, long before, you have done nothing else;
Your mines were before Adam, search your office,
Roll five and twenty, you will find it so.

I see you are but a novice, master Piedmantle,
If you had not told me so.

Pie. Sir, an apprentice

In armory.

I have read the Elements,

And Accidence, and all the leading books ;3
And I have now upon me a great ambition

How to be brought to her grace, to kiss her hands.
Bro. Why, if you have acquaintance with mistress

Statute,

Or mistress Band, my lady's gentlewomen,

They can induce you.

One is a judge's daughter, But somewhat stately; the other, mistress Band, Her father's but a scrivener, but she can Almost as much with my lady as the other, Especially if Rose Wax the chambermaid Be willing. Do you not know her sir, neither? Pie. No, in troth, sir.

Bro. She's a good pliant wench,

And easy to be wrought, sir; but the nurse,
Old mother Mortgage, if you have a tenement,
Or such a morsel, though she have no teeth,
She loves a sweet-meat, any thing that melts
In her warm gums, she could command it for you
On such a trifle, a toy. Sir, you may see
How for your love, and this so pure complexion,
(A perfect sanguine) I have ventur'd thus,
The straining of a ward, opening a door
Into the secrets of our family.

Pie. I pray you let me know, sir, unto whom
I am so much beholden; but your name.
Bro. My name is Broker; I am secretary
And usher to her grace.

Pie. Good master Broker!

Bro. Good master Piedmantle!

Pie. Why, you could do me,

If you would, now, this favour of yourself.

And Accidence, and all the leading books.] The Elements of Armory, by Edm. Bolton, printed in 1610. And the Accedence of Armorye, by Leigh, printed in 1562. WHAL.

Bro. Truly I think I could; but if I would,
I hardly should, without, or mistress Band,
Or mistress Statute, please to appear in it;
Or the good nurse I told you of, mistress Mortgage.
We know our places here, we mingle not

One in another's sphere, but all move orderly
In our own orbs; yet we are all concentrics.
Pie. Well, sir, I'll wait a better season.

Bro. Do,
[Makes a mouth at him.
And study the right means; get mistress Band
To urge on your behalf, or little Wax.

Pie. I have a hope, sir, that I may, by chance, Light on her grace, as she is taking the air.

Bro. That air of hope has blasted many an aiery Of castrils like yourself, good master Piedmantle. [Exit PIEDMANTLE. P. sen. [springs forward.] Well said, master secretary, I stood behind

And heard thee all. I honour thy dispatches.
If they be rude, untrained in our method,

And have not studied the rule, dismiss them quickly.
Where's Lickfinger, my cook, that unctuous rascal?
He'll never keep his hour, that vessel of kitchen-stuff!

Enter LICKFINGER.

Bro. Here he is come, sir.

P. sen. Pox upon him, kidney,

Always too late!

Lick. To wish them you, I confess,

That have them already.

P. sen. What?

Lick. The pox!

P. sen. The piles,

The plague, and all diseases light on him

Knows not to keep his word! I'd keep my word,

sure;

I hate that man that will not keep his word.