And placed cold cakes of sorrow. Worthy sir,
Let my example mitigate your grief,
And smother it a while; our better stars
May work more fair effects, and she be found
When rumour shall report your safe return.
This news would soon shorten my father's days,
For he is fixed upon't she fled with you.
Were Rome in peace, or my command ta'en off,
I'd take a pilgrimage in search of her,
Though I left joys above Elysium.

Mar. You speak beyond a brother, loving Tul

lius.

M. Tull. For my sake, then, conceal her loss a while,

Lest it should raise a censure of despair.
Mar. Despair!

Death durst not teint a goodness with such sin :
That thought shall ne'er afflict me for her loss.
The key of silence here shall lock it up
Close from the world and you.

I would not have a partner in my woe,
For that, like her, solely belongs to me;
Yet, lest deep melancholy drive my sense
To range the world in madness, I'll cast off
All show of discontent, and, with my sword,
Assist you in this hot hostility.

M. Tull. Your company's a second life to me.

[Exeunt.

member Tullius is a lover, who, with the exaggeration natural to that character, may regret that he was not guilty of the fact of having stolen his mistress, as it would have given him the possession of her whose loss must of force be his death.

SCENE II.

A Tavern.

BELLARIO, a tattered Soldier, BLACKSNOUT, a Smith,
SNIPSNAP, a Tailor, CALVESKIN, a Shoemaker,
sitting round a Table, every one Pots in their
Hand. Enter Tapster.

Snip. Some more drink, boy.
Tap. You shall, sir, by and by.

Black. Come, my brave soldier,

Take off thy basting, bully! By this hand,
You shall not pay a farthing of this reckoning:
I am Blacksnout still.

Bell Pay? What word's that?

Oh, disgrace to a man of resolution!
Name pay in time of peace.

Caloe. Stay, be not angry, my bold swash-
buckler: 3

He means thou shalt not pay for what's come in. Snip. No more he shall not, by this thimble, whilst

I have

3 Swash-buckler.] This was a common appellation bestowed at the time on those riotous, fighting ruffians or martialists, who seem to have been a great annoyance to the peaceful citizens, and who were often a theme for the satirists of the day. Bellario, in his speeches, enumerates all the several means by which these roaring companions, (frequently discarded officers who had served in the Netherlands,) lived.

A groat: I should have two two-pences, I mistake

else.

Not a doit, by this drink! So here's to thee, boy.

[Drinks. Bell. No, nor you neither, my fine fox-catchers! Pay? 'tis against my profession :

I have a bitch shall bite him to the bone Dares ask but such a question. 'Las! you are fresh men:

I'm an old weather-beaten soldier, that, whilst drum

And trumpets terrified cowards, had the world
At will; but in this armour-rusting peace
I'm glad to change god Mars for Mercury,
And pick a living out of my wits.

Snip. Pick, I allow you:

Give me a trade, say I; I'll undertake
To finish more suits in a year than any
Two lawyers in the town, and get as much
By th' hand too; 'tis well known we purchase
now-a-days

As well as they.

Black. Why not? Your fees go all one way: Lawyers and tailors have their several hells. Calve. Well fare the honest gentle-craft, my hearts,

Our labour always comes to a good end.

Black. Peace, Calveskin! your thin sole takes

water.

Calve. 'Tis want of liquor then.-Some more
drink, sirrah!

Black. Which of you all can hold out tack with
Black snout,

The horse-shoemaker? It is always good

When a man has two irons in the fire:

Purchase.] That is, acquire property.

We seldom have cold doings.

Snip. I'd be loth

To have nothing but my wits to live upon. Black. I believe thee, thou wouldst have none at all then.

Snip. 'Tis but a threadbare living at the best. Bell. 'Sfoot, ye all talk

Like a company of sprat-fed mechanics.

I tell you, my sincere jobbernowls, I would not change

The revenues that this brain brings me in yearly For ne'er a trade-fall'n citizen's in Europe, Though their charter were sealed, to swear and lie by authority.

Calve. Is't possible?

Bell. There's many a trim gallant in this town That lives by nothing else, and bravely too. 'Las! we have comings-in that every goose I' th' city thinks not of: as, for example,Sit round.

Black. Sit round, sit round.

Bell. I'll explain

This mystery: Here's a young high-mettled lady,
Whilst her unable lord lies languishing

In a lingering consumption, she, poor soul,
Is almost pined for want of necessaries :
Who must help this malady but Bellario,
A lusty well-timbered fellow? yet no logger-
head-

Mistake me not.

Black. No, no, you are i' th' right.

Bell. And there, besides a satin suit, With all things correspondent, cap-a-pie;

These coffers are furnished for a month or two.

5 To have no other living but my wits.] So the line is altered in the MS. in an old hand.

Snip. Good, i'faith.

Black. I begin to relish this.

Bell. Then this brave cavaliero

Is openly baffled in his mistress' sight,

And dares not fight himself; who must maintain
This quarrel but Bellario? And so some forty
Or fifty crusadoes entice my trusty friend here
To leave his peaceful mansion, to make good
His reputation.

Calve. What do you think of this?

Black. Better and better still.-Some more drink, boy.

Bell. Next, here's a rich devouring cormorant Comes up to town, with his leathern budget

stuffed

Till it crack again, to empty it upon a company Of spruce clerks and squalling lawyers, when 'twere fitter

Such honest lads as myself had it; that, instead Of pedlar's French gives him plain language for his money,

Stand and deliver! besides all the prayers
Of the poor people in a country, whom

This cut-throat would have undone in a term-time.
Is not this fit?

Snip. Very necessary, I protest to you.

Bell. To proceed

Black. Ay, to proceed. Here's to you. [Drinks.

Bell. This new-come novice

Would be instructed in the generous garb;"

6 Pedlar's French.] A word still usual for the cant language of beggars and thieves.

Would be instructed in the generous garb.] A frequent object of satire in the old comedies, is this kind of pupillage; a youth coming out of the country with little sense, and less experience, is