Besides or and ass, camel, mule, goat, and brock,
In all which it hath spoke, as in the cobler's cock."
But I come not here to discourse of that matter,
Or his one, two, or three, or his great oath, Br

QUATER!

His musics, his trigon, his golden thigh,"

Or his telling how elements shift; but I Would ask, how of late thou hast suffered translation, Ard shifted thy coat in these days of reformation. And. Like one of the reformed, a fool, as you see, Counting all old doctrine heresie."

Nan. But not on thine own forbid meats hast thou ventured?

And. On fish, when first a Carthusian I enter'd. Nan. Why, then thy dogmatical silence hath left thee?

And. Of that an obstreperous lawyer bereft me. Nan. O wonderful change, when sir lawyer forsook thee!

For Pythagore's sake, what body then took thee?

5 The cobler.] Mycillus, with whom the cock carries on the dialogue, here abridged.

6 His one, two, or three, or his great oath, by quater,

His musics, his trigon, his golden thigh,]. It would perhaps have puzzled Pythagoras himself, "juggler" as he was, to explain this empty jargon. His scholars have written innumerable volumes upon it, more to their own satisfaction, I believe, than the edification of their readers; for, while it was thought worth contending about, no two of them were agreed upon any part of the subject. The "great oath" or tetractys, as Upton ob"is mentioned in the Golden Verses;" a little poem written by one of Pythagoras's scholars, and containing more wisdom, perhaps, than his master taught.

serves,

7 Counting all old doctrine heresie.] By old doctrine, he means the doctrines commonly received before the reformation; which was at first opprobriously called the new learning. It is not improbable that Jonson, when he wrote this, was a convert to the church of Rome; and might design to sneer at the zealots of the establishment, as he does soon after at the puritans. WHAL.

And. A good dull mule. Nan. And how! by that.

means

Thou wert brought to allow of the eating of beans? And. Yes. Nan. But from the mule into whom didst thou pass ?

And. Into a very strange beast, by some writers call'd an ass;

By others, a precise, pure, illuminate brother,

Of those devour flesh, and sometimes one another ;* And will drop you forth a libel, or a sanctified lie, Betwixt every spoonful of a nativity-pie.'

Nan. Now quit thee, for heaven, of that profane

nation,

And gently report thy next transmigration.

Of those devour flesh and sometimes one another ;] Wonderful is the advantage of scansion, aided by the occasional admission of the pes proceleusmaticus, in detecting the errors of copyists and printers. Upton, who measured the harmonious line

Counting all old | doctrine | heresie,

and found it perfect in all its members, immediately discovered the unmetrical pace of that above. There is plainly," says he, a word wanting which spoils both the measure and the sense; we must read,

66

Of those that devour flesh | and sometimes | one another." Whalley subscribes to this assertion; and the verse thus happily restored to "sense and and measure," is accordingly placed in his text. It is singular that neither of these critics should have adverted to the peculiarity of Jonson's style.

• Betwixt every spoonful of a nativity pie.] i. e. of a Christmaspie. The puritans, who are here ridiculed, affected to shrink with horror, from the mention of the popish word mass, though in conjunction with the most sacred names. Jonson alludes to this again, with exquisite humour, in the Alchemist, where the Saints are about to cozen with the philosopher's stone:

"Subtle. And then the turning of this lawyer's pewter To plate at Christmas

Ananias. Christ-tide, I pray you."

And. To the same that I am. Nan. A creature of

delight,

And, what is more than a fool, an hermaphrodite! Now, prithee, sweet soul, in all thy variation, Which body would'st thou choose, to keep up thy stution?

And. Troth, this I am in: even here would I tarry. Nan. 'Cause here the delight of each sex thou

canst vary ?

And. Alas, those pleasures be stale and forsaken;
No, 'tis your fool wherewith I am so taken,
The only one creature that I can call blessed;

For all other forms I have proved most distressed. Nan. Spoke true, as thou wert in Pythagoras still. This learned opinion we celebrate will,

Fellow eunuch, as behoves us, with all our wit and art,

To dignify that whereof ourselves are so great and special a part.

Vol. Now, very, very pretty! Mosca, this Was thy invention?

Mos. If it please my patron,

Not else.

Volp. It doth, good Mosca.
Mos. Then it was, sir.

NANO and CASTRONE sing.

Fools, they are the only nation
Worth men's envy or admiration;
Free from care or sorrow-taking,
Selves and others merry making:
All they speak or do is sterling.
Your fool he is your great man's darling,
And you ladies' sport and pleasure;
Tongue and bauble are his treasure.

E'en his face begetteth laughter,

And he speaks truth free from slaughter;'
He's the grace of every feast,

And sometimes the chiefest guest;
Hath his trencher and his stool,
When wit waits upon the fool.

O, who would not be

He, he, he?

[Knocking without.

Volp. Who's that? Away! [Exeunt Nano and Castrone.] Look, Mosca. Fool, begone! [Exit Androgyno. Mos. "Tis signior Voltore, the advocate; I know him by his knock.

Volp. Fetch me my gown,

My furs, and night-caps; say, my couch is changing.

And let him entertain himself awhile Without i' the gallery. [Exit Mosca.] Now, now my clients

Begin their visitation! Vulture, kite,

And he speaks truth free from slaughter;] i. e. he is indulged in speaking truth, without being punished, or called to account for it. This impunity, however, if it really existed, did not long survive the period of this song; as Mass Stone, who is mentioned in the second act, found to his sorrow.

Jonson makes slaughter rhyme to laughter; it seems, however, to have been considered as improper, and to have excited some degree of disapprobation. In the Faune, which appeared shortly after this comedy, Marston speaks of two critics, one of which had lost his flesh with fishing at the measure of Plautus's verses, and the other had vowed to get the consumption of the lungs, or leave to posterity the true pronunciation and orthography of laughing." A. IV. Shakspeare spells the word loffe, in Midsummer Night's Dream, to accommodate it to cough; and it is not improbable but that he, as well as Jonson, might be in Marston's thoughts: not that our great bard was in much danger of a consumption from his abstruse studies for the benefit of posterity. To do him justice, few cared less about these matters than himself.

Raven, and

1

gorcrow, all my

birds of prey,

That think me turning carcase, now they come;
I am not for them yet. -

Re-enter MOSCA, with the gown, &c.

How now! the news?

Mos. A piece of plate, sir.

Volp. Of what bigness?

Mos. Huge,

Massy, and antique, with your name inscribed,
And arms engraven.

Volp. Good! and not a fox

Stretch'd on the earth, with fine delusive sleights,
Mocking a gaping crow?2 ha, Mosca!

Mos. Sharp, sir.

Volp. Give me my furs. [Puts on his sick dress.]
Why dost thou laugh so, man?

Mos. I cannot choose, sir, when I apprehend
What thoughts he has without now, as he walks:
That this might be the last gift he should give;
That this would fetch you; if you died to-day,
And gave him all, what he should be to-morrow;
What large return would come of all his ventures;
How he should worship'd be, and reverenced;
Ride with his furs, and foot-cloths; waited on
By herds of fools, and clients; have clear
way
Made for his mule, as letter'd as himself;
Be call'd the great and learned advocate:
And then concludes, there's nought impossible.
Volp. Yes, to be learned, Mosca.

And not a fox

Stretch'd on the earth, with fine delusive sleights,
Mocking a gaping crow?] From Horace:

Plerumque recoctus

Scriba ex quinqueviro corvum deludet hiantem.

The fable is well known.