Sir P. So lately!

You have not been with my lord ambassador ?* Per. Not yet, sir.

Sir P. Pray you, what news, sir, vents our climate?

I heard last night a most strange thing reported
By some of my lord's followers, and I long
To hear how 'twill be seconded.

Per. What was't, sir?

Sir P. Marry, sir, of a raven that should build In a ship royal of the king's.

Per. This fellow,

Does he gull me, trow? or is gull'd? [Aside.] Your name, sir.

Sir P. My name is Politick Would-be.
Per. O, that speaks him.-[Aside.].

A knight, sir?

Sir P. A poor knight, sir.

Per. Your lady

Lies here in Venice, for intelligence

Of tires and fashions, and behaviour,

Among the courtezans? the fine lady Would-be ? Sir P. Yes, sir; the spider and the bee, oftimes, Suck from one flower.

Per. Good sir Politick,

I cry you mercy; I have heard much of

"Tis true, sir, of your raven.

Sir P. On your knowledge?

you:

Per. Yes, and your lion's whelping in the Tower. Sir P. Another whelp!"

* The celebrated sir Henry Wotton. Coryat found "his lordship" here, he says, in 1608, and experienced "much kindness at his hands." He was introduced to sir Henry, by Mr. Richard Martin (the person to whom Jonson dedicated the Poetaster) in a letter which plays upon the simple vanity of our traveller, in a most arch and entertaining manner.

5 Another whelp!] The birth of the first is thus gravely recorded by Stow:"Sunday, the fifth of August (1604), a lionesse, named Elizabeth, in the Tower of London, brought

Per. Another, sir.

Sir P. Now heaven!

What prodigies be these? The fires at Berwick! And the new star! these things concurring,

strange,

And full of omen!

Per. I did, sir.

Sir P. Fearful!

Saw you those meteors?

Pray you, sir, confirm me,

Were there three porpoises seen above the bridge, As they give out?

Per. Six, and a sturgeon, sir.

Sir P. I am astonish'd.

Per. Nay, sir, be not so;

I'll tell you a greater prodigy than these,
Sir P. What should these things portend?
Per. The very day

(Let me be sure) that I put forth from London, There was a whale discover'd in the river,

As high as Woolwich, that had waited there, Few know how many months, for the subversion Of the Stode fleet.

foorth a lyons whelpe, which lyons whelpe lived not longer then till the next day." The other, which is spoken of here, was whelped, as Stow also carefully informs us, on the 26th of February, 1606.-As the former had lived so short a time, James ordered this to be taken from the dam, and brought up by hand; by which wise mode of management, the animal was speedily dispatched after his brother. These were the first whelps produced, in a tame state, in this country, and perhaps in Europe.

"Were there three porpoises seen above the bridge, &c.] This prodigy, and that of the appearance of the whale at Woolwich, mentioned just below, are duly noticed by Stow: "The 19th of January (1605), a great porpus was taken alive at Westham,

and within a few days after, a very great whale came up as high as Woolwich; and when she tasted the fresh water, and sented the land, she returned into the sea.” p. 881. The references to the remaining prodigies, I have (fortunately for the reader's patience) mislaid, or overlooked among my notes.

Sir P. Is't possible? believe it,

'Twas either sent from Spain, or the archdukes:
Spinola's whale, upon my life, my credit!
Will they not leave these projects? Worthy sir,
Some other news.

Per. Faith, Stone the fool is dead,
And they do lack a tavern fool extremely.
Sir P. Is Mass Stone dead?'

Per. He's dead, sir; why, I hope

You thought him not immortal?-O, this knight,

Were he well known, would be a precious thing To fit our English stage: he that should write But such a fellow, should be thought to feign Extremely, if not maliciously.

Sir P. Stone dead!

[Aside.

Per. Dead.-Lord! how deeply, sir, you apprehend it!

He was no kinsman to you?

7 Is Mass Stone dead?] In the margin of his copy, Whalley has written "Mass, an abridgment of Master." The thing scarcely deserved a note; but he is wrong: Mass is an abridgment of Messer, an old Italian word, familiarly applied to a priest, or person above the lower rank of life. I have already alluded to the castigation of Mass Stone: the following passage relating to him is curious. On the expensive preparations for the earl of Northampton's embassy to Spain, Sir Dudley Carlton thus writes to Mr. Winwood. "My Lord Admiral's number is 500, and he swears 500 oaths he will not admit of one man more. But if he will stand to that rule, and take in one as another will desire to be discharged, in my opinion, all men's turn will be served. There was great execution done lately upon Stone the fool, who was well whipped in Bridewell, for a blasphemous speech, "that there went sixty fools into Spaine, besides my Lord Admiral and his two sons." But he is now at liberty again, and for this unexpected release, gives his lordship the praise of a very pittiful lord. His comfort is, that the news of El Senor Piedra (i. e. Seignior Stone) will be in Spaine before our embassador." Winwood's Memorials, Vol. II.

Sir P. That I know of.

Well! that same fellow was an unknown fool.
Per. And yet you knew him, it seems?
Sir P. I did so. Sir,

I knew him one of the most dangerous heads
Living within the state, and so I held him.
Per. Indeed, sir?

Sir P. While he lived, in action.

He has received weekly intelligence,

Upon my knowledge, out of the Low Countries,
For all parts of the world, in cabbages;'
And those dispensed again to ambassadors,
In oranges, musk-melons, apricocks,

Lemons, pome-citrons, and such-like; sometimes
In Colchester oysters, and your Selsey cockles.
Per. You make me wonder.

Sir P. Sir, upon my knowledge.

Nay, I've observed him, at your public ordinary,
Take his advertisement from a traveller,

A conceal'd statesman, in a trencher of meat;
And instantly, before the meal was done,
Convey an answer in a tooth-pick.

Per. Strange!

How could this be, sir?

Sir P. Why, the meat was cut

So like his character, and so laid, as he
Must easily read the cipher.

He has received weekly intelligence,

Out of the Low Countries, in cabbages;] This is not an expression thrown out at random. Cabbages were not originally the growth of England; but about this time were sent to us from Holland, and so became the product of our kitchen-gardens. I mention this circumstance, trifling as it seems, because it serves to point out that propriety and decorum, which so strongly mark the character of Jonson. WHAL.

"Tis scarce an hundred years," says Evelyn, in his Discourse of Sallets, 1706, "since we first had cabbages out of Holland, Sir Arth. Ashley, of Wiburg St. Giles, in Dorsetshire, being, as I am told, the first who planted them in England."

VOL. III.

P

Per. I have heard,

He could not read, sir.

Sir P. So 'twas given out,

In policy, by those that did employ him:
But he could read, and had your languages,
And to't, as sound a noddle-

Per. I have heard, sir,

That your baboons were spies, and that they were A kind of subtle nation near to China.

Sir P. Ay, ay, your Mamaluchi. Faith, they had

Their hand in a French plot or two; but they
Were so extremely given to women, as
They made discovery of all: yet I

Had my advices here, on Wednesday last,
From one of their own coat, they were return'd,
Made their relations, as the fashion is,

And now stand fair for fresh employment.

Per. 'Heart!

This sir Pol will be ignorant of nothing. [Aside. It seems, sir, you know all.

Sir P. Not all, sir; but

I have some general notions. I do love
To note and to observe: though I live out,
Free from the active torrent, yet I'd mark
The currents and the passages of things,
For mine own private use; and know the ebbs
And flows of state.

Per. Believe it, sir, I hold

Myself in no small tie unto my fortunes,
For casting me thus luckily upon you,
Whose knowledge, if your bounty equal it,
May do me great assistance, in instruction
For my behaviour, and my bearing, which
Is yet so rude and raw.

Sir P. Why? came you forth
Empty of rules for travel?