Per Which is one pound sterling.

Sir P. Beside my water works: for this I do, sir.
First, I bring in your ship 'twixt two brick-walls;
But those the state shall venture On the one
I strain me a fair tarpauling, and in that
I stick my onions, cut in halves the other
Is full of loop-holes, out at which I thrust
The noses of my bellows; and those bellows
I keen, with water-works, in perpetual motion,
Which is the easiest matter of a hundred.
Now, sir, your onion, which doth naturally
Attract the infection, and your bellows blowing
The air upon him, will shew, instantly,

By his changed colour, if there be contagion;
Or else remain as fair as at the first.
-Now it is known, 'tis nothing.

Per. You are right, sir.

Sir P. I would I had my note.

Per. 'Faith, so would I:

But you have done well for once, sir.

Sir P. Were I false,

Or would be made so, I could shew you reasons

How I could sell this state now to the Turk,

Spite of their gallies, or their-—

Per. Pray you, sir Pol.

[Examining his papers.

Sir P. I have them not about me.

Per. That I fear'd:

They are there, sir.

Sir P. No, this is my diary,

Wherein I note my actions of the day.

Per. Pray you let's see, sir. What is here?

Notandum,

[Reads. Arat had grawn my spur-leathers; notwithstanding,

other name in those parts. Hence the Italians formed their Soria.

WHAL,

9 A rat had gnawn my spur-leathers; &c.] This is from Theo

I put on new, and did go forth: but first

I threw three beans over the threshold. Item,
I went and bought two tooth picks, whereof one
I burst immediately, in a discourse

With a Dutch merchant, 'bout ragion del stato.
From him I went and paid a moccin go

For piecing my silk stockings; by the way
I cheapen'd sprats; and at St. Mark's I urined.
'Faith these are politic notes!

Sir P. Sir, I do slip

No action of my life, but thus I quote it.
Per. Believe me, it is wise!

Sir P. Nay, sir, read forth.

Enter, at a distance, Lady POLITICK WOULD-BE, NANO, and two Waiting-women.

Lady P. Where should this loose knight be, trow? sure he's housed.

Nan. Why, then he's fast.

Lady P. Ay, he plays both with me.' I pray you stay. This heat will do more harm To my complexion, than his heart is worth.

phrastus; and if superstition were not of all ages and countries, might be thought somewhat too recondite for si Pol The expiatory virtues of the bean have been acknowledged, since the days of Pythagoras, by every dealer in old wives fables: In faba, says Pliny with great gravity, peculiaris religo; especially, I presume, when administered by threes," the sacred number. Smollett has made good use of this speech in his Peregrine Pickle.

I

Ay, he plays both with me.] i. e. both fast and loose. WHAL. This game, to which our old dramatists are fond of alluding, is now better known by the vulgar appellation of "pricking i' the garter There is both truth and humour in the following reference to it, by Butler:

"For when he'd got himself a name

"For fraud and tricks, he spoil'd his game;

"And forced his neck into a noose,

"To shew his play at fast and loose." Hud. Pt. iii. 1. 2.

(I do not care to hinder, but to take him.) How it comes off!

[Rubbing her cheeks.

1 Wom. My master's yonder. Lady P. Where?

2 Wom. With a young gentleman.
Lady P. That same's the party;

In man's apparel! 'Pray you, sir, jog my knight:
I will be tender to his reputation,
However he demerit.

Sir P. [seeing her.] My lady!

Per. Where?

Sir P. 'Tis she indeed, sir; you shall know her. She is,

Were she not mine, a lady of that merit,
For fashion and behaviour; and for beauty
I durst compare――

Per. It seems you are not jealous,

That dare commend her.

Sir P. Nay, and for discourse——

Per. Being your wife, she cannot miss that.
Sir P. [introducing Per.] Madam,

Here is a gentleman, pray you, use him fairly;
He seems a youth, but he is-

Lady P. None.

Sir P. Yes, one

Has put his face as soon into the world-
Lady P. You mean, as early? but to-day?
Sir P. How's this?

Lady P. Why, in this habit, sir; you appre-
hend me:

Well, master Would-be, this doth not become you; I had thought the odour, sir, of your good name Had been more precious to you; that you would

not

Have done this dire massacre on your honour;
One of your gravity, and rank besides !
But knights, I see, care little for the oath
They make to ladies; chiefly, their own ladies.

Sir P. Now, by my spurs, the symbol of my

knighthood,

Per. Lord, how his brain is humbled for an

oath!*

Sir P. I reach you not.

Lady P. Right, sir, your policy

[Aside.

May bear it through thus.-Sir, a word with you.

I would be loth to contest publicly
With any gentlewoman, or to seem
Froward, or violent, as the courtier says;
It comes too near rusticity in a lady,

[To Per.

Which I would shun by all means: and however
I may deserve from master Would-be, yet
T'have one fair gentlewoman thus be made
The unkind instrument to wrong another,
And one she knows not, ay, and to perséver;
In my poor judgment, is not warranted.
From being a solecism in our sex,
If not in manners.

Per. How is this!

Sir P. Sweet madam,

Come nearer to your aim.

Lady P. Marry, and will, sir.

Since you provoke me with your impudence,
And laughter of your light land-syren here,
Your Sporus, your hermaphrodite-

Per. What's here?

Poetic fury, and historic storms!

Sir P. The gentleman, believe it, is of worth, And of our nation.

Lady P. Ay, your White-friars nation.*

* Lord, how his brain is humbled for an oath!] How so? Surely Peregrine forgets that the spurs are the most honourable part of a knight's dress.

2

Ay, your White-friars nation.] White-friars was at this

Come, I blush for you, master Would-be, I; And am asham'd you should have no more forehead,

Than thus to be the patron, or St. George,

To a lewd harlot, a base fricatrice,

A female devil, in a male out-side.

Sir P. Nay,

An you be such a one, I must bid adieu.

Το your delights. The case appears too liquid.

[Exit. Lady P. Ay, you may carry't clear, with your state-face!

But for your carnival concupiscence,

Who here is fled for liberty of conscience,
From furious persecution of the marshal,
Her will I dis'ple.'

Per. This is fine, i'faith!

And do you use this often? Is this part
Of your wit's exercise, 'gainst you have occasion?
Madam-

Lady P. Go to, sir.

Per. Do you hear me, lady?

Why, if your knight have set you to beg shirts, Or to invite me home, you might have done it A nearer way, by far.

time, a privileged spot, in which fraudulent debtors, gamblers, prostitutes, and other outcasts of society usually resided. They formed a community, adopted the cant language of pick-pockets, and openly resisted the execution of every legal process upon any of their members. To the disgrace of the civil power, this atrocious combination was not broken up till the commencement of the last century.

3 Her will I dis'ple.] i. e. teach by the whip: disciple, or discipline. The word is thus used by Spenser, and others of our old writers:

"And bitter pennance with an iron whip
"Was wont him once to disple every day."
F. Q. B. I. c. x. S. 27.