ACT V. SCENE I.

A Room in Volpone's House.

Enter VOLPone.

Volp. Well, I am here, and all this brunt is past. I ne'er was in dislike with my disguise

Till this fled moment: here 'twas good, in private;
But in your public,-cave whilst I breathe.
'Fore God, my left leg 'gan to have the cramp,
And I apprehended straight some power had

struck me

With a dead palsy: Well! I must be merry,
And shake it off. A many of these fears
Would put me into some villainous disease,
Should they come thick upon me: I'll prevent 'em.
Give me a bowl of lusty wine, to fright

7 Fore God, my left leg 'gan to have the cramp, And I apprehended straight some power had struck me With a dead palsy:] Alluding to a piece of ancient superstition, that all sudden consternations of mind, and sudden pains of the body, such as cramps, palpitations of the heart, &c. were ominous, and presages of evil. Hence we may explain, as Mr. Upton remarks, a passage in Plautus's Miles Gloriosus:

Schel. Timeo quod rerum gesserim hic, ita dorsus totus prurit. And in his Bacchides, Nicobulus says, Caput prurit, perii.

WHAL.

This note, the whole of which Whalley took from Upton, is carefully retained in his corrected copy. That two men of learning (for Whalley was also a scholar) should fall into such absurdities, is truly pitiable. Volpone, by lying so long immovable in his constrained situation, naturally begins to feel the cramp this, his fears, magnified by his guilt, represent as the commencement of a divine punishment. Such is the plain sense of the passage.

This humour from my heart. [Drinks.]-hum, hum, hum!

"Tis almost gone already; I shall conquer. Any device, now, of rare ingenious knavery, That would possess me with a violent laughter, Would make me up again. [Drinks again.]—So, so, so, so!

This heat is life; 'tis blood by this time :-Mosca!

Enter MOSCA.

Mos. How now, sir? does the day look clear again?

Are we recover'd, and wrought out of error,
Into our way, to see our path before us?
Is our trade free once more?

Volp. Exquisite Mosca!

Mos. Was it not carried learnedly?
Volp. And stoutly:

Good wits are greatest in extremities.

Mos. It were a folly beyond thought, to trust
Any grand act unto a cowardly spirit:
You are not taken with it enough, methinks.
Volp. O, more than if I had enjoy'd the wench:
The pleasure of all woman-kind's not like it.
Mos. Why now you speak, sir. We must here
be fix'd;

Here we must rest; this is our master-piece;
We cannot think to go beyond this.

Volp. True,

Thou hast play'd thy prize, my precious Mosca. Mos. Nay, sir,

To gull the court

Volp. And quite divert the torrent

Upon the innocent.

Mos. Yes, and to make

So rare a music out of discords

Volp. Right.

That yet to me's the strangest, how thou hast borne it!

That these, being so divided 'mongst themselves,
Should not scent somewhat, or in me or thee,
Or doubt their own side.

Mos. True, they will not see't.

Too much light blinds them, I think. Each of them
Is so possest and stuft with his own hopes,
That any thing unto the contrary,

Never so true, or never so apparent,
Never so palpable, they will resist it-
Volp. Like a temptation of the devil,
Mos. Right, sir.

Merchants may talk of trade, and your great signiors

Of land that yields well; but if Italy

Have any glebe more fruitful than these fellows, I am deceived. Did not your advocate rare ? Volp. O-My most honour'd fathers, my grave fathers,

Under correction of your fatherhoods,

What face of truth is here? If these strange deeds May pass, most honour'd fathers-I had much ado To forbear laughing.

Mos. It seem'd to me, you sweat, sir.

Volp. In troth, I did a little.

Mos. But confess, sir,

Were you not daunted?

Volp. In good faith, I was

A little in a mist, but not dejected;

Never, but still my self.

Mos. I think it, sir.

Now, so truth help me, I must needs say this, sir And out of conscience for your advocate,

* Each of them

Is so possest, &c.] These touches are skilful in the extreme. They are natural in the speaker, and at the same time the best explanation and defence of the plot of the Drama.

He has taken pains, in faith, sir, and deserv'd,
In my poor judgment, I speak it under favour,
Not to contrary you, sir, very richly-
Well-to be cozen'd.

Volp. Troth, and I think so too,

By that I heard him, in the latter end.

Mos. O, but before, sir: had you heard him first Draw it to certain heads, then aggravate, Then use his vehement figures-I look'd still When he would shift a shirt: and, doing this Out of pure love, no hope of gain-

Volp. 'Tis right,

I cannot answer him Mosca, as I would,
Not yet; but for thy sake, at thy entreaty,
I will begin, even now-to vex them all,
This very instant.

When he would shift a shirt ;] Through the violence of action, accompanying his eloquence. The modern Italian preachers are known to use great vehemence of gesture in their declamatory harangues; and perhaps it may be equally so with the advocates at the bar. Nor was it otherwise with the advocates of old: the death of the great orator Hortensius was occasioned by a cold he got, after pleading with his usual energy and warmth in behalf of a client. WHAL.

Could Whalley have heard the Neapolitan "advocates" of the present day plead the cause of an ass-driver, or a basketwoman, where the value of the whole matter in dispute (grapes or apples) frequently falls short of three-pence, he would have found his conjecture amply verified. The fees which stimulate the supernatural exertions of these “ poor rags" of the law, are not unworthy of the magnificent questions agitated. The siccus petasunculus et vas Pelamidum, which, in Juvenal's days, rewarded the toil and skill of their learned predecessors, are now seldom heard of. The joint labours of the whole fraternity would scarcely be estimated at the price of the humblest of such dainties.

Enter CASTRONE and NANO.

Nano. Here.

Volp. Shall we have a jig now?'
Mos. What you please, sir.
Volp. Go,

Straight give out about the streets, you two,
That I am dead; do it with constancy,

Sadly, do you hear?' impute it to the grief
Of this late slander.

[Exeunt Cast. and Nano. Mos. What do you mean, sir?

Volp. O,

I shall have instantly my Vulture, Crow,
Raven, come flying hither, on the news,
To peck for carrion, my she-wolf, and all,
Greedy, and full of expectation—

Mos. And then to have it ravish'd from their mouths!

Volp. 'Tis true. I will have thee put on a gown, And take upon thee, as thou wert mine heir; Shew them a Will: Open that chest, and reach Forth one of those that has the blanks; I'll straight Put in thy name.

Mos. It will be rare, sir.

Volp. Ay,

[Gives him a paper.

When they ev'n gape, and find themselves de

luded

Mos. Yes.

Volp. And thou use them scurvily!

Dispatch, get on thy gown.

9 Shall we have a jig now?] A piece of low humour, a farce; such as that which he immediately proposes.

Sadly, do you hear?] Not sorrowfully; but with a con

firmed and serious countenance. See Vol. II.

P.

465.