some dozen or twenty gallants this morning to view them, as you'd do a piece of perspective, in at a key-hole; and there we might see Sogliardo sit in a chair, holding his snout up like a sow under an apple-tree, while the other open'd his nostrils with a poking-stick, to give the smoke a more free delivery. They had spit some three or fourscore ounces between 'em, afore we came away.

Punt. How! spit three or fourscore ounces? Car. Ay, and preserv'd it in porrengers, as a barber does his blood when he opens a vein. Punt. Out, pagan! how dost thou open the vein of thy friend?

Car. Friend! is there any such foolish thing in the world, ha? 'slid, I never relished it yet. Punt. Thy humour is the more dangerous.

but with Jonson it is not so; at least, as far as my little experience enables me to judge. He has many terms which are no where else to be found, many allusions to customs which are not noticed by the poets of his time. I mention this to procure some indulgence for the conjectures in which I frequently find myself engaged at a venture. Patoun I have never met with elsewhere, nor can I pretend to determine its precise meaning here. Patons, in French, are those small pellets of paste with which poultry are crammed: making of the patoun, may, therefore, be moulding tobacco, which was then always cut small, into some fantastic or fashionable form for the pipe. The receipt reciprocal, is not improbably what Decker, in the Guls Hornbook, calls the ring, that is, as I suppose, passing the pipe from one to another, as is done now in some countries, and was once sufficiently common here; but this, with the former term, must be left to the reader. It appears that Whalley had endeavoured to procure some information on these points, for on the margin of his copy I find the following memorandum by Steevens.

"Mr. Reed, who may be considered as the high-priest of black letter, declares no book to have been written containing instructions how to take tobacco. You have therefore not a single auxiliary on the present subject, except your own saga

Car. No, not a whit, signior. Tut, a man must keep time in all; I can oil my tongue when I meet him next, and look with a good sleek forehead; 'twill take away all soil of suspicion, and that's enough: what Lynceus can see my heart? Pish, the title of a friend! it's a vain, idle thing, only venerable among fools; you shall not have one that has any opinion of wit affect it.

Enter DELIRO and MACILENTE.

Deli. Save you, good sir Puntarvolo.
Punt. Signior Deliro! welcome.

Deli. Pray you, sir, did you see master Fastidious Brisk?

I heard he was to meet your worship here. Punt. You heard no figment, sir; I do expect him at every pulse of my watch.

Deli. In good time, sir.

Car. There's a fellow now looks like one of the patricians of Sparta; marry, his wit's after ten i'the hundred:' a good blood-hound, a

city; and must of course be content to rank the patoun, &c. among "the mysteries not yet extant." Aug. 29, 1781." This somewhat consoles me in my ignorance.

You heard no figment, sir ;] See Cynthia's Revels. For every pulse of my watch, the quarto has every minute my watch

strikes."

There's a fellow now looks like one of the patricians of Sparta ; marry, his wit's after ten i' the hundred :] i. e. his imagination is employed in contriving how to place out his money at interest, which, by a statute of the thirteenth of Elizabeth, was fixed at ten per cent. What idea Carlo had of a Spartan patrician I know not; there is surely nothing very republican in the conduct of Deliro: but it is perhaps impossible to allot any determinate sense to such patronymic expressions of kindness or contempt, as Grecian, Trojan, Spartan, &c. which seem in our old plays to signify just what the speaker pleases. Sparta

close-mouthed dog, he follows the scent well; marry, he's at a fault now, methinks.

Punt. I should wonder at that creature is free from the danger of thy tongue.

Car. O, I cannot abide these limbs of satin, or rather Satan indeed, that will walk, like the children of darkness, all day in a melancholy shop, with their pockets full of blanks,3 ready to swallow up as many poor unthrifts as come within the verge.

Punt. So! and what hast thou for him that is with him, now?

Car. O, dn me! immortality! I'll not meddle with him; the pure element of fire, all spirit, extraction.

Punt. How, Carlo! ha, what is he, man?

Car. A scholar, Macilente; do you not know him? a rank, raw-boned anatomy, he walks up and down like a charged musket, no man dares encounter him: that's his rest there.

Punt. His rest! why, has he a forked head?* Car. Pardon me, that's to be suspended; you are too quick, too apprehensive.

Deli. Troth, now I think on't, I'll defer it till some other time.

Maci. Not by any means, signior, you shall not lose this opportunity, he will be here presently now.

Deli. Yes, faith, Macilente, 'tis best. For,

was famous for its breed of dogs: perhaps some recollection of this circumstance might give rise to the abusive terms which follow.

3

with their pockets full of blanks, &c.] Meaning, I suppose, bonds and covenants ready drawn, and only waiting to be filled up by such as were reduced to sell or mortgage their estates.

• Punt. His rest! why, has he a forked head?] Alluding to the semi-circular form of the musket rest; see Vol. I. p. 62.

look you, sir, I shall so exceedingly offend my wife in't, that

Maci, Your wife! now for shame lose these thoughts, and become the master of your own spirits. Should I, if I had a wife, suffer myself to be thus passionately carried to and fro with the stream of her humour, and neglect my deepest affairs, to serve her affections? 'Slight, I would geld myself first.

Deli O, but signior, had you such a wife as mine is, you would

Maci. Such a wife! Now hate me, sir, if ever I discern'd any wonder in your wife yet, with all the speculation I have: I have seen some that have been thought fairer than she, in my time; and I have seen those, have not been altogether so tall, esteem'd properer women; and I have seen less noses grow upon sweeter faces, that have done very well too, in my judgment. But, in good faith, signior, for all this, the gentlewoman is a good, pretty, proud, hard-favour'd thing, marry not so peerlessly to be doted upon, I must confess: nay, be not angry.

Deli. Well, sir, however you please to forget yourself, I have not deserv'd to be thus played upon; but henceforth, pray you forbear my house, for I can but faintly endure the savour of his breath, at my table, that shall thus jade me for my courtesies.

Maci. Nay, then, signior, let me tell you, your wife is no proper woman, and by my life,

5 Nay, then, signior, let me tell you, your wife is no proper woman.] i.e. not proper or peculiar to yourself, but common to all who solicit her. This is Mr. Whalley's explanation; which he inforces by several examples of the word proper thus applied. As I think him wrong, I have omitted his quotations: proper is used here, as properer is just above, for handsome;

I suspect her honesty, that's more, which you

may likewise suspect, if you please, do you see?

I'll urge you to nothing against your appetite, but if you please, you may suspect it.

Deli. Good, sir.

[Exit. Maci. Good sir! now horn upon horn pursue thee, thou blind, egregious dotard!

Car. O, you shall hear him speak like envy. -Signior Macilente, you saw monsieur Brisk lately I heard you were with him at court. Maci. Ay, Buffone, I was with him.

Car. And how is he respected there? I know you'll deal ingenuously with us; is he made much of amongst the sweeter sort of gallants?

Maci. Faith, ay; his civet and his castingglass

Have helpt him to a place amongst the rest: And there, his seniors give him good slight looks, After their garb, smile, and salute in French With some new compliment.

Car. What, is this all?

Maci. Why say, that they should shew the
frothy fool

Such grace as they pretend comes from the heart,
He had a mighty windfall out of doubt! ·
Why, all their graces are not to do grace

To virtue or desert; but to ride both

had it been otherwise, Macilente would not have immediately subjoined—“ and, by my life, I suspect her honesty, that's more."

6 His casting glass.] Casting-glasses, or, as they were more generally termed, casting-bottles, were small bottles for holding liquid essences and perfumes They were in very general use, and are mentioned in a thousand places by our old dramatists. It may be observed here that perfumes of all kinds were more in vogue in the age of Elizabeth than of George III. They were certainly more necessary; but fashion and propriety do not always walk hand in hand.