shirt. The oaths which he vomits at one supper would maintain a town of garrison in good swearing a twelvemonth. One other genuine quality he has which crowns all these, and that is this: to a friend in want, he will not depart with the weight of a soldered groat, lest the world might censure him prodigal, or report him a gull: marry, to his cockatrice, or punquetto, half a dozen taffata gowns or satin kirtles' in a pair or two of months, why, they are nothing. Cup. I commend him, he is one of my clients. [They retire to the back of the stage,

Enter AMORPHIUS, ASOTUS, and Cos,

Amo. Come, sir. You are now within regard of the presence, and see, the privacy of this room

which, from the names scattered over our old plays, seem to be leaf, pudding, and cane tobacco. I can give the reader no other information respecting them, than that cane tobaccą appears to have been the most, expensive of the whole:

"The nostrils of his chimnies are still stuff'd

"With smoak, more chargeable than cane tobacco."

Merry Devil of Edmonton.

One other genuine quality he has, &c.] This genuine quality is remarked by Juvenal:

5

Nil habet infelix Numitor quod mittat amico,
Quintilla quod donet, habet, &c. &c. Sat. VII.

or satin kirtles] Few words have occasioned such controversy among the commentators on our old plays, as this; and all for want of knowing that it is used in a two-fold sense, sometimes for the jacket merely, and sometimes for the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A full kirtle was always a jacket and petticoat, a half kirtle (a term which frequently occurs) was either the one or the other: but our ancestors, who wrote when this article of dress was every where in use, and when there was little danger of being misunderstood, most commonly contented themselves with the simple term, (kirtle,) leaving the sense to be gathered from the context. A man's jacket was also called a kirtle.

how sweetly it offers itself to our retired intendments. Page, cast a vigilant and enquiring eye about, that we be not rudely surprised by the approach of some ruder stranger.

Cos. I warrant you, sir. I'll tell you when the wolf enters, fear nothing.

Mer. O what a mass of benefit shall we possess, in being the invisible spectators of this strange show now to be acted!

Amo. Plant yourself there, sir; and observe me. You shall now, as well be the ocular, as the ear-witness, how clearly I can refel that paradox, or rather pseudodox, of those, which hold the face to be the index of the mind, which, I assure you, is not so in any politic creature: for instance; I will now give you the particular and distinct face of every your most noted species of persons, as your merchant, your scholar, your soldier, your lawyer, courtier, &c. and each of these so truly, as you would swear, but that your eye shall see the variation of the lineament, it were my most proper and genuine aspect. First, for your merchant, or city-face, 'tis thus; a dull, plodding face, still looking in a direct line, forward: there is no great matter in this face. Then have you your student's, or academic face, which is here an honest, simple, and methodical face; but somewhat more spread than the former. The third is your soldier's face, a menacing and astounding face, that looks broad and big: the

• I'll tell you when the wolf enters,] This is an allusion to a Latin proverb, and applied when the person talked of comes in unexpectedly, and puts an end to the discourse. WHAL.

* I will now give you the particular and distinct fuce, &c.] This corroborates my explanation of the passage, p. 241. That "the face is the index of the mind" was "held" by Ovid, Juvenal,

and others.

VOL. II.

T

grace of this face consisteth much in a beard. The anti-face, to this is your lawyer's face, a contracted, subtile, and intricate face, full of quirks and turnings, a labyrinthean face, now angularly, now circularly, every way aspected. Next is your statist's face,' a serious, solemn, and supercilious face, full of formal and square gravity; the eye for the most part deeply and artificially shadow'd: there is great judgment required in the making of this face. But now, to come to your face of faces, or courtier's face; 'tis of three sorts, according to our subdivision of a courtier, elementary, practic, and theoric. Your courtier theoric, is he that hath arrived to his farthest, and doth now know the court rather by speculation than practice; and this is his face: a fastidious and oblique face; that looks as it went with a vice, and were screw'd thus. Your courtier practic, is he that is yet in his path, his course, his way, and hath not touch'd the punctilio or point of his hopes; his face is here: a most promising, open, smooth, and overflowing face, that seems as it would run and pour itself into you somewhat a northerly face. courtier elementary, is one but newly enter'd, or as it were in the alphabet, or ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la of courtship. Note well this face, for it is this you must practise.

Your

Aso. I'll practise them all, if you please, sir. Amo. Ay, hereafter you may and it will not be altogether an ungrateful study. For, let your soul be assured of this, in any rank or profession whatever, the more general or major part of opinion goes with the face, and simply respects

7 Next is your statist's face,] i. e. your statesman's. Thus Marmion; "Adorned with that even mixture of fluency and grace, as are required both in a statist, and a courtier." The Antiquary, A. I. S. 1. WHAL.

nothing else. Therefore, if that can be made exactly, curiously, exquisitely, thoroughly, it is enough: but for the present you shall only apply yourself to this face of the elementary courtier, a light, revelling, and protesting face, now blushing, now smiling, which you may help much with a wanton wagging of your head, thus, (a feather will teach you,) or with kissing your finger that hath the ruby, or playing with some string of your band, which is a most quaint kind of melancholy besides: or, if among ladies, laughing loud, and crying up your own wit, though perhaps borrow'd, it is not amiss. Where is your page? call for your casting-bottle, and place your mirror in your hat, as I told you: so! Come, look not pale, observe me, set your face, and

enter.

Mer. O, for some excellent painter, to have taken the copy of all these faces! [Aside.

Aso. Prosaites!

Amo. Fie! I premonish you of that: in the court, boy, lacquey, or sirrah.

Cos. Master, lupus in'—-O, 'tis Prosaites.

8 Place your mirror in your hat,] "It should seem," Whal

ley says, "from this passage, that the finical courtiers carried a pocket-mirror about them, which they sometimes put in their hats." There can be no doubt of it: both sexes wore them publicly; the men, as brooches, or ornaments in their hats; and the women, at their girdles, (see Massinger, Vol. IV. p. 8.) or on their breasts; nay, sometimes in the centre of their fans, which were then made of feathers, inserted into silver or ivory tubes. Lovelace has a poem on his mistress's fan, "with a look. ing-glass in it." This is a part of her address to it:

"My lively shade thou ever shalt retaine

In thy inclosed feather-framed glasse;

"And, but unto ourselves, to all remaine

“Invisible, thou feature of this face!" &c.

9 Master, lupus in ] fabula, the Latin proverb referred to, p. 261.

Enter PROSAITES.

Aso. Sirrah, prepare my casting-bottle; I think I must be enforced to purchase me another page; you see how at hand Cos waits here.

[Exeunt Amorphus, Asotus, Cos, and Prosaites. Mer. So will he too, in time. Cup. What's he, Mercury? Mer. A notable smelt. One that hath newly entertain'd the beggar to follow him, but cannot get him to wait near enough. 'Tis Asotus, the heir of Philargyrus; but first I'll give ye the other's character," which may make his the clearer. He that is with him is Amorphus, a traveller, one so made out of the mixture of shreds of forms, that himself is truly deform'd. He walks most commonly with a clove or picktooth in his mouth, he is the very mint of compliment, all his behaviours are printed, his face is another volume of essays, and his beard is an Aristarchus. He speaks all cream skimm'd, and

1 A notable smelt.] The quarto reads finch. Smelt, like gudgeon, is used by our old writers for a gull, a simpleton. Thas Beaumont and Fletcher:

"These direct men, they are no men of fashion ;
"Talk what you will, this is a very smelt."

Love's Pilgrimage, A. V. S. 2.

2 But first I'll give you the other's character, &c.] This is all very inartificial. The plot stands still while the author is dis. playing his dexterity in drawing individual and insulated characters. Undoubtedly, if keen, vigorous, and discriminatin delineations of this nature were sufficient of themselves to constitute a legitimate drama, no man who ever wrote for the stage would stand in competition with Jonson. But the vivifying soul of the drama is action. Of this, unfortunately, we have but little; and that little is nearly overlooked amidst a minute and tiresome description of what the progress of the plot alone should have unfolded.