tilt; when he is mounted he looks like the sign of the George, that's all I know; save, that instead of a dragon, he will brandish against a tree, and break his sword as confidently upon the knotty bark, as the other did upon the scales of the beast.

Fast. O, but this is nothing to that's delivered of him. They say he has dialogues and discourses between his horse, himself, and his dog; and that he will court his own lady, as she were a stranger never encounter'd before.

Car. Ay, that he will, and make fresh love to her every morning; this gentleman has been a spectator of it, signior Insulso.

Sog. I am resolute to keep a page.-Say you, sir? [Leaps from whispering with Cinedo. Car. You have seen signior Puntarvolo accost his lady?

Sog. O, ay, sir.

Fast. And how is the manner of it, prithee, good signior?

Sog. Faith, sir, in very good sort; he has his humours for it, sir; as first, (suppose he were now to come from riding or hunting, or so,) he has his trumpet to sound, and then the waitinggentlewoman, she looks out, and then he speaks, and then she speaks, -very pretty i'faith, gentlemen.

he will taint a staff well at tilt?] i. e. Break it, but not in the most honourable and scientific manner. Such, at least, is the meaning it seems to have here, the only place but one (as far as I know) in which the expression occurs (See Massinger, Vol. II. p. 293), unless, from Jonson's known attachment to playing on words, it should be thought to bear a similar meaning in a subsequent passage of the present play. Punt. There never was so witty a jest broken at the tilt, of all the court wits christened.

Maci. O, this applause taints it foully.

Fast. Why, but do you remember no particulars, signior?

Sog. O, yes, sir, first, the gentlewoman, she looks out at the window.

Car. After the trumpet has summon'd a parle, not before?

Sog. No, sir, not before; and then says he,ha, ha, ha, ha !

Car. What says he? be not rapt so.

Sog. Says he,-ha, ha, ha, ha!

Fast. Nay, speak, speak.

Sog. Ha, ha, ha!-says he, God save you, says he;-ha, ha!

Car. Was this the ridiculous motive to all this passion?

Sog. Nay, that, that comes after is,—ha, ha, ha, ha!

Car. Doubtless he apprehends more than he utters, this fellow; or else,

[A cry of hounds within. Sog. List, list, they are come from hunting; stand by, close under this terras, and you shall see it done better than I can shew it."

Car. So it had need, 'twill scarce poise the observation else.

Sog. Faith, I remember all, but the manner of it is quite out of my head.

Fast. O, withdraw, withdraw, it cannot be but a most pleasing object. [They stand aside.

- you shall see it done better than I can shew it.] It is to be regretted that this observation came so late. Certainly it does no credit to the judgment of the poet thus to destroy a part of the interest of his own scene by anticipating what it was meant to display. But Jonson excelled in strong and vi gorous description; and this is not the only place in which his consciousness of his superior talents for delineating characters has betrayed him into improprieties.

Enter PUNTARVOLO, followed by his Huntsman leading a greyhound.

Punt. Forester, give wind to thy horn.Enough; by this the sound hath touch'd the ears of the inclosed: depart, leave the dog, and take with thee what thou hast deserved, the horn, and thanks. [Exit Huntsman. Car. Ay, marry, there is some taste in this. Fast. Is't not good?

Sog. Ah, peace; now above, now above!

[A Waiting-gentlewoman appears at the window. Punt. Stay; mine eye hath, on the instant, through the bounty of the window, received the form of a nymph. I will step forward three paces; of the which, I will barely retire one; and, after some little flexure of the knee, with an erected grace salute her; one, two, and three! Sweet lady, God save you!

Gent. [above.] No, forsooth; I am but the waiting-gentlewoman.

Car. He knew that before.

Punt. Pardon me: humanum est errare.
Car. He learn'd that of his chaplain.ʻ

Punt. To the perfection of complement (which is the dial of the thought, and guided by the sun of your beauties) are required these three specials; the gnomon, the puntilios, and the superficies the superficies is that we call place; the puntilios, circumstance; and the gnomon, ceremony; in either of which, for a stranger to err, 'tis easy and facile; and such am I.

6 Car. He learn'd that of his chaplain.] An improvement of the quarto, which reads, "He learned that of a Puritan ;" the only description of people, perhaps, who never made use of the expression.

1

Car. True, not knowing her horizon, he must needs err; which I fear he knows too well.

Punt. What call you the lord of the castle, sweet face?

Gent. [above.] The lord of the castle is a knight, sir; signior Puntarvolo.

Punt. Puntarvolo! O-

Car. Now must he ruminate.

Fast. Does the wench know him all this while, then?

Car. O, do you know me, man? why, therein lies the syrup of the jest; it's a project, a designment of his own, a thing studied, and rehearst as ordinarily at his coming from hawking or hunting, as a jig after a play.'

— as a jig after a play.] In our author's days a jig did not always mean a dance, but frequently, as here, a ballad, or a low ludicrous dialogue, in metre. So in The Hog hath lost his Pearl: "Here's the player would speak with you-about the "jig I promised him." A. I. S. 1. And in Hamlet: "O! your "only jig-maker;" upon which Mr. Steevens cites the following lines from Shirley's Love in a Maze:

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Many gentlemen

"Are not, as in the days of understanding,

"Now satisfied without a jig, which since

"They cannot, with their honour, call for, after

"The play, they look to be served up i' th' middle." WHAL. The conclusion of this note affords a curious specimen of the disingenuity of Steevens, and the improper confidence of Whaley. The former quotes this passage to prove that a jig meant, as above, “a farcical dialogue in verse," and breaks off within a word of what expressly ascertains that Shirley meant neither more nor less by it than a dance:

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i' th' middle;

"Your dance is the best language of some comedies, "And footing runs away with all: a scene

"Exprest with life of art, and squared to nature,

"Is dull and phlegmatic poetry."

Steevens, as Mr. Gilchrist justly observes, has no plea for thus garbling a quotation, since a hundred passages might be fairly produced, in which jig is used for a scene of low buffoonery, or farce.

Sog. Ay, e'en like your jig, sir.

Punt. Tis a most sumptuous and stately Of what years is the knight, fair

edifice!

damsel?

Gent. Faith, much about your years, sir. Punt. What complexion, or what stature bears he?

Gent. Of your stature, and very near upon your complexion.

Punt. Mine is melancholy.—

Car. So is the dog's, just.

Punt. And doth argue constancy, chiefly in love. What are his endowments? is he courteous ?

Gent. O, the most courteous knight in Christian land, sir.

Punt. Is he magnanimous ?

Gent. As the skin between your brows, sir. Punt. Is he bountiful?

Car. 'Slud, he takes an inventory of his own good parts.

Gent. Bountiful! ay, sir, I would you should know it; the poor are served at his gate, early and late, sir.

Punt. Is he learned?

Gent. O, ay, sir, he can speak the French and Italian.

Punt. Then he has travelled?

Gent. Ay, forsooth, he hath been beyond seas once or twice.

Car. As far as Paris, to fetch over a fashion, and come back again.

Punt. Is he religious?

Gent. Religious! I know not what you call religious, but he goes to church, I am sure. Fast. 'Slid, methinks these answers should offend him.