Car. Tut, no; he knows they are excellent, and to her capacity that speaks them. Punt. Would I might but see his face! Car. She should let down a glass from the window at that word, and request him to look in't. Punt. Doubtless the gentleman is most exact, and absolutely qualified; doth the castle contain him? Gent. No, sir, he is from home, but his lady is within. Punt. His lady! what, is she fair, splendidious, and amiable? Gent. O, Lord, sir! Punt. Prithee, dear nymph, intreat her beauties to shine on this side of the building. [Exit Waiting-gentlewoman from the window. Car. That he may erect a new dial of compliment, with his gnomons and his puntilios. Fast. Nay, thou art such another Cynick now, a man had need walk uprightly before thee. Car. Heart, can any man walk more upright than he does? Look, look; as if he went in a frame, or had a suit of wainscot on: and the dog watching him, lest he should leap out on't. Fast. O, villain ! Car. Well, an e'er I meet him in the city, I'll have him jointed, I'll pawn him in Eastcheap, among the butchers, else. Fast. Peace; who be these, Carlo? Enter SORDIDO and FUNGOSO. Sord. Yonder's your godfather; do your duty to him, son. Sog. This, sir? a poor elder brother of mine, sir, a yeoman, may dispend some seven or eight hundred a year; that's his son, my nephew, there. Punt. You are not ill come, neighbour Sordido, though I have not yet said, well-come; what, my godson is grown a great proficient by this. Sord. I hope he will grow great one day, sir. Fast. What does he study? the law? Sog. Ay, sir, he is a gentleman, though his father be but a yeoman. Car. What call you your nephew, signior? Car. Fungoso! O, he look'd somewhat like a sponge in that pink'd yellow doublet, methought; well, make much of him; I see he was never born to ride upon a mule.' Gent. [reappears at the window.] My lady will come presently, sir. Sog. O, now, now! Punt. Stand by, retire yourselves a space; nay, pray you, forget not the use of your hat; the air is piercing. [Sordido and Fungoso withdraw. Fast. What! will not their presence prevail against the current of his humour? Car. O, no; it's a mere flood, a torrent carries all afore it. [Lady Puntarvolo appears at the window. • I see he was never born to ride upon a mule,] i. e. he was never born to be a great lawyer. It was the custom anciently for the judges or serjeants at law to go to Westminster in great state, and riding on mules. Thus Stow, describing the order of Wolsey's going to Westminster, in term. time: "And when he come at the hall door, there was hys mule, being trapped all in crimson velvet, wyth a saddle of the same, and guilte styrops." Ann. ed. 1580, p. 917. WHAL. John Whiddon, justice of the King's Bench Court, 1 Mar. as we are informed by Dugdale, "was the first of the judges who rode to Westminster-hall on an horse or gelding; for before that time they rode on mules." Dug. Orig. Ju. L. p. 38. Jonson, or his printer, spells this word several ways, moile, moyl, and mule, I have adopted the last. Punt. What more than heavenly pulchritude is this, What magazine, or treasury of bliss? Car. An extacy, an extacy, man. Lady. P. [above.] Is your desire to speak with me, sir knight? Car. He will tell you that anon; neither his brain nor his body are yet moulded for an answer. Punt. Most debonair, and luculent lady, I decline me as low as the basis of your altitude. Cor. He makes congies to his wife in geometrical proportions. Mit. Is it possible there should be any such hu mourist ? Cor. Very easily possible, sir, you see there is. Punt. I have scarce collected my spirits, but lately scattered in the admiration of your form; to which, if the bounties of your mind be any way responsible, I doubt not, but my desires shall find a smooth and secure passage. I am a poor knight-errant, lady, that hunting in the adjacent forest, was by adventure, in the pursuit of a hart, brought to this place; which hart, dear madam, escaped by enchantment: the evening approaching, myself and servant wearied, my suit is, to enter your fair castle and refresh me. Lady. Sir knight, albeit it be not usual with me, chiefly in the absence of a husband, to admit any entrance to strangers, yet in the true regard of those innated virtues, and fair parts, which so strive to express themselves, in you; I am resolved to entertain you to the best of my unworthy power; which I acknowledge to be nothing, valued with what so worthy a person may deserve. Please you but stay while I descend. [Exit from the window. Punt. Most admired lady, you astonish me. [Walks aside with Sordido and his son. Car. What! with speaking a speech of your own penning? Fast. Nay, look; prithee, peace. Car. Pox on't! I am impatient of such foppery. Fast. O let us hear the rest. Car. What! a tedious chapter of courtship, after sir Lancelot and queen Guenever?' Away! I marle in what dull cold nook he found this lady out; that, being a woman, she was blest with no more copy of wit' but to serve his humour thus. 'Slud, I think he feeds her with porridge, I; she could never have such a thick brain else. Sog. Why, is porridge so hurtful, signior? Car. O, nothing under heaven more prejudicial to those ascending subtile powers, or doth sooner abate that which we call acumen ingenii, than • After Sir Lancelot and queen Guenever ?] After the manner, &c. Čui non dictus Hylas? and who does not know that Guenever was the wife of king Arthur, and Lancelot her favoured and faithful lover? Their amours fill many a page of the old romance of Prince Arthur. She was blest with no more copy of wit] From the Latin copia, plenty, abundance; familiar in this sense to our author. WHAL. This word was not introduced by Jonson; it occurs in Chaucer, and even in writers anterior to Chaucer: luckily, its uncouthness has long since banished it from the language, which it only served to stiffen and deform. your gross fare: Why, I'll make you an instance; your city-wives, but observe 'em, you have not more perfect true fools in the world bred than they are generally; and yet you see, by the fineness and delicacy of their diet, diving into the fat capons, drinking your rich wines, feeding on larks, sparrows, potatoe-pies, and such good unctuous meats, how their wits are refined and rarified; and sometimes a very quintessence of conceit flows from them, able to drown a weak apprehension. Enter lady PUNTARVOLO and her Waiting-woman. Fast. Peace, here comes the lady. Lady. Gad's me, here's company! turn in [Exit with her Woman. Fast. 'Slight, our presence has cut off the convoy of the jest. again. Car. All the better, I am glad on't; for the issue was very perspicuous. Come, let's discover, and salute the knight. [They come forward. Punt. Stay; who be these that address themselves towards us? What, Carlo! Now by the sincerity of my soul, welcome; welcome, gentlemen: and how dost thou, thou Grand Scourge, or Second Untruss of the time?" Car. Faith, spending my metal in this reeling world (here and there), as the sway of my affection carries me, and perhaps stumble upon a yeoman-feuterer,' as I do now; or one of fortune's mules, laden with treasure, and an empty • Thou Grand Scourge, or Second Untruss of the time?] The allusion is here to Marston, whose Satires, called the Scourge of Villanie, in three books, were printed the year before the first edition of this Comedy, 1599. A yeoman-feuterer.] Meaning Puntarvolo. Feuterer is a |