cloak-bag, following him, gaping when a bag will untie.

Punt. Peace, you bandog, peace! What brisk Nymphadoro is that in the white virgin-boot there? Car. Marry, sir, one that I must intreat you to take a very particular knowledge of, and with more than ordinary respect; monsieur Fastidious.

Punt. Sir, I could wish, that for the time of your vouchsafed abiding here, and more real entertainment, this my house stood on the Muses hill, and these my orchards were those of the Hesperides.

Fast. I possess as much in your wish, sir, as if I were made lord of the Indies; and I pray you believe it.

Car. I have a better opinion of his faith, than to think it will be so corrupted.

Sog. Come, brother, I'll bring you acquainted with gentlemen, and good fellows, such as shall do you more grace than

Sord. Brother, I hunger not for such acquaintance: Do you take heed, lest

[Carlo comes toward them. Sog. Husht! My brother, sir, for want of education, sir, somewhat nodding to the boor, the clown; but I request you in private, sir. Fung. [looking at Fastidious Brisk.] By heaven, it is a very fine suit of clothes.

[Aside.

Cor. Do you observe that, signior? There's another humour has new-crack'd the shell.

dog-keeper, from the French vautrier or vaultrier; one that leads a lime-hound or greyhound for the chase. WHAL. See Massinger, Vol. III. p. 213.

• And more real entertainment.] It may be just worth observing that, in the affected language of Puntarvolo, real means regal, noble: the word is distinguished in the quarto by a capital.

Mit. What! he is enamour'd of the fashion, is he? Cor. O, you forestall the jest.

Fung. I marle what it might stand him in.

Sog. Nephew!

[Aside.

Fung. 'Fore me, it's an excellent suit, and as neatly becomes him. [Aside.]-What said you, uncle?

Sog. When saw you my niece?

Fung. Marry, yesternight I supp'd there.That kind of boot does very rare too.

Sog. And what news hear you?

[Aside.

Fung. The gilt spur and all! Would I were hang'd, but 'tis exceeding good. [Aside.]-Say you, uncle?

Sog. Your mind is carried away with somewhat else: I ask what news you hear?

Fung. Troth, we hear none.-In good faith, [looking at Fastidious Brisk,] I was never so pleased with a fashion, days of my life. O an I might have but my wish, I'd ask no more of heaven now, but such a suit, such a hat, such a band, such a doublet, such a hose, such a boot, and such a [Aside.

Sog. They say, there's a new motion of the city of Nineveh,' with Jonas and the whale, to be seen at Fleet-bridge. You can tell, cousin?

The gilt spur and all!] Gilt spurs were one of the extravagant articles affected by the gallants of the age. Thus Fennor, in the Compter's Commonwealth, 1617, p. 32: "Gallants that scorned to weare any other than beaver hats, and gold bands, rich swords, and scarfes, silk stockings, and gold fringed garters, or russet bootes, and gilt spurs." WHAL.

6 They say there's a new motion of the city of Nineveh, &c.] There is no puppet-show of which our old writers make such frequent mention as this of Nineveh, which must have been exceedingly popular. Fleet-street appears to have been the principal place where sights of every kind were exhibited, and

Fung. Here's such a world of questions with him now!-Yes, I think there be such a thing, I saw the picture.-Would he would once be satisfied! Let me see, the doublet, say fifty shillings the doublet, and between three or four pound the hose; then boots, hat, and band: some ten or eleven pound will do it all, and suit me, for the heavens !" [Aside. Sog. I'll see all those devices an I come to London once.

Fung. Ods 'slid, an I could compass it, 'twere rare. [Aside.]-Hark you, uncle.

probably from its being the great thoroughfare of the city. This would scarcely deserve notice were it not for a passage in Butler which it serves to explain, and of which the sense has been hitherto mistaken:

"And now at length he's brought
"Unto fair London city,

"Where in Fleet-street

"All those may see't,

"That will not believe my ditty." Ballad on Cromwell. "Alluding," says the Editor," to Cromwell's having lodged there at some period of his life." But the allusion is to the notoriety of this street for its exhibitions of puppet-shows, "naked Indians," "strange fishes," and "monsters" of every description. The laudable custom of hanging out a picture of what was to be seen, is still preserved in full force.

7 Some ten or eleven pound will do it all, and suit me, for the heavens!] This expression occurs in The Merchant of Venice. "Away! says the fiend, for the heavens!" Upon which Mr. M. Mason observes, "As it is not likely that Shakspeare should make the Devil conjure Launcelot to do any thing for the heavens, I have no doubt but the passage is corrupt, and that we ought to read, Away! says the fiend, for the haven-by which Launcelot was to make his escape, if he was determined to run away!" My old acquaintance succeeds no better in geography than in criticism: the haven of Venice is all his own, and it would be the height of injustice to compliment Shakspeare with the discovery of it.

Mr. Malone says that the expression means, "Begone, says the fiend, to the heavens." This appears less likely to come from

Sog. What says my nephew?

Fung. Faith, uncle, I would have desired you to have made a motion for me to my father, in a thing that ———— Walk aside, and I'll tell you, sir; no more but this: there's a parcel of law books (some twenty pounds worth) that lie in a place for little more than half the money they. cost; and I think, for some twelve pound, or twenty mark, I could go near to redeem them; there's Plowden, Dyar, Brooke, and Fitz-Herbert, divers such as I must have ere long; and you know, I were as good save five or six pound, as not, uncle. I pray you, move it for me.

the "Devil," than the "conjuration" which so scandalized Mr. M. Mason. But enough of trifling; the words are merely a petty oath; and wheresoever they occur, in this manner, and by whomsoever they are spoken, mean neither more nor less than -by heaven! Such is the sense of them in the text: Some ten or eleven pound will do it all, by heaven!

This ignorance of the language, if accompanied by modesty, would be no great evil; but when it emboldens the commentator to corrupt and alter it to his own conceptions, as Whalley has done in this place, it becomes a serious matter. In a subsequent scene of this play Macilente says,

66

Now, for my soul, another minion "Of the old lady Chance's!"

On which Whalley observes, "I apprehend the words for my soul are corrupt, and should be read 'fore my soul." And accordingly the expression, thus happily corrected a second time, is made part of the text.

That no future doubts may arise on the subject, I will subjoin two or three of as many score examples which I could instantly produce: the first shall be from Jonson himself: "Come on, sir Valentine, I'll give you a health, for the heavens, you mad Capricio, hold hook and line!" Case is Altered. The second, from his old enemy Decker: "A lady took a pipefull or two (of tobacco) at my hands, and praised it, for the heavens!" Untrussing the Humourous Poet. And, to conclude, Tweddle, the drunken piper, in Pasquil and Katharine, exclaims, "I must goe and clap my mistress' cheekes (his tabor) there, for the heavens."

Sog. That I will: when would you have me do it? presently?

Fung. O, ay, I pray you, good uncle: [Sogliardo takes Sordido aside.]-send me good luck! Lord, an't be thy will, prosper it! O my stars, now, now, if it take now, I am made for ever.

Fast. Shall I tell you, sir? by this air, I am the most beholden to that lord, of any gentleman living; he does use me the most honourably, and with the greatest respect, more indeed than can be utter'd with any opinion of truth.

Punt. Then have you the count Gratiato? Fast. As true noble a gentleman too as any breathes; I am exceedingly endear'd to his love: By this hand, I protest to you, signior, I speak it not gloriously, nor out of affectation, but there's he, and the count Frugale, signior Illustre, signior Luculento, and a sort of 'em, that when I am at court, they do share me amongst them; happy is he can enjoy me most private. I do wish myself sometime an ubiquitary for their love, in good faith.

Car. There's ne'er a one of these but might lie a week on the rack, ere they could bring forth his name; and yet he pours them out as familiarly, as if he had seen them stand by the fire in the presence, or ta'en tobacco with them over the stage, in the lords room,'

Punt. Then you must of necessity know our

I speak it not gloriously,] i. e. gloriosè, vain-gloriously; a common acceptation of the word by the writers of Jonson's time.

9 Or ta'en tobacco with them over the stage, in the lords room.] The lords rooms answered to the present stage-boxes. The price of admission to them appears to have been originally a shilling. Thus Decker: "At a new play you take up the twelve-penny room, next the stage, because the lords and you may seem to be hail-fellow, well met." Gul's Hornbook, 1609.