Present your arms before my founder here,
This is my Founder, this same learned Canter!
He brought me the first news of my father's death,
I thank him, and ever since I call him founder.
Worship him, boys; I'll read only the sums,
And pass them straight.

Sho. Now ale

Rest. And strong ale bless him.

P. jun. Ods so, some ale and sugar for my founder!

Good bills, sufficient bills, these bills may pass. [Puts them in his pockets. P. Can. I do not like these paper-squibs, good master.

They may undo your store, I mean, of credit,
And fire your arsenal, if case you do not
In time make good those outer-works, your
pockets,

And take a garrison in of some two hundred,
To beat those pioneers off, that carry a mine
Would blow you up, at last. Secure your casamates.
Here, master Picklock, sir, your man of law,
And learn'd attorney, has sent you a bag of mu-
nition.'

P. jun. [takes the bag.] What is't?

P. Can. Three hundred pieces.

P. jun. I'll dispatch them.

P. Can. Do; I would have your strengths lined, and perfumed

With gold, as well as amber.

P. jun. God-a-mercy,

Come, ad solvendum, boys! there, there, and there, I look on nothing but totalis. [Pays all their bills.

man's bill, and the weapon of war so called. The word rarely suggests itself to any of our ancient dramatists without furnishing matter for an equivoke. Instances of it are familiar to every reader. Time, which occurs in the line above, is synony. mous with tune.

P. Can. See!

The difference 'twixt the covetous and the pro

digal!

The covetous mau never has money, and
The prodigal will have none shortly!

P. jun. Ha,

[Aside.

What says my founder? [they make legs to him.] I thank you, I thank you, sirs.

All. God bless your worship, and your worship's Canter!

[Exe. Shoemaker, Linener, Haber. and Hatter. P. Can. I say 'tis nobly done, to cherish shopkeepers,

And

pay their bills, without examining thus.
P. jun. Alas! they have had a pitiful hard
time on't,

A long vacation from their cozening.
Poor rascals! I do it out of charity:

I would advance their trade again, and have them
Haste to be rich, swear and forswear wealthily.
What do you stay for, sirrah? [To the Spurrier.
Spur. To my box, sir.

P. jun. Your box! why, there's an angel; if

my spurs

Be not right Rippon*.

Spur. Give me never a penny

If I strike not thorough your bounty with the

rowels.

[Exit.

P. jun. Dost thou want any money, founder?

P. Can. Who, sir, I?

Did I not tell you I was bred in the mines,

Under sir Bevis Bullion.

P. jun. That is true,

right Rippon] Rippon (a town in Yorkshire) was famous for the spurs made there. They are mentioned by several of our old writers, and among the rest by Sir W. Davenant. Whip me with wire, headed with rowels of sharp Rippon spurs." The Wits.

66

I quite forgot, you mine-men want no money, Your streets are pav'd with't: there the molten silver

Runs out like cream on cakes of gold.

P. Can. And rubies

Do grow like strawberries.

P. jun. 'Twere brave being there !— Come, Tom, we'll go to the office now. P. Can. What office?

P. jun. News-office, the New Staple; thou shalt go too;

'Tis here in the house, on the same floor, Tom

says:

Come, founder, let us trade in ale and nutmegs. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another part of the same. An outer Room of the

Reg.

Office.

Enter Register and NATHANIEL.

What, are those desks fit now? Set forth the table,

The carpet' and the chair; where are the news That were examined last? have you filed them up? Nath. Not yet, I had no time.

Reg. Are those news registered That emissary Buz sent in last night, Of Spinola and his eggs?

7

Nath. Yes, sir, and filed.

set forth the table,

The carpet, &c.] The embroidered rug with which tables were then covered. See Vol. iii. p. 458. "In the fray one of their spurs engaged into a carpet upon which stood a very fair looking-glass, and two noble pieces of porcelain, drew all to the ground, broke the glass," &c. Character of England, Harleian Miscel. vol. x. p. 189.

Reg. What are you now upon ?

Nath. That our new emissary Westminster gave us, of the golden heir. Reg. Dispatch; that's news indeed, and of importance.

Enter a Country woman.

What would you have, good woman?
Wom. I would have, sir,

A groatsworth of any news, I care not what,
To carry down this Saturday to our vicar.
Reg. O! you are a butter-woman; ask Nathaniel,
The clerk there.

Nath. Sir, I tell her she must stay

Till emissary Exchange, or Paul's send in,
And then I'll fit her.

Reg. Do, good woman, have patience;
It is not now, as when the captain lived."

Nath. You'll blast the reputation of the office

Reg. O! you are a butter-woman; ask Nathaniel,

The clerk there.

Nath. Sir, I tell her she must stay

Reg. Do, good woman, have patience;

It is not now, as when the captain lived.] Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn, which appeared a few months after the Staple of News, has a close imitation of this and similar passages.

For. It shall be the ghost of some lying stationer, a spirit shall look as if butter would not melt in his mouth; a new Mercurius-Gallo-Belgicus.

Cox. O, there was a captain was rare at it.

For. Never think of him: though that captain writ a full handgallop, and wasted more harmless paper than ever did laxative physic, yet will I make you to out-scribble him." Act IV. S. 2.

Not one of the poet's editors appears to have suspected the allusion here, or to have understood the passage. Both Jonson and Fletcher had in view Nathaniel Butter, who, if we may trust the present account of him, was bred a stationer, failed in his profession, and betook himself to the compilation of news from all quarters. It appears, from Mr. Chalmers's inquiries, that he began his labours as early (at least) as 1611, and if he

Now in the bud, if you dispatch these groats
So soon: let them attend, in name of policy.

was not the most successful, he was undoubtedly the most in-
defatigable of all the news-writers of his age. I have seen
pamphlets (for such were most of his publications, whether
occasional or weekly) by him, of the date of 1634, when he
had swelled the firm to Butter and Co., and he probably con-
tinued to publish much longer. His foreign news, which is
extremely jejune, is merely a bald translation from some of the
continental Mercuries; when he ventures to add a remark of
his own, it is somewhat in the style of old Tiresias, or Jeffrey
Neve What I say will either fall out or not-
so that he
was not likely to conciliate much of Jonson's respect.
The verse which mentions the captain is a parody of one in
poor old Jeronimo :

"It is not now as when Andrea lived."

The captain, of whom I have nothing certain to say, appears to have rivalled Butter in the dissemination of news. In that age the middle aisle of St. Paul's swarmed with disbanded or broken ancients, lieutenants, &c. who, on the strength of having served a few months in the Low Countries, assumed, like Cavaliero Shift, an acquaintance with all the great officers in the field, and amused the idle citizens with pretended intelligence from the armies. One of these (the captain of Jonson and Fletcher) seems to have turned his inventive faculties to account, and printed his imaginary correspondence, instead of detailing it vicâ voce. This is all that I can say, but Mr. Weber goes farther. Fletcher, he subjoins, informs us that the captain was the principal writer in the Mercurius-Gallo-Belgicus! which was one of the first newspapers that appeared in England.

*In the Great Assizes, (a singular poem, which seems to have escaped Mr. Chalmers,) mention is made of a captain Rashingham, a great compiler of news, whose occupation was invaded by a swarm of "paper-wasters," &c.

Who weekly uttered such a mass of lies,
Under the specious name of novelties,

that the poor captain found his trade over-run, and was obliged to betake himself to "plucking tame pigeons" (tricking) for a livelihood.

This was written nearly twenty years after the Staple of News; bully Rashingham, therefore, may be too late for the captain of the text: the note, however, will serve to prove that men of this description were commonly engaged in these pur. suits. See also the first scene of Shirley's Love Tricks.