And easy to be wrought, sir; but the nurse,
Old mother Mortgage, if you have a tenement,
Or such a morsel, though she have no teeth,
She loves a sweet-meat, any thing that melts
In her warm gums, she could command it for you
On such a trifle, a toy. Sir, you may see
How for your love, and this so pure complexion,
(A perfect sanguine) I have ventur'd thus,
The straining of a ward, opening a door
Into the secrets of our family.

Pie. I pray you let me know, sir, unto whom
I am so much beholden; but your name.
Bro. My name is Broker; I am secretary
And usher to her grace.

Pie. Good master Broker!

Bro. Good master Piedmantle !
Pie. Why, you could do me,

If you would, now, this favour of yourself.
Bro. Truly I think I could; but if I would,
I hardly should, without, or mistress Band,
Or mistress Statute, please to appear in it;
Or the good nurse I told you of, mistress Mort-
gage.

We know our places here, we mingle not
One in another's sphere, but all move orderly
In our own orbs; yet we are all concentrics.
Pie. Well, sir; I'll wait a better season.

Bro. Do,
[Makes a mouth at him.
And study the right means; get mistress Band
To urge on your behalf, or little Wax.

Pie. I have a hope, sir, that I may, by chance, Light on her grace, as she is taking the air. Bro. That air of hope has blasted many an

aiery

Of castrils like yourself, good master Piedmantle. [Exit Piedmantle.

P. sen. [springs forward.] Well said, master secretary, I stood behind

And heard thee all. I honour thy dispatches.
If they be rude, untrained in our method,
And have not studied the rule, dismiss them
quickly.

Where's Lickfinger, my cook, that unctuous rascal ?

He'll never keep his hour, that vessel of kitchenstuff!

Enter LICKFINGER.

Bro. Here he is come, sir.

P. sen. Pox upon him, kidney,

Always too late !

Lick. To wish them you, I confess,

That have them already.

P. sen. What?

Lick. The pox!

P. sen. The piles,

The plague, and all diseases light on him Knows not to keep his word! I'd keep my word, sure;

I hate that man that will not keep his word.
When did I break my word?

Lick. Or I, till now?
And 'tis but half an hour.

P. sen. Half a year,

To me, that stand upon a minute of time:
I am a just man, I love still to be just.

Lick. Why, you think I can run like light-foot
Ralph,

Or keep a wheel-barrow with a sail in town here,
To whirl me to you. I have lost two stone
Of suet in the service, posting hither:

You might have followed me like a watering-pot,

And seen the knots I made along the street;
My face dropt like the skimmer in a fritter-pan,
And my whole body is yet, to say the truth,
A roasted pound of butter, with grated bread in't!
P. sen. Believe you he that list; you staid of
purpose

To have my venison stink, and my fowl mortified,
That you might have them-

Lick. A shilling or two cheaper! That is your jealousy.

P. sen. Perhaps it is.

Will you go in, and view, and value all?
Yonder is venison sent me, fowl, and fish,
In such abundance, I am sick to see it;

I wonder what they mean! I have told them of it!

To burden a weak stomach, and provoke
A dying appetite! thrust a sin upon me
I ne'er was guilty of! nothing but gluttony,
Gross gluttony, that will undo this land!
Lick. And bating two in the hundred.
P. sen. Ay, that same's

A crying sin, a fearful damn'd device,
Eats
up the
poor, devours them--

Lick. Sir, take heed

What you give out.

P. sen. Against your grave great Solons,
Numa Pompilii, they that made that law,
To take away the poor's inheritance!
It was their portion, I will stand to it;

And they have robb'd them of it, plainly robb'd them.

I still am a just man, I tell the truth.

When moneys went at ten in the hundred, I,
And such as I, the servants of Pecunia,

Could spare the poor two out of ten, and did it :
How say you, Broker?

Lick. Ask your echo!

Bro. You did it.

P. sen. I am for justice; when did I leave justice?

We knew 'twas theirs, they had right and title to't:

Now

Lick. You can spare them nothing.
P. sen. Very little.

Lick. As good as nothing.

P. sen. They have bound our hands

With their wise solemn act, shorten'd our arms. Lick. Beware those worshipful ears, sir, be not shorten'd,

And you play Crop in the Fleet, if you use this license.

P. sen. What license, knave, informer?
Lick. I am Lickfinger,

Your cook.

P. sen. A saucy Jack you are, that's once. What said I, Broker?

Bro. Nothing that I heard, sir.

Lick. I know his gift, he can be deaf when he list.

P. sen. Have you provided me my bushel of eggs I did bespeak? I do not care how stale

Or stinking that they be; let 'em be rotten:
For ammunition here to pelt the boys
That break my windows.

Lick. Yes, sir, I have spared them

Out of the custard-politic for you, the mayor's." P. sen. 'Tis well; go in, take hence all that

excess,

Make what you can of it, your best and when I have friends that I invite at home, provide me

2 The custard-politic] i. e. the huge custard prepared for the Lord Mayor's feast. See p. 14.

Such, such, and such a dish, as I bespeak;
One at a time, no superfluity.

Or if you have it not, return me money:
You know my ways.

2

Lick. They are a little crooked.
P. sen. How, knave?

Lick. Because you do indent.
P. sen. 'Tis true, sir,

I do indent you shall return me money. Lick. Rather than meat, I know it; you are just still.

P. sen. I love it still; and therefore if

spend

you

The red-deer pies in your house, or sell them forth, sir,

Cast so, that I may have their coffins all

Return'd here,' and piled up: I would be thought To keep some kind of house.

Lick. By the mouldy signs!

2 You know my ways.

Lick. They are a little crooked

Because you do indent.] A pun upon the old meaning of the law word indentare, (.........) to make an impression on the wax of the seal with the teeth, which, before writing was common, Cowel tells us, was the mode of testifying the execution of covenants, deeds, &c.

Cast so, that I may have their coffins all

Return'd here.] i. e. the raised crust, or cavities of the pies. The word is familiar, in this sense, to all our old writers. One instance of it is given in Vol. ii, p. 3,

"Cold as the turkies coffin'd up in crust,"

which will be thought sufficient, perhaps, to exemplify so common an expression.

It may be added, however, that this word, coffin, was in ill repute under Elizabeth. The good queen, as the call for one to inclose the dearest morsel of the earth became more pressing, grew more solicitous to exclude all thoughts of it. "She would chide her lords if they mentioned the coffin of a pie before her, and would make them say crust, for she loved not words of sad