Host. Then he designs his first hour after dinner; His second after supper. Say ye, content? Pru. Content. Lady F. I am content. Host. Content. Frank. Content. Lord B. What's that? I am content too. You had it on the bye, and we observed it. Nur. Trot' I am not content: in fait' I am not. Host. Why art not thou content, good Sheleenien ? Nurse. He tauk so desperate, and so debausht, So baudy like a courtier and a lord, God bless him, one that tak'th tobacco. What did he say? Nurse. Nay, nothing to the purposh, Or very little, nothing at all to purposh. Host. Let him alone, Nurse. Nurse. I did tell him of Serly Was a great family come out of Ireland, Descended of O Neal, Mac Con, Mac Dermot, Mac Murrogh, but he mark'd not. Host. Nor do I; Good queen of heralds, ply the bottle, and sleep. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. A Lower Room in the Inn. Enter col. TIPTO, FLY, and JUG. Tip. I like the plot of your militia well. And the division's neat! 'twill be desired Fly. That I can, sir; And find out very able, fit commanders Tip. Now you are in the right. As in the tertia of the kitchen, yourself, There to command, as prime maestro del campo, Or the cook under you; 'cause you are the marshal, Tip. Sir Pierce, I'll have him a cavalier. To call them tertias.] Tertia (Span.) is that portion of an army which is levied out of one particular district, or division of a country. Alfarez is an ensign, or standard-bearer. An able officer, give me thy beard, round Jug, And for the stables, what's his name? Fly. Old Peck. Tip. Maestro del campo, Peck! his name is curt, A monosyllable, but commands the horse well. Fly. O, in an inn, sir, we have other horse, Let those troops rest a while. Wine is the horse, That we must charge with here. Tip. Bring up the troops, Or call, sweet Fly; 'tis an exact militia, Enter FERRET and TRUNDLE. Jack Ferret, welcome. Old trench-master, and colonel of the pioneers, What canst thou bolt us now? a coney or two Out of Tom Trundle's burrow, here, the coach? This is the master of the carriages. How is thy driving, Tom, good, as it was? 2 And thou an exact professor, Lipsius Fly.] Lipsius wrote a treatise upon the Roman militia; so that the allusion is evident: but what is the meaning of the following, "Lipsius Fly "Thou shalt be call'd, and Jouse ?” The Christian name of Lipsius, as he wrote it in Latin, was Justus; of which Jouse perhaps is the original.. WHAL. Whalley has overlooked one part of the allusion. Lipsius' Fly (for so it should be printed) refers to the description given by Lipsius of a celebrated automaton, a steel fly, made by a German artist, which would fly round the table. "Quæ ex artificis manu egressa, convivas circumvolitavit, tandemque veluti defessa, in domini manus reversa est." The artist's name was (Müller) Regiomonton.. Trun. It serves my lady, and our officer Prue. Twelve miles an hour! Tom has the old trundle still. Tip. I am taken with the family here, fine fellows! Viewing the muster-roll. Trun. They are brave men. Fer. And of the Fly-blown discipline all, the quarter-master. Tip. The Fly is a rare bird in his profession. Let's sip a private pint with him: I would have him Quit this light sign of the Light Heart, my bird, And lighter house. It is not for his tall And growing gravity, so cedar-like, To be the second to an host in cuerpo, That knows no elegances: use his own Dictamen, and his genius; I would have him Fly high, and strike at all. Enter PIERCE. Here's young Anon too. Pierce. What wine is't gentlemen, white or claret? Tip. White, My brisk Anon. Pierce. I'll draw you Juno's milk That dyed the lilies, colonel. Tip. Do so, Pierce, Enter PECK. [Exit. Peck. 'A plague of all jades, what a clap he has gi'en me! Peck. A plague of all jades, &c.] Here should have been a stage-direction, Enter Peck. WHAL. This is excellent. We are almost got to the end of Jonson's plays, and Whalley has just discovered that an entrance is want As sure as you live, sir, he knew perfectly I meant to cozen him. He did leer so on me, And then he sneer'd, as who would say, take heed, sirrah; And when he saw our half-peck, which you know ing! I have supplied thousands; and not a few in what has already passed of the present drama. 4 Peck. O me, &c.] What follows, about the tricks of ostlers, occurs likewise in the first act of Fletcher's Love's Pilgrimage; and perhaps there may be some difficulty in accounting for this coincidence. We are told that some plays of Beaumont and Fletcher being left imperfect, were fitted for the stage by Shirley, who added what he thought necessary to complete them: and that it is probable he here borrowed from our author's New Inn, what passes between Lazaro and Diego in Love's Pilgrimage: and this he thought, perhaps, might be done with safety enough, as the New Inn met with ill success in the representation. It will not, I believe, be said that Jonson was the borrower; for the whole scene is entirely in his manner: and we have an instance in Sejanus, how extremely scrupulous he was in claiming the production of another person. WHAL. Love's Pilgrimage did not appear until 1647, when it was completed and given to the world by Shirley. He therefore is accountable for the introduction of this scene into Fletcher's fragment; and he might insert it with the less scruple, as the practice was not much of a novelty, and the plundered play was, perhaps, as little known as esteemed. Mr. Stephen Jones ob serves with that perspicacity and good sense for which he is so deservedly famous, that, "as the New Inn miscarried, (in 1629) it is very probable that Jonson gave Beaumont and Fletcher his consent to make use of this dialogue." Biograph. Dramat. There can be no doubt of it; since Fletcher had then been in his grave only four, and Beaumont fourteen years! |