Give you him all you play for; never set He is of the only best complexion, him : For he will have it. Face. You are mistaken, doctor. Why, he does ask one but for cups and horses, A rifling fly; none of your great familiars. Dap. Yes, captain, I would have it for all games. Sub. I told you so. Face. [Taking Dap. aside.] 'Slight, that is a new business! I understood you, a tame bird, to fly Twice in a term, or so, on Friday nights, When you had left the office, for a nag Of forty or fifty shillings. Dap. Ay, 'tis true, sir; But I do think now I shall leave the law,1 And therefore- Face. Why, this changes quite the case. Do you think that I dare move him? Dap. If you please, sir; All's one to him, I see. Face. What! for that money? I cannot with my conscience; nor should Ay, 'tis true; But I do think now I shall leave the law, &c.] This is excellent; the avarice of Dapper begins to operate; and his desires expand in consequence of what he had been permitted to overhear: the keen observation and art of Jonson are eminently conspicuous in every part of this wonderful drama. Sub. The spirits of dead Holland, living You'd swear, were in him;] The poet alludes to the two famous chemists, Isaac and John Isaac Hollandus, who flourished about this time, and wrote several treatises on Alchemy.WHAL. The works of the latter were published in 1617, Sub. Peace. He'll overhear you. Sir, should she but see him Face. What? Sub. Do not you tell him. Face. Will he win at cards too? Sub. The spirits of dead Holland, living You'd swear, were in him ; such a vigorous luck As cannot be resisted. 'Slight, he'll put Sub. He hears you, man-- Face. Faith, I have confidence in his You hear, he says he will not be ingrateful. Sub. Why, as you please; my venture follows yours. Face. Troth, do it, doctor; think him trusty, and make him. He may make us both happy in an hour;4 Win some five thousand pound, and send us two on't. Dap. Believe it, and I will, sir. You have heard all? [Takes him aside. Dap. No, what was't? Nothing, I, sir. Face. Nothing ! Dap. A little, sir. Face. Well, a rare star Reigned at your birth. Dap. At mine, sir! No. Swears that you are Sub. Nay, captain, you'll tell all now. Face. Allied to the queen of Fairy. with this title: "M. Joannis Isaaci Hollandi Opera mineralia et vegetatilia, sive de lapide philosophico quæ reperiri potuerunt, omnia." He'll put 3 a Six of your gallants to a cloke,] i.e., strip them to the cloke; the last thing which gallant" parted with, as it served to conceal the loss of the rest. Cartwright, a devoted follower of Jonson, has imitated, or rather caricatured, much of this dialogue in the Ordinary. He may make us both happy in an hour;] i.e., rich. We have had this Grecism before. See vol. i. p. 213 a. Thus too Cartwright: "I see the tide of fortune rolling in Without resistance. Go, be close and happy." Ordinary, act ii. sc. 3 Dap. I thank his worship. Another angel. Dap. Must I? Face. Must you! 'slight, What else is thanks? will you be trivial?Doctor, [Dapper gives him the money. When must he come for his familiar? Dap. Shall I not have it with me? Sub. O, good sir! There must a world of ceremonies pass; You must be bathed and fumigated first: You were born with a cawl on your head.] This prognostication of good fortune is alluded to by many of our old writers. Thus in Elvira: "Were we not born with cawls upon our heads, Think'st thou, Chichon, to come off thrice Thus safely from such dangerous adventures ?" This superstition, which is of very ancient date, is even now prevalent in many weak minds. a-row, 2 I' fac's no oath.] An allusion perhaps to the petty salvos by which the Puritans contrived to evade the charge of swearing: unless it be rather aimed at the strictness with which the Masters of the Revels affected to revise the language of the stage. That some revision was but too necessary is abundantly clear; but these tasteless and officious tyrants acted with little discrimination, and were always more ready to prove their authority than their judgment. The most Besides, the queen of Fairy does not rise Face. Not, if she danced, to-night. Face. Your aunt of Fairy? Sub. Not since she kist him in the cradle, captain; I can resolve you that. Face. Well, see her grace, Whate'er it cost you, for a thing that I know. It will be somewhat hard to compass; but However, see her. You are made, believe it, If you can see her. Her grace is a lone hateful of them, Sir Henry Herbert, in his examination of The Wits of Davenant, had marked, it appears, a number of harmless interjections, which might have subjected the poet to some punishment: but the good-natured Charles interfered, and Sir Henry has thus recorded his spleen and disappointment: "The kinge is pleased to take faith, death, slight, &c. for asseverations, and no oathes-to which I doe humbly submit as my master's judgment; but under favour do conceive them to be oathes, and enter them here to declare my submission and opinion." 8 And they cry buz, &c.] From a singular passage in Selden relating to the punishment of witchcraft, it would seem that buz was a kind of cabalistical word, used by the impostors of those days in their invocations. "If one should profess, that by turning his hat thrice and crying buz! he could take away a man's life (though in truth he could do no such thing), yet this were a just law made by the state, that whosoever should turn his hat thrice and cry bus! with an intention to take away a man's life, shall be put to death."-Vol. iii. p. 2077. Mr. Scott has misapprehended this passage (if it be this to which he alludes). He says (Dryden's Works, vol. xv. p. 297) that "it was the absurd and cruel doctrine of one of the English lawyers, that if a man firmly believes that by whirling his hat round his head and crying bo he could occasion the death of an enemy, he becomes by performing that ceremony guilty of murder. Here all the characteristics of the original are lost: not to observe that Selden speaks of a law to be passed in consequence of a practice which might have very serious effects, and which must then be a direct and wilful violation of this supposed law. And where my shelves; and which should be for boxes, And which for pots. I would be glad to thrive, sir: And I was wished to your worship3 by a gentleman, One Captain Face, that says you know men's planets, And their good angels, and their bad. If I do see them Re-enter Face. Face. What! my honest Abel? Thou art well met here. Drug. Troth, sir, I was speaking, Just as your worship came here, of your worship: I pray you speak for me to master doctor. Face. He shall do anything. Doctor, do you hear? This is my friend, Abel, an honest fellow; He lets me have good tobacco, and he does not Sophisticate it with sack-lees or oil, But keeps it in fine lily pots, that, opened, beans. I do, If I do see them-] Subtle is facetious, and plays upon the word angel, which he takes for a coin, and poor Abel for an attendant spirit, 5 He has his maple block, his silver tongs, should be observed that the houses of druggists Winchester pipes, and fire of juniper.] It (tobacconists) were not merely furnished with tobacco, but with conveniences for smoking it. Every well frequented shop was an academy of this "noble art," where professors regularly attended to initiate the country aspirant. Abel's shop is very graphically described, and seems to be one of the most fashionable kind. The Does never fail: and your long ear doth promise. I knew 't, by certain spots, too, in his And on the nail of his mercurial finger. Sub. The thumb, in chiromancy, we The forefinger to Jove; the midst to Sa The ring to Sol; the least to Mercury, He should be a merchant, and should trade Face. Why, this is strange! Is it not, Sub. There is a ship now coming from That shall yield him such a commodity maple block was for shredding the tobacco leaf," the silver tongs for holding the coal, and the fire of juniper for the customers to light their pipes. Juniper is not lightly mentioned: "when once kindled," Fuller says, "it is hardly quenched:" and Upton observes, from Cardan, that a coal of juniper, if covered with its own ashes, will retain its fire a whole year." 1 Mr. Bowle, the author of some very stupid notes on Milton, (see the late editions of that poet), has chosen to "vent his folly" on Jonson also, and to accuse him in his Reflections on Originality, of "plagiarism, tediousness, and obscurity." "A neat, spruce, honest fellow, and no goldsmith." A quaint distinction-and no goldsmith! It means possibly that he had not the chrysosperme (the philosopher's stone). It is, however, by no means obvious that this is the real meaning, and therefore it must remain hardly intelligible, &c. p. 66. This egregious critic did not know that goldsmiths, in Jonson's age, were not only bankers, but brokers and money lenders. Abel was a good, "honest fellow," and no usurer. This is the simple meaning of the passage, produced with such parade to convict Jonson of "obscurity." His "plagiarism" (for we may as well dismiss the critic at once) is proved by his taking a trite line from Martialmarked by the poet himself, be it observed, as a quotation; and happily detected, after a lapse of two centuries, by this sagacious gentleman. The tediousness" is thus brought home to him. Abel says (infra, p. 17 6) : Yes, I have a portague I have kept this half year." time. "Holinshed mentions the portague as piece very solemnly kept of divers. This custom we are sure from hence continued in his teased with these!" p. 65. Why these should be But a reader of Jonson is continually difficult to conjecture-but enough of Mr. Bowle, more teasing in the poet than the historian, it is had not all his trash been transcribed for the on whom I should not have wasted a syllable press, on the margin of Whalley's corrected copy. 2 This summer He will be of the clothing of his company,. And next spring called to the scarlet ;] i.e., he will this year be brought upon the livery of the Grocers' Company, and the next be drank to as sheriff. two words have the same origin (which is not I knew't, by certain spots too, in his teeth, And on the nail of his mercurial finger.] Our poet's authority is Cardan: "Sunt etiam in nobis vestigia quædam futurorum eventuum in unguibus, atque etiam in dentibus-sed pro manus natura, et digitorum in quibus fiunt, et colorum, et mutatione eorum."—WHAL Face. A crown! and toward such a fortune? heart, Thou shalt rather gi' him thy shop. No gold about thee? Drug. Yes, I have a portague,3 I have kept this half-year. Face. Out on thee, Nab! 'Slight, there was such an offer Shalt keep't no longer, I'll give't him for thee. Doctor, Nab prays your worship to drink this, and swears He will appear more grateful, as your skill Does raise him in the world. Drug. I would entreat Another favour of his worship. Face. What is't, Nab? Drug. But to look over, sir, my almanack, And cross out my ill-days, 4 that I may neither Bargain, nor trust upon them. Face. That he shall, Nab: Leave it, it shall be done, 'gainst after noon. Sub. And a direction for his shelves. Art thou well pleased, Nab? Drug. 'Thank, sir, both your worships. Face. Away. [Exit Drugger. Why, now, you smoaky persecutor of nature! Now do you see, that something's to be done, Beside your beech-coal, and your corsive waters, Your crosslets, crucibles, and cucurbites? You must have stuff, brought home to you, to work on: And yet you think, I am at no expense In searching out these veins, then following them, attempt at, &c. Subtle See vol. i. p. 269 a. alludes to this speech, p. 35. 3 Yes, I have a portague, &c.] A gold coin worth about three pounds twelve shillings. It was very common in this country not many years since, and principally on those parts of the coast most addicted to smuggling. See p. 16. And cross out my ill days, &c.] In our old almanacks, as may be collected from the dramatic poets, the days supposed to be favourable or unfavourable to buying and selling, were usually distinguished by particular marks. See vol. i. p. 77 a. Mr. Steevens had one of them in his possession, dated 1562, and another, but of a more recent period, is mentioned by Aubrey, with similar advantages. There is some well meant ridicule of this practice in a curious old pamphlet called The Owles' Almanack, in which every day of the month has its appropriate fortune annexed to it. C |