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?

3

Sub. The spirits of dead Holland, living Isaac, You'd swear, were in him; such a vigorous luck As cannot be resisted. 'Slight, he'll put

4

Six of your gallants to a cloke, indeed.

Face. A strange success, that some man shall be

born to!

Sub. He hears you, man-

Dap. Sir, I'll not be ingrateful.

Face. Faith, I have confidence in his good

nature:

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 ;
Win some five thousand pound, and send us two

on't.

3 Sub. The spirits of dead Holland, living Isaac,

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, with this title ; M. Joannis Isaaci Hollandi Opera mineralia et vegetatilia, sive de lapide philosophico quæ reperiri potuerunt, omnia.

He'll put

Six of your gallants to cloke,] i. e. strip them to the cloke; the last thing which "a 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.

5 He may make us both happy in an hour;] i. e. rich. We

Dap. Believe it, and I will, sir.

Face. And you shall, 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

Reign'd at your birth.

Dap. At mine, sir! No.
Face. The doctor

Swears that you are

Sub. Nay, captain, you'll tell all now.
Face. Allied to the queen of Fairy.
Dap. Who? that I am?

Believe it, no such matter

Face. Yes, and that

You were born with a cawl on your head."

Dap. Who says so?

Face. Come,

You know it well enough, though you dissemble it. Dap. I'fac, I do not: you are mistaken.

Face. How!

Swear by your fac, and in a thing so known

have had this Grecism before. See vol. ii. p. 404. Thus, too, Cartwright:

"I see the tide of fortune rolling in

"Without resistance. Go, be close and happy."

Ordinary, A. ii. sc. 3.

6 You were born with a cawl on your head. This prognostica. tion 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 a-row,
"Thus safely from such dangerous adventures?"

This superstition, which is of very ancient date, is even now prevalent in many weak minds.

Unto the doctor? how shall we, sir, trust you
In the other matter? can we ever think,
When you have won five or six thousand pound,
You'll send us shares in't, by this rate?

Dap. By Jove, sir,

I'll win ten thousand pound, and send you half. I' fac's no oath.'

Sub. No, no, he did but jest.

Face. Go to. Go thank the doctor: he's

friend,

To take it so.

Dap. I thank his worship.

Face. So!

Another angel.

Dap. Must I?

Face. Must you! 'slight,

your

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;

:

7 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 discri mination, and were always more ready to prove their authority than their judgment. The most hateful of them, sir Henry Her. bert, in his examination of the Wits of D'avenant, 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."

You must be bath'd and fumigated first:
Besides, the queen of Fairy does not rise
Till it be noon.

Face. Not, if she danced, to-night.

Sub. And she must bless it.

Face. Did you never see

Her royal grace yet?
Dap. Whom?

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 woman,
And very rich; and if she take a fancy,.
She will do strange things. See her, at any hand.
'Slid, she may hap to leave you all she has :
It is the doctor's fear.

Dap. How will't be done, then?

Face. Let me alone, take you no thought. Do

you

But say to me, captain, I'll see her grace.

Dap. Captain, I'll see her grace.

Face. Enough.

Sub. Who's there?

[Knocking within.

Anon. Conduct him forth by the back way.

[Aside to Face. Sir, against one o'clock prepare yourself; Till when you must be fasting; only take Three drops of vinegar in at your nose, Two at your mouth, and one at either ear; Then bathe your fingers ends and wash your eyes, To sharpen your five senses, and cry hum

Thrice, and then buz' as often; and then come.

Face. Can you remember this?

Dap. I warrant you.

[Exit.

Face. Well then, away. It is but your bestowing Some twenty nobles 'mong her grace's servants, And put on a clean shirt: you do not know What grace her grace may do you in clean linen.' [Exeunt Face and Dapper. Sub. [within.] Come in! Good wives, I pray you forbear me now;

Troth I can do you no good till afternoon

And then 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 buz! 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.

What grace her grace may do you in clean linen.] It seems almost superfluous to observe, that the fairies are constantly represented as great enemies to uncleanliness. Thus, in Drayton's Nymphidia:

"These make our girls their sluttery rue,
"By pinching them both black and blue;
"And put a penny in their shoe,

"The house for cleanly sweeping."