ACT I. SCENE I.

A Room in Volpone's House.

Enter VOLPONE and MOSCA.

Volp. Good morning to the day;' and next, my gold!

Open the shrine, that I may see my saint.

[Mosca withdraws the curtain, and discovers
piles of gold, plate, jewels, &c.

Hail the world's soul, and mine! more glad than is
The teeming earth to see the long'd-for sun
Peep through the horns of the celestial Ram,
Am I, to view thy splendor darkening his;
That lying here, amongst my other hoards,
Shew'st like a flame by night, or like the day
Struck out of chaos, when all darkness fled
Unto the centre. O thou son of Sol,
But brighter than thy father, let me kiss,
With adoration, thee, and every relick
Of sacred treasure in this blessed room.
Well did wise poets, by thy glorious name,
Title that age which they would have the best;
Thou being the best of things,' and far tran-
scending

Good morning to the day, &c.] The reader cannot but perceive, says Upton, that the diction of this opening scene rises to a tragic sublimity. The expression, Shew'st like a flame by night, is from Pindar:

2 Thou being the best of things, &c.] Upton had reason to say that the diction of this piece rose to a tragic sublimity; since

All style of joy, in children, parents, friends,
Or any other waking dream on earth:

Thy looks when they to Venus did ascribe,
They should have given her twenty thousand
Cupids;

Such are thy beauties and our loves! Dear saint,
Riches, the dumb god, that giv'st all men tongues,
That canst do nought, and yet mak'st men do all
things;

The price of souls; even hell, with thee to boot, Is made worth heaven. Thou art virtue, fame, Honour and all things else. Who can get thee, He shall be noble, valiant, honest, wise

Mos. And what he will, sir. Riches are in fortune

A greater good than wisdom is in nature.

Volp. True, my beloved Mosca. Yet I glory More in the cunning purchase of my wealth, Than in the glad possession, since I gain

66

Jonson has had recourse for it to the tragic poets. This most learned man, who has "stalked for two centuries," as Mr. Malone takes upon himself to assure us, on the stilts of an artificial reputation," was not only familiar with the complete dramas of the Athenian stage, but even with the minutest fragments of them, which have come down to us. The beautiful lines above, are from the Bellerophon, a lost play of Euripides. Edit. Beck. Vol. II. p. 432.

Ω χρυσε, δεξίωμα καλλιςον βροτοις,
Ως είδε μητηρ ήδονας τοιας δ έχει,
Ου παιδες ανθρωποισιν, ου φίλος πατης,
Οίας συ χει σε δωμασιν κεκτημένοι.
Ει δ' ή Κύπρις τοιστον οφθαλμοις όρα,
Ου θαυμ', ερωτας μυρίες αυτην τρέφειν.

The concluding lines are from Horace, lib. ii. Sat. 3.

Virtus, fama, decus, divina humanaque, pulcris
Divitiis parent, quas qui construxerit, ille

Clarus erit, fortis, justus.-Sapiensque? Etiam, et rex,
Et quicquid volet.

No common way; I use no trade, no venture;
I wound no earth with plough-shares, fat no beasts,
To feed the shambles; have no mills for iron,
Oil, corn, or men, to grind them into powder:
I blow no subtle glass,' expose no ships
To threat'nings of the furrow-faced sea;
I turn no monies in the public bank,
Nor usure private.

Mos. No, sir, nor devour

Soft prodigals. You shall have some will swallow
A melting heir as glibly as your Dutch
Will pills of butter, and ne'er purge for it;
Tear forth the fathers of poor families
Out of their beds, and coffin them alive
In some kind clasping prison, where their bones
May be forth-coming, when the flesh is rotten:
But your sweet nature doth abhor these courses;
You lothe the widow's or the orphan's tears
Should wash your pavements, or their piteous cries
Ring in your roofs, and beat the air for vengeance.
Volp. Right, Mosca; I do lothe it.

Mos. And besides, sir,

4

You are not like the thresher that doth stand

3 I blow no subtle glass,] Venice, where the scene is laid, and the neighbouring island of Murano, being famous for their manufactures in glass. WHAL.

4 You are not like the thresher, &c.] This too is imitated from Horace, but so obviously, as Upton truly says, as to be visible to every schoolboy. He takes this opportunity, however, of mentioning another imitation, which he thinks not quite so plain :

"Great mother Fortune, queen of human state,
Rectress of action, &c." Sej. A. V.

"Those" he adds, "who know any thing of Jonson's perpetual allusions to ancient authors, will plainly perceive that he wrote,. "Rectress of Antium!-from Horace lib. i. Od. 35." There is nothing in the "treatise on the Bathos" quite so good as this.

With a huge flail, watching a heap of corn,
And, hungry, dares not taste the smallest grain,
But feeds on mallows, and such bitter herbs;
Nor like the merchant, who hath fill'd his vaults
With Romagnia, and rich Candian wines,
Yet drinks the lees of Lombard's vinegar:
You will lie not in straw, whilst moths and worms
Feed on your sumptuous hangings and soft beds ;
You know the use of riches, and dare give now
From that bright heap, to me, your poor observer,
Or to your dwarf, or your hermaphrodite,
Your eunuch, or what other household trifle
Your pleasure allows maintenance-

Volp. Hold thee, Mosca, [Gives him money. Take of my hand; thou strik'st on truth in all, And they are envious term thee parasite.

Call forth my dwarf, my eunuch, and my fool, And let them make me sport. [Exit Mos.] What should I do,

But cocker up my genius, and live free
To all delights my fortune calls me to?
I have no wife, no parent, child, ally,

To give my substance to; but whom I make
Must be my heir; and this makes men observe

me:

This draws new clients daily to my house,
Women and men of every sex and age,
That bring me presents, send me plate, coin, jewels,
With hope that when I die (which they expect
Each greedy minute) it shall then return
Ten-fold upon them; whilst some, covetous
Above the rest, seek to engross me whole,
And counter-work the one unto the other,
Contend in gifts, as they would seem in love:
All which I suffer, playing with their hopes,
And am content to coin them into profit,
And look upon their kindness, and take more,
N

VOL. III.

And look on that; still bearing them in hand,
Letting the cherry knock against their lips,
And draw it by their mouths, and back again.-
How now!

Re-enter MOSCA with NANO, ANDROGYNO, and CASTRONE.

Nan. Now, room for fresh gamesters, who do will you to know,

They do bring you neither play nor university show ;ʻ And therefore do intreat you, that whatsoever they rehearse,

May not fare a whit the worse, for the false pace of the verse!

5 Still bearing them in hand,] i. e. flattering their hopes, keeping them in expectation: "You may remember" says archbishop King to Swift, "how we were borne in hand in my lord Pembroke's time, that the Queen had passed the grant, &c." The phrase occurs perpetually in our old poets. Thus in Ram Alley, Act. II.

"Yet I will bear some dozen more in hand,

And make them all my gulls."

In the preceding lines Jonson had Petronius in view: — Incidimus in turbam hæredipetarum sciscitantium quod genus hominum, aut unde veniremus. Ex prescripto ergo consilii communis, exaggerati prudenter unde, aut qui essemus, haud dubie credentibus indicavimus. Qui statim opes suas summo cum certamine in Eumolpum congesserunt: et omnes ejus gratiam sollicitant.”

Now, room for fresh gamesters, who do will you to know,

They do bring you neither play nor university show;] This scene is a kind of antimasque or jig, such as is found in many of our old plays. "It is chiefly taken," as Upton observes, "from one of Lucian's dialogues, and is meant as a ridicule on the metempsychosis." Both Lucian and Jonson, however, had better objects in view, than the exposure of such absurdities. "By university show, is meant, such masques and plays, as our universities used to exhibit to our kings and queens, and which were acted by the scholars in their halls."

May not fare a whit the worse, for the false pace of the verse.] Upton, a man of very considerable learning, which (unaccom