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 Hail the world's soul, and mine! more glad than is 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, Thy looks when they to Venus did ascribe, Such are thy beauties and our loves! Dear saint, 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, The concluding lines are from Horace, lib. ii. Sat. 3. Virtus, fama, decus, divina humanaque, pulcris Clarus erit, fortis, justus.-Sapiensque? Etiam, et rex, No common way; I use no trade, no venture; Mos. No, sir, nor devour Soft prodigals. You shall have some will swallow 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, "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, 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 give my substance to; but whom I make me: This draws new clients daily to my house, VOL. III. And look on that; still bearing them in hand, 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 |