Go home, prepare him, tell him with what zeal On the first hearing, as thou may'st do, truly, Mos. Sir, I warrant you, I'll so possess him with it, that the rest [Exit. Coro. Where are you, wife? my Celia! wife! Re-enter CELIA. -What, blubbering? Come, dry those tears. I think thou thought'st me in earnest; Ha! by this light I talk'd so but to try thee: Methinks, the lightness of the occasion Should have confirm'd thee. Come, I am not jealous. Cel. No! Corv. Faith I am not, I, nor never was; It is a poor unprofitable humour. Do not I know, if women have a will, They'll do 'gainst all the watches of the world, At old Volpone's, where it shall appear How far I am free from jealousy or fear. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. A Street. Enter MOSCA. Mos. I fear, I shall begin to grow in love With my dear self, and my most prosperous parts, They do so spring and burgeon; I can feel A whimsy in my blood: I know not how, Success hath made me wanton. I could skip Out of my skin, now, like a subtle snake, I am so limber. O! your parasite Is a most precious thing, dropt from above, I muse, the mystery was not made a science, All the wise world is little else, in nature, I mean not those that have your bare town-art, Make their revenue out of legs and faces,' 7 Make their revenue out of legs and faces,] i. e out of bows, and smiles, or rather, perhaps, as Juvenal expresses it, moulding their faces to suit the humour of their patron's-alienum sumere vultum, &c. Echo my lord, and lick away a moth :' 9 Echo my lord, and lick away a moth :] This, as Upton affectedly observes, is an allusion "to such officious kind of parasites, as are called in Low Dutch pluyme-strücker, qui plumas pilosque ex vestibus assentatoriè legit." All this learning is from Minshieu Jonson, however, did not go to Holland for his flatterer, but to Attica, a country with which he was much better acquainted: Απο τε ἱματια αφέλειν κροκίδα και εαν τι προς το τρίχωμα της κεφαλής απο πνεύματος προσενεχθη αχυρου καρφελογησαι. Theo. phras. περι κολακειας. Hall has the same allusion: "But some one, like a claw-backe parasite, Sat. Lib. 6. Mr. Cumberland parallels this exquisite speech with that of a parasite, preserved to us in a fragment of Eupolis. The advantage, however, is on the side of Jonson. His fine elegant rascal, "that can rise, "And stoop, almost together, like an arrow; is much superior to the parasite of the Greek dramatist, whom our poet undoubtedly had in view, and over whom he manifestly triumphs in the conclusion of his speech. Lucian's parasite, who is here brought forward by Upton, is, it must be confessed, a sprightly, impudent, pleasant fellow; Enter BONARIO. Who's this? Bonario, old Corbaccio's son? Bon. That cannot be by thee. Mos. Why, sir? Bon. Nay, pray thee know thy way, and leave me: I would be loth to interchange discourse Mos. Courteous sir, Scorn not my poverty. Bon. Not I, by heaven; But thou shalt give me leave to hate thy baseness. Bon. Ay; answer me, is not thy sloth Mos. Heaven be good to me! Bon. What! does he weep? the sign is soft and good: I do repent me that I was so harsh. [Aside. from him, however, Jonson has taken nothing, but the idea that "the mystery should be made a science," &c. Indeed the two characters are perfectly distinct. You are unequal to me, &c.] i. e. unjust; you do not judge equitably. The sentiment itself is from the Medea of Seneca: Qui statuit aliquid, parte inauditá alterâ, Equum licet statuerit, haud æquus fuit. WHAL. Mos. 'Tis true, that, sway'd by strong necessity, With mine own tender ease, but would not rather I was to blame, so to mistake thy nature; seem, At first to make a main offence in manners, Bon. How! Mos. And thrust you forth, As a mere stranger to his blood; 'tis true, sir. I claim an interest in the general state Bon. This tale hath lost thee much of the late trust |