Face. Good deeds, sir, doctor dogs-meat. 'Slight,

I bring you

No cheating Clim o' the Cloughs, or Claribels,
That look as big as five-and-fifty, and flush;
And spit out secrets like hot custard-
Dap. Captain!

Face. Nor any melancholic under-scribe,
Shall tell the vicar; but a special gentle,
That is the heir to forty marks a year,
Consorts with the small poets of the time,
Is the sole hope of his old grandmother;
That knows the law, and writes you six fair hands,
Is a fine clerk, and has his cyphering perfect,
Will take his oath o' the Greek Testament,

If need be, in his pocket; and can court
His mistress out of Ovid.

Dap. Nay, dear captain——
Face. Did you not tell me so?
Dap. Yes; but I'd have you

Use master doctor with some more respect.
Face. Hang him, proud stag, with his broad velvet
head!-

8 No cheating Clim o' the Cloughs, or Claribels,] i. e. no ranting heroes of old ballads and romances. Clim of the Clough was a celebrated archer often mentioned in the histories of Robin Hood: "For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clough,

And William a Cloudes-lee,

To shoot with our Forester for forty marks,

And the Forester beat them all three."

Nash uses the word for a roaring bully, a drunkard.

9 That look as big as five-and-fifty, and flush.] Five-and fifty, it appears, was the highest number to stand on at the old game of Primero. If a flush accompanied this, the hand was irresistible, and swept the table; the holder, therefore, might well look big on it.

1 Will take his oath o' the Greek Testament.] This is the reading of the quarto, and seems better adapted to the case of Dapper (as Whalley justly observes) than that of the folio 1616, which has the "Greek Xenophon." The alteration is easily accounted for; but appears no longer necessary.

But for your sake, I'd choak, ere I would change
An article of breath with such a puckfist:
Come, let's be gone.

Sub. Pray you let me speak with you.
Dap. His worship calls you, captain.
Face. I am sorry.

I e'er embark'd myself in such a business.
Dap. Nay, good sir; he did call

Face. Will he take then?

Sub. First, hear me

you.

Face. Not a syllable, 'less you take.

Sub. Pray you, sir

Face. Upon no terms, but an assumpsit.

Sub. Your humour must be law.

Face. Why now, sir, talk.

[Going.

[He takes the four angels.

Now I dare hear you with mine honour. Speak,

So may this gentleman too.

Sub. Why, sir

Face. No whispering.

[Offering to whisper FACE.

Sub. 'Fore heaven, you do not apprehend the loss You do your self in this.

Face. Wherein? for what?

Sub. Marry, to be so importunate for one,

That, when he has it, will undo you all :

He'll win up all the money in the town.

Face. How!

Sub. Yes, and blow up gamester after gamester, As they do crackers in a puppet-play.

If I do give him a familiar,

Give you him all

you pay for; never set 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

Dap. Yes, captain, I would have it for all

your great familiars.

Sub. I told you so.

games.

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,2
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 you
Make the request, methinks.

Dap. No, sir, I mean

To add consideration.

Face. Why then, sir,

I'll try. [Goes to SUBTLE.] Say that it were for all games, doctor?

Sub. I say then, not a mouth shall eat for him At any ordinary, but on the score,

That is a gaming mouth, conceive me.

Face. Indeed!

Sub. He'll draw you all the treasure of the realm, If it be set him.

Face. Speak you this from art?

Sub. Ay, sir, and reason too, the ground of art. He is of the only best complexion,

The

queen of Fairy loves.

2 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.

Face. What! is he?

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 Isaac, You'd swear, were in him; such a vigorous luck As cannot be resisted. 'Slight, he'll put

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;5

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.

4

He'll put

Six of your gallants to a 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 have had this Grecism before. See vol. ii. p. 382. Thus, too, Cartwright:

"I see the tide of fortune rolling in

Without resistance. Go, be close and happy."
Ordinary, A. ii. sc. 3.

Win some five thousand pound, and send us two

on't.

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
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?

6 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 a-row,
Thus safely from such dangerous adventures ?"

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