Dap. By Jove, sir, I'll win ten thousand pound, and send you half. 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? There must a world of ceremonies pass; - M Face. Not, if she danced, to-night. P 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 discrimination, and were always more ready to prove their authority than their judgment. The most hateful of them, sir Henry Herbert, 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." Sub. And she must bless it. Face. Did you never see Her royal grace yet? Face. Your aunt of Fairy? Sub. Not since she kist him in the cradle, cap tain ; I can resolve you that. Face. Well, see her grace, Whate'er it cost you, for a thing that I know. However, see her. If you can see her. You are made, believe it, 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; [Exit. 8 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 Face. Can you remember this? Dap. I warrant you. 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.9 [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– Re-enters, followed by DRUGGER. What is your name, say you, Abel Drugger? Sub. A seller of tobacco ? 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; The house for cleanly sweeping." Drug. Ay, an't please you. Your business, Abel? Drug. This, an't please your worship; I am a young beginner, and am building Of a new shop, an't like your worship, just At corner of a street :-Here is the plot on't'And I would know by art, sir, of your worship, Which way I should make my door, by necromancy, And where my shelves; and which should be for boxes, And which for pots. I would be glad to thrive, sir: And I was wish'd to your worship by a gentleman, One captain Face, that says you know men's planets, And their good angels, and their bad. Sub. I do, If I do see them-3 Re-enter FACE. Face. What! my honest Abel? Thou art well met here. Drug. Troth, sir, I was speaking, Just as your worship came here, of your worship: hear? This is my friend, Abel, an honest fellow; you 1 Here's the plot on't,] i. e. the plan or ground-plot. Thus sir Henry Wotton : "Some Italians doe prescribe that when they have chosen the floore or plot," &c. Elements of Archit. p. 24. WHAL. 2 And I was wish'd to your worship, &c.] i. e. recommended: See vol. ii. p. 289. 3 I do, If I do see them-] Subtle is facetious, and plays upon the word angel, which he takes for a coin, and poor Abel for an attendant spirit. He lets me have good tobacco, and he does not Nor washes it in muscadel and grains, A neat, spruce, honest fellow, and no goldsmith.5 Sub. He is a fortunate fellow, that I am sure on. rant. He has his maple block, his silver tongs, Winchester pipes, and fire of juniper.] It should be observed that the houses of druggists (tobacconists) were not merely furnished with tobacco, but with conveniences for smoaking it. Every well frequented shop was an academy of this "noble art," where professors regularly attended to initiate the country aspiAbel's shop is very graphically described, and seems to be one of the most fashionable kind. The maple block was for shredding the tobacco leaf, the silver tongs for holding the coal, and the fire of juniper for the customers to light their pipes. Juniper is not lightly mentioned; "when once kindled," Fuller says, "it is hardly quenched:" and Upton observes, from Cardan, that “a coal of juniper, if covered with its own ashes, will retain its fire a whole year." Mr. Bowle, the author of some very stupid notes on Milton, (see the late editions of that poet,) has chosen to "vent his folly" on Jonson also, and to accuse him, in his Reflections on Originality, of "plagiarism, tediousness, and obscurity." “A neat, spruce, honest fellow, and no goldsmith.” A quaint distinction—and no goldsmith! It means possibly that he had not the chrysosperme, (the philosopher's stone.) It is, however, by no means obvious that this is the real meaning, and therefore it must remain hardly intelligible, &c., p. 66. This egregious critic did not know that goldsmiths, in Jonson's age, were not only bankers, but brokers and money-lenders. Abel was a good, "honest fellow," and no usurer. This is the simple meaning of the passage, produced with such parade to convict Jonson of "obscurity." His "plagiarism" (for we may as well dismiss the critic at once) is proved by his taking a trite line from Martial— marked by the poet himself, be it observed, as a quotation; and |