And Solomon have written of the art; Mam. Of the philosopher's stone, and in High Sur. Did Adam write, sir, in High Dutch ? Mam. He did; Which proves it was the primitive tongue. Sur. What paper ? Mam. On cedar board. Sur. O that, indeed, they say, Will last 'gainst worms. Mam. 'Tis like your Irish wood, 'Gainst cob-webs. too, 6 I have a piece of Jason's fleece, Which was no other than a book of alchemy, 5 I'll shew you a book, where Moses, and his sister, Ay, and a treatise penn'd by Adam.] "Fabricius," Upton tells us, "in his valuable account of ancient books, has given a collection of the writers on chemistry. In this collection Moses, Miriam, (his sister,) and Solomon are cited. So likewise is Adam. Zozimus Panoplita cites the prophet Moses εν χηρευτικη συνταξει.” 6 Did Adam write, sir, in High Dutch? &c.] "Joannes Goropius Becanus, a man very learned-fell thereby into such a conceit, that he letted not to maintain the Teutonic tongue to be the first and most ancient language of the world; yea, the same that Adam spake in Paradise." Verstegan, p. 207. "If," as good master Eliot observes, in his Orthoepia Gallica, 1593, "the commicall Aristophanes were alive, he should here have a good argument to write a commedie." To this, also, Butler alludes: "Whether the devil tempted her By a High Dutch interpreter," &c. "I have a piece of Jason's fleece too, Which was no other than a book of alchemy, Writ in large sheep skin, a good fat ram-vellum.] From Suidas, as Upton observes : Το μυθολογουμενον χρυσειον δερος βιβλιον ην εν δερμασι γεγραμμενον περιεχον όπως δει δια χημειας χρυσον εργασεσθαι. in voc. δερας. Such was Pythagoras' thigh, Pandora's tub, The manner of our work; the bulls, our furnace, That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the biting; And they are gather'd into Jason's helm, 8 The alembic, and then sow'd in Mars his field, Enter FACE, as a servant. How now! Do we succeed? Is our day come? and holds it? Face. The evening will set red upon you, sir; You have colour for it, crimson: the red ferment Has done his office; three hours hence prepare you To see projection." Mam. Pertinax, my Surly, Again I say to thee, aloud, Be rich. This day, thou shalt have ingots; and, to-morrow, Give lords th' affront.'-Is it, my Zephyrus, right? Jason's helm, the alembic.] It may be just necessary to observe here, that alembic, in Jonson's time, did not, as now, denote the whole of a certain apparatus for distilling; but only the head of it, or that part in which the distilled matter was collected. WHAL. Hence the allusion to helmet. • To see projection.] This is the twelfth and last process in Alchemy. The adept has nothing to do now but to pour his medicine on the baser metals, and make gold and silver amain. The red or crimson, as Norton informs us, is "certainly, Last colour in work of Alkimy." 1 Give lords th' affront,] i. e. meet, and look them in the face. This sense of the word was not obsolete in Dryden's time: Blushes the bolt's-head?2 Face. Like a wench with child, sir, That were but now discover'd to her master. Face. No, sir! buy The covering off o' churches. Mam. That's true. Face. Yes. Let them stand bare, as do their auditory; Mam. No, good thatch : Thatch will lie light upon the rafters, Lungs.— 3 Lost in the embers; and repair this brain, Face. I have blown, sir, Hard for your worship; thrown by many a coal, When 'twas not beech; weigh'd those I put in, just, To keep your heat still even; these blear'd eyes "Olinda. Do you affront my sister? Florimel. Ay: but thou art so tall, I think I shall never affront thee." Wild Gallant. 2 Blushes the bolt's head?] A long, strait-necked glass vessel or receiver, gradually rising to a conical figure. WHAL 3 I will restore thee thy complexion, Puffe, Lost in the embers.] Thus Chaucer : "For rednesse have I non right well I knowe In my visage, for fumes dyverse Of metals which ye have herde me reherce, Consumed and wasted hath my rednesse." thrown by many a coal Chanon Yeoman's Tale. When 'twas not beech.] I know not the peculiar property of beech-coal; but such only was used by the alchemists. Of this, there is frequent mention in the same Tale: Have wak'd to read your several colours, sir, Thou hast descry'd the flower, the sanguis agni? Again: "This false chanon, the foule fende him fetche, "When that our potte is broke, as I have said, That is the cause, and none other so teche." In Lilly's Gallathea there is much of this jargon. There too, the alchemist professes that he "can do nothing without beechen coales." This impostor, and his man Peter, are the pleasantest characters to be found in Lilly. 3 To read your several colours, sir, Of the pale citron, the green lion, the crow, The peacock's tail, the plumed swan.] These are terms made use of by adepts in the hermetic science, to express the several effects arising from the different degrees of fermentation. Thus we are told by one of them, from the putrefaction of the dead carcasses a crow will be generated, which putting forth its head, and the bath being somewhat increased, it will stretch forth its wings and begin to fly at length being made white by a gentle and long rain, and with the dew of heaven, it will be changed into a white swan; but a new-born crow is a sign of the departed dragon. WHAL. "These phylosophers speken so mistily In this crafte, that men cannot come thereby, So said Chaucer; and the case is not much mended since his time: all these uncouth terms allude to the various colours which the materials assume in their progress towards perfection. The crow and the green lion seem to be of singular value, as the adept is frequently congratulated on their appearance. The white, or the plumed swan, is also of choice estimation, and ranks, in degree, only below the yellow, and the red, the sanguis agni, which, as I have already observed, is the last stage of the process. The exultation of Mammon, therefore, is highly natural. Mam. Where's master? Face. At his prayers, sir, he; Good man, he's doing his devotions Mam. Lungs, I will set a period To all thy labours; thou shalt be the master Face. Good, sir. Mam. But do you hear? I'll geld you, Lungs. Face. Yes, sir. Mam. For I do mean To have a list of wives and concubines, Mam. I will have all my beds blown up, not stuft; Down is too hard: and then, mine oval room Fill'd with such pictures as Tiberius took From Elephantis, and dull Aretine But coldly imitated. Then, my glasses 6 6 Then, my glasses Cut in more subtle angles, to disperse, And multiply the figures.] This species of lust, which the iniquitous Mammon is contriving, was really practised by one Hostius in the time of Nero; an account of whose impurities we have in the first book of Seneca's Natural Questions: Hoc loco volo tibi narrare fabellam, ut intelligas quam nullum instrumentum irritanda voluptatis libido contemnat, et ingeniosa sit ad incitandum furorem suum. And afterwards he says, Non quantum peccabat videre contentus, specula sibi, per quæ flagitia sua divideret, disponeretque circumdedit. WHAL. In the preceding lines, there is an allusion to Suetonius: "Cubicula plurifariam disposita tabellis ac sigillis lascivissimarum pictu |