Then trying them out. telligence 'Fore God, my in- | As his preservative, made of the elixir; Searching the spittle, to make old bawds Costs me more money than my share oft What says my dainty Dolkin? Dol. Yonder fish-wife Will not away. And there s your giantess, The bawd of Lambeth. Sub. Heart, I cannot speak with them. Dol. Not afore night, I have told them in a voice, Thorough the trunk, like one of your familiars. But I have spied Sir Epicure Mammon-Sub. Where? Dol. Coming along, at far end of the lane, Slow of his feet, but earnest of his tongue To one that's with him. Sub. Face, go you and shift. [Exit Face. Dol, you must presently make ready too. Dol. Why, what's the matter? Sub. O, I did look for him With the sun's rising: marvel he could sleep. This is the day I am to perfect for him The magisterium, our great work, the stone; And yield it, made, into his hands: of which He has, this month, talked as he were possessed. And now he's dealing pieces on 't away. Methinks I see him entering ordinaries, Dispensing for the pox, and plaguy houses, Reaching his dose, walking Moorfields for lepers, And offering citizens' wives pomanderbracelets, 1 You shall no more deal with the hollow dye,] This alludes to the way of cheating among gamesters, to make their dice hollow, and then by loading them to make them run high or low. The high were so loaden as to run 4, 5, or 6; the low to run 1, 2, or 3.WHAL. Cartwright dilates on this very pleasantly: And low men are but trifles; your poised dye, To be displayed at Madam Augusta's,1 Nay, to a thousand, so ad infinitum: The sons of Sword and Hazard fall before Commit idolatry with wine and trumpets: And have your punks and punketees, my And unto thee I speak it first, BE RICH. Mam. That is his fire-drake, His Lungs, his Zephyrus, he that puffs his coals, Till he firk nature up, in her own centre. All that is metal in my house to gold: For all the copper. Sur. What, and turn that too? Mam. Yes, and I'll purchase Devonshire and Cornwall, And make them perfect Indies !5 you admire now? Sur. No, faith: Mam. But when you see th' effects of Of which one part projected on a hundred 1 To be displayed at Madam Augusta's,] The mistress of a brothel; and probably the same whom he elsewhere calls Madam Cæsarean. -WHAL. From what follows I should rather suppose her to be the mistress of an ordinary or gambling-house. Surly was a gambler. "One thing (says Purchas) I cannot forget, that in prodigall excesse, the insides of our clokes are richer than the outsides."-Microcosmus, p. 268. This explains the preceding line. 2 His Lungs, Lungs was a term of art for the under operators in chemistry, whose business principally was to take care of the fire. So Cowley, in his sketch of a philosophic college, in the number of its members reckons two Lungs, or chemical servants; and afterw. ds, assigning their salaries, "to each of the Lungs twelve pound."-WHAL. Sur. Yes, when I see't, I will. Do you think I fable with you? I assure He that has once the flower of the sun, I'll make an old man of fourscore, a child. Restore his years, renew him, like an eagle, Young giants; as our philosophers have The ancient patriarchs, afore the flood, Sur. The decayed vestals of Pict-hatch That keep the fire alive there. Mam. 'Tis the secret Of nature naturized? 'gainst all infections, p. 7a. See 7 Of nature naturized] Our poet seems here to allude to the theological distinction of natura naturans and natura naturata. The former appellation is given to the Creator, who hath imparted existence and nature to all beings; and by the latter term the creatures are distinguished as having received their nature and For all the copper.] Lothbury (Stow says) properties from the power of another.-WHAL. 3 You are not faithful, sir.] Not easy of faith, not believing. And to Lothbury, I'll undertake, withal, to fright the plague Be bound, the players shall sing your Without their poets. Mam. Sir, I'll do't. Meantime, I'll give away so much unto my man, Weekly; each house his dose, and at the Sur. As he that built the Water-work does with water ? Mam. You are incredulous. Sur. Faith, I have a humour, I would not willingly be gulled. Your stone Cannot transmute me. Mam. Pertinax [my] Surly, Will you believe antiquity? records? I'll shew you a book where Moses and his And Solomon have written of the art; Sur. How! Sur. Did Adam write, sir, in High Mam. He did; Which proves it was the primitive tongue. Mam. On cedar board. Sur. O that, indeed, they say, Mam. "Tis like your Irish wood, Which was no other than a book of alchemy, Writ in large sheepskin, a good fat ramvellum.6 Such was Pythagoras' thigh, Pandora's And all that fable of Medea's charms, Still breathing fire; our argent-vive, the The dragon's teeth, mercury sublimate, That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the biting; And they are gathered into Jason's helm, Mam. Of the philosopher's stone, and in The alembic,7 and then sowed in Mars his High Dutch. I'll undertake, withal, to fright the plague Out of the kingdom in three months. The defence which Dr. Anthony published of himself at Cambridge in 1610 is called Medicina chymica et veri potabilis auri assertio, ex lucubrationibus Fra. Anthonii Londinensis in medicina doctoris. It is divided into seven chapters: the last enumerates the several distempers which his aurum potabile cures: among which is the plague itself; as he asserts to have been demonstrated by experience in the plague which depopulated London in 1602.-WHAL. The players shall sing your praises then,] The theatres were always shut up during the plague. To this Surly alludes. As he that built the Water-work, does with water.] He, viz., Sir Hugh Middleton, as Mr. Upton too remarks: the New River was brought to London much about this time.-WHAL. field, 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 ev XNμEVTIKY OVVTA§EL.” 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: 6 "Whether the devil tempted her By a High Dutch interpreter," &c. Both Upton and Whalley are mistaken here. The New River was not admitted into the recepI have a piece of Fason's fleece too tacle prepared for it till Michaelmas day, 1613, Which was no other than a book of alchemy, three years at least after this passage was Writ in large sheepskin, a good fat ram written. Jonson speaks of a waterwork already vellum.] From Suidas, as Upton observes: To built, and most probably of that constructed in μυθολογουμενον χρυσειον δερος βιβλιον ην αν 1595 by Bevis Bulmer, for conveying Thames ' δερμασι γεγραμμένον περιεχον όπως δει δια water to the middle and west parts of the city. | χημειας χρυσον εργασεσθαι· in voc. δέρας. This engine is noticed by Stow in his Survey of Queen Hith ward. I'll show you a book, where Moses, and his sister, 1 Fason'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 And Solomon have written of the art; head of it, or that part in which the distilled Ay, and a treatise penned by Adam.] "Fa-matter was collected.-WHAL. Hence the allu bricius," Upton tells us, “in his valuable account | sion to helmet. "Certainly, Last colour in work of Alkimy." 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: "Olinda. Do you affront my sister? Florimel. Ay: but thou art so tall, I think I shall never affront thee."-Wild Gallant. Blushes the bolt's-head?] A long, straitnecked glass vessel or receiver, gradually rising to a conical figure.-WHAL. 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." Chanon Yeoman's Tale. Again: When that our potte is broke, as I have said, In Lilly's Gallatheà there is much of this jargon. There too, the alchemist professes that he can do nothing without beechen coaies. This impostor, and his man Peter, are the pleasantest characters to be found in Lilly. 6 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, For any witte that they have now adayes.” So said Chaucer: and the case is not much Mam. And lastly, Filled with such pictures as Tiberius took Thou hast descried the flower, the sanguis From Elephantis, and dull Aretine agni? Face. Yes, sir. 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 Of my seraglio. 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 Face. Both blood and spirit, sir. Mam. I will have all my beds blown up, not stuft: Down is too hard: and then, mine oval room 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 congratu lated 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. 1 Then, my glasses Cut in more subtle angles, to disperse And multiply the figures.] This species of lust, which the iniquitous Mamnion 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 picturarum et figurarum adornavit; librisque Elephantidis instruxit." Tib. c. 43. It is not necessary to enter into further explanations of the impure images of this profligate voluptuary, who is portrayed with inimitable skill; but the reader who wishes for more on the subject, may turn to the notes of Faber on the EKKλotagovo al of Aristo But coldly imitated. Then, my glasses room, To lose our selves in; and my baths, like pits To fall into; from whence we will come forth, And roll us dry in gossamer and roses.- A wealthy citizen, or [a] rich lawyer, Best of all others. And my flatterers phanes. I may just add that Mammon's idea of blowing up his beds," is taken from Heliogabalus, who introduced cushions filled with wind, at some of his ridiculous entertainments. 2 They will do it best,] From Juvenal: Improbitas ipsos audet tentare parentes; Tanta in muneribus fiducia! Sat. x, And my flatterers Shall be the pure, &c.] i.e., says Upton, "the Puritans." I think not: the positive is used here, by a construction familiar to our old writers, for the superlative-"the pure and gravest," are the purest and gravest. 8 4 And then my poets The same that writ so subtly of the fart.] Who the author alluded to should be, I cannot say in the collection of poems called Musarum Delicia, or the Muses' Recreation, by Sir John Mennis and Dr. Ia. Smith, there is a poem called the Fart Censured in the Parliament House; it was occasioned by an escape of that kind in the House of Commons. I have seen part of this poem ascribed to an author in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and possibly it may be the thing referred to by Jonson.-WHAL. This escape, as Whalley calls it, took place in 1607, long after the time of Elizabeth. The ballad is among the Harleian MSS., and is also printed in the State Poems. It contains about forty stanzas of the most wretched doggrel, conveying the opinion of as many members of par liament on the subject; and as each of them is accompanied by a brief trait or description of the respective speakers, it might, notwithstanding its meanness, have interested or amused the |