P. jun. Yes. Pick. In all the languages in Westminster-hall, Pleas, Bench, or Chancery. Fee-farm, fee-tail, Tenant in dower, at will, for term of life, By copy of court-roll, knight's service, homage, Fealty, escuage, soccage, or frank almoigne, Grand serjeantry, or burgage. P. jun. Thou appear'st, Kar' èçoxǹv, a canter. Thou shalt read All Littleton's Tenures to me, and indeed All my conveyances. Pick. And make them too, sir: Keep all your courts, be steward of your lands, Let all your leases, keep your evidences. But first, I must procure and pass your mortmain, You must have licence from above, sir. [Throws off his patched cloke, &c., Your worship's loving and obedient father, Your painful steward, and lost officer! Who have done this, to try how you would use P. Can. And read Apicius de re culina- Pecunia when you had her; which since I riâ see, I will take home the lady to my charge, And these her servants, and leave you my cloke, To travel in to Beggar's-bush! A seat Fit. It is his father! Mad. He's alive, methinks. Was I so careful for thee, to procure This noble match for thee, and dost thou prostitute, Scatter thy mistress' favours, throw away Her bounties, as they were red-burning coals, Too hot for thee to handle, on such rascals, Who are the scum and excrements of men! If thou hadst sought out good and virtuous persons London road from Huntingdon to Coxton. It is spoken of such who use dissolute and improvi dent courses, which tend to poverty."-Huntingdonshire Prov. Of these professions, I had loved thee and them: For these shall never have that plea against me, Or colour of advantage, that I hate Knew not to entertain you to your worth, I'll see if I have learned how to receive you With more respect to you and your fair train here. Their callings, but their manners and their Farewell, my beggar in velvet, for to-day; vices. A worthy courtier is the ornament honour : This is a moth, a rascal, a court-rat, ing suits, And eating grievances! so, a true soldier, And to secure his peace he makes himself scarecrow Cannot endure to hear of. Shun. You are pleasant, sir. P. Can. With you I dare be! here is 'Cause he's an ass, do not I love a herald, Without which all would run into confusion? To-morrow you may put on that grave robe, [Points to his patched cloke. And enter your great work of Canters' College, Your work, and worthy of a chronicle! [Exeunt. [Tat. 'Why, this was the worst of all, the catastrophe! Cen. The matter began to be good but now; and he has spoiled it all with his beggar there! Mirth. A beggarly Jack it is, I warrant him, and akin to the poet. Tat. Like enough, for he had the chiefest part in his play, if you mark it. Expect. Absurdity on him for a huge, overgrown playmaker! why should he make him live again, when they and we all thought him dead? if he had left him to his rags there had been an end of him. Tat. Ay, but set a beggar on horseback, he'll never lin till he be a gallop. Cen. The young heir grew a fine gentle Were he a learned herald I would tell man in this last act. him He can give arms and marks, he cannot honour; No more than money can make noble: it may Give place and rank, but it can give no virtue : Expect. So he did, gossip, and kept the best company. Cen. And feasted them and his mistress. Tat. And shewed her to them all was not jealous! Mirth. But very communicative and liberal, and began to be magnificent, if And he would thank me for this truth. This the churl his father would have let him dog-leech, You style him doctor, 'cause he can com- An almanac, perhaps erect a scheme ta'en A glyster, and bewrayed the Ephemerides. In calling him a quacksalver? or blast Away! I am impatient of these ulcers, sore Or plague but you to infect the times: I abhor Your very scent.-Come, lady, since my prodigal Expect. Indeed, gossip, so would the little doctor; all his behaviour was mere | glyster. O' my conscience, he would make any party's physic in the world work with his discourse. Mirth. I wonder they would suffer it; a foolish old fornicating father to ravish away his son's mistress. Cen. And all her women at once, as he did. Tat. I would have flown in his gipsy's face, i' faith. Mirth. It was a plain piece of political incest, and worthy to be brought afore the high commission of wit. Suppose we were to censure him; you are the youngest voice, Gossip Tattle, begin. Tat. Marry, I would have the old coneycatcher cozened of all he has, in the young heir's defence, by his learned counsel Master Picklock ! Cen. I would rather the courtier had found out some trick to beg him for his estate! Expect. Or the captain had courage enough to beat him! Cen. Or the fine Madrigal-man in rhyme to have run him out of the country, like an Irish rat. Tat. No, I would have Master Piedmantle, her grace's herald, to pluck down his hatchments, reverse his coat-armour, and nullify him for no gentleman. Expect. Nay, then let master doctor dissect him, have him opened, and his tripes translated to Lickfinger, to make a probation-dish of. Cen. Tat. Agreed, agreed ! Mirth. Faith, I would have him flat disinherited by a decree of court, bound to make restitution of the Lady Pecunia, and the use of her body to his son. Expect. And her train to the gentle I now begin to see my vanity Not one! but a dark solitude about me, [Seats himself on the floor. 1 A mournival of protests, or a gleek at least.] kings, queens, or knaves; and a gleek is three "A mournival is either all the aces, the four of any of the aforesaid."-Complete Gamester, P. 94. Enter Tho. Barber. Tho. My master, maker! Tho. And a great suit is like to be between them: Picklock denies the feoffment and the trust How do you? why do you sit thus on the Your father says he made of the whole estate The other one and twenty to have this Forgotten, and the day razed out, expunged In every ephemerides or almanac ! Or if it must be in, that time and nature Of their best friends and parents, their own hopes, And entering the society of canters. Tho. A doleful day it is, and dismal times Are come upon us! I am clear undone. Tho. Why, broke, broke; wretchedly broke. P. jun. Ha! Unto him, as respecting his mortality, When he first laid his late device to try Pick. What, my velvet heir Turned beggar in mind as robes! P. jun. You see what case Your and my father's plots have brought me to. Pick. Your father's you may say indeed, not mine. He's a hard-hearted gentleman; I am sorry To see his rigid resolution ! That any man should so put off affection Tho. Our Staple is all to pieces, quite And calls me knave and traitor to his dissolved. P. jun. Ha! Tho. Shivered, as in an earthquake! heard you not The crack and ruins? we are all blown up! Soon as they heard the Infanta was got from them, Whom they had so devoured in their hopes, To be their patroness, and sojourn with them, Our emissaries, register, examiner, As we do hear, grand captain of the jeerers. I and my fellow melted into butter, And spoiled our ink, and so the office vanished. The last hum that it made was that your father And Picklock are fallen out, the man of law. P. jun. [starting up.] How! this awakes me from my lethargy. And is returned, &c.] i.e., gone back to his former situation, &c. This is sufficiently harsh. trust; Says he will have me thrown over the bar P. jun. Have you deserved it? My conscience, and the silly latitude of it; A narrowminded man! my thoughts do dwell All in a lane, or line indeed; no turning, Nor scarce obliquity in them. I still look Right forward, to the intent and scope of that Which he would go from now. P. jun. Had you a trust then? Pick. Sir, I had somewhat will keep you still lord Of all the estate, if I be honest, as I hope I shall. My tender scrupulous breast Will not permit me see the heir defrauded, And like an alien thrust out of the blood. The laws forbid that I should give consent To such a civil slaughter of a son! P. jun. Where is the deed? hast thou it with thee? Pick. No. It is a thing of greater consequence Than to be borne about in a black box, A suit with the old man for his whole state, And go to law with the son's credit, undo Both, both with their own money, it were a piece Worthy my night-cap and the gown I wear, A Picklock's name in law. -Where are you, sir? What do you do so long? Re-enter Pennyboy jun. P. jun. I cannot find Where I have laid it; but I have laid it safe. Pick. No matter, sir; trust you unto my Trust, "Tis that that shall secure you, an absolute deed! And I confess it was in trust for you, Lest anything might have happened mortal to him: But there must be a gratitude thought on, And aid, sir, for the charges of the suit, Which will be great, 'gainst such a mighty man Still for your good, and therefore must be bold To use your credit for moneys. P. jun. What thou wilt, So we be safe and the trust bear it. "Tis he must pay arrearages in the end. We'll milk him and Pecunia, draw their cream down, Before he get the deed into his hands. My name is Picklock, but he'll find me a padlock. Enter Pennyboy Canter. P. Can. How now! conferring with your learned counsel Upon the cheat! Are you of the plot to cozen me? War, Head's Bubbles, and a hundred other 2 Here the margin says, Pennyboy runs out to fetch his letter. This is merely a pretence. He runs out to dispatch a ticket-porter to meet Lickfinger, and take the deed of trust from him. 1 Like a Low Country vorloffe,] One of the terms picked up by the poet in his Flemish cam-works.-F. C.] paign. He gives it indeed as an exotic; but it has long since been naturalized among us, as furlough, by which it has lost nothing but its pristine sense and sound. It is greatly to the credit of the gentlemen of the army, that they have contrived to obviate the miserable poverty of the English tongue by adopting the military vocabulary of almost all the nations of Europe. This gives a richness to their language which is scarcely surpassed by its idiomatic pureness and intelligibility. [This sneer will amuse the readers of the Duke's Despatches, Napier's Peninsular 3 Wage law.] "When an action is brought for money or chattels left or lent to the defendant, he may wage his law; that is, swear, and certain persons with him, that he owes nothing to the plaintiff, in manner as he hath disclosed." Law Dict. Perhaps I have shot beyond the author in this grave quotation; the meaning of which may after all be-"I am not rich enough to contend with him." |