Enter CARLO BUFFONE, followed by a boy

with wine.

Car. Come, come, leave these fustian protestations ; away, come, I cannot abide these gray-headed ceremonies. Boy, fetch me a glass quickly, I may bid these gentlemen welcome; give them a health here. [Exit Boy.] I marle whose wit it was to put a prologue in yond sackbut's mouth; they might well think he'd be out of tune, and yet you'd play upon him too.

Cor. Hang him, dull block!

Car. O, good words, good words; a well-timber'd fellow, he would have made a good column, an he had been thought on, when the house was a building

Re-enter Boy, with glasses.

O, art thou come? Well said; give me, boy; fill, so! Here's a cup of wine sparkles like a diamond. Gentlewomen (I am sworn to put them in first) and gentlemen, around, in place of a bad prologue, I drink this good draught to your health here, Canary, the very elixir and spirit of wine. [Drinks.] This is that our poet calls Castalian liquor, when he comes abroad now and then, once in a fortnight, and makes a good meal among players, where he has caninum appetitum; marry, at home he keeps a good philosophical diet, beans and buttermilk; an honest pure rogue, he will take you off three, four, five of these, one after another, and look villainously when he has done, like a one-headed Cer

• This (Canary) is that our poet calls Castalian liquor, &c.] The poet, the critics say, here draws his own picture. Not so:-the picture is drawn by a licentious buffoon, against whom he takes all possible care to guard the reader. He describes him as "a scurrilous jester, that, more swiftly than Circe, will transform any person into deformity:" and in the speech which follows, he anxiously repeats his caution against giving any credit to his "adulterate" ribaldry. He could do no more; yet Aubrey and others perversely take it all for truth, and form their character of Jonson from what is expressly given as a malicious jest!

berus.-He does not hear me, I hope-And then, when his belly is well ballaced, and his brain rigged a little, he sails away withal, as though he would work wonders when he comes home. He has made a play here, and he calls it, Every Man out of his Humour: but an he get me out of the humour he has put me in, I'll trust none of his tribe again while I live. Gentles, all I can say for him is, you are welcome. I could wish my bottle here amongst you; but there's an old rule, No pledging your own health. Marry, if any here be thirsty for it, their best way (that I know) is, sit still, seal up their lips, and drink so much of the play in at their ears.

[Exit.

Mit. What may this fellow be, Cordatus? Cor. Faith, if the time will suffer his description, I'll give it you!" He is one, the author calls him Carlo Buffone, an impudent common jester, a violent railer, and an incomprehensible epicure; one whose company is desired of all men, but beloved of none; he will sooner lose his soul than a jest, and profane even the most holy things, to excite laughter: no honourable or reverend personage whatsoever can come within the reach of eye, but is turned into all manner of variety, by his adulterate similes.

his

Mit. You paint forth a monster.

Cor. He will prefer all countries before his native, and thinks he can never sufficiently, or with admiration

7 Cor. Faith, if the time will suffer his description, I'll give it you. He is one, &c.] Jonson seems unwilling to part with Carlo Buffone: he had already described him with great strength of colouring, and he now delays the opening of the drama, already too long protracted, while he darkens his character with additional shades. Whalley says that he should almost incline to think, notwithstanding the poet's asseverations, that he had some particular person in view, especially as Decker, in his Satiromastix, makes Jonson forswear flinging epigrams about in taverns, under pain of being placed at the upper end of the table, at the left hand of Carlo Buffone." See A. v.

66

enough, deliver his affectionate conceit of foreign atheistical policies. But stay

Enter MACILENTE.

Observe these: he'll appear himself anon.

Mit. O, this is your envious man, Macilente, I think.

Cor. The same, sir.

ACT I.

SCENE I. The Country.

Enter MACILENTE, with a book.

Macilente.

IRI est, fortunæ cæcitatem facilè ferre.
'Tis true; but, Stoic, where, in the vast
world,

Doth that man breathe, that can so much

command

His blood and his affection? Well, I see
I strive in vain to cure my wounded soul;
For every cordial that my thoughts apply
Turns to a corsive, and doth eat it farther.
There is no taste in this philosophy;
'Tis like a potion that a man should drink,
But turns his stomach with the sight of it.
I am no such pill'd Cynick to believe,
That beggary is the only happiness;
Or, with a number of these patient fools,

8

To sing My mind to me a kingdom is,
When the lank hungry belly barks for food.
I look into the world, and there I meet
With objects, that do strike my blood-shot eyes
Into my brain: where, [when I view myself,
Having before observ'd this man is great,

Mighty, and fear'd; that loved, and highly favour'd;
A third thought wise and learned; a fourth rich,
And therefore honour'd; a fifth rarely featured;
A sixth admired for his nuptial fortunes:
When I see these, I say, and view myself,
I wish the organs of my sight were crack'd ;
And that the engine of my grief could cast
Mine eyeballs, like two globes of wildfire, forth,
To melt this unproportion'd frame of nature.
Oh, they are thoughts that have transfix'd my heart,
And often, in the strength of apprehension,
Made my cold passion stand upon my face,
Like drops of dew on a stiff cake of ice.

Cor. This alludes well to that of the poet,
Invidus suspirat, gemit, incutitque dentes,
Sudat frigidus, intuens quod odit.

Mit. O, peace, you break the scene.

Enter SOGLIARDO, and CARLO BUFFONE.

Maci. Soft, who be these?

I'll lay me down awhile till they be past. [Lies down.
Cor. Signior, note this gallant, I pray you.

Mit. What is he?

Cor. A tame rook, you'll take him presently; list. Sog. Nay, look you, Carlo; this is my humour now! I have land and money, my friends left me well, and I will be a gentleman whatsoever it cost me.

8 My mind to me a kingdom is.] Words of an old ballad, the thought from Seneca. WHAL.

Whalley alludes, I suppose, to this verse in the Thyestes,

Mens regnum bona possidet.

r'd;

art,

wn.

st.

our

me

me.

, the

Car. A most gentlemanlike resolution.

Sog. Tut! an I take an humour of a thing once, I am like your tailor's needle, I go through: but, for my name, signior, how think you? will it not serve for a gentleman's name, when the signior is put to it, ha?

Car. Let me hear; how is it?

9

Sog. Signior Insulso Sogliardo

sounds well.

methinks it

Car. O excellent! tut! an all fitted to your name, you might very well stand for a gentleman: I know many Sogliardos gentlemen.

Sog. Why, and for my wealth I might be a justice of peace.

Car. Ay, and a constable for your wit.

Sog. All this is my lordship you see here, and those farms you came by.

Car. Good steps to gentility too, marry: but, Sogliardo, if you affect to be a gentleman indeed, you must observe all the rare qualities, humours, and compliments 1 of a gentleman.

1

Sog. I know it, signior, and if you please to instruct, I am not too good to learn, I'll assure you.

Car. Enough, sir.-I'll make admirable use in the projection of my medicine upon this lump of copper here. [Aside]-I'll bethink me for you, sir.

Sog. Signior, I will both pay you, and pray you, and thank you, and think on you.

9

Sog. Signior Insulso Sogliardo.] There are several allusions, in the instructions which Carlo gives Sogliardo for becoming a gentleman, to one of the Colloquies of Erasmus. The following is pointed out by Whalley: Restat cognomen. Hic illud imprimis cavendum, ne plebeio more te patiaris vocari Harpalum Comensem : sed Harpalum à Como: hoc enim nobilium est. Iπevs aviñños, sive Ementita Nobilitas.

1 Compliments of a gentleman.] This word, in Jonson's age, had the sense which we now give to accomplishments. Thus, in Sir Giles Goosecap, 1606: "Adorned with the exactest complements belonging to nobleness."