Gent. [reappears at the window.] My lady will come presently, sir. Sog. O, now, now! Punt. Stand by, retire yourselves a space; nay, pray you, forget not the use of your hat; the air is piercing. [SORDIDO and FUNGOSO withdraw. Fast. What! will not their presence prevail against the current of his humour? Car. O, no; it's a mere flood, a torrent carries all afore it. [LADY PUNTARVOLO appears at the window. Punt. What more than heavenly pulchritude is this, What magazine, or treasury of bliss? Car. An extacy, an extacy, man. Lady P. [above.] Is your desire to speak with me, sir knight? Car. He will tell you that anon; neither his brain nor his body are yet moulded for an answer. Punt. Most debonair, and luculent lady, I decline me as low as the basis of your altitude. Cor. He makes congies to his wife in geometrical proportions. Mit. Is it possible there should be any such humourist? Cor. Very easily possible, sir, you see there is. Punt. I have scarce collected my spirits, but lately scattered in the admiration of your form; to which, if the bounties of your mind be any way responsible, I doubt not, but my desires shall find a smooth and secure passage. I am a poor knight-errant, lady, that hunting in the adjacent forest, was by adventure, in the pursuit of a hart, brought to this place; which hart, dear madam, escaped by enchantment: the evening approaching, myself and servant wearied, my suit is, to enter your fair castle and refresh me. Lady. Sir knight, albeit it be not usual with me, chiefly in the absence of a husband, to admit any entrance to strangers, yet in the true regard of those innated virtues, and fair parts, which so strive to express themselves, in you; I am resolved to entertain you to the best of my unworthy power; which I acknowledge to be nothing, valued with what so worthy a person may deserve. Please you but stay while I descend. [Exit from the window. Punt. Most admired lady, you astonish me. [Walks aside with SORDIDO and his son. Car. What! with speaking a speech of your own penning? Fast. Nay, look; prithee, peace. Car. Pox on't! I am impatient of such foppery. Car. What! a tedious chapter of courtship, after sir Lancelot and queen Guenever ? Away! I marle in what dull cold nook he found this lady out; that, being a woman, she was blest with no more copy of wit' but to serve his humour thus. 'Slud, I think he feeds her with porridge, I; she could never have such a thick brain else. 9 After sir Lancelot and queen Guenever?] After the manner, &c. Cui non dictus Hylas? and who does not know that Guenever was the wife of king Arthur, and Lancelot her favoured and faithful lover? Their amours fill many a page of the old romance of Prince Arthur. 1 She was blest with no more copy of wit.] From the Latin copia, plenty, abundance; familiar in this sense to our author. WHAL. This word was not introduced by Jonson; it occurs in Chaucer, and even in writers anterior to Chaucer: luckily, its uncouthness has long since banished it from the language, which it only served to stiffen and deform. Sog. Why, is porridge so hurtful, signior? Car. O, nothing under heaven more prejudicial to those ascending subtile powers, or doth sooner abate that which we call acumen ingenii, than your gross fare: Why, I'll make you an instance; your citywives, but observe 'em, you have not more perfect true fools in the world bred than they are generally; and yet you see, by the fineness and delicacy of their diet, diving into the fat capons, drinking your rich wines, feeding on larks, sparrows, potatoe-pies, and such good unctuous meats, how their wits are refined and rarified; and sometimes a very quintessence of conceit flows from them, able to drown a weak apprehension. Enter lady PUNTARVOLO and her Waiting-woman. Fast. Peace, here comes the lady. Lady. Gad's me, here's company! turn in again. [Exit with her Woman. Fast. 'Slight, our presence has cut off the convoy of the jest. Car. All the better, I am glad on't; for the issue was very perspicuous. Come, let's discover, and salute the knight. [They come forward. Punt. Stay; who be these that address themselves towards us? What, Carlo! Now by the sincerity of my soul, welcome; welcome, gentlemen: and how dost thou, thou Grand Scourge, or Second Untruss of the time? 2 Car. Faith, spending my metal in this reeling world (here and there), as the sway of my affection carries me, and perhaps stumble upon a yeoman-feu 2 Thou Grand Scourge, or Second Untruss of the time?] The allusion is here to Marston, whose Satires, called the Scourge of Villanie, in three books, were printed the year before the first edition of this Comedy, 1599. 3 terer, as I do now; or one of fortune's mules, laden with treasure, and an empty cloak-bag, following him, gaping when a bag will untie. Punt. Peace, you bandog, peace! What brisk Nymphadoro is that in the white virgin-boot there? Car. Marry, sir, one that I must intreat you to take a very particular knowledge of, and with more than ordinary respect; monsieur Fastidious. Punt. Sir, I could wish, that for the time of your vouchsafed abiding here, and more real entertainment, this my house stood on the Muses hill, and these my orchards were those of the Hesperides. Fast. I possess as much in your wish, sir, as if I were made lord of the Indies; and I pray you believe it. Car. I have a better opinion of his faith, than to think it will be so corrupted. Sog. Come, brother, I'll bring you acquainted with gentlemen, and good fellows, such as shall do you more grace than Sord. Brother, I hunger not for such acquaintance: Do you take heed, lest [CARLO comes toward them. Sog. Husht! My brother, sir, for want of education, sir, somewhat nodding to the boor, the clown; but I request you in private, sir. Fung. [looking at FASTIDIOUS BRISK.] By heaven, it is a very fine suit of clothes. [A side. Cor. Do you observe that, signior? There's another humour has new-crack'd the shell. 3 A yeoman-feuterer.] Meaning Puntarvolo. Feuterer is a dogkeeper, from the French vautrier or vaultrier; one that leads a lime-hound or greyhound for the chase. WHAL. See Massinger, Vol. III. p. 213. 4 And more real entertainment.] It may be just worth observing that, in the affected language of Puntarvolo, real means regal, noble: the word is distinguished in the quarto by a capital. Mit. What! he is enamour'd of the fashion, is he? Cor. O, you forestall the jest. Fung. I marle what it might stand him in. [Aside. Sog. Nephew! Fung. 'Fore me, it's an excellent suit, and as neatly becomes him. [Aside.]-What said you, uncle? Sog. When saw you my niece? Fung. Marry, yesternight I supp'd there.-That kind of boot does very rare too. Sog. And what news hear you ? [Aside. Fung. The gilt spur and all!5 Would I were hang'd, but 'tis exceeding good. [Aside.]-Say you, uncle? Sog. Your mind is carried away with somewhat else I ask what news you hear? Fung. Troth, we hear none.-In good faith, [looking at FASTIDIOUS BRISK,] I was never so pleased with a fashion, days of my life. O an I might have but my wish, I'd ask no more of heaven now, but such a suit, such a hat, such a band, such a doublet, such a hose, such a boot, and such a[A side. Sog. They say, there's a new motion of the city of Nineveh, with Jonas and the whale, to be seen at Fleet-bridge. You can tell, cousin? 66 5 The gilt spur and all!] Gilt spurs were one of the extravagant articles affected by the gallants of the age. Thus Fennor, in the Compter's Commonwealth, 1617, p. 32: Gallants that scorned to weare any other than beaver hats, and gold bands, rich swords, and scarfes, silk stockings, and gold fringed garters, or russet bootes, and gilt spurs." WHAL. • They say there's a new motion of the city of Nineveh, &c.] There is no puppet-show of which our old writers make such frequent mention as this of Nineveh, which must have been exceedingly popular. Fleet-street appears to have been the principal place where sights of every kind were exhibited, and probably from its being the great thoroughfare of the city. This would scarcely deserve notice were it not for a passage in Butler which |