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They closed in their temple are,*
And each one guided by a star.
Cho. Haste, haste to meet them, and as
they advance,

'Twixt every dance,

Let us interpret their prophetic trance. Here they fetched out the MASQUERS [i.e. the AUGURS]: and came before them with the TORCHBEARERS along the stage, singing this full

SONG.

After which the AUGURS laid by their
staves, and danced their entry; which
done, APOLLO and the rest interpreted
the Augury.

Apol. The signs are lucky all, and right,‡
There hath not been a voice, or flight,
Of ill presage-

Lin. The bird that brings
Her augury alone to kings,
The dove, hath flown.

Orph. And to thy peace,
Fortunes and the Fates increase.

Apol. Which way and whence the light- Do both proclaim thou shalt control

Bran. Minerva's hernshaw, and her owl,

ning flew,

Or how it burned bright and blue,
Design and figure by your lights:

Then forth, and shew the several flights
Your birds have made, † or what the wing,
Or voice in augury doth bring.
Which hand the crow cried on, how high
The vulture, or the erne did fly;
What wing the swan made, and the dove,
The stork, and which did get above:
Shew all the birds of food or prey,
But pass by the unlucky jay,
The night-crow, swallow, or the kite,
Let these have neither right,
Chor. Nor part

In this night's art.

Here the TORCHBEARERS danced.

dicebantur. Salius vpvwdòs, vet. gloss. et Pacuv. Pro imperio sic Salisubsulus vestro excubet Mars. et Virg. Eneid. lib. 8.

Tum Salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum Populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis. * Auguria captaturi cœlum eligebant purum et serenum, aëreque nitido. Lituum (qui erat baculus incurvus, augurale signum) manu tenebat augur. Eo cæli regiones designabat, et metas inter quas contineri debebant auguria: et ha vocabantur templa: unde contemplatio dicta est consideratio, et meditatio rerum sacrarum, ut dextrum sinistrumque latus observaret: in impetrato sibi ipse regiones definiebat; in oblato manum suam respexit lævam aut dextram. Regiones ab oriente in occasum terminabat limite decumano, et cardine ex transverso signo metato, quo oculi ferrent quam longissime. Antica in ortum vergebat; Postica regio à tergo ad occasum: dextra ad meridiem: sinistra ad septentrionem. Observationes fiebant augure sedente, capite velato, toga duplici augurali candida amicto, à media nocte ad mediam diem, crescente non deficiente die. Neque captabantur auguria post mensem Julium, propterea quod aves redderentur imbeciliores et morbida, pullique eorum essent imperfecti.

Augurandi scientia opviboμavreía dicta; divinatio per aves. Aves aut oscines, aut

The course of things.

Idm. As now they be
With tumult carried-
Apol. And live free

From hatred, faction, or the fear
To blast the olive thou dost wear.

Cho. More is behind, which these do
long to show,

And what the gods to so great virtue owe.

Here the MAIN DANCE.

Cho. Still, still the auspice is so good,¶ We wish it were but understood;

It even puts Apollo

To all his strengths of art, to follow
The flights, and to divine

What's meant by every sign.**

præpetes; oscines, quæ ore, præpetes, quæ volatu augurium significant. Pulli tripudio. Aves auspicata, et præpetes, aquila, vultur, sanqualis seu ossifraga, triarches, sive buteo, immussulus, accipiter, cygnus, columba; oscines, cornix, corvus, anser, ciconia, ardea, noctua; inauspicatæ, milvus, parra, nycticorax, striges, hirundo, picus, &c.

Habebant dextra et læva omina; antica et postica; orientalia et occidentalia. Græci, cum se ad septentrionem obverterent, ortum ad dextram habuere. Romani meridiem in auspicando cum tuerentur, ortum ad lævam habuere. Itaque sinistra partes eadem sunt Romanis quæ Græcis dextræ ad ortum. Si nistra igitur illis meliora, dextra pejora: Græcis contrà. Sinistra, pertinentia ad ortum: salutaria, quia ortus lucis index et auctor. Dextra, quia spectant occasum, tristia.

§ Columbæ auguria non nisi regibus dant: quia nunquam singula volant: sicut rex nun» quam solus incedit. Nuntiæ pacis.

Ardea et ardeola, rerum arduarum auspi degi épwdiós. cium. Minervæ sacra. Apud Homer. Iliad. K,

Auspicium, ab ave specienda. Paul. Nam quod nos cum præpositione dicimus aspicio, apud veteres sine præpositione spicio dicebatur.

** Signa quæ sese offerent, erant multifaria:

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After which, APOLLO went up to the KING, and SUNG.

Apol. Do not expect to hear of all
Your good at once, lest it forestal
A sweetness would be new:
Some things the Fates would have con-
cealed,

From us the gods, lest being revealed,
Our powers shall envy you.

It is enough your people learn

The reverence of your peace, As well as strangers do discern

The glories, by th' increase; And that the princely augur here,* your son,1

Do by his father's lights his courses run. Cho. Him shall you see triumphing over all,

Both foes and vices; and your young and

tall

Nephews, his sons, grow up in your embraces, 2

To give this island princes in long races.

Here the heaven opened, and JOVE, with the Senate of the Gods, was discovered, while APOLLO returned to his seat, and ascending, SUNG.

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appears from p. 166 b that Charles led the Dance, at the head of the Augurs.

nam si objiceretur avis aliqua, considerabatur quo volatu ferretur, an obliquo vel prono, vel supino motu corporis; quo flecteret, contor- 2 Your young and tall nephews, his sons.] queret, aut contraheret membra; qua in partei.e., Nepotes, grandchildren.-WHAL. se occultaret; an ad dextram vel sinistram canerent oscines, &c.

* Romulus augur fuit, et Numa, et reliqui reges Romani, sicut ante eos Turnus, Rhamnetes, et alii. Lacedæmonii suis regibus augurem assessorem dabant. Cilices, Lycii, Cares, Arabes, in summa veneratione habuerunt auguria.

Vide Orpheum in hym. de omnip. Fovis. Mos Jovis, annuendo votis et firmandis ominibus. Apud Homer, &c.

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It appears a little singular that the learned Prideaux should be unacquainted with this acceptation of the word, which is common to all our old writers. He apologizes for reading son and grandson" (Isaiah xiv. 22), instead of son and nephew," with the translators of the Bible; who, as he afterwards shews, elsewhere translate the same word (neked) grandson." There is no doubt of it: the only difficulty lay in the commentator's not observing that with them nephew and grandson were perfectly synonymous; though the former term was used also for a brother or sister's son. Connec, vol. i.

1 And that the princely augur here.] It p. 125.

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Time Vindicated to Himself and to his

Honours:

IN THE PRESENTATION AT COURT ON TWELFTH-NIGHT, 1623-24.

Qui se mirantur, in illos

Virus habe: nos hæc novimus esse nihil.

TIME VINDICATED, &c.] This Entertainment, which forms a kind of retort courteous to the scurrilous satires now dispersed with mischievous activity, appears only in the second folio. The light parts of it are composed with great gaiety and humour; and the singing and dancing must have been given with great effect among the rich and beautiful concomitants of scenery, &c. that surrounded them.

In the Dulwich College MS. this is called the Prince's Masque; its unusual splendour seems to have induced the Master of the Revels (Sir John Astley) to enter into a more particular mention of it than is common with these costive gentlemen.

"Upon New Year's-day at night, the Alchemist was acted by the King's players. "Upon Sonday, being the 19th of January (1623), the Prince's Masque, appointed for Twelfedaye, was performed. The speeches and songs composed by Mr. Ben Johnson, and the scene made by Mr. Inigo Jones, which was three times changed during the tyme of the Masque, wherein the first that was discovered was a prospective of Whitehall, with the Banqueting House; the second was the Masquers in a cloud; and the third a forest. The French embassador was present.

Antemasques were of tumblers and jugglers. The Prince did lead the measures with the French embassadors wife.

"The measures, braules, corrantos, and galliards being ended, the Masquers with the ladies did daunce two contrey daunces, where the French embassadors wife and Mademoysal St. Luke did daunce."-Malone's Hist. of the Eng. Stage.

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Indeed he's Time itself, and his name

CHRONOS.

Nose. How! Saturn! Chronos! and the
Time itself!

You are found: enough. A notable old
pagan!

Ears. One of their gods, and eats up his own children.

Nose. A fencer, and does travel with a scythe,

Instead of a long sword,

Eyes. Hath been oft called from it, To be their lord of Misrule,1

Ears. As Cincinnatus

Was from the plough, to be dictator.
Eyes. Yes.

We need no interpreter: on, what of Time?
Fame. The Time hath sent me with my

trump to summon

All sorts of persons worthy to the view
Of some great spectacle he means to-night
To exhibit, and with all solemnity.

Nose. O, we shall have his Saturnalia.
Eyes. His days of feast and liberty again.
Ears. Where men might do, and talk all
that they list.

Eyes. Slaves of their lords.

Nose. The servants of their masters.
Ears. And subjects of their Sovereign.
Fame. Not so lavish.

Ears. It was a brave time that!
Eyes. This will be better:

I spy it coming, peace! All the impostures,
The prodigies, diseases, and distempers,
The knaveries of the time, we shall see all
nów.

Ears. And hear the passages, and seve-
ral humours

Of men, as they are swayed by their affections :

Some grumbling, and some mutining, some scoffing,

Some pleased, some pining; at all these we laughing.

Nose. I have it here, here, strong, the
sweat of it,

And the confusion, which I love-I nose it;
It tickles me.

Eyes. My four eyes itch for it.

would come forth :

Enter CHRONOMASTIX.

Chro. What, what, my friends, will not this room receive?

Eyes. That which the Time is presently to shew us.

Chro. The Time! Lo, I, the man that hate the time,

That is, that love it not; and (though in rhyme

I here do speak it), with this whip you

see,

Do lash the time, and am myself lash free.
Fame. Who's this?

Ears. 'Tis Chronomastix, the brave
satyr.

Nose. The gentlemanlike satyr, cares for nobody,

His forehead tipt with bays, do you not know him?

Eyes. Yes, Fame must know him, all the town admires him.

Chro. If you would see Time quake and

shake, but name us,

It is for that we are both beloved and famous.

Eyes. We know, sir: but the Time's now
come about.

Ears. And promiseth all liberty.
Nose. Nay, licence.

Eyes. We shall do what we list.
Ears. Talk what we list.

Nose. And censure whom we list, and
how we list.

Chro. Then I will look on Time, and love the same,

And drop my whip: who's this? my mis-
tress, Fame!

The lady whom I honour and adore!
What luck had I not to see her before !
Pardon me, madam, more than most ac-
curst,

That did not spy your ladyship at first;
T' have given the stoop, and to salute the
skirts

Of her to whom all ladies else are flirts.
It is for you I revel so in rhyme,
Dear mistress, not for hope I have the
Time

Ears. And my ears tingle; would if Will grow the better by it: to serve Fame
Is all my end, and get myself a name.
Fame. Away, I know thee not, wretched
impostor,

This room will not receive it.

Nose. That's the fear.

1 To be their Lord of Misrule.] "In the feast of Christmass, there was in the king's house, wheresoever he was lodged, a lord of misrule, or master of merry disports; and the like had ye in the house of every noble man of honour, or good worship, were be spiritual or

temporal."-Stow. In the following verses the poet alludes to that liberty which reigned amongst the Romans during the Saturnalia, or feasts of Saturn. These were appointed to remind them of the general equality between all men in the first age.-WHAL.

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1 Rare! how he talks in verse, just as he writes.] From the particular description given us of Chronomastix, it appears that the character was personal; and there is reason for thinking that the author intended was John Marston, who, besides his dramatic writings, was the author of three books of satires, called The Scourge of Villainy.-WHAL.

Whalley writes very carelessly. Had he ever looked into Marston, he could not have formed so strange a conjecture. The Scourge of Villainy was written nearly thirty years before this Masque appeared, to which, in fact, it has not the slightest reference. Chronomastix is undoubtedly a generic name for the herd of libellists which infested those times; but the lines noticed by Whalley bear a particular reference to George Wither the puritan, the author of Abuses Stript and Whipt, and other satirical poems on the Times, the style and manner of which Jonson has imitated with equal spirit and humour. The

allusion to his

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That had the finger first to point at me, Prentice, or journeyman! The shop doth know it,

The unlettered clerk, major and minor poet !

The sempster hath sat still as I passed by, And dropt her needle! fishwives stayed their cry!

The boy with buttons, and the basketwench,

To vent their wares into my works do trench!

A pudding-wife that would despise the times, Hath uttered frequent penn'orths, through my rhymes,

And, with them, dived into the chambermaid,

And she unto her lady hath conveyed The seasoned morsels, who hath sent me pensions,

To cherish, and to heighten my inventions. Well, Fame shall know it yet, I have my faction,

And friends about me, though it please detraction,

To do me this affront. Come forth that love me,

And now or never, spight of Fame, approve

me.

Enter the Mutes for the ANTIMASQUE.
Fame. How now! what's here! Is hell
broke loose?
Eyes. You'll see

In some editions of Abuses Stript and Whipt, there is a print of a Satyr with a scourge, such as Chronomastix enters with: but Wither had displayed his "glorious front and word at large" (nec habeo, nec careo, nec curo) in the title-page of another poem not long before the appearance of this Masque, in which he refers, with sufficient confidence, to his former works:

"Had I been now disposed to satyrize,

Would I have tamed my numbers in this wise?
No. I have Furies that lye tied in chaines,
Bold, English - mastive-like, adventurous
straines,

Who fearlesse dare on any monster flye
That weares a body of mortality:
And I had let them loose, if I had list,

To play againe the sharp-fanged Satyrist." This man, whom nature meant for better things, and who did not always write doggrel verses, once thought more modestly of himself; but popularity gave him assurance. In the introduction to his Abuses Whipt, he tells his readers not to looke for Spencer's or Daniel's well composed numbers, or the deep conceits of the now flourishing Fonson; but to say-'tis honest plain matter, and there's as much as he expects.”

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