Dol. Will you be

Your own destructions, gentlemen?
Face. Still spew'd out

For lying too heavy on the basket.'
Sub. Cheater!

Face. Bawd!

Sub. Cow-herd!
Face. Conjurer!
Sub. Cut-purse!
Face. Witch!
Dol. O me!

We are ruin'd, lost! have you no more regard To your reputations? where's your judgment? 'slight,

Have yet some care of me, of your republic Face. Away, this brach! I'll bring thee, rogue,

within

3

The statute of sorcery, tricesimo tertio

Of Harry the eighth: ay, and perhaps, thy neck Within a noose, for laundring gold and barbing it.*

Still spew'd out

66

For lying too heavy on the basket.] i. e. for eating more than his share of the broken provisions collected, and sent in for the prisoners. This is mentioned by Shirley: you shall howl all day at the grate for a meal at night from the basket." Bird in a Cage. WHAL.

2 Away, this brach !] "A mannerly name for a b-h," as the old book on sports says. See Massinger, vol. i. 210.

has

3 I'll bring thee, rogue, within

The statute of sorcery, &c.] By this statute, which Face very accurately dated, all witchcraft and sorcery was declared to be felony without benefit of clergy. This was confirmed by the famous statute 1 Jac. I. c. 12.

4 For laundring gold and barbing it.] To launder gold is, probably, to wash it in aqua regia; a practice, it is to be feared, (while gold was,) not uncommon. This verb is not found in our dictionaries; though it is as regularly formed as the substantive, (laundress,) and seems altogether as necessary.

Dol. [Snatches Face's sword.] You'll bring your head within a cockscomb, will you? And you, sir,with your menstrue-[dashes Subtle's vial out of his hand.]-gather it up.

'Sdeath, you abominable pair of stinkards,
Leave off your barking, and grow one again,
Or, by the light that shines, I'll cut your throats,
I'll not be made a prey unto the marshal,
For ne'er a snarling dog-bolt of you both.
Have you together cozen'd all this while,
And all the world, and shall it now be said,
You've made most courteous shift to cozen your-

selves?

You will accuse him! you will bring him in

[to Face Within the statute! Who shall take your word? A whoreson, upstart, apocryphal captain, Whom not a Puritan in Blackfriers will trust So much as for a feather: and you, too, [to Subtle, Will give the cause, forsooth! you will insult, And claim a primacy in the divisions! You must be chief! as if you only had The powder to project with, and the work Were not begun out of equality?

The venture tripartite? all things in common?

Laundring occurs in Shakspeare; or in "one deformed that goes up and down under his name."

66

Laundring the silken figures in the brine
That season'd woe had pelletted in tears!"

A Lover's Complaint. Barbing is clipping. This is sufficiently obvions. This also was felony without benefit of clergy; so that Subtle was really in danger.

5 Whom not a Puritan in Blackfriers will trust

So much as for a feather:] Blackfriers was celebrated for the residence of Puritans at this time; the principal dealers in feathers and other vanities of the age! This is noted by many of our old dramatists; but see vol. ii p. 466,

Without priority? 'Sdeath! you perpetual curs,
Fall to your couples again, and cozen kindly,
And heartily, and lovingly, as you should,
And lose not the beginning of a term,
Or, by this hand, I shall grow factious too,
And take my part, and quit you.

Face. 'Tis his fault;

He ever murmurs, and objects his pains,
And says, the weight of all lies upon him.
Sub. Why, so it does.

Dol. How does it? do not we

Sustain our parts?

Sub. Yes, but they are not equal.

Dol. Why, if your part exceed to-day, I hope Ours may, to-morrow, match it.

Sub. Ay, they may.

Dol. May, murmuring mastiff! ay, and do. Death on me!

Help me to throttle him. [Seizes Sub. by the throat. Sub. Dorothy! mistress Dorothy!

Ods precious, I'll do any thing. What do you mean?

Dol. Because o' your fermentation and cibation ?"

Sub. Not I, by heaven.

Dol, Your Sol and Luna--help me. [to Face.

• Because of your fermentation and cibation?] I trust tha the reader will not expect me to explain all the technical terms of this art. An adept himself, perhaps, would be puzzled by some of them; and I am a mere tyro. Fermentation is the sixth process in alchemy, and means the mutation of any substance into the nature of the ferment, after its primary qualities have been destroyed. Cibation (the seventh process) is feeding the matter in preparation, with fresh substances, to supply the waste of evaporation, &c. Sol and Luna, with which mistress Dorothea reproaches Subtle just below, are gold and silver; for in the cant of alchemy, nothing goes by its right name.

Sub. Would I were hang'd then! I'll conform myself.

Dol. Will you, sir? do so then, and quickly:

swear.

Sub. What should I swear?

Dol. To leave your faction, sir,

And labour kindly in the common work.

Sub. Let me not breathe if I meant aught beside.

I only used those speeches as a spur

To him.

Dol. I hope we need no spurs, sir. Do we?
Face. 'Slid, prove to-day, who shall shark best.
Sub. Agreed.

Dol. Yes, and work close and friendly.
Sub. 'Slight, the knot

Shall grow the stronger for this breach, with me. [They shake hands.

Dol. Why, so, my good baboons! Shall we go

make

A sort of sober, scurvy, precise neighbours, That scarce have smiled twice since the king came in,'

A feast of laughter at our follies? Rascals,"
Would run themselves from breath, to see me ride,
Or you t' have but a hole to thrust your heads in,
For which you should pay ear-rent? No, agree.
And may don Provost ride a feasting long,
In his old velvet jerkin and stain'd scarfs,
My noble sovereign, and worthy general,
Ere we contribute a new crewel garter
To his most worsted worship.'

7 Since the king came in,] James succeeded to the throne in 1603, and this was written in 1610.

.8

to see me ride, &c.] "To see me (as Upton says) carted as a bawd; and you, as a couple of rogues,

to lose your ears in the pillory."

9 Ere we contribute a new crewel garter

Sub. Royal Dol!

Spoken like Claridiana,' and thyself.

Face. For which at supper, thou shalt sit in triumph,

And not be styled Dol Common, but Dol Proper,
Dol Singular: the longest cut at night,
Shall draw thee for his Dol Particular.

[Bell rings without. Sub. Who's that? one rings. To the window, Dol: [Exit Dol.]-pray heaven,

The master do not trouble us this quarter. Face. O, fear not him. While there dies one a week

O' the plague, he's safe, from thinking toward London:

Beside, he's busy at his hop-yards now;

I had a letter from him. If he do,

He'll send such word, for airing of the house, As you shall have sufficient time to quit it: Though we break up a fortnight, 'tis no matter. Re-enter DOL.

Sub. Who is it, Dol?

Dol. A fine young quodling.*

To his most worsted worship.] Dol grows quite facetious at "don Provost's" expense. Crewel, a word which frequently occurs in our old poets, and seldom without suggesting a pun, as here, means a finer kind of yarn, of which trimmings were occasionally made. "His most worsted worship," in the present exaltation of Dorothy's mind, is, perhaps, his most baffled worship. Not the worst quibble in these volumes.

1 Spoken like Claridiana,] The heroine of that interminable romance, the Mirror of Knighthood, who, after a world of tur moil and fighting, espouses the knight of the sun, the darling of "the fair Lindabrides," so often mentioned by our poet.

2 Dol. A fine young quodling.] "A quodling, or codling; metaphorically, a too soon ripe-headed young boy. By the same metaphor below he is called a puffin, i. e. malum pulmoneum.”

This strange note Whalley found in Upton, and continued,