To bring home a Spanish block,' or a French compliment,

A German health, or English tilting-staff;
Nor fiddled out my time in capering:
Yet these, nor any other active exercises
That can be added to adorn the state
Of a true gentleman, are strange to one,
Occasion best will witness. But, my lords,
I have not yet, in the least syllable,

Received the knowledge of domestic things;
What change of state, of friends, or enemies;
The custom of the court; who are in grace:
Lest my long absence hence may make me igno-
rant,

Of due respect deserved by noble merit;
And who is favourite to the king?

I would be loth to appear ridiculous
In any errors at first interview.

* A Spanish block.] That is, a hat in the Spanish fashion. The block is probably the form on which the hat is shaped, but the word was frequently used for the hat itself. So in The Revenger's Tragedy:

"Come, brother, ere next clock,

His head will be made serve a bigger block."

A German health.] The renown of toping was, at the time, principally enjoyed by the Danes and Germans, and the fame of the latter was spread, not only in England, but France, Spain, and Italy, the numerous German mercenaries in those countries affording frequent opportunities to the natives to observe their propensity to the bottle. Tassoni, for instance, has the following lines in his Secchia Rapita :

"Bacco chiamò i Tedeschi a quell' impresa,

E andò fino in Germania ad invitalli.
Essi, quand' ebber la sua voglia intesa,
In un momento armar' fanti e cavalli,
Benedicendo ottobre, e san Martino,
E sperando natar tutti nel vino."

Ruf. You have outstripped the wing of our

desires :

We did reserve it with [a] full intent
To make a just return to your relation.
Mar. My thoughts thirst for it.
Ruf. You knew young Tullius?
Mar. Servius Tullius' son?

Ruf. The same.

Mar. Pray on.

Ruf. He was a man, you know, of no great birth.

Leont. A gentleman; that's all.

Mar, A king's, no more.

Ruf. He is the only gallant of the times,
The court's chief school, master in arts and arms:
The chief star that adorns this hemisphere

Is thrown into his bosom for his bride.
Mar. Her name, Rufinus ?

Ruf. 'Tis beauteous Philadelpha, the sole daughter

Of Marcellanus, our chief senator.

Mar. A lovely dame; Rome wants her parallel, Except my saint, the bright-cheeked Lelia.

Ruf. The solemn graces, hymeneal sports,
And revellings at this great nuptial,

Cannot by the tongue of wonder be compared.
Millions were lavished in excessive sports,
And piebald pageantry.

And then the open favours of the king,
Crowned with the gaping multitude,

Made Atlas shake with laughter.

Mar. When was this, my lords?

Ruf. Some two days since:

The happy bridegroom has not yet, I am sure, Plucked the Hesperian fruit; 'twas her desire To lie three nights alone; your courtlike way To make them feed the freer when they meet.

Mar. I curse my slow speed

That made mine eye a stranger to these sights. Ruf. Rather adore that deity that detained you. Mar. Do you then malign his happiness, 3 Young Tullius' honours, and my sovereign's grace? Ruf. Do we! Who does not? and contemn them too,

As

Mar. I do you,

Or any that true worth shall emulate."
I know young Tullius is a noble youth,
Endued with virtues and perfections
Fitting to rank with our best Roman blood.
Ruf. Leont. Ha, ha, ha, ha!

Mar. Do you laugh?

By all our gods, Rufinus, Tullius' merits
Deserve those graces are bestowed upon him
Better than any one that envies them.
Ruf. How, Marius ?

Mar. Pish! 'gainst the winds look big.

3. Do you then malign then his happiness.] So the MS.

↑ Or any that true worth shall emulate.] This verb is here used plainly for envy; and this passage supports Mr Malone's interpretation of emulous in the following passage of Troilus and Cressida, viz. envious: "A good quarrel to draw emulous factions, and bleed to death upon." Steevens says this signifies merely rival factions. The word occurs again, with the same sense, in the third scene of this act:

-Your great lord, for such is the king's love,

Must go as general to correct their pride,

An honour that great princes emulate.

Mar.] Here the original MS. begins, the preceding speeches being written in a somewhat later hand-writing.-See the Introduction.

Enter LEARchus.

Learch. That bigness blew me hither.
Ruf. In post, Learchus ?

Learch. 'Foot! had I wings like Perseus, and could fly,

I were too slow-paced to divulge this news.
Leont. What is't, i' th' name of wonder?
Learch. For firm truth,

The Sabines are in arms, whose stubborn necks
These many years stooped to the yoke of Rome,
Now shake their fetters off, and with sharp steel
Swear to enlarge their former privilege.
Ruf. This your tidings?

The expectation takes the strangeness off:
It has been long suspected.

Learch. You're too greedy,

And glut your appetites with the first dish:
I have a feast of news yet.

Who do you think is chosen general,

And command given for a present press,

Of our most ablest, expert soldiers,

Ten thousand horse, and twenty thousand foot, To quell this hot rebellion?

Ruf. Who but we?

Learch. You have been.

Ruf. May be thyself, Learchus ?

Learch. No, no, no.

Ruf. Then 'tis Leontius?

Learch. You are wider still.

Ruf. Who else is fit to bear't, and we put by?
Learch. Who but the warlike Tullius?

Ruf. That milksop! Sure the king

Will make an idol of him.'

Learch. Who should command but he that awes command?

Tullius is general, and, with greatest pomp,
Is coming this way; the king leaning thus
Upon his soldier: eyeing as they pass
The looks and gestures of each gazer-on,
How they relish his election.

Ruf. But rawly, without salt;

They have a fresh soldier to their general.' Mar. Your bitterness makes the digestion harsh:

In my conceit, he that endeavours well, Though he come short of him that hath performed

Something worth praise, deserves far more commends

Than those that boast their actions; it takes off
The lustre that belongs to't. Pardon me
If I make question of your loyalties,

That dare disparage thus my sovereign's choice
Of his respected subjects: it infers

A doubt made of his wisdom. Why should we
Tax the prerogative pleasures of our prince?
Whom he shall grace, or where bestow his favours?
That law's allowed to every private man :
Then, to confine or disallow a king,

Were most injurious and preposterous.

For as **

**

as they're gods,

They are subject to their passions as they're men:
Alexander the Great had his Hephestion,
Philip of Spain his Lerma: Not to offend,
I could produce from courts that I have seen
More royal precedents," but I'll not give

6 For as

in the MS. in this line.

7

Not to offend,

as their gods.] There is a lacuna left

I could produce from courts that I have seen

More royal precedents, &c.] This seems plainly to allude to