Re-enter CARLO. Car. O, if ever you were struck with a jest, gallants, now, now, now, I do usher the most strange piece of military profession that ever was discovered in Insula Paulina.3 Fast. Where? where? Punt. What is he for a creature? Car. A pimp, a pimp, that I have observed yonder, the rarest superficies of a humour; he comes every morning to empty his lungs in Paul's here; and offers up some five or six hecatombs of faces and sighs, and away again. Here he comes; nay, walk, walk, be not seen to note him, and we shall have excellent sport. Enter SHIFT; and walks by, using action to his rapier. Punt. 'Slid, he vented a sigh e'en now, I thought he would have blown up the church. Car. O, you shall have him give a number of those false fires ere he depart. Fast. See, now he is expostulating with his rapier: look, look! Car. Did you ever in your days observe better passion over a hilt? Punt. Except it were in the person of a cutler's 3 In Insula Paulina.] This is worse than, in Mediterraneum, But I suppose that Jonson did not think himself responsible for Carlo's Latin. He spells the word aisle, indeed, isle, but he must have known the meaning of it too well to imagine that Insula was the proper translation. What is he for a creature?] See The Silent Woman. boy, or that the fellow were nothing but vapour, I should think it impossible. Car. See again, he claps his sword o' the head, as who should say, well, go to. 5 Fast. O violence! I wonder the blade can contain itself, being so provoked. Car. With that the moody squire thumpt his breast, And rear'd his eyen to heaven for revenge? Sog. Troth, an you be good gentlemen, let's make them friends, and take up the matter between his rapier and him. Car. Nay, if you intend that, you must lay down the matter; for this rapier, it seems, is in the nature of a hanger-on, and the good gentleman would happily be rid of him. Fast. By my faith, and 'tis to be suspected; I'll ask him. Mac. O, here's rich stuff! for life's sake, let us go: A man would wish himself a senseless pillar, Quam quod ridiculos homines facit Fast. Signior. Shift. At your service. [Exit with Deliro. Fast. Will you sell your rapier? Car. He is turn'd wild upon the question; he looks as he had seen a serjeant.' 5 Or that the fellow were nothing but vapour,] A cant term for a mere hector, a quarrelsome bully. • With that, &c.] I do not recollect these lines:if they are not a quotation from some of our elder poets, which they probably are, they are an affected imitation of their manner. 7 He is turned wild upon the question; he looks as he had seen a serjeant.] One of the officers belonging to the Compter, a serjeant at mace; he looks as if he feared to be arrested. Shift. Sell my rapier! now fate bless me! Shift. You ask'd me, if I would sell my rapier, sir? Fast. I did indeed. Shift. Now, lord have mercy upon me! Punt. Amen, I say still. you Shift. 'Slid sir, what should behold in my face, sir, that should move you, as they say, sir, to ask me, sir, if I would sell my rapier? Fast. Nay, let me pray you, sir, be not moved: I protest, I would rather have been silent, than any way offensive, had I known your nature. Shift. Sell my rapier? 'ods lid!-Nay, sir, for mine own part, as I am a man that has serv'd in causes, or so, so I am not apt to injure any gentleman in the degree of falling foul, but-sell my rapier! I will tell you, sir, I have served with this foolish rapier, where some of us dare not appear in haste; I name no man; but let that pass. Sell my rapier!-death to my lungs! This rapier, sir, has travell'd by my side, sir, the best part of France, and the Low Country: I have seen Flushing, Brill, and the Hague, with this rapier, sir, in my lord of Leicester's time: and, by God's will, he that should offer to disrapier me now, I would-Look you, sir, you presume to be a gentleman of sort, and so likewise your friends here; if you have any disposition to travel for the sight of service, or so, one, two, or all of you, I can lend you letters to divers officers and commanders in the Low Countries, that shall for my cause do you all the good offices, that shall pertain or belong to gentlemen of your[lowering his voice.] Please you to shew the bounty of your mind, sir, to impart some ten groats, or half a crown to our use, till our ability be of growth to return it, and we shall think our self- 'Sblood! sell my rapier! Sog. I pray you, what said he, signior? he's a proper man. Fast. Marry, he tells me, if I please to shew the bounty of my mind, to impart some ten groats to his use, or so Punt. Break his head, and give it him. Car. I thought he had been playing o' the Jews trump, I. Shift. My rapier! no sir; my rapier is my guard, my defence, my revenue, my honour;if you cannot impart, be secret, I beseech you— and I will maintain it, where there is a grain of dust, or a drop of water. [sighs.] Hard is the choice when the valiant must eat their arms, or clem.' Sell my rapier! no, my dear, I will not be divorced from thee, yet; I have ever found thee true as steel, and- You cannot impart sir?-Save you, gentlemen;- nevertheless, if you have a fancy to it, sir Fast. Prithee away: Is signior Deliro departed? Car. Have you seen a pimp outface his own wants better? Sog. I commend him, that can dissemble them so well, Punt. True, and having no better a cloak for it than he has neither. Fast. Od's precious, what mischievous luck is this! adieu, gentlemen. 66 8. Please you to impart some ten groats,] In the characters of the drama (p. 9,) Shift is described as making " privy searches for imparters." 9 Must eat their arms, or clem.] i. e. starve. Clem, or clam, is a word yet in use in many parts of the kingdom. See the Poetaster, A. I. WHAL. Punt. Whither in such haste, monsieur Fastidious? Fast. After my merchant, signior Deliro, sir. [Exit. Car. O hinder him not, he may hap lose his tide; a good flounder, i'faith. Orange. Hark you, signior Whiffe, a word with [Orange and Clove call Shift aside. Car. How! signior Whiffe? you. Orange. What was the difference between that gallant that's gone and you, sir? Shift. No difference; he would have given me five pound for my rapier, and I refused it; that's all. Clove. O, was it no otherwise? we thought you had been upon some terms. Shift. No other than you saw, sir. Clove. Adieu, good master Apple-John. [Exit with Orange. Car. How! Whiffe, and Apple-John too? Heart, what will you say if this be the appendix or label to both yon indentures?1 Punt. It may be. Car. Resolve us of it, Janus, thou that look'st every way; or thou, Hercules, that hast travelled all countries." Punt. Nay, Carlo, spend not time in invocations now, 'tis late. • What will you say if this be the appendix or label to both yon indentures?] From the names, which Carlo overhears, he conjectures that Shift is the person meant in both the advertisements: Whiffe, as professor of the noble art of smoking, and Apple-John, as pimp and squire to "gentlewomen of good carriage." Or thou, Hercules, that hast travelled all countries.] Jupiter, upon the arrival of Claudius among the gods, dispatches Hercules, who had travelled all countries, to know who he was: Tum Jupiter Herculem, quia totum orbem terrarum pererraverat, 3 |