Bowl bearer. Do you hear, my friends? to whom did you sing all this now? Pardon me only that I ask you, for I do not look for an answer; I'll answer myself: I know it is now such a time as the Saturnals for all the world, that every man stands under the eaves of his own hat, and sings what pleases him; that's the right and the liberty of it. Now you sing of god Comus here, the belly-god; I say it is well, and I say it is not well; it is well as it is a ballad, and the belly worthy of it, I must needs say an 'twere forty yards of ballad more, as much ballad as tripe. But when the belly is not edified by it, it is not well; for where did you ever read or hear that the belly had any ears? Come, never pump for an answer, for you are defeated: our fellow Hunger there, that was as ancient a retainer to the Belly as any of us, was turned away for being unseasonable; not unreasonable, but unseasonable; and now is he, poor thin-gut, fain to get his living with teaching of starlings, magpies, parrots, and jack-daws, those things he would have taught the Belly. Beware of dealing with the Belly, the Belly will not be talked to, especially when he is full; then there is no venturing upon Venter, he will blow you all up, he will thunder indeed, la! Some in derision call him the father of farts; but I say he was the first inventor of great ordnance, and taught us to discharge them on festival days, would we had a fit feast for him, i' faith, to shew his activity; I would have something now fetched in to please his five senses, the throat; or the two senses, the eyes: pardon me for my two senses; for I that carry Hercules's bowl in the service may see double by my place; for I have drunk like a frog to-day: I would have a Tun now brought in to dance, and so many bottles about him. Hal you And now is he fain to get his living with teaching of starlings, magpies, &c.] An allusion to Persius, in the prologue to his satires: Quis expedivit psittaco suum xaipe ? That was the crowned reward Of thirsty heroes, after labour hard.] We have had an allusion to this bowl of Hercules, the scyphus Herculeus of the ancients, in the account of the scenery. Hercules is said to have sailed over the sea in a large cup or goblet, and thence a bowl of a particular make and fashion became appropriated to him. Let us look as if you would make a problem of this; do you see, do you see? a problem. Why bottles, and why a tun? and why a tun, and why bottles, to dance? I say that men that drink hard and serve the Belly in any place of quality (as the Jovial Tinkers, or the Lusty Kindred), are living measures of drink, and can transform themselves, and do every day, to bottles or tuns, when they please: and when they have done all they can they are as I say again (for I think I said somewhat like it afore) but moving measures of drink, and there is a piece in the cellar can hold more than all they. This will I make good if it please our new god but to give a nod, for the Belly does all by signs; and I am all for the belly, the truest clock in the world to go by. Here the FIRST ANTIMASQUE, danced by Men in the shape of bottles, tuns, &c. hear what Macrobius offers on this subject: Herculem vero fictores veteres non sine causa cum poculo fecerunt, et nonnunquam casabundum et ebrium: non solum quod is heros bibax fuisse perhibetur, sed etiam quod antiqua historia est Herculem poculo tanquam navigio ventis immensa maria transisse." He adds, afterwards, it was much more probable that he passed the ocean, not in a bowl, or scyphus, but in a vessel which bore that name. Ego tamen arbitror non poculo Herculem maria transvectum, sed navigio cui Scypho nomen fuit."— Saturnal. 1. v. c. 21. It became the custom for succeeding heroes to drink in honour of Hercules out of a cup of the same form which he himself was supposed to have used. Thus Curtius, relating the man Burdens and shames of nature, perish, die! Been buried under the offence of life : Can this be pleasure to extinguish man, For they do suffer what and all they do. At this the GROVE and ANTIMASQUE vanished, and the whole Music was discovered sitting at the foot of the mountain, with PLEASURE and VIRTUE seated above them. Cho. Great friend and servant of the good, And from thy mighty labour cease. And give thy troubled spirits peace : See here a crown the aged Hill hath sent thee, My grandsire Atlas, he that did present thee With the best sheep that in his fold were found, Or golden fruit in the Hesperian ground, For rescuing his fair daughters, then the prey Of a rude pirate, as thou cam'st this way; And taught thee all the learning of the sphere, And how, like him, thou might'st the heavens upbear, As that thy labour's virtuous recompense. He, though a mountain now, hath yet the sense Of thanking thee for more, thou being still Constant to goodness, guardian of the hill; Antæus by thee suffocated here, And the voluptuous Comus, god of cheer, Beat from his grove, and that defaced; but now The time's arrived that Atlas told thee of, how B' unaltered law, and working of the stars, There should be a cessation of all jars, "Twixt Virtue and her noted opposite, Pleasure; that both should meet here in the sight Of Hesperus, the glory of the west, The brightest star that from his burning crest Lights all on this side the Atlantic seas, See where he shines, Justice and Wisdom placed About his throne, and those with honour graced, Beauty and Love! it is not with his brother Bearing the world, but ruling such another Is his renown; PLEASURE for his delight IS RECONCILED TO VIRTUE, and this night Virtue brings forth twelve princes have been bred In this rough mountain, and near Atlas' head, The hill of knowledge; one, and chief of whom,1 Of the bright race of Hesperus is come, Who shall in time the same that he is be, And now is only a less light than he: These now she trusts with Pleasure, and to these She gives an entrance to the Hesperides, 1 Chief of whom.] The names of the twelve Masquers are not given; it appears, however, that they were led on by Charles, now Prince of SONG. Dad. Come on, come on! and where you go, So interweave the curious knot, At which awhile all youth should stay, Yet not perplex men unto gaze: Not only shows the mover's wit, Here the first DANCE. Dad. O more and more! this was so well, Again yourselves compose: And now put all the aptness on, Or colour can disclose: That if those silent arts were lost, In their true motions found. You form your second touch: That they may vent their murmuring hymns First figure out, &c.] This alludes to that beautiful apologue, the Choice of Hercules, by Prodicus. Just to the -] Some word (time or tune, probably) was lost at the press, or dropt in the MS. I have already observed that all these Masques, from The Golden Age Restored, were Here the second DANCE. SONG. The subtlest maze of all, that's love, The fair will think you do them wrong. Go choose among-but with a mind Runs o'er the gentler flowers. Grace, laughter, and discourse may meet, Will you that I give the law To all your sport, and sum it? Here they danced with the LADIES, and SONG. Mer. An eye of looking back were well, Your thoughts, how you were sent, To walk with Pleasure, not to dwell. These, these are hours by Virtue spared, Her sports be soft, her life is hard. You must return unto the Hill, With labour, and inhabit still That height and crown, printed, or at least published, some years after the author's death. That any one could look into this wretched volume (the folio of 1641) and suppose that Jonson had any share in forming it, is quite extraordinary. There is not a page without some ridiculous blunder. |