Is in every quarter of the moon, and constant. In the time of trussing a point, he can undo, Or make a man: his play or recreation,

Is to raise this up, or pull down that; and, though He never yet took orders, makes more bishops In Sicily, than the pope himself.

Enter BERTOLDO, GASPARO, ANTONIO, and a Servant.

Ador. Most strange!

Ast. The presence fills. He in the Malta habit Is the natural brother of the king-a by-blow. Ador. I understand you.

Gasp. Morrow to my uncle.

Ant. And my late guardian:-but at length I have

The reins in my own hands.

Ast. Pray you, use them well,

Or you'll too late repent it.

Bert. With this jewel

Presented to Camiola, prepare,

This night, a visit for me. [Erit Servant.] I shall have

Your company, gallants, I perceive, if that
The king will hear of war.

Ant. Sir, I have horses

Of the best breed in Naples, fitter far

To break a rank than crack a lance; and are,
In their career, of such incredible swiftness,
They outstrip swallows.

Bert. And such may be useful

To run away with, should we be defeated:
You are well provided, signior.

Ant. Sir, excuse me;

All of their race, by instinct, know a coward, And scorn the burthen: they come on, like light. ning;

Founder'd in a retreat.

Bert. By no means back them;
Unless you know your courage sympathize
With the daring of
your horse.

Ant. My lord, this is bitter.

Gasp. I will raise me a company of foot; And, when at push of pike I am to enter A breach, to shew my valour I have bought3 me An armour cannon-proof.

Bert. You will not leap, then, O'er an outwork, in your shirt? Gasp. I do not like

Activity that way.

Bert. You had rather stand
A mark to try their muskets on?
Gasp. If I do

No good, I'll do no hurt.

Bert. "Tis in you, signior,

A Christian resolution, and becomes you
But I will not discourage you.

Ant. You are, sir,

A knight of Malta, and, as I have heard,
Have serv'd against the Turk.

Bert. 'Tis true.

Ant. Pray you, shew us

The difference between the city valour,
And service in the field.

Beit. "Tis somewhat more

Than roaring in a tavern or a brothel,

3

to shew my valour, I have bought me] Coxeter and M. Mason read, I have brought me the old copy

is surely right.

Or to steal a constable from a sleeping watch,
Then burn their halberds; or, safe guarded by
Your tenant's sons, to carry away a May-pole
From a neighbour village. You will not find there,
Your masters of dependencies to take up
A drunken brawl, or, to get you the names

4 Or to steal a constable from a sleeping watch,] The constable was the captain of the band; this therefore was to deprive these trusty guardians of the night, of their leader. For this expression, so exquisitely humorous, the modern editors give us,

Or to steal a lanthorn from a sleeping watch!

It is scarcely possible to mark these wanton deviations from the original, without some degree of warmth. By no process in blundering could lanthorn be written for constable: the editors, therefore, must have gratuitously taken upon themselves the reformation of the language. Pity for the author must be mixed with our indignation at their perverse temerity, when we thus find them banishing his most witty expressions from the text, under the bold idea of improving it.

It is the more singular that they should do this in the present case, as the same thought, in nearly the same words, is to be found in the Renegado. See vol. ii. p. 210.

5

-you will not find there,

Your masters of dependencies &c.] Masters of dependencies were a set of needy bravoes, who undertook to ascertain the authentic grounds of a quarrel, and, in some cases, to settle it for the timorous or unskilful. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher:

"Your high offer,

"Taught by the masters of dependencies,

"That, by compounding differences 'tween others,
"Supply their own necessities, with me
"Will never carry it."

The Elder Brother.

In this punctilious age, all matters relative to duelling were arranged, in set treatises, with a gravity that, in a business less serious, would be infinitely ridiculous. Troops of disbanded soldiers, or rather of such as pretended to be so, took up the "noble science of arms," and, with the use of the small sword, (then a novelty,) taught a jargon respecting the various modes. of "honourable quarrelling," which, though seemingly calcu lated to baffle alike the patience and the understanding, was a fashionable object of study. The dramatic poets, faithful to

Of valiant chevaliers, fellows that will be,

For a cloak with thrice-died velvet, and a cast suit,

Kick'd down the stairs. A knave with half a breech there,

And no shirt, (being a thing superfluous,

And worn out of his memory,) if you bear not Yourselves both in, and upright, with a provant sword

Will slash your scarlets and your plush a new

way;

Or, with the hilts, thunder about your ears
Such music as will make your worships dance
To the doleful tune of Lachrymæ.'

Gasp. I must tell you

In private, as you are my princely friend,
I do not like such fiddlers.

the moral end of their high art, combated this contagious folly with the united powers of wit and humour; and, after a long and well conducted struggle, succeeded in rendering it as contemptible as it was odious, and finally suppressed it altogether. with a provant sword &c.] A provant sword is a plain, unornamented sword, such as the army is supplied with. Thus, in Every Man in his Humour, when Master Stephen produces his "pure Toledo," Bobadill exclaims, "This a Toledo? pish!

"Steph. Why do you pish?

"Bob. A Fleming, by heaven! I'll buy them for a guilder a-piece, an I would have a thousand of them :- -a poor provant rapier; no better."

Properly speaking, provant means provisions: thus Petillius, in the tragedy of Bonduca :

"All my company

"Are now in love; ne'er think of meat, nor talk
"Of what provant is."

But our old writers extend it to all the articles which make up the magazines of an army.

It appears, from the pointing of the former editors, that they had not the slightest notion of what their author was saying. 7 To the doleful tune of Lachrymæ.] See the Picture.

Bert. No! they are useful

For

your imitation; I remember you,

When you came first to the court, and talk'd of nothing

But

your rents and your entradas, ever chiming The golden bells in your pockets; you believed The taking of the wall as a tribute due to

Your gaudy clothes; and could not walk at midnight

Without a causeless quarrel, as if men

Of coarser outsides were in duty bound

To suffer your affronts: but, when you had been Cudgell'd well twice or thrice, and from the doctrine

Made profitable uses, you concluded,
The sovereign means to teach irregular heirs
Civility, with conformity of manners,
Were two or three sound beatings.

Ant. I confess

They did much good upon me.
Gasp. And on me:

The principles that they read were sound.

Bert. You'll find

The like instructions in the camp.

Ast. The king!

A flourish. Enter ROBERTO, FULGENTIO, Ambassador, and Attendants.

Rob. [ascends the throne.] We sit prepared to hear.

Amb. Your majesty

For your imitation ;] Thus the quarto: Mr. M. Mason reads, For your initiation; an alteration as void of meaning as of harmony.

and from the doctrine Made profitable uses, &c.] See the Emperor of the East.