DRAMATIS PERSONE. SUBTLE, the ALCHEMIST. FACE, the house-keeper. DOL COMMON, their colleague. DAPPER, a lawyer's clerk. DRUGGER, a tobacco-man. LOVEWIT, master of the house. SIR EPICURE MAMMON, a knight. PERTINAX SURLY, a gamester. TRIBULATION WHOLESOME, a pastor of Amsterdam. ANANIAS, a deacon there. KASTRILL, the angry boy. DAME PLIANT, his sister, a widow. Neighbours. Officers, Attendants, &c. SCENE, London. The sickness hot, a master quit, for fear, A Cheater, and his punk; who now brought low, 1 The sickness hot, &c.] This, as has been already observed, was the term in use for that species of plague with which London was so frequently afflicted in the 16th and 17th centuries. On the first decisive symptoms, the alarm became general, and all who could, hastened into the country, leaving their houses in the charge of some confidential servant. Lilly tells us, in the history of his life, that he was left, in 1625, "to take care of his master's house, which had much money and plate in it." He appears to have spent his time in frivolous dissipations; "for ease corrupted him" also, though it did not make him quite as profligate as Face. 2 Selling of flies,] i. e. of familiar spirits. See p. 24. PROLOGUE. ORTUNE, that favours fools, these two short hours We wish away, both for your sakes and ours, Judging spectators; and desire, in place, To th' author justice, to ourselves but grace. The vices that she breeds, above their cure. They shall find things, they'd think or wish were done; They are so natural follies, but so shown, As even the doers may see, and yet not own. 3 Fortune that favours fools, &c.] We had this expression in Every Man out of his Humour. Jonson seems conscious of the ACT I. SCENE I. A Room in LOVEWIT's House. Enter FACE, in a captain's uniform, with his sword drawn, and SUBTLE with a vial, quarrelling, and followed by DoL COMMON. Dol. Have you your wits? why, gentle men! for love Face. Sirrah, I'll strip you 5 surpassing attractions of this drama: he could not well, indeed, be ignorant of them; and if great merit could justify boasting, (which it cannot,) would need little apology for his bold appeal to the judgment, instead of the candour, of his audience. Howe'er the age, &c.] From Livy's preface to his history: Ad hæc tempora, quibus nec vitia nostra, nec remedia pati possumus, per ventum est. Face. Sirrah, I'll strip you- -] "Our poet could not possibly have chosen a happier incident to open his play with. Instead of opening with a dull narration, you have action; and such action too, as cannot possibly be supposed to happen at any other time, than this very present time. Two rogues with their punk, are introduced quarrelling, and just so much of their secrets is discovered to the audience, as is sufficient for the audience at present to know." So far Upton talks judiciously:-but when he proceeds to inform the reader that " our learned comedian does not deal in vulgar English here, but in vulgar Attic or Roman expressions," and quotes Aristophanes and Horace, to prove his assertion; it is impossible to suppress a smile at such a ridiculous abuse of learning. The "vulgarity," with the leave of this tasteless idolater of the ancients, is truly English, and had been used Sub. What to do? lick figs Out at my Face. Rogue, rogue-out of all your sleights. Dol. Nay, look ye, sovereign, general, are you madmen? Sub. O, let the wild sheep loose. I'll gum your silks With good strong water, an you come. Dol. Will you have The neighbours hear you? will you betray all? Face. Sirrah Sub. I shall mar All that the tailor has made, if you approach. Sub. Yes, faith; yes, faith. Face. Why, who Am I, my mungrel? who am I? Sub. I'll tell you, Since you know not yourself. Face. Speak lower, rogue. Sub. Yes, you were once (time's not long past) the good, Honest, plain, livery-three-pound-thrum,' that kept Your master's worship's house here in the Friers, to good effect, long before Jonson's time, by numbers of his countrymen, who never heard of the Plutus, or the Ibam forte via. 6 What to do? lick figs, &c.] This alludes to a story told by Rabelais. In revenge for an insult offered to the empress by the Milanese, the emperor, Frederic Barbarossa, led her mule into the public square; there "par son ordonnance le bourreau mist es membres honteuses de l'animal une figue, presents et voyants les citadins captifs: puis cria de par l'empereur à son de trompe, que quiconques d'iceulx vouldroit la mort évader, arrachast publicquement la figue avec les dents, puis la remist en propre lieu sans aide des mains." Lib. iv. c. 45. Three-pound-thrum.] One whose livery was made of the ends |