Thorough the trunk, like one of your familiars.
But I have spied Sir Epicure Mammon·

Sub. Where?

Dol. Coming along, at far end of the lane,

Slow of his feet, but earnest of his tongue
To one that's with him.

:

With the sun's rising: marvel he could sleep;
This is the day I am to perfect for him
The magisterium, our great work, the stone;
And yield it, made, into his hands of which
He has this month talk'd as he were possess'd.
And now he's dealing pieces on't away.
Methinks I see him entering ordinaries,
Dispensing for the pox and plaguy houses,
Reaching his dose, walking Moorfields for lepers,
And offering citizens' wives pomander bracelets.*
As his preservative, made of the elixir;
Searching the spital, to make old bones young;
And the highways for beggars to make rich :
I see no end of his labours. He will make

Nature asham'd of her long sleep: when art,

Who's but a step-dame, shall do more than she,
In her best love to mankind, ever could:

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If his dream lasts, he'll turn the age to gold. [Exeunt. 680

1 A ball, or small box, of perfumes was carried in the pocket, or worn on a girdle or bracelet (French pomme d'ambre).

ACT II.

SCENE I. An Outer Room in LOVEWIT'S House.

Enter SIR EPICURE MAMMON and SURLY.

Mam. Come on, sir. Now, you set your foot on shore In Novo Orbe; here's the rich Peru:

And there within, sir, are the golden mines,

Great Solomon's Ophir ! he was sailing to't,

Three years, but we have reached it in ten months.
This is the day wherein, to all my friends,
I will pronounce the happy word, BE RICH;
THIS DAY YOU SHALL BE SPECTATISSIMI.1

You shall no more deal with the hollow die

2

Or the frail card. No more be at charge of keeping
The house of call for the young heir. No more
Shall thirst of satin, or the covetous hunger
Of velvet entrails for a rude-spun cloak,3
To be display'd at Madam Augusta's, make
The sons of Sword and Hazard fall before

The golden calf, and on their knees, whole nights,
Commit idolatry with wine and trumpets :

Or go a feasting, after drum and ensign.

No more of this. You shall start up young viceroys,

And unto thee I speak it first, BE RICH.

Where is my Subtle, there? Within, ho!

Face (within). Sir, he'll come to you by and by.
Mam. That is his fire-drake,

1 Most illustrious.

2 Used by dishonest gamblers.

8 Cloaks of which the lining was richer than the material.

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2C

His Lungs,1 his Zephyrus, he that puffs his coals,
Till he firk2 nature up, in her own centre.

You are not faithful, sir. This night I'll change

All that is metal, in my house, to gold:

And early in the morning will I send

To all the plumbers and the pewterers,

And buy their tin and lead up; and to Lothbury3
For all the copper.

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Sur. What, and turn that too?

Mam. Yes, and I'll purchase Devonshire and Cornwall,+

And make them perfect Indies! You admire now?

Sur. No, faith.

Mam. But when you see th' effects of the Great Medicine,

Of which one part projected on a hundred

Of Mercury, or Venus, or the moon,
Shall turn it to as many of the sun;

Nay, to a thousand, so ad infinitum :
You will believe me.

Sur. Yes, when I see't I will.

But if my eyes do cozen me so, and I
Giving them no occasion, sure I'll have
A crow shall pluck them out next day.
Mam. Ha! why?

Do you think I fable with you? I assure you,

He that has once the flower of the sun,

The perfect ruby, which we call elixir,

1 The apprentice to an alchemist was called Lungs, because he blew the bellows.

2 Stir, strike (Latin ferio).

8 Stow, in his account of London (p. 287), says that Lothbury is "inhabited chiefly by founders, that cast candlesticks, chafing-dishes, spice mortars. and such-like copper works."

4 That is, convert their minerals to gold.

Not only can do that, but by its virtue

Can confer honour, love, respect, long life;
Give safety, valour, yea, and victory,

To whom he will. In eight and twenty days,

I'll make an old man of fourscore a child.
Sur. No doubt; he's that already.

Mam. Nay, I mean,

Restore his years, renew him, like an eagle,

To the fifth age; make him get sons and daughters,

Young giants; as our philosophers have done,

The ancient patriarchs, afore the flood,

But taking, once a week, on a knife's point,
The quantity of a grain of mustard of it;

Become stout Marses, and beget young Cupids.

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Sur. The decay'd vestals of Pickt-hatch1 would thank you, That keep the fire alive there.

Mam. 'Tis the secret

Of nature naturized2 'gainst all infections,

Cures all diseases coming of all causes ;

A month's grief in a day, a year's in twelve ;

And of what age soever, in a month :
Past all the doses of your drugging doctors.
I'll undertake, withal, to fright the plague3
Out of the kingdom in three months.

Sur. And I'll

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1 A place of vile repute (in Trumbull Street, Cow Cross, Clerkenwell), where attacks of bullies made a pickt-hatch, or a half-door armed with spikes, a necessary defence. — R. G. White. Cf. Merry Wives of Windsor, ii, 2.

2 The Schoolmen distinguished between Natura naturans, God the Crea tor, and natura naturata, the universe created.

3 There had been a severe plague in 1602, and the theatres had been closed.

Be bound, the players shall sing your praises then,

I'll give away so much unto my man

Shall serve the whole city with preservative

Weekly; each house his dose, and at the rate

Sur. As he that built the waterwork1 does with water?

Mam. You are incredulous.

Sur. Faith, I have a humour

I would not willingly be gull'd. Your stone

Cannot transmute me.

Mam. Pertinax Surly,

Will you believe antiquity? records?

I'll show you a book where Moses and his sister,

And Solomon have written of the art;

Ay, and a treatise penn'd by Adam

Sur. How!

2

Mam. Of the philosopher's stone, and in High Dutch.
Sur. Did Adam write, sir, in High Dutch?

Mam. He did; 3

Which proves it was the primitive tongue.

Sur. What paper?

Mam. On cedar board.

Sur. Oh, that indeed, they say

Will last 'gainst worms.

Mam. 'Tis like your Irish wood

'Gainst cobwebs. I have a piece of Jason's fleece too,

Which was no other than a book of alchemy,

Writ in large sheepskin, a good fat ram-vellum.

1 Bulmer constructed waterworks for London in 1595.

2 Fabricius, in a work on writers on chemistry, included these.
8 This absurdity was affirmed by Goropius Becanus.

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