water above in the closet. Sweetheart, will you come

in to breakfast?

Kite. An' she have overheard me now!

Dame. I pray thee, good muss, we stay for you. Kite. By Heav'n, I would not for a thousand an gels.

Dame. What ails you, sweetheart? are you not well? Speak, good muss.

Kite. Troth, my head aches extremely, on a sudden.

Dame. Oh, the lord!

Kite. How now! what!

Dame. Alas, how it burns! Muss, keep you warm; good truth it is this new disease! there's a number are troubled withal! For love's sake, sweetheart, come in, out of the air.

Kite. How simple, and how subtle are her answers! A new disease, and many troubled with it! Why, true! she heard me, all the world to nothing.

Dame. I pray thee, good sweetheart, come in; the air will do you harm in troth.

Kite. I'll come to you presently; 'twill away, I hope.

Dame. Pray Heav'n it do.

[Exit Dame. Kite. A new disease! I know not, new or old,

But it may well be call'd poor mortals plague:

For, like a pestilence, it doth infect

The houses of the brain. First, it begins

Solely to work upon the phantasy,

Filling her seat with such pestiferous air

As soon corrupts the judgment, and from thence
Sends like contagion to the memory;
Still to each other giving the infection,
Which, as a subtle vapour, spreads itself
Confusedly through every sensive part,
Till not a thought, or motion in the mind,
Be free from the black poison of suspect.
Ah, but what misery it is to know this!
Or, knowing it, to want the mind's direction
In such extremes! Well, I will once more strive,
In spite of this black cloud, myself to be,
And shake the fever off, that thus shakes me. [Exit.

SCENE II.

Moorfields. Enter BRAIN-WORM, disguis'd like a Soldier.

Brain. 'Slid, I cannot choose but laugh to see myself translated thus. Now must I create an intolerable sort of lies, or my present profession loses the grace; and yet the lie to a man of my coat, is as ominous a fruit as the Fico. O, sir, it holds for good polity ever, to have that outwardly in vilest estimation that inwardly is most dear to us. So much for my borrow'd shape. Well, the truth is, my old master intends to follow my young, dry-foot, over Moorfields to London this morning: now I, knowing of this hunting match, or rather conspiracy, and to insinuate

with my young master, for so must we that are bluewaiters, and men of hope and service do, have got me afore in this disguise, determining here to lie in ambuscade, and intercept him in the mid-way. If I can but get his cloak, his purse, his hat, nay, any thing to cut him off, that is, to stay his journey-Veni, vidi, vici, I may say with captain Cæsar; I am made for ever, i'faith. Well, now must I practise to get the true garb of one of those lance-knights, my arm here, and my-Young master! and his cousin, Mr. Stephen, as I am a true counterfeit man of war, and no soldier! [Retires.

Enter ED. KNO'WELL and Master STEPHEN.

E. Kno. So, sir, and how then, coz?
Step. S'foot, I have lost my purse, I think.

E. Kno. How! lost your purse! Where? When had you it?

Step. I cannot tell: stay.

Brain. 'Slid, I am afraid they will know me, would I could get by them!

E. Kno. What! ha' you it?

Step. No, I think I was bewitch'd, I

E. Kno. Nay, do not weep the loss, hang it, let

it go.

Step. Oh, it's here-No, an' it had been lost, I had not car'd, but for a jet ring Mistress Mary sent me. E. Kno. A jet ring! oh, the poesy, the poesy! Step. Fine, i'faith! Though fancy sleep, my love is

deep; meaning that though I did not fancy her, yet she loved me dearly.

E. Kno. Most excellent!

Step. And then I sent her another, and my poesy was: The deeper the sweeter, I'll be judg'd by St. Peter. E. Kno. How by St. Peter? I do not conceive that. Step. Marry, St. Peter, to make up the metre.

E. Kno. Well, there the saint was your good patron; he help'd you at your need: thank him, thank him.

Brain. I cannot take leave on 'em so; I will venture, come what will. Gentlemen, please you change a few crowns, for a very excellent good blade, here? I am a poor gentleman, a soldier, that, in the better state of my fortunes, scorn'd so mean a refuge, but now it is the humour of necessity to have it so. You seem to be, gentlemen, well affected to martial men, else I should rather die with silence than live with shame: however, vouchsafe to remember, it is my want speaks, not myself. This condition agrees not with my spirit.

E, Kno. Where hast thou served ?

Brain. May it please you, sir, in all the late wars of Bohemia, Hungaria, Dalmatia, Poland; where not, sir? I have been a poor servitor by sea and land, any time these fourteen years, and followed the fortunes of the best commanders in Christendom. I was twice shot at the taking of Aleppo, once at the relief of Vienna; I have been at Marseilles, Naples, and the Adriatic Gulf; a gentleman-slave in the gal

leys thrice, where I was most dangerously shot in the head, through both the thighs, and yet, being thus maim'd, I am void of maintenance; nothing left me but my scars, the noted marks of my resolution. Step. How will you sell this rapier, friend? Brain. Generous sir, I refer it to your own judgment; you are a gentleman, give me what you please. Step. True, I am a gentleman, I know that, friend: but what though? I pray you say, what would you ask?

Brain. I assure you the blade may become the side or thigh of the best prince in Europe.

E. Kno. Ay, with a velvet scabbard.

Step. Nay, and 't be mine, it shall have a velvet scabbarb, coz, that's flat; I'd not wear it as 'tis, anʼ you would give me an angel.

Brain. At your worship's pleasure, sir; nay, 'tis a most pure Toledo.

Step. I had rather it were a Spaniard; but tell me, what shall I give you for it? An' it had a silver hilt

E. Kno. Come, come, you shall not buy it; hold, there's a shilling, fellow, take thy rapier.

Step. Why, but I will buy it now, because you say so; and there's another shilling, fellow; I scorn to be outbidden. What, shall I walk with a cudgel, like a higgin-bottom, and may have a rapier for money?

E. Kno. You may buy one in the city.

Step. Tut, I'll buy this i' the field, so I will; Į