Per. All this, yet, will not do; eight crowns is high. Volp. No more.-Gentlemen, if I had but time to discourse to you the miraculous effects of this my oil, surnamed Oglio del Scoto; with the countless catalogue of those I have cured of the aforesaid, and many more diseases; the patents and privileges of all the princes and commonwealths of Christendom; or but the depositions of those that appeared on my part, before the signiory of the Sanita and most learned College of Physicians; where I was authorized, upon notice taken of the admirable virtues of my medicaments, and mine own excellency in matter of rare and unknown secrets, not only to disperse them publicly in this famous city, but in all the territories, that happily joy under the government of the most pious and magnificent states of Italy. But may some other gallant fellow say, O, there be divers that make profession to have as good, and as experimented receipts as yours: indeed, very many have assayed, like apes, in imitation of that, which is really and essentially in me, to make of this oil; bestowed great cost in furnaces, stills, alembecks, continual fires, and preparation of the ingredients, (as indeed there goes to it six hundred several simples, besides some quantity of human fat, for the conglutination, which we buy of the anatomists,) but, when these practitioners come to the last decoction, blow, blow, puff, puff, and all flies in fumo: ha, ha, ha! Poor wretches! I rather pity their folly and indiscretion, than their he (Forobosco) would take up his single rapier against his horrible long sword." Fair Maid of the Inn, A. IV. Perhaps the allusion is to some print of Paracelsus, who, as he was certainly present at many sieges and battles, might choose to be represented with this formidable appendage to his physician's cloak. It must not be forgotten, that Paracelsus always carried a familiar or demon in the hilt of this celebrated long sword; so that it was not without its use. loss of time and money; for these may be recovered by industry: but to be a fool born, is a disease incurable. For myself, I always from my youth have endeavoured to get the rarest secrets, and book them, either in exchange, or for money: I spared nor cost nor labour, where any thing was worthy to be learned. And, gentlemen, honourable gentlemen, I will undertake, by virtue of chemical art, out of the honourable hat that covers your head, to extract the four elements; that is to say, the fire, air, water, and earth, and return you your felt without burn or stain. For, whilst others have been at the Balloo,' I have been at my book; and am now past the craggy paths of study, and come to the flowery plains of honour and reputation. Sir P. I do assure you, sir, that is his aim. Per. And that withal, sir Pol. Volp. You all know, honourable gentlemen, I never valued this ampulla, or vial, at less than eight crowns; but for this time, I am content to be depriced of it for six six crowns is the price, and less in courtesy I know you cannot offer me; take it or leave it, howsoever, both it and I am at your service. I ask you not as the value of the thing, for then I should demand of you a thousand crowns, so the cardinals Montalto, Fernese, the great duke of Tuscany, my gossip,' with divers other princes, have 2 at the Balloo,] This play, in which a huge ball is driven forward by a flat piece of wood, fastened to the arm, is still much practised on the continent. It is mentioned in Eastward Hoe! "We had a match at baloon too, with my lord Whackum, for four crowns." A. I. The Mall takes its name from this game, (pasle maile, Fr.) which was often played there by the cavaliers who returned with Charles II. from France. 3 The great duke of Tuscany, my gossip,] i. e. my godfather. "Godsib, now pronounced gossip. Our Christian ancestors given me; but I despise money. Only to shew my affection to you, honourable gentlemen, and your illustrious State here, I have neglected the messages of these princes, mine own offices, framed my journey hither, only to present you with the fruits of my travels.-Tune your voices once more to the touch of your instruments, and give the honourable assembly some delightful recreation. Per. What monstrous and most painful cir cumstance Is here, to get some three or four gazettes,* Some three-pence in the whole! for that 'twill come to. NANO sings. You that would last long, list to my song, understanding a spirituall affinitie to grow between the parents and such as undertook for the chyld at baptisme, called each other by the name of godsib, which is as much as to say, as that they were sib together, that is, of kin together through God. And the chyld in like manner called such, his godfathers or god-mothers," &c. Verstegan. Restitution of decayed Intelligence, &c. p. 223. What painful circumstance Is here to get some three or four gazettes?] Peregrine is not in the secret: Volpone spins out his harangue in order to increase the chance of getting a sight of Celia. A gazette is a small Venetian coin, worth about three farthings; and as this was the usual price given for the news-papers, the name of the coin was afterwards transferred to be the name of the news-paper itself. WHAL. These news-papers, as Whalley calls them, were merely loose slips of paper, on which the occurrences of the day were written. There were no printed gazettes, as he seems to think. Moist of hand? and light of foot? Would you live free from all diseases? Volp. Well, I am in a humour at this time to make a present of the small quantity my coffer contains; to the rich in courtesy, and to the poor for God's sake. Wherefore now mark: I ask'd you six crowns; and six crowns, at other times, you have paid me; you shall not give me six crowns, nor five, nor four, nor three, nor two, nor one; nor half a ducat; no, nor a moccinigo. Sixpence it will cost 5 Here's a medicine for the nones,] i. e. for the present occasion; for the immediate purpose. It is impossible to reflect without scorn on the elaborate attempts to explain the origin of this most simple and common expression. To say nothing of the Dii minores, even Tyrwhitt, who, when he mixes with the commentators on Shakspeare is no longer recognisable, gravely tells us that the phrase "was originally a corruption of corrupt Latin." Thus, says he, from pro nunc came for the nunc, and so for the nonce; just as from ad nunc came anon! This, it must be confessed, is sufficiently foolish: but by what term shall we characterize the stupendous absurdity of Mr. Chalmers? "The expression (he says) is local." It is as universal as the language. "This word (he continues) is probably derived from the Fr. nonce, a nuncio, the prelate whom the pope used to send for his special purposes." Glossary to Lyndsay. For the nonce is simply for the once, for the one thing in question, whatever it be. This is invariably its meaning. The aptitude of many of our monosyllables beginning with a vowel, to assume the n is well known; but the progress of this expression is distinctly marked in our early writers, a ones,' 99.66 an anes,"" for the ones," "for the nanes." "for the nones," "for the nonce." Shall we have any more repetitions of pro nunc," and "pro nuntio, the prelate?" I am not without my fears; for, as I lately had occasion to observe, the race of Ding-dong's sheep is far from being extinct. 66 • No, nor a moccinigo.] A moccinigo, as Florio informs us you, or six hundred pound- -expect no lower price, for, by the banner of my front, I will not bate a bagatine,'-that I will have, only, a pledge of your loves, to carry something from amongst you, to shew I am not contemn'd by you. Therefore, now, toss your handkerchiefs, cheerfully, cheerfully; and be advertised, that the first heroic spirit that deigns to grace me with a handkerchief, I will give it a little remembrance of something, beside, shall please it better, than if I had presented it with a double pistolet. Per. Will you be that heroic spark, sir Pol? O, see! the window has prevented you. Volp. Lady, I kiss your bounty; and for this timely grace you have done your poor Scoto of Mantua, I will return you, over and above my oil, a secret of that high and inestimable nature, shall make you for ever enamour'd on that minute, wherein your eye first descended on so mean, yet not altogether to be despised, an object. Here is a powder conceal'd in this paper, of which, if I should speak to the worth, nine thousand volumes were but as one page, that page as a line, that line as a word; so short is this pilgrimage of man (which some call life) to the expressing of it. Would I reflect on the price? why, the whole world is but as an empire, that empire as a province, that province as a bank, that bank as a private purse to the purchase of it. I will only tell you; it is the powder that made Venus a goddess, (given her by Apollo,) that kept her perpetually young, clear'd her wrinkles, firm'd her gums, in his Worlde of Wordes, is a kinde of small coyne used in Venice." It is worth about nine-pence. A bagatine.] A bagatine, he says, is "a little coyne used in Italie." It is about the third part of a farthing, |