Reaching his dofe, walking Moor-fields for lepers,
And offering citizens-wives pomander-bracelets,
As his prefervative, made of the elixir ;
Searching the fpittle, to make old bawds young;
And the high-ways, for beggars, to make rich :
I fee no end of his labours. He will make
Nature afham'd, of her long fleep: when art,
Who's but a step-dame, fhall do more than fhe,
In her best love to mankind, ever could.
If his dream laft, he'll turn the age to gold.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Ome on, fir.

In novo orbe;

Mammon, Surly.

Now, you fet your
here's the rich Peru:

foot on shore

And there within, fir, are the golden mines,

Great Solomon's Ophir! he was failing to't,
Three years, but we have reach'd 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 spectatiffimi.

You fhall no more deal with the hollow dye',

Or the frail card. No more be at charge of keeping
The livery-punk, for the young heir, that muft
Seal, at all hours, in his fhirt. No more,

If he deny, ha' him beaten to't, as he is
That brings him the commodity. No more

You shall no more deal with the HOLLOW DYE.] This alludes to the way of cheating among gamesters, to make their dice hollow, and then by loading them to make them run high or low. Hence they were called high and low men, and high and low Fulhams. See Every Man out of his Humour, act 3. fc. 6. The high were fo loaden, as to run 4, 5, or 6; the low to run 1, 2,

or 3.

Shall

Shall thirft of fattin, or the covetous hunger
Of velvet entrails, for a rude-fpun cloke,
To be difplaid at madam Augusta's2, make
The fons of Sword and Hazzard fall before
The golden calf, and on their knees, whole nights,
Commit idolatry with wine, and trumpets:
Or go a feasting, after drum and enfign.

No more of this. You fhall ftart up young Viceroys, And have your punques, and punquetees, my Surly. And unto thee, I speak it first,

Be rich,

3

Sir, he'll

His lungs, his zephyrus, he that puffs his coals,
Till he firk nature up, in her own center.

You are not faithful, fir. This night, I'll change
All, that is metal, in my houfe, to gold.
And, early in the morning, will I fend
To all the plumbers, and the pewterers,

And buy their tin, and lead up; and to Lothbury*,
For all the copper.

Sur. What, and turn that too?

Mam. Yes, and I'll purchase Devonshire, and Corn

[wall,

To be difplay'd at madam AUGUSTA's. ] The mistress of a brothel; and probably the fame whom he elsewhere calls madam Cæfarean. 3 Mam That is his fire-drake,

His LUNGS.] Lungs was a term of art, for the under operators in chemistry, whofe bufinefs principally was to take care of the fire. So Cowley, in his fketch of a philofophic college, in the number of its members reckons two lungs, or chemical fervants; and afterwards, affigning their falaries, To each of the lungs twelve pound.

And to LOTHBURY,

For all the copper.] Lothbury, the name of a street in London, at that time inhabited chiefly by founders and brafiers.

And

And make them perfect Indies! you admire now?
Sur. No faith.

Mam. But when you fee th' effects of the great me

Of which one part projected on a hundred
Of Mercury, or Venus, or the moon,
Shall turn it to as many of the fun;
Nay, to a thousand, so ad infinitum:
You will believe me.

Sur. Yes, when I fee't, I will.
But, if my eyes do cozen me fo, (and I
Giving 'em no occafion) fure I'll have
A whore, fhall pifs 'em out, next day.
Mam. Ha! why?

Do you think, I fable with you? I affure you
He that has once the flower of the fun,
The perfect ruby, which we call elixir,
Not only can do that, but, by its virtue,
Can confer honour, love, refpect, 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,

[dicine !

Reftore his years, renew him, like an eagle,
To the fifth age; make him get fons and daughters,
Young giants; as our philofophers have done
(The antient patriarchs afore the flood)
But taking, once a week, on a knives point,
The quantity of a grain of mustard of it:
Become stout Marses, and beget young cupids.
Sur. The decay'd veftals of pickt-hatch would

That keep the fire alive, there.

Mam. 'Tis the secret

Of nature naturiz'd 'gainst all infections,
Cures all diseases, coming of all causes ;

[thank you,

A

A month's grief in a day; a year's in twelve:
And, of what age foever, in a month.
Paft all the dofes of your drugging doctors.
I'll undertake, withal, to fright the plague
Out o' the kingdom, in three months.
Sur. And I'll

Be bound, the players fhall fing your praises, then,
Without their poets.

Mam. Sir, I'll do't.

Mean time,

I'll give away fo much unto my man,

Shall ferve th' whole city, with prefervative,
Weekly; each houfe his dofe, and at the rate-
Sur. As he that built the water-work, do's with
Mam. You are incredulous.

Sur. Faith I have a humour,

I would not willingly be gull'd. Your stone
Cannot tranfmute me.

Mam. Pertinax, Surly,

Will you believe antiquity? records?

[water?

I'll fhew you a book, where Mofes and his fifter,

And Solomon have written of the art;

I, and a treatise penn'd by Adam 7.

Sur. How!

Mam.

5 I'll undertake, withal, to fright the plague

Out o' the kingdom, in three months.] The defence which Dr. Anthony published of himfelf at Cambridge in 1610, is called Medicina chymicæ & veri potabilis auri afertio, ex lucubrationibus Fra. Anthonii Londinenfis in medicina doctoris. It is divided into seven chapters the laft enumerates the feveral diftempers which his aurum patabile cures; among which is the plague itfelf; as he afferts to have been demonftrated by experience, in the plague which depopulated London in 1602.

6 As he that built the water-work, do's with water.] He, viz. Sir Hugh Middleton, as Mr. Upton too remarks: the New River was brought to London much about this time.

7 I'll fhew you a book, where Mofes, and his fifler,

And Solomon have written of the art;

I, and a treatise penn'd by Adam.] The writers on chemistry carry

VOL. III.

C

their

Mam. O' the philofophers ftone, and in high Dutch. Sur. Did Adam write, fir, in high Dutch?

Mam. He did:

Which proves it was the primitive tongue.
Sur. What paper?

Mam. On cedar board.

Sur. O that, indeed (they fay) Will laft 'gainst worms.

Mam. 'Tis like your Irish wood,

'Gainst cob-webs. I have a piece of Jafon's fleece, too,
Which was no other than a book of alchemy,
Writ in large sheep-fkin, a good fat ram-vellum'.
Such was Pythagoras' thigh, Pandora's tub;
And, all that fable of Medea's charms,

The manner of our work: the bulls, our furnace,
Still breathing fire: our argent-vive, the dragon:
The dragons teeth, mercury fublimate,

That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the biting
And they are gather'd into Jafon's helm,

(Th' alembick) and then fow'd in Mars his field,
And thence fublim'd so often, till they're fix'd.

their pretenfions very high; and in the catalogue of authors who have wrote on the subject, are numbered Mofes, and Miriam, and even Adam himself. Befides thofe mentioned by Fabricius, the reader may confult the hiftory of chemistry prefixed to Dr. Shaw's edition of Boerhave.

8 Sur. Did ADAM write, fir, in high-Dutch? Mam. He did: Which proves it was the primitive tongue.] A very humorous allufion to the fantastical conceit of Goropius Becanus, who undertook to maintain the teutonick language to be the primitive tongue, and the fame which Adam himself spake in Paradise.

9

I have a piece of Jafon's fleece too, Which was no other than a book of alchemy,

Writ in large sheep-fkin, a good fat ram-vellum.] Our learned author takes this circumftance from Suidas ; Το μυθολογώμενον χρυσείον δέρας βιβλιον ην εν δερμασι γεγραμμένον περιέχει όπως δεν δια χημειας χρυσον εργάσεσθαι Vid. Surv. in voc. δέρας. The poet with great humour, in the following verfes, ridicules the attempt of writers, who, having fixed on a favourite hypothefis, explain all the antient mythology in its fupport; and fuppofe it involved in all the fictions and fables of the poets.

Both