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Both this, th' Hefperian garden, Cadmus story,
Jove's fhower, the boon of Midas, Argus' eyes,
Boccace his Demogorgon, thousands more,

All abstract riddles of our ftone.

How now ?

SCENE II.

Mammon, Face, Surly.

Mam. Do we fucceed? Is our day come? and hold's it?
Fac. The evening will fet red upon you, fir;

You have colour for it, crimfon: the red ferment
Has done his office, three hours hence prepare you
To fee projection.

Mam. Pertinax, my Surly,

Again, I say to thee, aloud, be rich.

This day, thou fhalt have ingots: and, to-morrow, Give lords th' affront. Is it, my zephyrus, right? Blushes the bolts-head?

Fac. Like a wench with child, fir,

That were, but now, difcover'd to her mafter.
Mam. Excellent witty lungs! my only care is,
Where to get stuff enough now, to project on;
This town will not half ferve me.

Fac. No, fir? buy

The covering off o' churches.

Mam. That's true.

Fac. Yes.

Let 'em ftand bare, as do their auditory;
Or cap 'em, new, with fhingles.

Mam. No, good thatch :

Thatch will lye light upo' the rafters, lungs.
Lungs, I will manumit thee from the furnace;
I will restore thee thy complexion, Puffe,
Loft in the embers; and repair this brain,
Hurt wi' the fume o' the metals.

Fac. I have blown, fir,

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Hard for your worship; thrown by many a coal,
When 'twas not beech; weigh'd those I put in, just,
To keep your heat ftill even; these bleard-eyes
Have wak'd, to read your several colours, fir,
Of the pale citron, the green lyon, the crow,
The peacock's tail, the plumed swan ‘°.
Mam. And, laftly,

Thou haft defcry'd the flower, the fanguis agni ?
Fac. Yes, fir.

Mam. Where's master?

Fac. At's prayers, fir, he,

Good man, he's doing his devotions
For the fuccess.

Mam. Lungs, I will fet a period

To all thy labours: thou shalt be the mafter
Of my feraglio.

Fac. Good, fir.

Mam. But do you hear?

I'll geld you, lungs.

Fac. Yes, fir.

Mam. For I do mean

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To read your feveral colours, fir,

Of the pale citron, the green lyon, the CROW,

The peacock's tail, the plumed SWAN.] Thefe are terms made ufe of by adepts in the hermetic fcience, to exprefs the feveral effects arifing from the different degrees of fermentation. Thus we are told by one of them, from the putrefaction of the dead carcaffes a crow will be generated, which putting forth its head, and the bath being fomewhat increased, it will stretch forth its wings and begin to fly at length being made white by a gentle and long rain, and with the dew of heaven it will be changed into a white swan; but a new born crow is a fign of the departed dragon.

Whether these terms contain a meaning, is best known to those who use them, and pretend to understand them. I shall not trouble the reader with any more accounts of this kind, but refer those who are defirous of being initiated, to Afhmole's Theatrum Chymicum, and to the chymical collections published by the fame author, under the anagrammatical name of James Hafolle Efq; i. e. Elias Afh

mole.

Το

To have a lift of wives and concubines,
Equal with Solomon, who had the stone
Alike with me: and I will make me a back
With the elixir, that fhall be as tough
As Hercules, to encounter fifty a night.
Th'art fure thou faw'ft it blood?

Fac. Both blood and fpirit, fir.

Mam. I will have all my beds blown up; not stuft: Down is too hard. And then, mine oval room

Fill'd with fuch pictures as Tiberius took
From Elephantis, and dull Aretine
But coldly imitated. Then, my glaffes
Cut in more fubtle angles, to disperse,
And multiply the figures, as I walk
Naked between my fuccubæ. My mists
I'll have of perfume, vapour'd 'bout the room,
To" lofe our felves in; and my baths, like pits
To fall into from whence we will come forth,

C 3
Then, my glaffes

Cut in more fubtle angles, to difperfe,

And

And multiply the figures.] This fpecies of luft, which the iniquitous Mammon is contriving, was really practifed by one Hoftius in the time of Nero; an account of whofe impurities we have in the ift book of Seneca's Natural Questions: Hoc loco volo tibi narrare fabellam, ut intelligas quam nullum inftrumentum irritandæ voluptatis libido contemnat, & ingeniola fit ad incitandum furorem fuum. And afterwards he says, Non quantum peccabat videre contentus, fpecula fibi, per quæ flagitia fua divideret, difponeretque circumdedit.

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My mifts

I'll have of perfume, vapour'd 'bout the room.

To lofe ourselves in.] Our poet is truly claffical in all his inftances of luxury and extravagance. It was a custom with the Romans on festival occafions, to have a mixture of wine, and saffron, and other odours, which was diffused about the room where the affembly met. And Suetonius informs us, that when Nero made his entry into Rome, after his return from Greece, the streets were sprinkled with this mixture. It was chiefly used in the theatres, where it was conveyed to the top, and then sprinkled on the heads of the spectators, as we learn both from Pliny, (Nat. Hift. lib. 21. c. 17.) and from Lucan, lib. 9. v. 808 & feq.

That

And roll us dry in goffamour and roses. (Is it arriv'd at Ruby?).

-Where I fpy

A wealthy citizen, or rich lawyer,

Have a fublim'd pure wife, unto that fellow
I'll fend a thousand pound, to be my cuckold.
Fac. And I fhall carry it?

Mam. No. I'll ha' no bawds,

But fathers and mothers. They will do it beft,
Beft of all others. And my flatterers

Shall be the pure, and graveft of divines",
That I can get for money. My meer fools,
Eloquent burgeffes, and then my poets
The fame that writ fo fubtily of the fart1⁄44,
Whom I will entertain ftill for that subject.
The few that would give out themselves to be
Court and town-ftallions, and, each-where, belie
Ladies, who are known most innocent, for them;
Thofe will I beg, to make me eunuchs of:
And they shall fan me with ten eftrich tails

That this piece of luxury was not a very early invention, even among the Romans themfelves, appears from Propertius and Ovid; who in commending the frugality of their ancestors, mention their want of this delicacy as an instance of it.

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Non finuofa cavo pendebant vela theatro,
Pulpita folennes non oluere crocos.

PROPERT. lib. 4. el. 1.

Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro,
Nec fuerant liquido pulpita rubra croco.

My flatterers

OVID. Art. Amand. lib. 1.

Shall be the PURE, and graveft of divines.] The pure, i. e. the puritanical. Mr. UPTON.

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And then my poets.

The fame that writ fo fubtily of the FART] Who the author alluded to fhou'd be, I cannot fay: in the collection of poems, called Mufarum Delicie, or the Mufes Recreation, by fir John Mennes, and Dr. Smith, there is a poem called the fart cenfured in the parliament buje; it was occafioned by an escape of that kind in the house of commons. I have seen part of this poem afcribed to an author in the time of queen Elizabeth, and poffibly it may be the thing referred to by Jonfon.

A-piece,

A-piece, made, in a plume, to gather wind.
We will be brave, Puffe, now we ha' the med'cine.
My meat shall all come in, in Indian fhells,
Dishes of agat fet in gold, and ftudded

With emeralds, faphirs, hyacinths, and rubies.
The tongues of carps, dormife, and camels heels,
Boil'd i' the spirit of fol, and diffolv'd pearl,
(Apicius, diet, 'gainst the epilepfie "")

And I will eat these broaths with spoons of amber,
Headed with diamant, and carbuncle.

My foot-boy fhall eat pheasants, calver'd falmons,
Knots, godwits, lampreys: I my self will have
The beards of barbels ferv'd, instead of fallads;
Oil'd mushromes; and the swelling unctuous paps
Of a fat pregnant fow, newly cut off,

Dreft with an exquifite, and poinant fauce;
For which, I'll fay unto my cook, there's gold,
Go forth, and be a knight.

Fac. Sir, I'll go look

A little, how it heightens.
Mam. Do. My shirts

I'll have of taffata-farfnet, soft, and light
As cob-webs; and for all my other raiment,
It shall be such as might provoke the Perfian,
Were he to teach the world riot anew.

My gloves of fishes and bird-skins, perfum'd
With gums of paradife, and eastern air-

Sur. And do you think to have the stone, with this? Mam. No, I do think t' have all this, with the ftone.

15 The tongues of carps, dormile, and camels heels,

Boil dithe fpirit of fol, and diffolv'd pearl,

(Apicius' diet, 'gainst the epilepfie.] This is from the historian Elius Lampridius, in the life of Heliogabalus: Comedit fæpius ad imitationem apicii calcanea camelorum, & criftas vivis gallinaceis demptas, linguas pavonum & luciniarum: quod qui ederet ab epilepfia tutus diceretur. Most of fir Epicure's dainties are mentioned in Lampridius.

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