Both this, th' Hefperian garden, Cadmus story, 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? You have colour for it, crimfon: the red ferment 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. Fac. No, fir? buy The covering off o' churches. Mam. That's true. Fac. Yes. Let 'em ftand bare, as do their auditory; Mam. No, good thatch : Thatch will lye light upo' the rafters, lungs. Fac. I have blown, fir, Hard for your worship; thrown by many a coal, Thou haft defcry'd the flower, the fanguis agni ? Mam. Where's master? Fac. At's prayers, fir, he, Good man, he's doing his devotions Mam. Lungs, I will fet a period To all thy labours: thou shalt be the mafter Fac. Good, fir. Mam. But do you hear? I'll geld you, lungs. Fac. Yes, fir. Mam. For I do mean 10 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, 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 C 3 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. 12 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 Mam. No. I'll ha' no bawds, But fathers and mothers. They will do it beft, Shall be the pure, and graveft of divines", 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. 13 Non finuofa cavo pendebant vela theatro, PROPERT. lib. 4. el. 1. Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro, My flatterers OVID. Art. Amand. lib. 1. Shall be the PURE, and graveft of divines.] The pure, i. e. the puritanical. Mr. UPTON. 14 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. With emeralds, faphirs, hyacinths, and rubies. And I will eat these broaths with spoons of amber, My foot-boy fhall eat pheasants, calver'd falmons, Dreft with an exquifite, and poinant fauce; Fac. Sir, I'll go look A little, how it heightens. I'll have of taffata-farfnet, soft, and light My gloves of fishes and bird-skins, perfum'd 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. |