TO THE READER OF MR WILLIAM DAVENANT'S PLAY. It hath been said of old, that plays are feasts, To use their judgments as their tastes; which chuse, taste meet, Both must agree this meat's or sharp or sweet: But if I scent a stench or a perfume, Whilst you smell nought at all, I may presume With relishes so curious, as dispense The utmost pleasure to the ravished sense, T. CAREW. THE PROLOGUE. Bless me, you kinder stars! how are we throng'd! Alas! whom hath our long-sick poet wrong'd, That he should meet together, in one day, A session, and a faction at his play? To judge, and to condemn; for't cannot be, Amongst so many here, all should agree. Then 'tis to such vast expectation raised, As it were to be wonder'd at, not praised; And this, good faith, sir poet (if I've read Customs, or men) strikes you and your muse dead. Conceive now too, how much, how oft each ear Hath surfeited, and this our hemisphere, With various, pure, eternal wit; and then, My tine young comic sir, you're kill'd again. But 'bove the mischief of these fears, a sort Y. Pul. Welcome on shore, Meager; give me 'Tis a true one, and will no more forsake Mea. Old wine, and new clothes, sir, Make you wanton; d'you not see Pert, my comrade? Y. Pal. Ambiguous Pert! hast thou danced Could a taff'ta scarf, a long estridge wing, From caudles where the precious amber swims? Pert. Faith, we have been to kill, we know not whom, : Nor why led on to break a commandment, Mea. Mine was a certain inclination, sir, Honour! which is the hope of the youthful, Pert. It was, sir, no geographical fancy, Y. Pal. True, sage Pert. What is't to thee, whether one Don Diego nour! Y. Pul. Why right; else wherefore shouldst thou bleed for him, Whose money, wine, nor wench, thou ne'er hast used? Or why destroy some poor root-eating soldier, Y. Pal. What, to unship your trunks at Bil- Fierce Meager! why such haste? do not I know, That a mouse yoked to a pease-cod may draw, With the frail cordage of one hair, your goods About the world? Pert. Why we have linen, sir. Y. Pal. As much, sir, as will fill a tinder-box, Or make a frog a shirt. I like not, friends, This quiet, modest posture of your shoulders. Why stir you not, as you were practising To fence? or do you hide your cattle, least The skipper make you pay their passage over? Pert. Know, Pallatine, truth is a naked lady, She will shew all. Meager and I have notY. Pal. The treasure of Saint Mark's, I believe, sir; I Though you are as rich as cast serving-men,] Sir William Davenant seems to have borrowed the hint of this plot from Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at several Weapons. 1 Saint Mark's-at Venice. Or bawds led thrice into captivity. I find It is not comely in thine eyes, to see Mea. And abstain flesh, As if our English beef were all reserved Pert. Whilst colon2 keeps more noise Mea. Contribute, come. Y. Pal. Stand there, close, on your lives: here, Lives a rich old hen, whose young egg (though not Pert. Pallatine, No plots upon generation; we two Y. Pal. I say close; shrink in your morions;3 go. [They step aside, whilst he calls between the hangings. Pert. We shall obey; but do not tempt us now With sweetmeats for the nether palate; do not. Y. Pal. What Lucy! Luce! now is the old beldam Misleading her to a cushion, where she A bushel of beads to her rosary. Lucy! my April love! my mistress, speak ! Enter LUCY. Lucy. Pallatine, for heaven's sake keep in you voice; My cruel aunt will hear, and I am lost. Y. Pal. What can she hear when her old ea are stuff'd With as much warm wax as will seal nine leases To creep into a close dark vault, there gossip Provided to accompany old people? Lucy. Still better'd unto worse! but that my heart Consents not to disfigure thee, thou wouldst be torn To pieces, numberless as sand, or as Y. Pal. How now, Luce! from what strange coast this storm! ha? Lucy. Thou dost out-drink the youth of Norway at Their marriage feasts, out-swear a puny gamester, When his first misfortune rages out in quarrel; Than their lanthorns; and here's your surgeon's bill, Your kind thrift (I thank you) hath sent it me Pert. I say, Meager, there is a small parcel That hath no more care of a gentleman's Y. Pal. He writes down here for a tool of in jection, 2 Colin-The colon is the greatest and widest of the human intestines. S. 3 Morions--or murrions. See note 11 on The 2d Part of the Honest Whore, Dodsley's edit. 4 Than a weaver of Banbury-See note 50 to The Ordinary, ditto. Luce, a small water-engine, which I bought That knows not how t'excuse what he hath done: Y. Pal. I'd as lieve keep our marriage-supper Luce, thou art drunk, Luce; far gone in almondmilk: Lucy. Aye, there's your business. Y. Pal. It is the business of the world: injuries grow To get it; justice sits for the same end; Ere she hath time to make an inventory. Pert. A cunning pioneer; he works to the 5 Debosh'd.-The 4to and folio read debash'd; debosh'd has the same meaning as debauch'd, and the word occurs in The Wandering Jew, 1640, p. 27. "The more I strive to love my husband, the more his deboish'd courses begets my hate." Again in Fennor's Compters Commonwealth, 1617, p. 27. :-For most commonly some knave or deboisht fellow, lurch the fooles their sons," &c. See also Mr Steevens's note on The Tempest, A. 3. S. 2. • Whinyard, a sword. So in Edward the Third, A. 1. S. 2: 7 Adam Bell, "Nor from their button'd, tawny, leathern belts, —an outlaw, celebrated for his skill in archery. Sec Dr Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. 1. p. 143. 8 Carcanets," A carcanet seems to have been a necklace set with stones, or strung with pearls." It is derived from the old French word carcan, whose diminutive was carcanet. See Cotgrave voce carcan. Carcanets are frequently mentioned by our ancient dramatic writers as in Cynthia's Revels, Induction :— "Makes her dote upon him, give him jewels, bracelets, carkenets," &c. Ibid. A. 4. S. 3. : "If your ladyships want embroidered gowns, tires of any fashion, rebatues, jewels, or carkanets, any thing whatsoever," &c. Marston's Antonio and Mellida, p. 2. A. 1. S. 2. :— "No, Lucio, my deare lord's wise, and knowes "That did adorn your neck of equal value." See also the notes of Dr Johnson, Mr Steevens, and Mr Warton on The Comedy of Errors, A. 3. S. 1. 9 Spoons." It was the custom formerly for the sponsors at christenings, to offer gilt spoons as a present to the child. These spoons were called apostle spoons, because the figures of the apostles were Thy mother write thee illegitimate. [Exit. Y. Pal. Temptations will not thrive. This baggage sleeps Cross-legg'd, and the devil has no more power O'er that charm, than dead men o'er their lewd heirs ; I must marry her, and spend my revenue To a feast. Thwack. At which serjeants and their yeomen In cradles, pins, and sope; 10 that's the end of Must be no waiters, Pallatine, lest some all That 'scape a deep river and a tall bough. Mea. Pallatine, how much? Pert. Honourable Pall! Y. Pal. Gentlemen, you must accept without Your corporal oaths to repay in three days. not. Y. Pal. Nor shall you charge me with loud (Thrice before company) to wait you in Y. Pal. Go then-shift, and brush your skins Meet me at the new play, fair and perfumed: mour. Pert. Language of joy, dear Pall. To town, the minion of the womb, my lads, O'the guests pretend business. How dost like me? E. Pal. As one old women shall no more avoid, Than they can warm furs or muskadel. Thwack. Pallatine, to have a volatile ache, Be register'd for a strange northern act. E. Pal. I cannot boast those noble maladies As yet; but time, dear knight, as I have heard, May make man's knowledge bold upon himself. We travel in the grand cause. These smooth rags, These jewels too that seem to smile ere they Enter Younger PALLATINE. Y. Pal. Your welcome, noble brother, carved on the tops of the handles. Such as were at once opulent and generous gave the whole twelve; those who were either more moderately rich, or liberal, escaped at the expence of the four Evangelists; or even sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any saint, in honour of whom the child received its name." Mr Steevens's note to King Henry VIII, A. 5. S. 2. where several instances of the mention of these spoons are exhibited. 10 In cradles, pins, and sope.—So in The Lover's Progress, A. 4. :— "Must I now Have sour sauce after sweet meats? and be driven To levy half a crown a week, besides Clouts, sope, and candles, for my heir apparent." Again in The Bashful Lover, by Massinger, A. 3. S. 1. : "Should you put it too for sope and candles, though he sell his flock for it, the baby must have his dug." A Chast Mayd in Cheape-side, p. 25. : "Halfe our gettings must run in sugar sops, And nurses wages now, besides many a pound of sope |