Sister Viola, I am glad to see you stirring; 'tis be angry is no man. I am sure my husband is a news to have me here, is't not, sister?

6 Mandrake-"A plant bearing yellow round apples; the root of it is great and white like a radish root, and is divided into two or more parts, growing sometimes like the legs of a man," Blount's Glossographia.

See Mr Steevens's Note on the Second Part of Henry IV. A. 3. S. 2.

7 la print.-Exactly, perfectly. So, in Laugh and lie downe, or the World's Folly, 1605. Sign. D. 3 :— "His looks were so demuir, his words were so in print, his graces so in order, and his conceits so in tune," &c.

See also the Notes of Mr Steevens and Mr Tyrwhitt on Love's Labour Lost, p. 419. edit. 1778.

Viola. No loss of goods can increase in him a wrinkle; no crabbed language make his countenance sour; the stubbornness of no servant shake him; he has no more gall in him than a dove, no more sting than an ant; musician will he never be, (yet I find much music in him,) but he loves no frets; and is so free from anger, that many times I am ready to bite off my tongue, because it wants that virtue which all women's tongues have, to anger their husbands: brother, mine can by no thunder turn him into a sharpness.

Fust. Belike his blood, sister, is well brew'd then.

Viola. I protest to thee, Fustigo, I love him most affectionately; but I know not-I ha' such a tickling within me-such a strange longing; nay, verily, I do long.

Fust. Then you're with child, sister, by all signs and tokens; nay, I am partly a physician, and partly something else. I ha' reads Albertus Magnus, and Aristotle's problems.

Viola. Repair to the Tortoise here in St Christopher's street, I will send you money; turn yourself into a brave man: instead of the arms of your mistress, let your sword and your military scarf hang about your neck.

Fust, I must have a great horseman's French feather too, sister.

Viola. O, by any means, to shew your light head, else your hat will sit like a coxcomb; to be brief, you must be in all points a most terrible wide mouth'd swaggerer.

Fust. Nay, for swaggering points let me alone. Viola. Resort then to our shop, and (in my husband's presence) kiss me, snatch rings, jewels, or any thing, so you give it back again, brother, in secret.

Fust. By this hand, sister.

Viola. Swear as if you came but new from knighting.

Fust. Nay, I'll swear after 400 a year. Viola. Swagger worse than a lieutenant among Viola. You're wide a'the bow-hand still, brother; fresh-water soldiers; call me your love, your my longings are not wanton, but wayward: I longingle, your cousin, or so; but sister, at no hand. to have iny patient husband eat up a whole porcupine, to the intent the bristling quills may stick about his lips like a Flemish mustachio, and be shot at me; I shall be leaner than the new moon, unless I can make him horn-mad.

Fust. No, no, it shall be cousin, or rather cuz; that's the gulling word between the citizens' wives and their old dames that man 'em to the garden; to call you one o'mine "aunts, sister, were as good as call you errant whore; no, no, let me alone to couzen you rarely.

Viola. He has heard I have a brother, but never saw him, therefore put on a good face. Fust. The best in Milan, I warrant.

Viola. Take up wares, but pay nothing; rifle my bosom, my pocket, ny purse, the boxes for money to dice withal; but, brother, you must give all back again in secret.

Fust. By this welkin that here roars, I will, or else let me never know what a secret is. Why, sister, do you think I'll 12 coney-catch you when

8 Albertus Magnus.- i. e. de Secretis Mulierum. S.

9 Make him drunk, and cut off his beard.-To cut off the hair of any person was, in our author's time, a mark of disgrace, and esteemed a very great indignity. From the following passage in a Pamphlet, called "The admirable deliverance of 266 Christians, by John Reynard, Englishman, from the captivity "of the Turkes, who had been Gally-slaves many years in Alexandria, 1608." Sign. B. 2. it seems to have been a practice made use by the Turks, towards their prisoners, "hither were these Christians brought; the first villany and indignitie that was done unto them, was the shaving off all the hayre both of heade and beard, thereby to rob them of those ornaments which all Christians make much of, because they best become them." 10 Scal'd hair.-i. e. scattered, or dispersed hair. Mr Lambe, in his Notes on Flodden Field, observes, that the word scale is used in the North in the above-mentioned sense. See also Mr Steevens's Note on Coriolanus.

Aunts.-Aunt was a cant word for a woman of no virtue, generally for a bawd. So, in Dekker's Bel-man's Night-walkes, Sign. G: "Be not so guld, be not so dull in understanding: do thou but follow aloofe those two tame pigeons, and thou shalt find, that her new uncle lies by it all that night, to make his kins-woman one of mine aunts." See also Mr Steevens's Note on Winter's Tale, A. 4. S. 2.

12

Coney-catch.-Coney-catch is to cheat or defraud. So, a coney-catcher was the common name of a cheat or sharper. In Blunt Master Constable, 1602, A. 4. Curvetto says: "Felony? you cony-catching slave." To which Frisco replies: "Coney-catching will bear an action. I'll cony-catch you for this." Robert Green, who, Dr Johnson observes, was one of the first amongst us who made a trade of writing Pamphlets, published several describing the different modes of cheating or cony-catching, used in his time.

Why, Infelicia! How is't now? ha, speak.

Inf. I'in well.-What makes this Doctor here? I'm well.

Duke. Thou wert not so e'en now. Sickness's pale hand

Duke. Give charge that none do enter, lock the Laid hold on thee even 14 in the deadst of feast

doors;

And, fellows, what your eyes and ears receive,
Upon your lives trust not the gadding air

To carry the least part of it.—The glass, the hour
glass.

Doct. Here, my lord.

Duke. Ab, 'tis near spent.

But, doctor Benedict, does your art speak truth?
Art sure the soporiferous stream will ebb,
And leave the crystal banks of her white body
Pure as they were at first, just at the hour?
Doct. Just at the hour, my lord.
Duke. Uncurtain her.

Softly, sweet doctor. What a coldish heat
Spreads over all her body!

Doct. The vital spirits, that by a sleepy charm
Were bound up fast, and threw an icy rust
On her exterior parts, now 'gin to break;
Trouble her not, my lord.

Duke. Some stools. You called

For music, did you not? oh, ho, it speaks,
It speaks. Watch, sirs, her waking, note those
sands.

Doctor, sit down: a dukedom that should weigh
mine

Own down twice, being put into one scale,
And that fond desperate boy Hipolito
Making the weight up, should not (at my hands)
Buy her i' the t'other, were her state more light
Than her's who makes a dowry up with alms.
Doctor, I'll starve her on the Appenine,
Ere he shall marry her. I must confess,
Hipolito is nobly born: A man,

Did not mine enemies blood boil in his veins,
Whom I would court to be my son-in-law;

ing;

And when a cup, crown'd with thy lover's health,
Had touch'd thy lips, a sensible cold dew
Stood on thy cheeks, as if that death had wept
To see such beauty alter'd.

Inf. I remember

I sat at banquet; but felt no such change.
Duke. Thou hast forgot then how a messenger
Came wildly in, with this unsavory news,
That he was dead.

Inf. What messenger? who's dead?
Duke. Hipolito. Alack, wring not thy hands!
Inf. I saw no messenger; heard no such news.
Doct. Trust me you did, sweet lady.
Duke. La' you now.

2 Ser. Yes, indeed, madam.

Duke. La' you now 'tis well, God knows.
Inf. You have slain him, and now you'll mur-

der me.

13 Beg me for a fool.-Sir William Blackstone, in his Commentaries, vol. i. p. 303. says: "By the old common law there is a writ de idiota inquirendo, to enquire whether a man be an idiot or not: which must be tried by a jury of twelve men; and, if they find him purus idiota, the profits of his lands, and the custody of his person, may be granted by the king to some subject who has interest enough to obtain them." And he observes, that this power, though of late very rarely exerted, is still alluded to in common speech by that usual expression of begging a man for a fool.

14 In the deadst of feasting.— i. e. in the midst; taken from the vulgar expression concerning night, saying in the dead of night, for the middle of it. S. P.

That, were Hipolito alive again,
15 I'd kneel and woo the noble gentleman
To be thy husband. Now I sore repent
My sharpness to him, and his family.
Nay, do not weep for him: we all must die.
Doctor, this place where she so oft hath seen
His lively presence, haunts her: does it not?
Doct. Doubtless, my lord, it does.
Duke. It does, it does.

Therefore, sweet girl, thou shalt to Bergamo.
Inf. Even where you will; in any place there's

woe.

Duke. A coach is ready; Bergamo doth stand In a most wholsome air; sweet walks; there's deer.

Aye, thou shall hunt and send us venison,
Which, like some goddess in the Cyprian groves,
Thine own fair hand shall strike.-Sirs, you shall
teach her

To stand, and how to shoot: aye, she shall hunt.
Cast off this sorrow. In, girl, and prepare
This night to ride away to Bergamo.
Inf. O most unhappy maid!

Duke. Follow it close.

[Exit.

No words that she was buried, on your lives,
Or that her ghost walks now after she is dead;
I'll hang you if you name a funeral.

1 Ser. I'll speak Greek, my lord, ere I speak
that deadly word.

2 Ser. And I'll speak Welch, which is harder
than Greek.
[Exeunt.
Duke. Away, look to her.-Doctor Benedict,
Did you observe how her complexion alter'd
Upon his name and death? O! would 'twere
true!

Doct. It may, my lord.

Duke. May! How? I wish his death.

Duke. Greatness hides sin; the guilt upon my
soul.
[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Enter CASTRUCHIO, PIORATTO, and FLUELLO. Cast. Signior Pioratto, signior Fluello, shall's be merry? shall's play the wag now?

Fluel. Aye, any thing that may beget the child of laughter.

Cast. Truth, I have a pretty sportive conceit new crept into my brain, will move excellent mirth.

Pior. Let's ha't, let's ha't; and where shall the scene of mirth lie?

Cast. At signior Candido's house, the patient man; nay, the monstrous patient man. They say his blood is immoveable; that he has taken all patience from a man, and all constancy from a

woman.

Fluel. That makes so many whores now-a-days.
Cast. Aye, and so many knaves too.
Pior. Well, sir.

Cast. To conclude; the report goes, he's so mild, so affable, so suffering, that nothing indeed can move him. Now, do but think what sport it will be to make this fellow (the mirror of patience) as angry, as vext, and as mad as an English cuckold.

Fluel. O! 'twere admirable mirth, that: but how will't be done, signior?

Cast. Let me alone; I have a trick, a conceit, a thing, a device will sting him, 'faith, if he have but a thimbleful of blood in his belly, or a spleen not so big as 17 a tavern token.

Pior. Thou stir him! thou move him! thou anger him! Alas! I know his approved temper.

Doct. And you may have your wish: say but Thou vex him! why he has a patience above

the word,

And 'tis a strong spell to rip up his grave.
I have good knowledge with Hipolito :
He calls me friend; I'll creep into his bosom,
And sting him there to death: poison can do't.
Duke. Perform it; I'll create thee half mine
heir.

Doct. It shall be done, although the fact be
foul.

man's injuries; thou may'st sooner raise a spleen in an angel than rough bumour in him. Why, I'll give you instance for it: this wonderfully temper'd signior Candido upon a time invited home to his house certain Neapolitan lords, of curious taste, and no mean palates, 18 conjuring his wife of all loves, to prepare cheer fitting for such honourable trenchermen. She (just of a woman's nature, covetous to try the uttermost of

15 I'd kneel.-All the editions read I'll kneel.

17 A tavern token.-During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and from thenceforward to that of Charles the Second, very little brass or copper-money was coined by authority. For the convenience of trade, victuallers and other tradesmen, without any restriction, were therefore permitted to coin small money, or tokens as they were called, which were used for change. These tokens were very small pieces, and probably at first coined chiefly by tavern-keepers; from whence the expression a tavern token might have been originally derived. Amongst other cant phrases to describe drunkenness, it appears from Philocothonista, 1635, p. 60. that to swallow a tavern token was one. So Cob, in Every Man in his Humour, A. 1. S. 4. says, in answer to Master Matthew's question: "Was he drunk?" "Drunk, sir? you hear not me say so. Perhaps he swallowed a tavern token, or some such device, sir, I have nothing to do withal."

18 Conjuring his wife of all loves—See Note 95 to Gammer Gurton's Needle, p. 130.

vexation, and thinking at last to get the start of his humour) willingly neglected the preparation, and became unfurnish'd not only of dainty, but of ordinary dishes. He (according to the mildness of his breast) entertained the lords, and with courtly discourse beguiled the time, as much as a citizen might do. To conclude; they were hungry lords, for there came no meat in; their stomachs were plainly gull'd, and their teeth deluded, and (if anger could have seized a man) there was matter enough, 'faith, to vex any citizen in the world, if he were not too much made a fool by his wife.

Fluel. Aye, I'll swear for't: 'sfoot, had it been my case, I should ha' played mad tricks with my wife and family; first, I would ha' spitted the men, stewed the maids, and baked the mistress, and so served them in.

Geo. Faith, signior, he's a little negociated; he'll appear presently.

Cast. Fellow, let's see a lawn, a choice one, sirrah.

Geo. The best in all Milan, gentlemen, and this is the piece. I can fit you, gentlemen, with fine callicoes too for doublets; the only sweet fashion now, most delicate and courtly: a meck gentle callico, cut upon two double affable taffatas: ab, most neat, feat, and unmatchable.

Fluel. A notable voluble-tongued villain. Pior. I warrant this fellow was never begot without much prating.

Cast. What, and is this she, say'st thou ? Geo. Aye, and the purest she that ever you fingered since you were a gentleman: look how even she is; look how clean she is; ha! as even as the brow of Cynthia, and as clean as your sons

Pior. Why, 'twould ha' temper'd any blood and-heirs when they ha' spent all.
but his;

And thou to vex him; thou to anger him
With some poor shallow jest!

Cast. S'blood, signior Pioratto (you that disparage my conceit) I'll wage a hundred ducats upon the head on't, that it moves, frets him, and galls him.

Pior. Done: 'tis a lay; 19 join golls on't. Witness signior Fluello.

Cast. Witness: 'tis done.

Come follow me: the house is not far off.
I'll thrust him from his humour, vex his breast,
And win an hundred ducats by one jest.

SCENE V.

[Exeunt.

Enter CANDIDO's Wife, GEORGE, and two' Pren tices in the Shop.

Wife. Come you, put up your wares in good order here do you not think, you, one piece cast this way, another that way, you had need have a patient master indeed?

Geo. Aye, I'll be sworn, for we have a curst mistress.

Wife. You mumble! Do you mumble? I would your master or I could be a note more angry: for two patient folks in a house spoil all the servants that ever shall come under them.

1 'Prentice. You patient! aye, so is the devil when he is horn-mad.

Enter CASTRUCHIO, FLUELLO, and PIORATTO. All three. Gentlemen, what do you lack? what is't you buy? See fine hollands, fine cambricks, fine lawns.

Geo. What is't you lack?

2 'Prentice. What is't you buy?

Cast. Where's signior Candido, thy master?

Cast. Puh! thou talk'st-Pox on't, 'tis rough. Geo. How! Is she rough? But, if you bid pox on't, sir, 'twill take away the roughness presently. Fluel. Ha, signior, has he fitted your French curse?

Geo. Look you, gentlemen, here's another; compare then, I pray: compara Virgilium cum Homero, compare virgins with harlots.

Cast. Puh! I ha' seen better; and as you term them, evener and cleaner.

Geo. You may see farther for your mind, but trust me you shall not find better for your body. Enter CANDIDO.

Cast. O! here he comes: let's make as though
we pass.

Come, come, we'll try in some other shop.
Can. How now? what's the matter?
Geo. The gentlemen find fault with this lawn;
fall out with it, and without a cause too.
Can. Without a cause!

And that makes you to let 'em pass away.
Ah, may I crave a word with you, gentlemen?
Fluel. He calls us.

Cust. Makes the better for the jest.

Can. I pray come near. You're very welcome,

gallants;

Pray pardon my man's rudeness, for I fear me
He's talk'd above a 'prentice with you.-Lawns!
Look you, kind gentlemen-this!-no:—Aye,
this:

Take this, upon my honest-dealing faith,
To be a true weave; not too hard, nor slack,
But e'en as far from falsehood, as from black.
Cast. Well, how do you rate it?

Can. Very conscionably; eighteen shillings a yard.

Cast. That's too dear. How many yards does the whole piece contain, think you?

19 Join golls-i e. hands.