صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

(We must appease him. Give it me) and prays you, You would devise-What is it, Nab?

Drug. A sign, sir.

Face. Ay, a good lucky one; a thriving sign, doctor. Sub. I was devising now.

Face. 'Slight, do not say so;

He will repent he gave you any more. [Aside to Sub. What say you to his constellation, doctor?

The Balance ?

Sub. No, that way is stale and common.
A townsman born in Taurus, gives the bull,
Or the bull's head; in Aries, the ram;

A

poor device. Come hither, Abel.

No, I will have his name

Form'd in some mystic character, whose radii,
Striking the senses of the passers by,

Shall, by a virtual influence, breed affections,
That may result upon the party owns it:

As thus

Drug. I don't understand it.

Face. Nab!

Sub. He shall have a bell, that's Abel.
Drug. And so it is.

700

Sub. And by it standing one whose name is Dee, In a rug gown; there's D, and rug, that's Drug;

And right anenst him a dog snarling er;

There's Drugger, Abel Drugger.

Drug. My name!

Sub. That's his sign.

And here's now mystery and hieroglyphic !

Face. Abel, thou art made.

Drug. I do thank his worship.

Face. Six o' thy legs more will not do it, Nab. What'st got there, Nab?

Drug. A pipe of tobacco.

Face. A pipe of tobacco! Give it me.

He has brought you a pipe of tobacco, doctor.

720

Drug. Yes, sir-Captain Face, captain Face, your worship.

Face. What dost say, Nab?

Drug. I have another thing I would impart

Face. Out with it, Nab.

Drug. Sir, there is lodg'd hard by me,

A rich young widow

Face. Good; a bona roba!

Drug. But nineteen at the most.

Face. Very good, Abel.

Drug. Marry, she's not in fashion yet; she wears

A hood; but 't stands acop.

Face. No matter, Abel.

Drug. And I do now and then give her a fucus-
Face. What dost deal, Nab?

Sub. I did tell you, captain.

Drug. And physic too, sometimes, sir; for which she trusts me

With all her mind. She's come up here of purpose

To learn the fashion.

Face. Good; on, Nab.

740

Drug. And she does strangely long to know her

fortune.

Face. God'slid, Nab, send her to the doctor hither.

Drug. Yes, I have spoken to her of his worship

already :

But she's afraid it will be blown abroad,

And hurt her marriage.

Face. Hurt it! 'Tis the way

To heal it, if 'twere hurt; to make it more

Follow'd and sought. Nab, thou shalt tell her this:
She'll be more known, more talk'd of; and your widows
Are ne'er of any price till they be famous,

Their honour is the multitude of suitors.
Send her, it may be thy good fortune. What,
Thou dost not know?

Drug. No, sir, she'll never marry

Under a knight. Her brother has made a vow.
Face. What, and dost thou despair, my little Nab,
Knowing what the doctor has set down for thee,
And seeing so many of the city dubb'd?

"One glass o' thy water, with a madam, I know 760 "Will have it done," Nab. What's her brother? A knight?

Drug. No, sir, a gentleman, newly warm in his land,

sir.

Scarce cold in his one-and-twenty, that does govern
His sister here, and is a man himself

Of some three thousand a year, and is come up
To learn to quarrel, and to live by his wits,
And will go down again, and die i' the country,
When he can't live any longer here.

Face. How to quarrel ?

Drug. Yes, sir, to carry quarrels,

As gallants do; to manage them by line.

Face. 'Slid, Nab, the doctor is the only man In Christendom for him.

Drug. Is he?

Face. He has made a table,

With mathematical demonstrations,

Touching the art of quarrels.

Drug. Has he?

Face. He will give him

An instrument to quarrel by.
Drug. Will he?

Face. Go, bring 'em both,

Him and his sister. And for thee, with her
The doctor haply may persuade. Go to.
Sha't give his worship a new damask suit
Upon the premises.

Sub. Oh, good captain

Face. He shall:

He is the honestest fellow, doctor

-Stay not;

No offers; bring the damask and the parties.

Drug. I'll try my power, sir.

Face And thy will, too, Nab.

780

Sub. 'Tis good tobacco, this. What is't a pound? Drug. I'll sell your worship a hogshead of it.

Face. He'll send you a hogshead, doctor.

[Abel runs out, and Face brings him back.

Sub. Oh, no!

Face. He will do't:

It is the goodest soul-Abel, about it.

Thou shalt know more anon. Away, begone.
Drug. I'll give him a pound.—I'll give him two

pound.

[Exit. Face. A miserable rogue, and lives with cheese, 801 And has the worms. That was the cause, indeed, Why he came now. He dealt with me in private, To get a med'cine for them.

Sub. And shall, sir. This works.

Face. A wife, a wife for one of us, my dear Subtle : We'll e'en draw lots," and he that fails shall have

"The more in goods, the other has in tail." But Dol must ha' no breath on't.

Sub. Mum.

Away you to your Surly, yonder; catch him.
Face. Pray Heaven, I ha' not staid too long.
Sub. I fear it.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE 1.

Enter TRIBULATION and ANANIAS.

Tribulation.

THESE chastisements are common to the saints;
And such rebukes we of the separation
Must bear with willing shoulders, as the trials
Sent forth to tempt our frailties.

Ana. In pure zeal,

I do not like the man. He is a Heathen,
And speaks the language of Canaan, truly.
Trib. I think him a prophane person, indeed.

« السابقةمتابعة »