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Nor creaking throne comes down the boys
to please:

Nor nimble squib is seen to make afeard
The gentlewomen; nor roul'd bullet heard
To say, it thunders; nor tempestuous drum
Rumbles, to tell you when the storm doth

come;

But deeds, and language, such as men do use,
And persons, such as Comedy would chuse,
When she would show an image of the times,
And sport with human follies, not with
cr mes,2

Except we make 'em such, by loving still
Our popular errors, when we know th' are ill,
mean such errors as you'll all confess,
By laughing at them, they deserve no less:
Which when you heartily do, there's hope
left then,
[like men.
You, that have so grac'd monsters, may

And help of some few FOOT AND HALF-FOOT WORDS,

Fight over York and Lancaster's long jurs.] The author takes occasion in this prologue to ridicule the common practice of the stage-writers; their deficiency in plot, their ignorance of the dramatic unities, with their several imperfections both in sentiment and style. Possibly Shakspeare himself, by the help of a proper application, was designed to be included in this censure. The "foot and half-foot words," a translation of Horace's Sesquiped lia Verba, allude to expressions of a most unmeasurable length, which were commonly made use of by the authors or that age; and were supposed to give magnificence and sublimity to their diction. It was about this time, that compound epithets were first introduced into our poetry; and to what licentiousness of style they were perverted, appears from the fol lowing lines of Bishop Hall, who is drawing the character of the Poetaster Labeo.

"He knows the grace of that new elegance,

"Which sweet Philisides fetch'd of late rom France,

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' (1 hat well beseem'd his high-styl'd Arcady,

Though others mar it with much liberty);

"In epithets to join two words in one,

"Forsooth, for adjectives cannot stand alone:

"As a great poet could of Bacchus say,

"That he was Semete-femor genu." VIRGIDEMIARUM Lib. VI. Sat. 1.

' And sport with human follies, not with crimes.] This distinction is made expressly from the precept of Aristotle; who assigns the ro yoo or the ridiculous, as the immediate subject of comedy. Poetic. Sect. 5. but makes the crimes of men, as being of a more seri ous nature, the particular object of the tragic poet.

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Tell him, I have some business to employ
Brai. I will, sir, presently.

Kno. But hear you, sirrah,

If he be at his book, disturb him not.
Brai. Well, sir.'

Kno. How happy yet, should I esteem

myself,

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The vain from th' useful learnings.

Stephen!

Cousin [early?

What news with you, that you are here so Step. Nothing, but e'en come to see how you do, uncle.

Kno. That's kindly done; you are wel

come, couz.

Step.

I, I know that, sir, I would not
How does my cousin

ha' come else.
Edward, uncle?

Kno. O, well couz, go in and see: I doubt he be scarce stirring yet.

Step. Uncle, afore I go in, can you tell me an' he have e're a book of the sciences of hawking and hunting? I would fain borrow it.

Kno. Why, I hope you will not a hawking now, will you?

Step. No, wusse, but I'll practise against next year, uncle: I have bought me a hawk, and a hood, and bells, and all; I lack nothing but a book to keep it by.* Kno. O, most ridiculous.

Step. Nay, look you now, you are angry, uncle; why you know an' a man have not skill in the hawking and hunting-languages now-a-days, I'll not give a rush for him. They are more studied than the Greek, or the Latin. He is for no gallants company without 'em and by gads-lid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for every hum-drum; hang'em, scroyles! there's nothing in 'em i' the world." What do you

A goodly day toward! and a fresh morning! Brain-worm,

Call up your young master: bid him rise, sir.] Thus are these lines printed in the common editions of this poet, without any regard to the measure or quanitty of the verse. It must be owned that the metre of the comic poets, in the age of Jonson, was extremely loose and irreglar, often requiring to be helped out by the speaker. The voice, as it was necessary, must either slur over, or lengthen out a syllable to preserve the numbers. An elision in the word your, by marking it in this manner y'r, would guide the pronunciation in the reading. There is, however, an expletive, that might easily be omitted, and might probably have been the player's insertion: and the verse would be better, if we read it thus: Brain-worm, call your young master: bid him rise, sir.-Mr. SEWARD.

These observations are equally ingenious and just; but I have still ventured to retain the old reading, principally on the authority of the first folio, which was printed in the poet's life-time, and under his own inspection. The defect in measure is probably in the first line; which becomes a perfect verse by contracting the word toward into one syllable, and which undoubtedly must be so pronounced.

2 Brain. WELL, SIR. An elliptical expression; It is well, sir; probably borrowed from the Latin form of speaking, usual on such occasions.

Rogo nunquid velit; RECTE, inquit, abeo.-TEREN. Eun. Act. II. Scen. 3.

3 I, I know that, sir!] Ay, &c. The antient way of writing this affirmative particle was only with the vowel I, and a comma after it. This is followed in the old and last edition likewise, and I have conformed to it in the present.

*I lack nothing but a BOOK to keep it by.] Falconry was a favourite diversion of this age. Mr. Stephen having purchased a hawk with all its furniture, is ignorant how to keep it secundùm artem. For the service of connoisseurs like himself, books were then wrote upon this subject. A treatise of this kind by one George Turberville is yet to be found, and may perhaps be of infinite service to the curious in this science. In the same manner they fought duels by the book.

talk on it? Because I dwell at Hogsden, I shall keep company with none but the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come a ducking to Islington ponds? A fine jest i'faith! Slid, a gentleman mun show himself like a gentleman: Uncle, I pray you be not angry, i know what I have to do, I trow, I am no novice.

Kno. You are a prodigal absurd cocks-
comb, go to.

Nay, never look at me, it's I that speak.
Take't as you will, sir, I'll not flatter you.
Ha' you not yet found means enow to waste
That which your friends have left you,
but you must

Go cast away your money on a kite,
And know not how to keep it, when you
ha' done?'
[man!

O it's comely! this will make you a gentle-
Well, cousin, well! I see you are e'en past
hope
[it,
Of all reclaim: I, so, now you are told on
You look another way.

Step. What would you ha' me do?
Kno. What would I have you do? I'll tell
you, kinsman;
[thrive,
"Learn to be wise, and practise how to
"That would I have you do: and not to
spend

"Your coin on every bauble that you fancy,
"Or every foolish brain that humours you.
"I would not have you to invade each
place,

"Nor thrust yourself on all societies,
"Till men's affections, or your own desert,
"Should worthily invite you to your rank.
"He that is so respectless in his courses,
"Oft sells his reputation at cheap market.
"Nor would I, you should melt away your-

self

"In flashing bravery, lest while you affect
"To make a blaze of gentry to the world,
"A little puff of scorn extinguish it,
"And you be left like an unsav'ry snuff,
"Whose property is only to offend.
"I'd ha' you sober, and contain yourself;
"Not that your sail be bigger than your
boat;

"But moderate your expences now (at first)
"As you may keep the same proportion
still.

"Nor stand so much on your gentility,

"Which is an airy, and mere borrow'd
thing,
[none of yours,
"From dead ineu's dust, and bones; and
"Except you make, or hold it. Who comes
here?

SCENE II.

Servant, Mr. Stephen, Kno'well, Brain

worm.

Serv. Save you, gentlemen.

6

Step. Nay, we do not stand much on our gentility, friend; yet you are welcome, and I assure you mine uncle here is a man of a thousand a year, Middlesex land: he has but one son in all the world; I am his next heir (at the common law) Master Stephen, as simple as I stand here, if my cousin die (as there's hoped he will), I have a pretty living o' mine own too, beside, hard by here.

Serv. In good time, sir.

Step. In good time, sir? why! and in very good time, sir: you do not flout, friend, do you?

Serv. Not I, sir.

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Serv. Why, sir, let this satisfy you; good faith, I had no such intent.

Step. Sir, an' I thought you had, I would talk with you, and that presently.

Sero. Good Master Stephen, so you may, sir, at your pleasure.

Step. And so I would, sir, good my saucy companion! an' you were out o' mine uncle's ground, I can tell you; though I do not stand upon my gentility neither in't. Kno. Cousin! cousin! will this ne'er be left?

Step. Whoreson base fellow! a mechanical serving-man! By this cudgel, an' 'twere not for shame, I would

If

Kno. What would you do, you peremptory gull?

you cannot be quiet, get you hence. You see, the honest man demeans himself Modestly towards you, giving no reply To your unseason'd, quarrelling, rude fashion;

"Go cast away your money on a kite, And know not how to keep it, when you ha' done?] The great number of hawks or falcons kept in that age, and the manner of their food, will appear from the following passage: "I would our falcons might be satisfied with the division of their prey, as the falconsin Thracia were, that they needed not to devour the hens of this realm in such number, that unless it be shortly considered, our familiar poultry shall be as scarce, as be now partridge and pheasant. I speak not this in dispraise of the falcons, but of them which keepeth them like cockneys."-Sir TнO. ELIOT'S Governour, 1. i. c. 18. Lond. 1580.

• We do not stand much on our gentility, friend.] This answer is made with exquisite humour. Stephen piques himself on being a gentleman; Kno'well had just reproved him for a rough illiberal behaviour, and cautions him not to presume upon his birth and fortune. Master Stephen doth not seem to relish this advice, but at the entrance of the servant, he discovers his regard for what his uncle had been saying, by the repetition of his last words.

And still you huff it, with a kind of carriage | As void of wit, as of humanity. Go get you in; 'fore heaven, I am asham'd Thou hast a kinsman's interest in me. [Exit Stephen. Serv. I pray, sir, is this Master Kno'well's house?

Kno. Yes, marry is it, sir.

Serv. I should inquire for a gentleman here, one Master Edward Kno'well; do you know any such, sir, I pray you?

Kno. I should forget myself else, sir.

Serv. Are you the gentleman? Cry you mercy, sir: I was requir'd by a gentleman i' the city, as I rode out at this end o' the town, to deliver you this letter, sir.

Kno. To me, sir! What do you mean? pray you remember your court'sie. (To his most selected friend, Master Edward Kno’well.) What might the gentleman's name be, sir, that sent it? nay, pray you be cover'd.

Serv. One Master Well-bred, sir.

Kno. Master Well-bred! A young gentleman? is he not?

Serv. The same, sir; Master Kitely married his sister; the rich merchant i' the Oid Jewry.

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Kno. You say very true. Brain-worm. Brai. Sir.

Kno. Make this honest friend drink here: pray you go in.

This letter is directed to my son:
Yet I am Edward Kno'weli too, and may,
With the safe conscience of good manners,

use

The fellow's error to my satisfaction.
Well, I will break it ope, old men are curious,
Be it but for the style's sake, and the phrase,
To see it both do answer my son's praises,
Who is almost grown the idolater
Of this young Wel-bred: what have we
here? what's this?

THE LETTER.

Why, Ned, I beseech thee, hast thou forsworn all thy friends i' the Old Jewry? or dost thou think us all Jews that inhabit there? yet if thou dost, come over, and but see our trippery; change an old shirt for a whole stock with us: do not conceive that antipathy between us and Hogsden, as was between Jews and hogs-ftesh. Leave thy vigilant tether alone, to number over his green apricots, evening and morning, o' the north-west wall: an' I had been his son, I had sav'd him the labour long since, if

taking in all the young wenches that pass by at the back-door, and codling every kernel of the fruit for 'em, would ha' serv'd. But pr'ythee come over to me quickly, this morning; I have such a present for thee, our Wurky company never sent the like to the Grand Signior. One is a rhymer, sir, o' yourown batch, your own leaven; but doth think himself poet-major o' the town, willing to be shown, and worthy to be seen. The other-I will not venture his description with you, till you come, because I would ha' you make hither with an appetite. If the worst of 'em be not worth your journey, draw your bill of charges, as unconscionable as any Guild-hall verdict will give it you, and you shall be allow'd your viaticum.

"From the Wind-mill.

From the Bordello, it might come as well,
The Spittl, or Pict-hatch. Is this the man
My son hath sung so, for the happiest wit,
The choicest brain, the times have sent us
forth?

I know not what he may be in the arts,
Nor what in schools; but surely, for his

manners,

I judge him a profane and dissolute wretch:
Worse by possession of such great good gifts,
Being the master of so loose a spirit. [writ
Why, what unhallow'd ruffian would have
In such a scurrilous manner, to a friend!
Why should he think, I tell my apricots,
Or play th' Hesperian dragon with my fruit,
To watch it? Well, my son,I had thought, you
Had had more judgment to have made
election
[trust,

Of your companions, than t' have talen on
Such petulant, jeering gamesters, that can

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"From the WIND-MILL.] This house then stood at the corner of the Old Jewry, towards Lothbury; and was remarkable for the various changes it had successively undergone. The Jews used it at first for a Synagogue; afterwards it came into the possession of a certain order of friars called de Pænitent à Jesú, or Fratres de Sacca, from their being clothed in sackcloth. In process of time, it was converted to a private house, wherein several mayors had resided, and kept their mayoralty. In the days of Stow, from whom this account is taken, it was a wine-tavern, and had for the sign a wind-u ill.

See Srow's Survey by STRYPE, L. III. p. 54.

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Who, ne'er so little from his game with-held,
Turns head, and leaps up at his holder's throat.
"There is a way of winning more by love,
And urging of the modesty, than fear: "
"Force works on servile natures, not the free.
"He that's compell'd to goodness, may
be
good;
[drawn
"But 'tis but for that fit: where others,
"By softness and example, get a habit.
"Then, if they stray, but warn'em; and the
[do for shame."

same

"They should for virtue have done, they'll

SCENE III.

Edw. Kno'well, Brain-worm, Mr. Stephen.
E. Kno. Did he open it, say'st thou ?
Brai. Yes, o' my word, sir, and read the

contents.

E. Kno. That scarce contents me. What countenance, pr'ythee, made he, i' th' reading of it? was he angry, or pleas'd?

Brai. Nay, sir, I saw him not read it, nor open it, I assure your worship. 1

E. Kno. No how know'st thou, then, that he did either?

Brai. Marry, sir, because he charg'd me, on my life, to tell nobody that he open'd it; which unless he had done, he would never fear to have it reveal'd.

E. Kno. That's true: well, I thank thee, Brain-worm.

Step. O, Brain-worm, didst thou not see a fellow here in a what'sha'call-him doublet? he brought mine uncle a letter e'en now.

Brai. Yes, master Stephen; what of him? Step. O, I ha' such a mind to beat himWhere is he? canst thou tell?

Brai. Faith, he is not of that mind: he is gone, master Stephen.

Step. Gone! which way? when went he? how long since?

Brai. He is rid hence: he took horse at the street-door.

• There is a way of winning more by love,

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Brai. You'll be worse vex'd when you are truss'd, master Stephen. Best keep unbrac'd, and walk yourself till you be cold; your choler may founder you else.

Step. By my faith, and so I will; now thou tell'st me on't: How dost thou like my leg, Brain-worm?

Brai. A very good leg, master Stephen; but the woollen stocking does not commend it so well.

Step. Foh, the stockings be good enough, now summer is coming on, for the dust: I'll have a pair of silk against winter, that I go to dwell i' th' town. I think my leg

would shew in a silk hose

Brai. Believe me, master Stephen, rarely well.

Step. In sadness, I think it would: I have a reasonable good leg.

Brui. You have an excellent good leg, master Stephen; but I cannot stay to praise it longer now, and I am very sorry for't. Step. Another time will serve, Brainworm. Gramercy for this.

E. Kno. Ha, ha, ha.

[Kno'well laughs, having read the letter. Step. 'Slid, I hope he laughs not at me; an' he do

E. Kno. Here was a letter indeed, to be intercepted by a man's father, and do him good with him! He cannot but think most virtuously, both of me, and the sender, sure; that make the careful costar' monger of him in our familiar epistles. Well, if he read this with patience I'll be gelt, and

And urging of the modesty, than fear, &c.] TERENCE is the author of these sentiments, which are adapted with the utmost propriety of character to the temper of the speaker.

Pudore & liberalitate liberos

Retinere, satius esse credo, quàm metu.

Malo coactus qui suum officium facit,
Dum id rescitum iri credit, tant.sper cavet.
Hoc patrium est, potiùs co sucfacere filium

Suá sponte rectè facere, quàm alien metu.-Adelph. Act. I. Sc. 1.

* I think my leg would shew in a silk hose ] The humour of these half-witted gallants, with relation to their dress, and particularly the furniture of their legs, is frequently taken notice of by our old comedians.

"Sir Tob. I did think by the excellent constitution of thy leg, it was formed under the star of a galliard.

"Sir And. Aye, 'tis strong; and it does indifferent well in a flame-coloured stocking." SHAKSPEARE's Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. 4.

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