egg,

And a small paper of pin-dust.

Sub. What's your name?
Ana. My name is Ananias.
Sub. Out, the varlet

That cozened the apostles! Hence, away!
Flee, mischief! had your holy consistory
No name to send me, of another sound,
Than wicked Ananias? send your elders
Hither, to make atonement for you, quickly,
And give me satisfaction; or out goes
The fire; and down th' alembecs, and the
furnace,

Piger Henricus, or what not. Thou wretch!
Both sericon and bufo1 shall be lost,
'Tell them. All hope of rooting out the
bishops,
Or the anti-Christian hierarchy shall perish,
If they stay threescore minutes: the
aqueity,

Terreity, and sulphureity

Shall run together again, and all be annulled,

Thou wicked Ananias! [Exit Ananias.] This will fetch 'em,

And make them haste towards their gulling

more.

A man must deal like a rough nurse, and fright

Those that are froward, to an appetite.

Re-enter Face in his uniform, followed by Drugger.

Face. He is busy with his spirits, but we'll upon him.

Sub. How now! what mates, what
Baiards have we here??

Face. I told you he would be furious.-
Sir, here's Nab

Has brought you another piece of gold to look on:

-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-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! No, I will have his name
Formed in some mystic character; whose
radii,

Striking the senses of the passers-by,
Shall, by a virtual influence, breed affec-
tions,

That may result upon the party owns it:
As thus-

Face. Nab!

Sub. He shall have a bel, that's Abel; And_by it standing one whose name is Dee,

In a rug gown,3 there's D, and Rug, that's drug:

And by it standing one whose name is Dee, In a rug gown,] This is evidently levelled at the celebrated Dr. John Dee, a man of considerable knowledge in the mathematics, and a great pretender to astrology, alchemy, and magic. He began, like most of the fraternity, with being a dupe; but soon turned cheat; connected himself with the notorious Kelley, and rambled over Europe in the ostensible character of a conjuror; but really as a spy. On his return he settled at Mortlake, where he died in extreme poverty, notwithstanding his possession of the philosopher's stone; being, as Lilly says, "enforced many times to sell some

And right anenst him a dog snarling er;1 There's Drugger, Abel Drugger. That's his sign.

And here's now mystery and hieroglyphic !? Face. Abel, thou art made.

Drug. Sir, I do thank his worship.

Face. Six o' thy legs more will not do it, Nab.

He has brought you a pipe of tobacco, doctor.

Drug. Yes, sir:

I have another thing I would impart-
Face. Out with it, Nab.

Drug. Sir, there is lodged, hard by me, A rich young widow

Face. Good a bona roba?

Drug. But nineteen at the most.3
Face. Very good, Abel.

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

A hood, but it stands a cop.4

Face. No matter, Abel.

Drug. And I do now and then give her
a fucus-

Face. What !' dost thou deal, Nab?
Sub. I did tell you, captain.

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

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

To learn the fashion.

Face. Good (his match too!) - On, Nab.

Drug. And she does strangely long to know her fortune.

In a very dull and prolix introduction to his Treatise on Navigation, Dee observes that the common reports of him were, "that he was not only a conjuror or caller of devils, but a great doer therein, yea, the great conjuror, and so, as some would say, the arche conjuror of this whole kingdom." This, however, the doctor calls "a damnable sklaunder." In the print before one of his books, he appears wrapped up in a rough shaggy gown: to this Jonson alludes.

And right anenst him a dog snarling er ;] Anenst is the old word for against, and is frequently found in Chaucer and his contemporaries. It is not yet worn out in Scotland. Er, or R, as Shakspeare says, "is the dog's letter:"

"Irritata canis quod homo quàm pleniu' dicit." 2 And here's now mystery and hieroglyphic!] The ridicule on the taste for rebuses, common at that time, is well placed. Camden, in his

Face. Ods lid, Nab, send her to the doctor, hither.

Drug. Yes, I have spoke 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

Followed and sought. Nab, thou shalt tell her this.

She'll be more known, more talked of; and your widows

Are ne'er of any price till they be famous; Their honour is their 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 dubbed? One glass o' thy water, with a madam I know,

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

Remains, will help the reader to others of the same kind.-WHAL.

It was no uncommon practice in the age of Jonson, when astrology was everywhere in repute, to consult the impudent pretenders to it on the construction of a lucky sign. To this we probably owe the Sun and Whalebone, the Cat and Gridiron, and many others of those anomalous groups which diverted and puzzled the wits of Queen Anne's days: and which the poet so pleasantly exposes. With respect to the string of puns before us, poor as they now appear, they doubtless contributed in no small degree to the mirth of the audience for whom they were drawn up; as we may be pretty confident that most of these strange combinations conveyed some local or temporary allusion. Jonson surveyed the prevailing follies with a keen and sarcastic glance, and in more instances than can now be discovered, portrayed and ridiculed them. 3 But nineteen at the most.] Abel is very 1591; and this was written in 1610. The lady says that she was born in

correct.

It stands a cop.] i.e., conical, terminating in a point. This was the ancient mode. It came originally from France.

It is the goodest soul !-Abel, about it.

Tri. Good brother, we must bend unto all means,

[Exit Ábel.

gone. A miserable rogue, and lives with cheese, 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. Sub. Rather the less; for she may be so light

She may want grains.

Face. Ay, or be such a burden,

A man would scarce endure her for the whole.

Sub. Faith, best let's see her first, and then determine.

cause.

Ana. Which his cannot: the sanctified

Where have you greater atheists than your cooks?

Or more profane, or choleric, than your glass-men?

More anti-Christian than your bell-founders? What makes the devil so devilish, I would ask you,

Sathan, our common enemy, but his being Perpetually about the fire, and boiling Brimstone and arsenic? We must give, I

say,

Unto the motives, and the stirrers up

Of humours in the blood. It may be so, When as the work is done, the stone is made,

This heat of his may turn into a zeal,
And stand up for the beauteous discipline,
Against the menstruous cloth and rag of
Rome.

We must await his calling, and the coming
Of the good spirit. You did fault, t' up-
braid nim
With the brethren's blessing of Heidel-
berg, weighing

What need we have to hasten on the work, For the restoring of the silenced saints, Which ne'er will be but by the philo

sopher's stone.

Furnus acediæ, turris circulatorius.3 Lembec, bolt's-head, retort, and pelican Had all been cinders. Wicked Ananias! Art thou returned? nay, then it goes down yet.

Tri. Sir, be appeased; he is come to humble

Himself in spirit, and to ask your patience, If too much zeal hath carried him aside From the due path.

Sub. Why, this doth qualify!

Tri. The brethren had no purpose, verily,

To give you the least grievance: but are ready

To lend their willing hands to any project The spirit and you direct.

Sub. This qualifies more!

Tri. And for the orphans' goods, let them be valued,

Or what is needful else to the holy work, It shall be numbered; here, by me, the saints

Throw down their purse before you.

Sub. This qualifies most !

Why, thus it should be, now you understand.

Have I discoursed so unto you of our