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Captain. Glory of ours, and grace of all the
earth;

How well your figure doth become your birth!
As if your form and fortune equal stood,
And only virtue got above your blood.

SONG SECOND.

Jack. Virtue, his kingly virtue, which did merit

This isle entire, and you are to inherit.

Such, such the father is,

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Whom ev'ry title strives to kiss
Who on his royal grounds unto himself doth raise,
The work to trouble fame, and to astonish praise.

Gip. Indeed he is not lord alone of all the
state,

But of the love of men, and of the empire's fate, The muses' arts, the schools, commerce, our honors, laws,

4 Gipsy. How right he doth confess him in And virtues hang on him, as on their working

his face,

His brow, his eye, and ev'ry mark of state;
As if he were the issue of each Grace,
And bore about him both his fame and fate.

SONG THIRD.

Jack. Look, look, is he not fair,
And fresh and fragrant too,
As summer sky, or purged air,
And looks as lilies do,

That were this morning blown.

4 Gip. Oh more! that more of him were known.
3 Gip. Look how the winds upon the waves
grown tame,

Take up land sounds upon their purple wings :
And catching each from other, bear the same
To every angle of their sacred springs.
So will we take his praise, and hurl his name
About the globe, in thousand airy rings,
If his great virtue be in love with fame,
For that contemn'd, both are neglected things.

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THE EPILOGUE AT WINDSOR.

At Burleigh, Bever, and now last at Windsor, Which shews we are gipsies of no common kind, air:

You have beheld (and with delight) their change,
And how they came transform'd, may think it
strange;

It being a thing not touch'd at by our poet,
Good Ben slept there, or else forgot to shew it:
But lest it prove like wonder to the sight,
To see a gipsy, as an Ethiop, white,

Know, that what y'd our faces, was an ointment

Made, and laid on by master Woolfe's appointment,
The court Lycanthropos; yet without spells,
By a mere barber, and no magic else,
It was fetch'd off with water and a ball,
And to our transformation, this is all,
Save what the master fashioner calls his
For to a gipsy's metamorphosis,

Who doth disguise his habit and his face,
And takes on a false person by his place,
The power of poetry can never fail her,
Assisted by a barber and a tailor.

THE MASQUE OF AUGURS

WITH THE

SEVERAL ANTIMASQUES,

PRESENTED ON TWELFTH-NIGHT, 1622

SCENE.

The Court-Buttery-hatch.
Enter NOTCH and SLUG.

Notch. Come, now my head's in, I'll even venture the whole: I have seen the lions ere now, and he that hath seen them may see the king.

Slug. I think he may; but have a care you go not too nigh, neighbor Notch, lest you chance to have a tally made on your pate, and be clawed with a cudgel; there is as much danger going too near the king, as the lions.

Enter Groom of the Revels. Groom. Whither, whither now, gamesters? what is the business, the affair? stop, I beseech you.

Notch. This must be an officer or nothing, he is so pert and brief in his demands: a pretty man and a pretty man is a little o' this side nothing; howsoever we must not be daunted now. I am sure I am a greater man than he out of the court, and I have lost nothing of my size since I came to it.

Groom. Hey-da! what's this? a hogshead of deer broke out of the king's buttery, or some Dutch hulk! whither are you bound? the wind is against you, you must back; do you know where you are?

Notch. Yes, sir, if we be not mistaken, we are at the court; and would be glad to speak with something of less authority, and more wit, that knows a little in the place.

Groom. Sir, I know as little as any man in the place. Speak, what is your business? I am an officer, groom of the revels, that is my place.

Notch. To fetch bouge of court, a parcel of invisible bread and beer for the players; (for they never see it;) or to mistake six torches from the chandry, and give them one.

Groom. How, sir?

Notch. Come, this is not the first time you have carried coals, to your own house, I mean, that should have warm'd them.

Groom. Sir, I may do it by my place, and I must question you farther.

Notch. Be not so musty, sir; our desire is only to know whether the king's majesty and the court expect any disguise here to-night?

Groom. Disguise! what mean you by that? do you think that his majesty sits here to expect drunkards?

Notch. No; if he did, I believe you would supply that place better than you do this: Dis guise was the old English word for a masque, sir before you were an implement belonging to the Revels.

Groom. There is no such word in the office now, I assure you, sir; I have served here, man and boy, a prenticeship or twain, and I should know. But, by what name soever you call it, here will be a masque, and shall be a masque, when you and the rest of your comrogues shall sit disguised in the stocks.

Notch. Sure, by your language you were never meant for a courtier, howsoever it hath been your ill fortune to be taken out of the nest young; you are some constable's egg, some such widgeon of authority, you are so easily offended! Our coming was to shew our loves, sir, and to make a little merry with his majesty to-night, and we have brought a masque with us, if his majesty had not been better provided.

Groom. Who, you! you, a masque! why you stink like so many bloat-herrings newly taken out of the chimney! In the name of ignorance, whence came you? or what are you? you have been hang'd in the aoke sufficiently, that is smelt out already.

Notch. Sir, we do come from among the brewhouses in St. Katherine's, that's true, there you have smoked us; the dock comfort your nostrils! and we may have lived in a mist there, and so mist our purpose; but for mine own part, I have brought my properties with me, to express what I am; the keys of my calling hang here at my girdle, and this, the registerbook of my function, shews me no less than a clerk at all points, and a brewer's clerk, and a brewer's head-clerk.

Groom. A man of accompt, sir! I cry you mercy.

Slug. Ay, sir, I knew him a fine merchant, a merchant of hops, till all hopt into the water.

Notch. No more of that; what I have been, I have been; what I am, I am: I, Peter Notch, clerk, hearing the Christmas invention was drawn dry at court; and that neither the king's poct nor his architect had wherewithal left to entertain so much as a baboon of quality, nor scarce the Welsh ambassador, if he should come there: out of my allegiance to wit, drew in some other friends that have as it were presumed

measure.

out of their own naturals to fill up the vacuum | John Urson, the bearward, offers to play them with some pretty presentation, which we have with any city-dancers christened, for a ground addressed and conveyed hither in a lighter at the general charge, and landed at the back-door of the buttery, through my neighbor Slug's credit there.

Slug. A poor lighterman, sir, one that hath had the honor sometimes to lay in the king's beer there; and I assure you I heard it in no worse place than the very buttery, for a certain, there would be no masque, and from such as could command a jack of beer, two or three.

Enter VANGOOSE.

Van. Dat is all true, exceeding true, de inventors be barren, lost, two, dre, vour mile, I know that from my selven; dey have noting, no ting van deir own, but vat dey take from de eard, or de zea, or de heaven, or de hell, or de rest van de veir elementen, de place a! dat be so common as de vench in the bordello. Now me would bring in some dainty new ting, dat never was, nor never sall be in de rebus natura; dat has never van de materia, nor de forma, nor de hoffen, nor de voot, but a mera devisa of de brain

Groom. Hey-da! what Hans Flutterkin is this? what Dutchman does build or frame castles in the air?

Notch. He is no Dutchman, sir, he is a Britain born, but hath learn'd to misuse his own tongue in travel, and now speaks all languages in ill English; a rare artist he is, sir, and a projector of masques. His project in ours is, that we should all come from the three dancing bears in St. Katherine's (you may hap know it, sir) hard by where the priest fell in, which alehouse is kept by a distressed lady, whose name, for the honor of knighthood, will not be known; yet she is come in person here errant, to fill up the adventure, with her two women that draw drink under her; gentlewomen born all three, I assure you.

Enter the Lady, with her two Maids.

Slug. And were three of those gentlewomen that should have acted in that famous matter of England's Joy in six hundred and three.

Lady. What talk you of England's Joy, gentlemen? you have another matter in hand, I wiss, England's Sport and Delight, if you can manage it. The poor cattle yonder are passing away the time with a cheat loaf, and a bombard of broken beer, how will ye dispose of them? Groom. Cattle! what cattle does she mean?. Lady. No worse than the king's game, I assure you; the bears, bears both of quality and fashion, right bears, true bears.

Notch. A device only to express the place from whence we come, my lady's house, for which we have borrowed three very bears, that, as her ladyship aforesaid says, are well bred, and can dance to present the sign, and the bearward to stand for the sign-post.

Groom. That is pretty; but are you sure you have sufficient bears for that purpose?

Slug. Very sufficient bears as any are in the ground, the Paris-garden, and can dance at first sight, and play their own tunes if need be.

Notch. Marry, for lofty tricks, or dancing on the ropes, he will not undertake, it is out of their element, he says. Sir, all our request is, since we are come, we may be admitted, if not for a masque, for an antic-masque; and as we shall deserve therein, we desire to be returned with credit to the buttery from whence we came for reward, or to the porter's lodge with discredit, for our punishment.

Groom. To be whipt with your bears! well, I could be willing to venture a good word in behalf of the game, if I were assured the aforesaid game would be cleanly, and not fright the ladies.

Notch. For that, sir, the bearward hath put in security by warranting my lady and her women to dance the whole changes with them in safety. and for their abusing the place, you shall not need to fear, for he hath given them a kind of diet-bread to bind them to their good behavior. Groom. Well, let them come if you need one, I'll help you myself.

Enter JOHN URSON with his Bears, who dance while he sings the following

BALLAD.

Though it may seem rudo

For me to intrude,

With these my bears, by chance-a "Twere sport for a king,

If they could sing

As well as they can dance-a

Then to put you out

Of fear or doubt,

We came from St. Katherine-a

These dancing three,

By the help of me,

Who am the post of the sign-a.

We sell good ware,

And we need not care

Though court and country knew it;

Our ale's o' the best,

And each good guest

Prays for their souls that brew it

For any ale-house,

We care not a louse,

Nor tavern in all the town-a

Nor the Vintry-Cranes,

Nor St. Clement's Danes,

Nor the Devil can put us down-L.

Who has once there been,
Comes thither again,

The liquor is so mighty;

Beer strong and stale,

And so is our ale,

And it burns like aqua-vitæ.

To a stranger there,

If any appear,

Where never before he has been.

We shew the iron gate,

The wheel of St. Kate,

And the place where the priest fell in

The wives of Wapping,
They trudge to our tapping,
And there our ale desire:
And still sit and drink,
Till they spue and stink,
And often piss out our fire.

From morning to night,
And about to day-light

They sit, and never grudge it;
Till the fish-wives join
Their single coin,

And the tinker pawns bis bud et.

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Var. How like you, how like you? Groom. Excellent! the bears have done learnedly, and sweetly.

Van. Tis noting, tis noting; vill you see someting ick sall bring in de Turkschen, met all zin bashaws, and zin dirty towsand Yanitsaries met all zin whooren, eunuken, all met an ander, de sofie van Persia, de Tartar cham met de groat king of Mogull, and made deir men, and deir horse, and deir elephanten, be seen fight in the ayr, and be all killen, and aliven, and no such ting. And all dis met de ars van de Catropricks, by de refleshie van de glassen.

Notch. Oh, he is an admirable artist.
Slug. And a half, sir.

Groom. But where will he place his glasses? l'an. Fow, dat is all ean, as it be two, dree, veir, vife towsand mile off; ick sall multiplien de vizioun, met an ander secret dat ick heb: Spreck, vat vill you haben?

Groom. Good sir, put him to't, bid him do something that is impossible; he will undertake it, I warrant you.

Notch. I do not like the Mogul, nor the great Turk, nor the Tartar, their names are somewhat too big for the room; marry, if he could shew us some country-players, strolling about in several shires, without license from the office, that would please I know whom; or some Welsh pilgrims

Van. Pilgrim! now you talk of de pilgrim, it come in my head. Ick vill show you all de whole brave pilgrim o' de world: de pilgrim dat go now, now at de instant, two, dre towsand mile to de great Mahomet, at de Mecha, or here, dere, every where, make de fine labyrints, and shew all de brave error in de vorld.

Slug. And shall we see it here?

Van. Yaw, here, here, here in dis room, tis very room; vel vat is dat to you, if ick do de ting? vat an devil, vera boten devil?

Groom. Nay, good sir, be not angry. Notch. 'Tis a disease that follows all excellent men, they cannot govern their passions; but let him alone, try him one bout.

Groom. I would try him; but what has all this to do with our mask?

Van. O sir, all de better vor an antick-mask, de more absurd it be, and vrom de purpose, it be ever all de better. If it go from de nature of de ting, it is de more art: for dere is art, and dere is nature, yow sall see. Hocos Pocos! paucos paLabros!

Here the second ANTIMASQUE.

Which was a perplexed DANCE of straying and deformed PILGRIMS taking several paths, till with the opening of the light above, and breaking forth

of APOLLO, they were all frighted away, and the MAIN MASQUE begun:

APOLLO descending, sung,'

It is no dream; you all do wake, and see:
Behold who comes! far-shooting Phrebus,2 he
That can both hurt and heal; and with his voice
Rear towns, and make societies rejoice;
That taught the muses all their harmony,

And men the tuneful art of augury.5
Apollo stoops, and when a god descends,
May mortals think he hath no vulgar ends.

Being near the earth, he called these persons following, who came forth as from their tombs. Linus! and Orpheus! Branchus ! Idmon! My sacred sons, rise at your father's call, fall, From your immortal graves; where sleep, not Yet binds your powers. death,

Linus. Here. Orpheus. Here.

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Cho. To see the erring mazes of mankind,

Who seek for that doth punish them to find Then he advanceth with them to the King. Apol. Prince of thy peace, see what it is to love The powers above!

Jove hath commanded me

To visit thee;

And in thine honor with my 1 music rear
A college here,2

Of tuneful augurs, whose divining skill
Shall wait thee still,

And be the heralds of his highest will.
The work is done,

And I have made their president thy son;
Great Mars too, on these nights,

Hath added Salian rites.3

Yond, yond afar,

They closed in their temple are,4

And each one guided by a star.

Cho. Haste, haste to meet them, and as they advance, "Twixt every dance,

Let us interpret their prophetic trance.

Here they fetched out the MASQUERS [i. e. the AuGURS,] and came before them with the torchbearers along the stage, singing this full

SONG.

Apol. Which way, and whence the lightning flew,
Or how it burned, bright and blue,
Design and figure by your lights:
Then forth, and shew the several flights
Your birds have made,5 or what the wing.
Or voice in augury doth bring,

1 Allusio ad illud Ovidii Epistol. Epist Parid. llion aspicies, firmataque turribus altis Mania Apollineæ structa canore lyre. Augurandi scientia nobilis erat et antiqua, apud gentes præsertim Hetruscos: quibus erat collegium et domicilium celeberrimum Augurum, quorum summa fuit authoritas et dignitas per totam Italiam, potissimum Romæ. Romulus, urbe condita, collegium et Augures ibi instituit, ipse nobilis, et apud Liv. lib. 1. et Tull. lib. 1. Optimus Augur. Eorum ufficium fuit auspicia captare, et ex iis colligere signa futurarum rerum, Deorumque monita considerare de eventibus prosperis vel adversis. Sacra erat Romanis et res regia habita, dignitasque penes patricios et principes viros mansit, etiain apud imperatores obtinuit, unde ab Apolline nostro talis Præses Pulchrè designatus.

3 Saltationes in rebus sacris adhibebantur apud omnes penè gentes et à saliendo, seu saltatione sacra ad saliare carmen institutâ, Salii dicti et Marti consecrati. Omnes etiam qui ad cantum et tibiam ludebant Salii et Salisubsuli

Which hand the crow cried on, how high
The vulture, or the hern did fly;
What wing the swan made, and the dove,
The stork, and which did get abovo:
Shew all the birds of food or prey,

But pass by the unlucky jay,

The night-crow, swallow, or the kito,
Let these have neither right,

Cho. Nor part,

In this night's art

Here the TORCH-BEARERS danced.

After which the AUGURS laid by their staves, and danced their entry; which done, APOLLO and the rest interpreted the Augury.

Apol. The signs are lucky all, and right,6
There hath not been a voice, or flight,

Of ill presage

Lin. The bird that brings7

Her augury alone to kings,

The dove, hath flown.

Orph. And to thy peace,

Fortunes and the Fates increase. Bran. Minerva's hernshaw, and her owl,8 Do both proclain, thou shalt control The course of things.

Idm. As now they be

With tumult carried

Apol. And live free

From hatred, faction, or the fear
To blast the olive thou dost wear.

Cho. More is behind, which these do long to show,
And what the gods to so great virtue owe
Here the Main Dance.

Cho. Still, still the auspice is so good,
We wish it were but understood;
It even puts Apollo

To all his strengths of art, to follow
The flights, and to divine

What's meant by every sign.10

Thou canst not less be than the charge
Of every deity;

That thus art left here to enlarge,

And shield their piety!

Thy neighbors at thy fortune long have gaz'd
But at thy wisdom all do stand amaz'd,

And wish to be

O'ercome, or governed by thee! Safety itself so sides thee where thou go'st, And Fate still offers what thou covet'st most Here the Revels.

dicebantur. Sains rodos, vet. gloss, et Pacuv. Pro impe- After which, APOLLO went up to the KING, and rio sic Salisubsulus vestro excubet Mars. et Virg. Æneid. lib. 8.

Tum Salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum
Populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis.

4 Auguria captaturi cœlum eligebant purum et serenum, aëreque nitido. Lituum (qui erat baculus incurvus, augurale signum) manu tenebat augur. Eo cœli regiones designabat, et metas inter quas contineri debebant aŭguria: et hæ vocabantur templa: unde contemplatio dicta est consideratio, et meditatio rerum sacrarum, ut dextrum sinistrumque latus observaret in impetrato sibi ipse regiones definiebat; in oblato manum suam respexit lævam aut dextram. Regiones ab oriente in occasum terminabat limite decumano, et cardine ex transverso signo metato, quo oculi ferrent quam longissime. Antica in ortum vergebat; Postica regio à tergo ad occasum: dextra ad meridiem: sinistra ad septentrionem. Observationes fiebant augure sedente, capite velato, toga duplici augurali candida amicto, à media nocte ad mediam diem, crescente non deficiente die. Neque captabantur auguria post mensem Julium, propterea quod aves redderentur imbeciliores et morbidæ, pullique eorum essent imperfecti.

5 Augurandi scientia doviloμuvreía dicta; divinatio per aves. Avcs aut oscines, aut præpetes; oscines, quæ ore, præpetes, quæ volatu augurium significant. Pulli tripudio. Aves auspicatæ, et præpetes, aquila, vultur, sanqualis seu ossifraga, triarches, sive buteo, immussulus, accipiter, cygnus, columba; oscines, cornix, corvus, anser, cicoria, ardea, noctua; inauspicatæ, milvus, parra, nycticorax, striges, hirund, picus, &c

sung.

Apol. Do not expect to hear of all
Your good at once, lest it forestal

A sweetness would be new:
Some things the Fates would have conceal'o,
Prom us the gods, lest being reveal'd,
Our powers shall envy you.

6 Habebant dextra et læva omina, antica et postica; ortentalia et occidentalia. Græci, cum se ad septentrionem obverterent, ortum ad dextram habuere. Romani meridiem in auspicando cum tuerentur, ortum ad lævam habuere Itaque sinistræ partes eadem sunt Romanis quæ Græcis dextræ ad ortum. Sinistra igitur illis meliora, dextra pejora : Græcis contra. Sinistra, pertinentia ad ortum: salutaria, quia ortus lucis index et auctor Dextra, quia spectant occasum, tristia.

7 Columbæ auguria non nisi regibus dant: quia nunquam singulæ volant: sicut rex nunquam solus incedit. Nuntia pacis.

8 Ardea et ardeola, rerum arduarum auspicium. Minervæ sacra. Apud Homer. Iliad. x. dežíw ipwdiós.

9 Auspicium, ab ave specienda. Paul. Nam quod nor cum præpositione dicimus aspic:o, apud veteres sine præpo sitione spicio dicebatur.

10 Signa quæ sese offerent, erant multifaria: nam si objiceretur avis aliqua, considerabatur quo volatu ferretur, an obliquo vel prono, vel supino motu corporis ; quo flecteret, contorqueret, aut contralieret membra; qua in parte se occultaret; an ad dextram vel sinistram canerent oscines, &c

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