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Shall turn it to as many of the sun;
Nay, to a thousand, so ad infinitum:
You will believe me?

Sur. Yes, when I see't, I will.
But if my eyes do cozen me so, and I
Giving them no occasion, sure I'll have
Them out next day.

Mam. Ha! why?

Do you think I fable with you? I assure you,
He that has once the flower of the sun,
The perfect ruby, which we call elixir,
Not only can do that, but, by its virtue,
Can confer honour, love, respect, long life;
Give safety, valour, yea, and victory,

To whom he will. In eight-and-twenty days,
I'll make an old man of fourscore a child.
Sur. No doubt; he's that already.
Mam. Nay, I mean,

Restore his years, renew him, like an eagle,
To the fifth age; make him get sons and daughters,
Young giants; as our philosophers have done,
The ancient patriarchs, afore the flood,
But taking, once a week, on a knife's point,
The quantity of a grain of mustard of it,
Become stout Marses, and beget young Cupids.
Sur. The decay'd vestals of Pict-hatch would
thank you,

That keep the fire alive there.

Mam. "Tis the secret

Of nature naturiz'd2 'gainst all infections,
Cures all diseases coming of all causes;

A month's grief in a day, a year's in twelve;
And, of what age soever, in a month:

Past all the doses of your drugging doctors.
I'll undertake withal, to fright the plague
Out of the kingdom in three months.
Sur. And I'll

Mam. On cedar board.

Sur. Oh that, indeed, they say, Will last 'gainst worms.

Mam. "Tis like your Irish wood,

'Gainst cobwebs. I have a piece of Jason's fleece, too,

Which was no other than a book of alchemy,
Writ in large sheep-skin, a good fat ram vellum.
Such was Pythagoras' thigh, Pandora's tub,
And, all that fable of Medea's charms,

The manner of our work; the bulls, our furnace,
Still breathing fire; our argent-vive, the dragon;
The dragon's teeth, mercury sublimate,

That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the -biting;

And they are gather'd into Jason's helm,
The alembic, and then sow'd in Mars his field,
And thence sublimed so often, till they're fix'd.
Both this, the Hesperian garden, Cadmus' story,
Jove's shower, the boon of Midas, Argus' eyes,
Boccace his Demogorgon, thousands more,
All abstract riddles of our stone.-

Enter FACE, as a Servant.
How now!

Do we succeed? Is our day come? and holds it?
Face. The evening will set red upon you, sir;
You have colour for it, crimson: the red ferment
Has done his office; three hours hence prepare
you

To see projection.1

Mam. Pertinax, my Suriy,

Again I say to thee, aloud, Be rich.

This day thou shalt have ingots; and, to-morrow, Give lords th' affront.2-Is it, my Zephyrus, right? Blushes the bolt's-head? 3

Face. Like a wench with child, sir,

Be bound, the players shall sing you praises, That were but now discover'd to her master.

then,

Without their poets.

Mam. Sir, I'll do't. Meantime,

I'll give away so much unto my man,

Shall serve the whole city, with preservative,

Weekly; each house his dose, and at the rate

Sur. As he that built the Waterwork, does with water?

Mam. You are incredulous.

Sur. Faith I have a humour, 4

I would not willingly be gull'd. Your stone
Cannot transmute me.

Mam. Pertinax, [my] Surly,
Will you believe antiquity? records?

I'll show you a book where Moses and his sister,
And Solomon, have written of the art;
Ay, and a treatise penn'd by Adam—

Sur. How!

Mam. Of the philosopher's stone, and in High
Dutch.

Sur. Did Adam write, sir, in High Dutch?
Mam. He did;

Which proves it was the primitive tongue.
Sur. What paper?

1 Pict-hatch-a noted tavern or brothel in Turnmill or Turnbull Street, Cow Cross, Clerkenwell; a haunt of the worst part of both sexes. A hatch with pikes upon it was a common mark of a bad house.-NARES.

The

2 Our poet seems here to allude to the theological distinction of natura naturans and natura naturata. former applied to the Creator, as having imparted existence and nature to all things; and the latter to the creatures, as having received their nature and properties from the power of another.-GIFFOrd.

The theatres were shut up during the plague. 4 humour-whim, way. This was a favourite and much-abused word in Jonson's days, and had a great variety of meanings. It is ridiculed both by him and Shakespeare.

Mam. Excellent witty Lungs! my only care Where to get stuff enough now, to project on; This town will not half serve me.

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1 projection-the twelfth and last process in alchemy; nothing is left but to pour the medicine on the baser metals, and make gold and silver amain.-GIFFORD. 2 i.e. look them in the front or face.

3 bolt's-head-a long straight-necked glass vessel, gradually rising to a conical figure.-WHALLEY.

4 These are all terms used by alchemists to express the several effects arising from the different degrees of fermentation. It would occupy too much space to explain them intelligibly; but an explanation of these is not necessary to the understanding of the drama. Sanguis agni-blood of the lamb.'

Face. At his prayers, sir, he; Good man, he's doing his devotions For the success.

Mam. Lungs, I will set a period

To all thy labours; thou shalt be the master

Of my seraglio.

Face. Good, sir.

Mam. But, do you hear?

I'll geld you, Lungs.

Face. Yes, sir.

Mam. For I do mean

To have a list of wives and concubines
Equal with Solomon, who had the stone
Alike with me; and I will make me a back
With the elixir, that shall be as tough
As Hercules.-

Thou art sure thou saw'st it blood?

Face. Both blood and spirit, sir.

Mam. I will have all my beds blown up, not stuft:

Down is too hard: and then, mine oval room
Fill'd with such pictures as Tiberius took

From Elephantis, and dull Aretine

But coldly imitated. Then, my glasses
Cut in more subtle angles, to disperse
And multiply the figures, as I walk
Naked between my succubæ. My mists
I'll have of perfume, vapour'd 'bout the room,
To lose ourselves in; and my baths, like pits
To fall into; from whence we will come forth,
And roll us dry in gossamer and roses.-
Is it arrived at ruby?—

And my flatterers

Shall be the pure and gravest of divines,
That I can get for money. My mere fools,
Eloquent burgesses; and then my poets
The same that writ so subtly of the fart,
Whom I will entertain still for that subject.
The few that would give out themselves to be
Court and town-stallions, and each-where, bely
Ladies who are known most innocent for them;
Those will I beg, to make me eunuchs of:
And they shall fan me with ten ostrich tails
Apiece, made in a plume to gather wind.
We will be brave, Puffe, now we have the
med'cine.

My meat shall all come in, in Indian shells,
Dishes of agate set in gold, and studded
With emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies.
The tongues of carps, dormice, and camels' heels,
Boiled in the spirit of sol, and dissolv'd pearl,
Apicius' diet,' 'gainst the epilepsy:

And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber,
Headed with diamond and carbuncle.

My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calver'd salmons,
Knots,3 godwits, lampreys: I myself will have
The beards of barbels served, instead of sallads:
Oil'd mushrooms; and the swelling unctuous paps
Of a fat pregnant sow, newly cut off,
Drest with an exquisite and poignant sauce;
For which, I'll say unto my cook, There's gold,
Go forth and be a knight.
Face. Sir, I'll go look

A little, how it heightens.

Mam. Do.-My shirts

I'll have of taffeta-sarsnet, soft and light
As cobwebs; and for all my other raiment

[Exit.

1 Apicius' diet. Apicius was the name of three notorious gluttons; the one alluded to above lived in the time of Tiberius, and is said to have squandered £800,000 on his stomach, and then hanged himself because he had only a pittance of £80,000 left.

2 caiver'd salmon-i.e. salmon cut in slices, scalded with wine, water, and salt, boiled up in white wine vinegar, and set by to cool-NARES.

3 Knots-a small bird of the snipe kind, as was also the godwit.

It shall be such as might provoke the Persian,
Were he to teach the world riot anew.
My gloves of fishes and birds' skins, perfumed
With gums of paradise, and eastern air-

Sur. And do you think to have the stone with this?

Mam. No, I do think t' have all this with the stone.

Sur. Why, I have heard, he must be homo frugi,1

A pious, holy, and religious man,

One free from mortal sin, a very virgin.

Mam. That makes it, sir; he is so: but I buy it;
My venture brings it me. He, honest wretch,
A notable, superstitious, good soul,

Has worn his knees bare, and his slippers bald,
With prayer and fasting for it: and sir, let him
Do it alone, for me, still. Here he comes.
Not a profane word afore him: 'tis poison.—
Enter SUBTLE.

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you,

With your ungovern'd haste. I should be sorry
To see my labours, now even at perfection,
Got by long watching and large patience,

Not prosper where my love and zeal hath placed them.

Which (heaven I call to witness, with yourself, To whom I have pour'd my thoughts) in all my ends,

Have look'd no way, but unto public good,
To pious uses, and dear charity,

Now grown a prodigy with men. Wherein,
If you, my son, should now prevaricate,
And, to your own particular lusts employ
So great and catholic a bliss, be sure
A curse will follow, yea, and overtake
Your subtle and most secret ways.

Mam. I know, sir;

You shall not need to fear me: I but come,
To have you confute this gentleman.
Sur. Who is,

Indeed, sir, somewhat costive of belief,
Toward your stone; would not be gull'd.
Sub. Well, son,

All that I can convince him in is this,
The WORK IS DONE, bright sol is in his robe.
We have a medicine of the triple soul,
The glorified spirit. Thanks be to heaven,
And make us worthy of it!-Ulen Spiegel!4
Face [within.] Anon, sir.

Sub. Look well to the register.

And let your heat still lessen by degrees,
To the aludels.5

Face. [within.] Yes, sir.

Sub. Did you look

On the bolt's-head yet?

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To draw his volatile substance and his tincture: And let the water in glass E be filter'd,

And put into the gripe's egg.

And leave him closed in balneo.3
Face. [within.] I will, sir.

Lute him well;

Sur. What a brave language here is! next to canting.

Sub. I have another work, you never saw, son, That three days since passed the philosopher's wheel +

In the lent heat of Athanor," and's become
Sulphur of nature.

Mam. But 'tis for me?

Sub. What need you?

You have enough in that is perfect.
Mam. Oh, but-

Sub. Why, this is covetise!?

Mam. No, I assure you,

I shall employ it all in pious uses,

Founding of colleges and grammar schools,
Marrying young virgins, building hospitals,
And now and then a church.

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Of fresh materials?

Mam. Is't no more?

Face. No more, sir,

Of gold, t' amalgame with some six of mercury. Mam. Away, here's money. What will serve? Face. Ask him, sir.

Mam. How much?

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Sub. Son, be not hasty, I exalt our med'cine,

By hanging him in balneo vaporoso,

And giving him solution; then congeal him;

And then dissolve him; then again congeal him:

For look, how oft I iterate the work,

So many times I add unto his virtue.

As, if at first one ounce convert a hundred,
After his second loose, he'll turn a thousand;
His third solution, ten; his fourth, a hundred:
After his fifth, a thousand thousand ounces
Of any imperfect metal, into pure
Silver or gold, in all examinations,
As good as any of the natural mine.

Get you your stuff here against afternoon,

Your brass, your pewter, and your andirons.
Mam. Not those of iron?

Sub. Yes, you may bring them too:

We'll change all metals.

Sur. I believe you in that.

Mam. Then I may send my spits?
Sub. Yes, and your racks.

1 pelican-a kind of alembic.

signed with Hermes' seul-i.e. hermetically sealed. 3 inceration-reducing to the consistency of, or covering with wax.

bolted-started, dislodged, still alluding to the rabbitnet.-GIFFord.

5 amalgame-amalgamate. 6a vapour bath.'

154

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Sub. Why, I think that the greater miracle. No but differs from a chicken more egg

Than metals in themselves.

Sur. That cannot be.

The egg's ordain'd by nature to that end,

And is a chicken in potentia.

Sub. The same we say of lead and other metals,

Which would be gold, if they had time.

Mam. And that

Our art doth further.

Sub. Ay, for 'twere absurd

To think that nature in the earth bred gold Perfect in the instant: something went before. There must be remote matter.

Sur. Ay, what is that?

Sub. Marry, we say

Mam. Ay, now it heats: stand, father, Pound him to dust.

Sub. It is, of the one part,

A humid exhalation, which we call
Materia liquida, or the unctuous water;

On the other part, a certain crass and vicious
Portion of earth; both which, concorporate,
Do make the elementary matter of gold;
Which is not yet propria materia,
But common to all metals and all stones;
For, where it is forsaken of that moisture,
And hath more dryness, it becomes a stone:
Where it retains more of the humid fatness,
It turns to sulphur, or to quicksilver,
Who are the parents of all other metals.
Nor can this remote matter suddenly
Progress so from extreme unto extreme,
As to grow gold, and leap o'er all the means.
Nature doth first beget the imperfect, then
Proceeds she to the perfect. Of that airy
And oily water, mercury is engender'd;
Sulphur of the fat and earthy part; the one,
Which is the last, supplying the place of male,
The other of the female, in all metals.
Some do believe hermaphrodeity,

That both do act and suffer. But these two
Make the rest ductile, malleable, extensive.
And even in gold they are; for we do find
Seeds of them, by our fire, and gold in them;
And can produce the species of each metal
More perfect thence, than nature doth in earth.
Beside, who doth not see in daily practice
Art can beget bees, hornets, beetles, wasps,
Out of the carcases and dung of creatures;
Yea, scorpions of an herb, being rightly placed?
And these are living creatures, far more perfect
And excellent than metals.

Mam. Well said, father!

Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument, He'll bray you in a mortar.

Sur. Pray you, sir, stay.

Rather than I'll be bray'd, sir, I'll believe

That alchemy is a pretty kind of game, Somewhat like tricks o' the cards, to cheat a man With charming.

Sub. Sir?

Sur. What else are all your terms,
Whereon no one of your writers 'grees with other?
Of your elixir, your lac virginis,

Your stone, your med'cine, and your chrysosperme,
You sal, your sulphur, and your mercury,
Your oil of height, your tree of life, your blood,
Your marchesite, your tutie, your magnesia,
Your toad, your crow, your dragon, and your
panther;

Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your adrop,
Your lato, azoch, zernich, chibrit, heautarit,
And then your red man, and your white woman,
With all your broths, your menstrues, and mate-
rials,

Of piss and egg-shells, women's terms, man's blood,

Hair o' the head, burnt clouts, chalk, merds, and clay,

Powder of bones, scalings of iron, glass,

And worlds of other strange ingredients,
Would burst a man to name?

Sub. And all these named,

Intending but one thing: which art our writers Used to obscure their art.

Mam. Sir, so I told him

Because the simple idiot should not learn it,
And make it vulgar.

Sub. Was not all the knowledge

Of the Egyptians writ in mystic symbols;
Speak not the Scriptures oft in parables?
Are not the choicest fables of the poets,

That were the fountains and first springs of wisdom,

Wrapp'd in perplexèd allegories?

Mam. I urg'd that,

And clear'd to him, that Sysiphus was damn'd To roll the ceaseless stone, only because

He would have made ours1 common. [DoL appears at the door.]-Who is this?

Sub. 'Sprecious!-What do you mean? go in, good lady,

Let me entreat you. [DoL retires.]-Where's this varlet?

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Face. Sir, to be cured.

Sub. [within.] Why, rascal! Face. Lo you!-Here, sir!

[Exit.

Mam. 'Fore God, a Bradamante, a brave piece. Sur. 'Heart, this is a bawdy-house! I will be burnt else.

Mam. Oh, by this light, no: do not wrong him.
He's

Too scrupulous that way: it is his vice.
No, he's a rare physician, do him right,
An excellent Paracelsian, and has done
Strange cures with mineral physic. He deals all
With spirits, he; he will not hear a word
Of Galen, or his tedious recipes.-

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If you but name a word touching the Hebrew,
She falls into her fit, and will discourse
So learnedly of genealogies,

As you would run mad too, to hear her, sir.
Mam. How might one do t' have conference
with her, Lungs?

Face. Oh divers have run mad upon the conference:

I do not know, sir. I am sent in haste
To fetch a vial.

Sur. Be not gull'd, Sir Mammon.

Mam. Wherein? Pray ye, be patient.

Sur. Yes, as you are,

And trust confederate knaves, and bawds, and whores.

Mam. You are too foul, believe it.-Come here, Ulen,

One word.

Face. I dare not, in good faith. Mam. Stay, knave.

[Going.

Face. He is extreme angry that you saw her, sir. Mam. Drink that. [Gives him money.] What

is she when she's out of her fit?

Face. Oh, the most affablest creature, sir! so merry!

So pleasant! she'll mount you up, like quicksilver,
Over the helm; and circulate like oil,
A very vegetal: discourse of state,

Of mathematics, bawdry, anything

Mam. Is she no way accessible? no means, No trick to give a man a taste of her—wit— Or so?

Sub. [within.] Ulen!

Face. I'll come to you again, sir.

[Exit.

Mam. Surly, I did not think one of your breeding

Would traduce personages of worth.

Sur. Sir Epicure,

Your friend to use; yet still loth to be gull'd:
I do not like your philosophical bawds.
Their stone is lechery enough to pay for,
Without this bait.

Mam. 'Heart, you abuse yourself.

I know the lady, and her friends, and means, The original of this disaster. Her brother

Has told me all.

Sur. And yet you never saw her

Till now!

The name of a heroine in Orlando Furioso.

Mr. Hugh Broughton, a celebrated rabbin in Queen Elizabeth's days, and a great publisher.-WHALLEY.

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Till we meet next.

Mam. Nay, by this hand, 'tis true. He's one

honour, and my noble friend;

And I respect his house.

Sur. 'Heart, can it be,

That a grave sir, a rich, that has no need,

A wise sir, too, at other times, should thus,
With his own oaths and arguments, make hard

means

To gull himself? An this be your elixir,
Your lapis mineralis, and your lunary,
Give me your honest trick yet at primero,2
Or gleek; and take your lutum sapientis,3
Your menstruum simplex! I'll have gold before you,
And with less danger of the quicksilver,
Or the hot sulphur.*

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[Walks aside. But, by attorney," and to a second purpose. Now, I am sure it is a bawdy-house;

I'll swear it, were the marshal here to thank me:
The naming this commander doth confirm it.
Don Face! why he's the most authentic dealer
In these commodities, the superintendent
To all the quainter traffickers in town!
He is the visitor, and does appoint,

Who lies with whom, and at what hour; what price;

Which gown, and in what smock; what fall; what tire.

Him will I prove, by a third person, to find
The subtleties of this dark labyrinth:
Which, if I do discover, dear Sir Mammon,
You'll give your poor friend leave, though no
philosopher,

To laugh: for you that are, 'tis thought, shall

weep.

1 Mineral stone.'

A once very fashionable game. Each player got four cards: the 7 was the highest in point of number he could avail himself of, which counted for 21; the 6 counted for 18; the 5 and ace for 15 each; the 2, 4, and knave for their respective points. The knave of diamonds was commonly fixed on for chief card. If the cards were of different suits, the highest number was the primero, or prime; but if all of one colour, he that held them won the flush.-NARES. Gleek was played by three persons with forty-four cards, each hand having twelve, and eight being left for the stock.

3 lute of the wise.' Lute was a composition for securing the joints of chemical vessels.

4 Meaning with less danger of being salivated for it. -UPTON.

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