Dol. I know him not: he looks like a gold-end

man.1

Sub. Ods so! 'tis he; he said he would send, what call you him?

The sanctified elder, that should deal

For Mammon's jack and andirons. Let him in. Stay, help me off, first, with my gown. [Exit FACE with the gown.] Away,

Madam, to your withdrawing chamber. [Exit
DOL.]-Now,

In a new tune, new gesture, but old language.—
This fellow is sent from one negociates with me
About the stone too; for the holy brethren
Of Amsterdam, the exiled saints, that hope
To raise their discipline by it. I must use him
In some strange fashion, now to make him admire

is Ars

Or the pamphysic, or panarchic knowledge,
A heathen language?

Ana. Heathen Greek, I take it.

Sub. How! heathen Greek?

Ana. All's heathen but the Hebrew.

Sub. Sirrah, my varlet,' stand you forth and speak to him

Like a philosopher: answer in the language.
Name the vexations, and the martyrizations
Of metals in the work.

Face. Sir, putrefaction,

Solution, ablution, sublimation,

Cohobation, calcination, ceration, and

Fixation.

Sub. What's the proper passion of metals?
Face. Malleation.

Sub. What's your ultimum supplicium auri?1
Face. Antimonium.

Sub. This is heathen Greek to you!-And what's your mercury?

Face. A very fugitive, he will be gone, sir.
Sub. How know you him?
Face. By his viscosity,

His oleosity, and his suscitability.
Sub. How do you sublime him?
Face. With the calce of egg-shells,
White marble, talc.

Sub. Your magisterium, now,
What's that?

Face. Shifting, sir, your elements,

Dry into cold, cold into moist, moist into hot,
Hot into dry.

Sub. This is heathen Greek to you still!
Your lapis philosophicus ?2

Face. "Tis a stone,

And not a stone; a spirit, a soul, and a body:
Which if you do dissolve, it is dissolved;
If you coagulate, it is coagulated;

If you make it to fly, it flieth.

Sub. Enough.

[Exit FACE.

This is heathen Greek to you! What are you, sir? Ana. Please you, a servant of the exiled brethren,

That deal with widows and with orphans' goods;
And make a just account unto the saints:
A deacon.

Sub. Oh, you are sent from Master Wholesome, Your teacher?

Ana. From Tribulation Wholesome,

Our very zealous pastor.

Sub. Good! I have

Some orphans' goods to come here.

Ana. Of what kind, sir?

Sub. Pewter and brass, andirons and kitchen

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' alembics, 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 antichristian hierarchy, shall perish
If they stay threescore minutes: the aqueity,
Terreity, and sulphureity

Shall run together again, and all be annull'd, 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 2 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,3
A poor device! 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

Face. Nab!

Sub. He shall have a bel, that's Abel; 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. 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.

To learn the fashion.

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

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

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 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 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 dubb'd?

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

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 in the country.
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. He has made a table,
With mathematical demonstrations,
Touching the art of quarrels: he will give him
An instrument to quarrel by. Go, bring them
both,

Him and his sister. And, for thee, with her
The doctor haply may persuade. Go to:
'Shalt 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.

Sub. "Tis good tobacco, this! what is't an ounce ?

Face. He'll send you a pound, doctor.
Sub. Oh no.

Face. He will do't.

It is the goodest soul!--Abel, about it.
Thou shalt know more anon. Away, be gone.-
[Exit ABEL

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.

Face. Content: but Dol must have no breath on't.

That may give furtherance to the holy cause. Ana. Which his cannot: the sanctified cause Should have a sanctified course.

Tri. Not always necessary:

The children of perdition are ofttimes
Made instruments even of the greatest works:
Beside, we should give somewhat to man's nature,
The place he lives in, still about the fire
And fume of metals, that intoxicate

The brain of man, and make him prone to passion.
Where have you greater atheists than your cooks?
Or more profane, or choleric, than your glass-
men?

More antichristian 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' upbraid him
With the brethren's blessing of Heidelberg,
weighing

threescore minutes

Your

Were at last thread, you see; and down had gone
Furnus acediæ, turris circulatorius:1
Lembec, bolt's-head, retort and pelican
Had all been cinders.-Wicked Ananias!

Art thou return'd? 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 orphan's 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 discours'd so unto you of our stone,
And of the good that it shall bring your cause?
Show'd you (beside the main of hiring forces
Abroad, drawing the Hollanders, your friends,
From the Indies, to serve you, with all their
fleet)

That even the med'cinal use shall make you a faction

And party in the realm? As, put the case,
That some great man in state, he have the gout,
Why, you but send three drops of your elixir,
You help him straight: there you have made a
friend.

Another has the palsy or the dropsy,
He takes of your incombustible stuff,
He's young again: there you have made a friend.
A lady that is past the feat2 of body,
Though not of mind, and hath her face decay'd
Beyond all cure of paintings, you restore,
With the oil of tale: there you have made a friend;
And all her friends. A lord that is a leper,
A knight that has the bone-ache, or a squire

That hath both these, you make them smooth and sound,

With a bare fricace of your med'cine: still
You increase your friends.

Tri. Ay, it is very pregnant.2

Sub. And then the turning of this lawyer's pewter To plate at Christmas.

Ana. Christ-tide, I pray you.
Sub. Yet, Ananias!

Ana. I have done.

Sub. Or changing

His parcel gilt to massy gold. You cannot
But raise you friends. Withal, to be of power
To pay an army in the field, to buy

The king of France out of his realms, or Spain
Out of his Indies. What can you not do
Against lords spiritual or temporal,
That shall oppone 5 you?

Tri. Verily, 'tis true.

We may be temporal lords ourselves, I take it. Sub. You may be anything, and leave off to make

Long-winded exercises; or suck up

Your ha! and hum! in a tune. I not deny,
But such as are not graced in a state,
May, for their ends, be adverse in religion,
And get a tune to call the flock together:
For, to say sooth, a tune does much with women,
And other phlegmatic people; it is your bell.

Ana. Bells are profane; a tune may be religious. Sub. No warning with you! then farewell my patience.

Slight, it shall down: I will not be thus tortured. Tri. I pray you, sir.

Sub. All shall perish. I have spoke it.

Tri. Let me find grace, sir, in your eyes; the

man

He stands corrected: neither did his zeal,
But as your self, allow a tune somewhere.
Which now, being tow'rd the stone, we shall not

need.

Sub. No, nor your holy vizard, to win widows
To give you legacies; or make zealous wives
To rob their husbands for the common cause:
Nor take the start 5 of bonds broke but one day,
And say, they were forfeited by providence.
Nor shall you need o'er night to eat huge meals,
To celebrate your next day's fast the better;
The whilst the brethren and the sisters humbled,
Abate the stiffness of the flesh. Nor cast
Before your hungry hearers scrupulous bones;
As whether a Christian may hawk or hunt,
Or whether matrons of the holy assembly
May lay their hair out, or wear doublets,

Or have that idol starch about their linen.
Ana. It is indeed an idol.

Tri. Mind him not, sir.

I do command thee, spirit of zeal, but trouble,
To peace within him! Pray you, sir, go on.

Sub. Nor shall you need to libel 'gainst the prelates,

And shorten so your ears against the hearing
Of the next wire-drawn grace. Nor of necessity
Rail against plays, to please the alderman
Whose daily custard you devour: nor lie
With zealous rage till you are hoarse. Not one
Of these so singular arts. Nor call yourselves
By names of Tribulation, Persecution,
By the whole family or wood' of you,
Restraint, Long-patience, and such like, affected

1fricace-rubbing; Lat. frico, to rub.

2

pregnant-evident.

Ananias abhorred the word mass.

4 parcel gilt-partly gilt.

6 start-advantage.

5

oppone--oppose.

7 wood is used to signify any miscellaneous collection

or stock of materials.-UPTON.

Only for glory, and to catch the ear
Of the disciple.

Tri. Truly, sir, they are

Ways that the godly brethren have invented,
For propagation of the glorious cause,

As very notable means, and whereby also
Themselves grow soon, and profitably, famous.
Sub. Oh, but the stone, all's idle to it! nothing!
The art of angels' nature's miracle,

The divine secret that doth fly in clouds
From east to west; and whose tradition
Is not from men, but spirits.

Ana. I hate traditions;

I do not trust them.

Tri. Peace!

Ana. Please the profane, to grieve the godly; I may not.

Sub. Well, Ananias, thou shalt overcome.

Tri. It is an ignorant zeal that haunts him, sir; But truly, else, a very faithful brother, A botcher, and a man, by revelation, That hath a competent knowledge of the truth. Sub. Has he a competent sum there in the bag To buy the goods within? I am made guardian, And must, for charity, and conscience' sake, Now see the most be made for my poor orphan; Though I desire the brethren too good gainers: There they are within. When you have view'd, and bought 'em,

And ta'en the inventory of what they are,

They are ready for projection; there's no more
To do: cast on the med'cine, so much silver
As there is tin there, so much gold as brass,
I'll give't you in by weight.

Tri. But how long time,

Sir, must the saints expect yet?

Sub. Let me see,

Enter FACE, in his uniform.

How now! good prize?

Face. Good pox! yond' costive1 cheater Never came on.

Sub. How then?

Face. I've walked the round Till now, and no such thing. Sub. And have you quit him?

Face. Quit him! an' hell would quit him too, he were happy.

'Slight! would you have me stalk like a mill-jade, All day, for one that will not yield us grains? I know him of old.

Sub. Oh, but to have gull'd him,

Had been a mastery.

Face. Let him go, black boy!

And turn thee, that some fresh news may possess

thee.

hence,

He will be silver potate; then three days

Before he citronise: some fifteen days,

The magisterium will be perfected.

Ana. About the second day of the third week, In the ninth month?

Sub. Yes, my good Ananias.

Tri. What will the orphan's goods arise to, think you?

Sub. Some hundred marks, as much as fill'd three cars,

Unladed now: you'll make six millions of them.But I must have more coals laid in.

Delicious compeer, and my party-baw'd,
Who is come hither private for his conscience,
And brought munition with him, six great slops,
Bigger than three Dutch hoys, beside round
trunks,

Furnished with pistolets and pieces of eight,
Will straight be here, my rogue, to have thy bath,
(That is the colour), and to make his battery
Upon our Dol, our castle, our cinque-port,
Our Dover pier, our what thou wilt. Where is she?
She must prepare perfumes, delicate linen,
The bath in chief, a banquet, and her wit,
For she must milk his epididimis.
Where is the doxy? 3

Sub. I'll send her to thee:

And but despatch my brace of little John Leydens,
And come again myself.

Face. Are they within, then?
Sub. Numbering the sum.
Face. How much?