1438

S.

I

H.

S.

H.

S.

H.

S.

1439

SPUNGIUS-HIRCIUS

SEE the beginning of my end, for I am almost
starved.

So am not I; but I am more than famished.
All the members in my body are in a rebellion one
against another.

So are mine; and nothing but a cook, being a con-
stable, can appease them, presenting to my nose, in-
stead of his painted staff, a spit full of roast meat.
But in this rebellion, what uproars do they make!
my belly cries to my mouth, Why dost not gape and
feed me?

And my mouth sets out a throat to my hand, Why dost thou not lift up meat and cram my chops with it?

Then my hand hath a fling at mine eyes, because they look not out, and shark for victuals.

PENURIO

P. MASSINGER

METHINKS, I am batten'd well of late, grown

fat, high and kicking,—thanks to the bounteous Rugio; and now, methinks, I scorn these poor repasts, cheese-parings and the stinking tongues of pilchers: but why should I remember these? they are odious, they are odious in my eyes: the full fat dish now, the bearing dish is that I reverence,

the dish an able serving-man sweats under,

and bends i' th' hams, as if the house hung on him, the state of a fat turkey, the decorum

he marches in with, all the train and circumstance,-
'tis such a matter, such a glorious matter!

and then his sauce with oranges and onions,
and he display'd in all parts! for such a dish now,
and at my need, I would betray my father,

and for a roasted conger all my country.

1440

J. FLETCHER

LOVE MISREPRESENTED BY PAINTERS

ONE day, and cares conflicting in my breast,

NE day, as slowly sauntering from the port,

thus I began to commune with myself-
Methinks these painters misapply their art,

and never knew the being which they draw;
for mark! their many false conceits of Love.
Love is nor male nor female, man nor god,
nor with intelligence nor yet without it,
but a strange compound of all these, uniting
in one mixt essence many opposites;
a manly courage with a woman's fear,
the madman's phrenzy in a reasoning mind,
the strength of steel, the fury of a beast,
the ambition of a hero-something 'tis,
but by Minerva and the gods I swear!
I know not what this nameless something is.

R. CUMBERLAND

1441

THE SHIP OF FOOLS

DONDOLO-DUKE HERCULES OF FERRARA-NYMPHADORO

Don.

YES,

VES, yes! but they got a supersedeas! all of them proved themselves either knaves or madmen, and so were let go: there's none left now in our ship but a few citizens that let their wives keep their shop-books, some philosophers and a few critics.

Her. But what philosophers ha' ye?

Don. Oh, very strange fellows; one knows nothing, dares not aver he lives, goes, sees, feels.

Nym. A most unenviable philosopher.

Don. Another, that there is no present time; and that one man' to-day and to-morrow, is not the same man: so that he that yesterday owed money, to-day owes none; because he is not the same man.

Her. But why has the Duke thus laboured to have all the fools shipped out of his dominions?

Don. Marry, because he would play the fool alone without any rival.

J. MARSTON

Your fool he is your great man's darling,

1443

and your ladies' sport and pleasure,
tongue and babble are his treasure.
Even his face begetteth laughter,

and he speaks truth free from slaughter;
he's the grace of every feast,

and sometimes the chiefest guest;
hath his trencher and his stool,
when wit waits upon the fool,
O who would not be

I

He, He, He?

THE PARASITE

MOSCA

FEAR, I shall begin to grow in love

B. JONSON

with my dear self, and my most prosperous parts, they do so spring and burgeon; I can feel

a whimsy in my blood: I know not how,
success hath made me wanton. I could skip
out of my skin, now, like a subtle snake

I am so limber. O your parasite

is a most precious thing, dropt from above,

not bred 'mongst clods and clodpoles, here on earth.

I muse, the mystery was not made a science,

it is so liberally profest! almost

all the wise world is little else, in nature,

but parasites or sub-parasites. And, yet,

I mean not those who have your bare town-art,
to know who's fit to feed them; have no house,
no family, no care, and therefore mould
tales for men's ears, to bait that sense; or get
kitchen-invention, and some stale receipts

to please the belly and the groin; nor those
with their court dog-tricks, that can fawn and fleer,
make their revenue out of legs and faces,
echo my lord, and lick away a moth:
but your fine elegant rascal, that can rise,
and stoop, almost together, like an arrow,
shoot through the air as nimbly as a star;
turn short as doth a swallow; and be here,
and there, and here, and yonder, all at once;
present to any humour, all occasion;
and change a visor, swifter than a thought!
This is the creature had the art born with him;

1444

toils not to learn it, but doth practise it

out of most excellent nature: and such sparks
are the true parasites, others but their zanies.

MA

THE PARASITE

B. JONSON

ARK now, and learn of me the thriving arts,
by which we parasites contrive to live:

fine rogues we are, my friend, (of that be sure)
and daintily we gull mankind.-Observe!
first I provide myself a nimble thing

to be my page, a varlet of all crafts;
next two new suits for feasts and gala-days,
which I promote by turns, when I walk forth
to sun myself upon the public square:

there, if perchance I spy some rich dull knave,
straight I accost him, do him reverence,
and, saunt'ring up and down, with idle chat
hold him awhile in play; at every word,
which his wise worship utters, I stop short
and bless myself for wonder; if he ventures
on some vile joke, I blow it to the skies,
and hold my sides for laughter-Then to supper,
with others of our brotherhood to mess

in some night-cellar on our barley-cakes,
and club invention for the next day's shift.

1445

R. CUMBERLAND

THE PARASITE

OW, a parasite?

a cogging, flattering, slavish parasite? things I abhor and hate. 'Tis not the belly shall make my brains a captive. Flatterers! souls below reason will not stoop so low as to give up their liberty; only flatterers move by another's wheel. They have no passions free to themselves. All their affections,

qualities, humours, appetites, desires,

nay wishes, vows and prayers, discourse and thoughts, are but another's bondman.

Let me tug

at the Turk's gallies: in this state, my mind

is free: a flatterer has not soul nor body;
what shall I say?—No, I applaud your temper,

that in a generous braveness, take distaste

at such whose servile nature strives to please you: 'tis royal in you, sir.

T. RANDOLPH

1446 KITELY A MERCHANT TO DOWNWRIGHT

MY

A SQUIRE

Y brother Well-bred, Sir, (I know not how,) of late is much declin'd in what he was,

and greatly alter'd in his disposition.

When he came first to lodge here in my house,
ne'er trust me, if I were not proud of him:
methought he bare himself in such a fashion,
so full of man, and sweetness in his carriage.
But now his course is so irregular,

so loose, affected, and deprived of grace,
and he himself withal so far fallen off

from that first place, as scarce no note remains
to tell men's judgments where he lately stood.
He's grown a stranger to all due respect,
forgetful of his friends; and not content
to stale himself in all societies,

he makes my house here common as a mart,
a theatre, a public receptacle

for giddy humour and diseaséd riot.

B. JONSON

1447

KNOWELL

WHE

EN I was young, age was authority
against a buffoon, and a man had then

a certain reverence paid unto his years,
that had none due unto his life: so much
the sanctity of some prevailed for others.
But now we all are fallen; youth, from their fear;
and age, from that which bred it, good example.
Well, I thank heav'n, I never yet was he
that read the grammar of cheating I had made
to my sharp boy at twelve; repeating still
the rule: Get money; still, get money, boy;
no matter by what means; money will do
more, boy, than my lord's letter. Neither have I
perfumed my sauces and taught him to make them;
preceding still, with my gray gluttony,