Inf. Why, sir, if you be, let it not trouble you; I hope you shall have better luck in greater matters; and yet if she have a good portion you are happy: if she have none yet you may be even with her if it please you, although she prove a roaring girl. Ins. Canst thou tell which way to be even with her? Inf. Marry, to have as little as she. And if I were as you I would serve her so : teach her to come empty-handed to a man of your spending. Ins. Well, we must make the most of her that I can now I have her; and take no care for anything that's the way to live long and leave nothing. [Exeunt Insatiato and Infælicito. SCENE IV. Intrat Simplo. Sim. Gentlemen, you two I mean, Master Securus and Sir Hermito, my master entreats you both to come to his chamber for a short space; he will go twice so far for you any other time. Sec. Thank your master, we have dined already and can eat nothing. Another time we will see him if we have no business. Sim. O you mistake it, sir; neither now nor any other time for eating. There is no meat my master does not use to quilt his friends' stomachs with too much meat. No, he would speak with you about a note he hath caused to be drawn. He will desire you to peruse it, and do him a favour. It is in the nature of a certificate. Sec. Truly he shall have no hand of mine to any writing, nor to any purpose; nor for my credit sake will I come in his company. I do imagine what it is. He knoweth that we hear so much evil of him that he doubts we will speak as we find. And therefore he would have us give commendations of him to some friend of ours in some small request which he never means to sue for. But this our good report he will keep by him, partly to stop our mouths, hoping we will not speak contrary to our testimony in writing, and partly for his credit to be showed upon every occasion against all that have cause to speak evil of him. Let him content himself, we refuse to come near him. Her. Honest friend, I marvel with what conscience thou canst serve one that is so generally counted dishonest. Sim. Marry, sir, with as wide and large a conscience as any man hath, and as throughly tentered. My master and I are no niggards of our conscience. Besides, I am bound by my 100l. to serve him. Her. Thou wert as good lose thy 100l. at first as at last; for he will in the end deceive thee of it. Sim. If he do then I hope he will teach me cunning worth 100l. to deceive others, and so may double my 100l. For I do not think but he hath gotten many 100l. with art. And I'll never leave him till I get all his tricks, and now he hath made me free he will use me as his fellow. Her. By that means thou wilt accompany him to hell. Sim. Down the lane to the devil. Nay, an we go to no worse place than hell care not; for I do not think but my master hath craft enough for any devil on 'em all. Her. But there he shall meet with his crafts-master. Sim. What? master my master in craft? that were somewhat strange; yet I'll believe anything but that. Well, I shall tell him you will not come. And what's the reason you will not come? I have almost forgotten. Her. Marry, because at our baptism we vowed to renounce the infernal spirit. And now upon our own experience and judgment we abandon all incarnate devils. the Sim. Abandon? what's that? if I can observe that word right I shall carry rest well. I know what you mean by a carnation devil. [Exit. Her. What do you judge of these passages, Master Securus? Sec. Surely, sir, it is hard upon the sudden to deliver a true sentence upon so many contrarieties as this day we have heard. But briefly, I think they ought all to be reduced unto two main heads of Good and Bad, and of the worst to choose the least, and of the better take the most. Her. In part I dissent from you, but part I agree. If we be constrained to choose among things which are evil, it is best to permit the least; but if a man have freedom, then the best choice is to refuse evil be it never so little. Among the several dis courses this day acted, I note many vices veiled over with froth and flourish of words, but the same again unmasked with substantial matter, and laid naked to dis grace. So it seemeth they are not propounded to imitate, but set forth to be shamed. They are painted in colours, but in a map of mischief: they have some patrons and followers, but such as run to ruin. They are brought forth to be viewed, but to manifest their ugliness: they come not here to be liked, but loathed; not to be favoured, but derided not allowed in private, but in public to be condemned. So I hope that all wise hearers will avoid the sins and abuses here touched, which are many, and follow good counsel if they heard any; which that they may do, my part is to pray to the Giver of Wisdom. And so, sir, wishing much prosperity to your charitable endeavours, I take leave, and the next way to my poor quiet cell. [Exit & Securus sequitur. Intrat Proberio. Thus have we sought the world about, in We did as those that seek for fish in many Only two wise men we found, and all the EPILOGUS. Now that your patience hath permitted us | which we wish rather doubled than out of to bring unto an end this present Dialogue, it one to be spared. It resteth that we we stand in good hope of your clemency, render you very humble and hearty thanks, that no more offence will be taken at any and that all our hearts pray for the King word or action passed than we had mean- and his family's enduring happiness, and ing to give, which we protest was none at our country's perpetual welfare. all. For it were against reason and our Si placet plaudite. own ends to drive hence that company [The following Fragments attributed to Chapman, in an Anthology entitled, "England's Parnassus: or The choysest Flowers of our Moderne Poets, with their Poeticall comparisons. Imprinted at London for N. L. C. B. and T. H. 1600," have not been hitherto verified in any extant publication of his.] That sweetless blossom which by power of kind, Forms like itself an image of the mind; Of that divineness which by faith we see ; By each temptation over-apt to slide, our spirit becomes our body's guide. light, As these stone walls deprive our wished sight. DESCRIPTIONS OF BEAUTY SEE where she issues in her beauty's pomp, As Flora to salute the morning sun; Who when she shakes her tresses in the air, Rains on the earth dissolved pearl in showers, Which with his beams the sun exhales to heaven: She holds the spring and summer in her arms, And every plant puts on his freshest robes To dance attendance on her princely steps Springing and fading as she comes and goes. HER hair was loose, and 'bout her shoulders hung, Upon her brows did Venus naked lie, Were beauty's mornings where she ever rose, Her lips were love's rich altars where she makes Her heart a never-ceasing sacrifice; When naked in a secret bower they bathe; Her long round neck was Cupid's quiver call'd, Her teeth stood like a rank of Dian's maids And her sweet words that flew from her, his shafts; Her soft round breasts were his sole travell❜d Alps, Where snow that thaw'd with sun did ever lie ; Her fingers bounds to her rich deity. An Invective written by Mr. George Chapman against Mr. Ben. Jonson.* GREAT, learned, witty Ben, be pleased to light The world with that three-forked fire; nor fright All us, thy sublearn'd, with luciferous boast That thou art most great, most learn'd, Of all the kingdom, nay of all the earth; Of the divine soul shewing man in thee, If it can write no plays, if thy plays fail, To thy wild fury; that, as if a fiend Frisking so madly that 'gainst Town and Thou plant'st thy battery in most hideous sort. If thy pied humours suffer least impair, awe More than thy moods are thy admirers' law; How must state use thee if thy veins thus Thou must be muzzled, ring'd, and led in chains, Lest dames with child abide untimely pains, * This and the following fragment are from a Commonplace-book preserved among the Ashmole MSS. in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. And children perish; didst thou not put out A boy's right eye that cross'd thy mankind If all this yet find pardon, fee, and grace, But to give vice her rein; and on all his What nourishes virtue, evermore converts mand? How shall grave virtue spirit her honour'd fame If motley mockery may dispose her shame Never so dully, nor with such adust Depraving every exemplary merit, (When men turn harpies, their blood stand- Green-bellied serpents, and black-freckled Crawling in their unwieldy clotter'd veins sorcerous pens Like pictures prick'd, and hid in smoking dunghills Vex'd with the sun) 'tis time I think to |