the custodie of two strong doores; and every day, till she come to eighty yeeres of age, to be well garded by thirty tall watchmen, without whose license she shall by no means wag abroad; nevertheless to be used lady-like, according to her estate." The following contains part of the objurgation between Lingua and Auditus. Lingua thus replies to the tauntings of Auditus, who treats her claims, to be considered a Sense, with contempt. 66 Ling. If then your confidence esteeme my cause, To be so frivolous and weakely wrought, Why doe you dayly subtill plots devise, To stop me from the eares of Common Sense? To him, and to his too-wise assistance, Let them but heare and judge, I wish no more. Aud. Should they but know thy rash presumption, They would correct it in the sharpest sort: Good Jove, what sense hast thou to be a sense; Yet you, forsooth, an idle prating dame, Ling. An idle prating dame: know, fond Auditus, As his amongst the five is counted best. Aud. Lingua, confesse the truth, th'art wont to lye. But now, spight of you all, I speake the truth. Making the sacred name of Common Sense A cloak to cover your enormities: He beares the rule, he's iudge, but iudgeth still, As hee's inform'd by your false evidence. So that a plaintiffe cannot have accesse, But through your gates, he heares, but what? nought else But that thy crafty eares to him convayes, And all he sees, is by proud Visus shew'd him, By these quaint tricks free passage hath beene bar'd, But well, 'tis well. Aud. Lingua, thy feeble sexe * Hath hitherto with-held my ready hands, Aud. O, heavens, thou wrong'st me much, That sharpe-edg'd tongue, whetted against her master, That scalding throat, those nostrils full of ire; Thy palate, proper instruments of speech, Like to the winged chaunters of the wood, * Mr. Payne Collier, in his very interesting Poetical Decameron, vol. 1. p. 34, thus cites these two lines, "the learned Greek, Blest in the lovely marriage of sweet words, as Middleton beautifully expresses it in that odd play of his with an odd title, A Mad World, my Masters."-Mr. C. probably quoted from memory; but it seems extraordinary that he should attribute two beautiful verses like these to a comedy of the nature of the one to which he has referred them. The only connection we can perceive between Lingua and the Mad World, my Masters, is, that they stand next to one another in Dodsley's Collection. Tunes without sense, words inarticulate, Ling. Perfidious lyar, how can I endure thee, Aud. Heavens looke on my distresse! [exit Auditus. Ling. May the loud cannoning of thunder-bolts, With sugred words, to delude Gustus' taste, my cause Is still procrastinated; therefore, now Hence ye base offspring of a broken mind, Go, kisse the love-sicke lippes of puling guls, That still their braine to quench their love's disdaine; Come not within my thoughts. But thou, Deceit, Well then I'le goe-whither? nay, what know I? And so obtaine to speak, it must be so. It must be so, but how? there lies the point: Pish, none of these-what if I take this course, ha? Lingua, producing a crown and robe, which she intends to throw in the way of the Senses as a bone of contention, describes the prize in these terms: 66 Ling. Whilome this crowne and gorgeous ornament, With the sharpe weapon of their tongues contended ; And alike gracious, that if his were witty, Tactus first finds the insidious treasures, and, after admiring them, puts them on, and exclaims-* * Winstanley tells us, that on this play being acted by the students of Trinity College, Cambridge, Oliver Cromwell, then at that university, performed the part of Tactus, and of course had occasion "Roses and bayes, packe hence: this crowne and robe, How gallantly it fits me, sure the slave Stiling me Cæsar, or great Alexander, Licking my feete, and wond'ring where I got He is interrupted by some of the other Senses, and is compelled to resort to some very humorous shifts, to conceal his treasure and send them off. Common Sense demands of Mendacio, or the Liar, some account of the respective armaments of the Senses, whom he is informed are drawn up in battle array to contend for the crown and robe. Mendacio gives him a long description of the armies, written in an admirable vein of ludicrous exaggeration and mock-heroic dignity. 66 "Pha. Hot youths I protest, saw you those warlike preparations? Men. Lately, my lords, I spied into the army, But oh, 'tis färre beyond my reach of wit, Or strength of utterance, to describe their forces. Men. Upon the right hand of a spacious hill, to repeat this speech. He, it is said, entered with such spirit and animation into the part, that it is supposed the promptings of his future ambition then first rose in his breast-an anecdote curious enough if it were true. It is possible that Cromwell may have assisted in the representation of this play, though it was published many years before he was born. The consequence attributed to its effects is however sufficiently absurd. It should be recollected that Cromwell was a fellow commoner of Sidney, while the play is said to have been represented at Trinity College, a circumstance which almost alone destroys the credit of the story. |