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3 Avoc. 'Tis true;

He is a man of great estate, now left.

4 Avoc. Go you, and learn his name; and say, the court

Entreats his presence here; but, to the clearing Of some few doubts.

2 Avoc. This same's a labyrinth!

1 Anoc. Stand you unto your first report?
Corv. My state, my life, my fame
Bon. Where is't?

Coro. Are at the stake.

1 Avoc. Is your's too?

Corb. The advocate's a knave: And has a forked tongue2 Avoc. Speak to the point. Corb. So is the parasite too. 1 Avoc. This is confusion.

Volt. I do beseech your fatherhoods, read but those.

Corv. And credit nothing the false spirit hath writ;

It cannot be, but he is possess'd, grave fathers.

SCENE XI.

VOLPONE, NANO, ANDROGINO, and CASTRONE.

Volp. To make a snare for mine own neck, and run

My head into it wilfully! with laughter!
When I had newly scap'd, was free, and clear!
Out of mere wantonness! O, the dull devil
Was in this brain of mine, when I devis'd it;
And Mosca gave it second: He must now
Help to sear up this vein, or we bleed dead.
How now! who let you loose! whither go you
now?

What? to buy ginger-bread? or to drown kitlings?
Nan. Sir, master Mosca call'd us out of doors,
And bid us all go play, and took the keys.
And. Yes.

Volp. Did master Mosca take the keys? why so?

I am farther in. These are my fine conceits!
I must be merry, with a mischief to me!
What a vile wretch was I, that could not bear
My fortune soberly? I must ha' my crotchets !
And my conundrums! well, go you and seek him:
His meaning may be truer than my fear.
Bid him, he straight come to me to the court;
Thither will I, and, if't be possible,

Unscrew my advocate upon new hopes;
When I provok'd him, then I lost myself.

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3 Avoc. Did not the notary meet him? Volp. Not that I know.

4 Avor. His coming will clear all.

2 Avoc. Yet it is misty.

Volt. May't please your fatherhoods-
Volp. Sir, the parasite

Will'd me to tell you, that his master lives;
[VOLPONE whispers the Advocate.
That you are still the man; your hopes the same;
And this was only a jest→

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see!

He vomits crooked pins! his eyes are set,
Like a dead hare's hung in a poulterer's shop!
His mouth's running away! do you see, signior?
Now 'tis in his belly.

Corv. Ay, the devil!
Volp. Now in his throat.

Corn. Ay, I perceive it plain.

Vop. 'Twill out, 'twill out; stand clear. See where it flies!

In shape of a blue toad, with bat's wings!

Do not you see it, sir?

Corb. What? I think I do.

Corv. 'Tis too manifest.

Volp. Look, he comes t' himself!

Volt. Where am I?

Volp. Take good heart, the worst is past, sir.

You are dispossest.

1 Avoc. What accident is this?

2 Avoc. Sudden, and full of wonder! 3 Acoc. If he were

Possest, as it appears, all this is nothing. Cord. He has been often subject to these fits. 1 Avoc. Shew him that writing; do you know it, sir?

Volp. Deny it, sir, forswear it, know it not. Volt. Yes, I do know it well, it is my hand: But all that it contains is false.

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Had betray'd all; but now it is recover'd :
All's o' the hinge again ay, I am living.
Mos. What busy knave is this, most reverend
fathers!

I sooner had attended your grave pleasures,
But that my order for the funeral
Of my dead patron did require me-
Volp. Mosca!

Mos. Whom I intend to bury like a gentle.

man.

Volp. Ay, quick, and cozen me of all. 2 Avoc. Still stranger!

More intricate!

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1 Avoc. What say you?

Volt. The officer told me.

Volp. I did, grave fathers,

And will maintain he lives, with mine own life, And that this creature told me.-I was born With all good stars my enemies!

Mos. Most grave fathers,

If such an insolence as this must pass
Upon me, I am silent: 'Twas not this,
For which you sent, I hope.

2 Avoc. Take him away.

Volp. Mosca!

3 Avoc. Let him be whipp'd.

Volp. Wilt thou betray me! cozen me? 3 Avoc. And taught to bear himself Toward a person of his rank.

4 Avoc. Away!

fatherhoods.

Mos. I humbly thank your
Volp. Soft, soft:whipp'd?

And lose all that I have? If I confess,

It cannot be much more.

4 Avoc. Sir, are you married?

Volp. They'll be allied, anon; I must be re

solute:

The fox shall here uncase.

Mos. Patron!

Volp. Nay, now,

My ruin shall not come alone: your match

[He puts off his disguise

I'll hinder sure: my substance shall not glew

you,

Nor screw you into a family.

Mos. Why, patron?

Volp. I am Volpone, and this is my knave;

E

This, his own knave; this avarice's fool;
This a chimera, of wittol, fool, and knave:
And, reverend fathers, since we all can hope
Nought but a sentence, let's not now despair it.
You hear me brief.

Coru. May it please your fatherhoods !—
Com. Silence.

1 Avoc. The knot is now undone, by miracle!
2 Avoc. Nothing can be more clear.

3 Avoc. Or can more prove these innocent. 1 Avoc. Give 'em their liberty.

Bon. Heav'n could not long let such gross crimes be hid.

2 Avoc. If this be held the highway to get riches,

May I be poor.

3 Anoc. This's not the gain, but torment.
1 Avoc. These possess wealth, as sick men
possess fevers,

Which trulier may be said to possess them.
2 Avoc. Disrobe that parasite.

Corv. Mos. Most honour'd fathers!

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Volp. This is call'd mortifying of a fox.

1 Avoc. Thou Voltore, to take away the scan.
dal

Thou hast giv'n all worthy men of thy profession,
Art banish'd from their fellowship, and our state.
Corbaccio, bring him near. We here possess
Thy son of all thy state; and confine thee
To the monastery of Sun' Spirito:

Where, since thou knew'st not how to live well
here,

hou shalt be learn'd to die well.
Corb. Ha, what said he?

Com. You shall know anon, sir.
1 Avoc. Thou Corvino, shalt

Be straight embark'd from thine own house, and
row'd

Round about Venice, through the grand canal,

1 Avoc. Can you plead aught to stay the Wearing a cap, with fair long ass's ears

course of justice?

If you can, speak

Coro Volt

Cel. And mercy.

og favour.

1 Avoc. You hurt your innocence, suing for
the guilty.

Stand forth; and first the parasite. You appear
T'have been the chiefest minister, if not plotter,
In all these lewd impostures; and now, lastly,
Have, with your impudence, abus'd the court,
And habit of a gentleman of Venice,
Being a fellow of no birth or blood:
For which our sentence is, first thou be whipp'd,
Then live perpetual prisoner in our galleys.
Volt. I thank you for him.

Mos. Bane to thy wolfish nature!

1 Avoc. Deliver him to the Saffi. Thou, Vol

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Instead of horns; and so to mount, a paper
Pinn'd on thy breast, to the Berlino

Coro. Yes,

And have mine eyes beat out with stinking fish, Bruis'd fruit, and rotten eggs-'Tis well. I'm glad

I shall not see my shame yet.

1 Avoc. And to expiate

Thy wrongs done to thy wife, thou art to send

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VOLPONE.

The seas'ning of a play is the applause.
Now, though the fox be punish'd by the laws;
He yet doth hope there is no suff'ring due,
For any fact which he hath done 'gainst you ;-
If there be, censure him :-here he doubtful
stands:-

If not, fare jovially, and clap your hands!

THE

ALCHEMIST.

BY

BEN JONSON.

PROLOGUE.

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Did never aim to grieve, but better men;
Howe'er the age he lives in, doth endure
The vices that she breeds, above their cure.
But, when the wholesome remedies are sweet,
And, in their working, gain and profit meet,
He hopes to find no spirit so much diseas'd,
But will, with such fair correctives, be pleas'd.
For here, he doth not fear, who can apply.
If there be any, that will sit so nigh
Unto the stream, to look what it doth run,
They shall find things, they'd think, or wish,
were done;

They are so natural follies, but so shown,
As even the doers may see, and yet not own,

THE ARGUMENT.

The sickness hot, a master quit, for fear,
His house in town: And left one servant there.
E ase him corrupted, and gave means to know
A cheater, and his punk; who, now brought low,
Leaving the narrow practice, were become
Cos'ners at large; and, only wanting some
House to set up, with him they here contract,
Each for a share, and all begin to act.
Much company they draw, and much abuse,
In casting figures, telling fortunes, news,
Selling of flies, flat bawdry, with the stone:
Till it, and they, and all in fume are gone.

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Enter FACE, SUBTLE, and DOL COMMON.

Face. BELIEV'T, I will.

Sub. Thy worst. I fart at thee.

Dol. Ha you your wits? Why, gentlemen! for love

Face. Sirrah, I'll strip you

Sub. What to do? lick figs out at my-
Face. Rogue, rogue, out of all your sleights.
Dol. Nay, look ye! Sovereign, general, are
you madmen?

Sub. O, let the wild sheep loose. I'll gum your silks

With good strong water, an' you come.

Dol. Will you have

The neighbours hear you? will you betray all? Hark, I hear somebody.

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Sub. Since, by my means, translated suburb

captain.

Face. By your means, doctor Dog?
Sub. Within man's memory,

All this I speak of.

Face. Why, I pray you, have I

Been countenanced by you? or you by me?
Do but collect, sir, where I met you first.
Sub. I do not hear well.

Face. Not of this, I think it,

But I shall put you in mind, sir: at Pye-Corner,
Taking your meal of steam in, from cooks' stalls,
Where, like the father of hunger, you did walk
Piteously costive, with your pinched-horn nose,
And your complexion, of the Roman wash,
Stuck full of black and melancholic worms,
Like powder-corns shot at the artillery yard.
Sub. I wish you could advance your voice a
little.

Face. When you went pinned up in the seve
ral rags

You'd raked, and picked from dung-hills, before day,

Your feet in mouldy slippers, for your kibes,
A felt of rug, and a thin threaden cloak,
That scarce would cover your no-buttocks-
Sub. No, sir!

Face. When all your alchemy, and your al-
gebra,

Your minerals, vegetals, and animals,
Your conj'ring, coz'ning, and your dozen of trades,
Could not relieve your corps with so much linen
Would make you tinder, but to see a fire;
I ga' you count'nance, credit for your coals,
Your stills, your glasses, your materials,
Built you a furnace, drew you customers,
Advanced all your black arts; lent
you, beside,

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