Shall turn it to as many of the Sun;
Nay, to a thousand, so ad infinitum:
You will believe me.

Sur. Yes! when I see it, I will.

Mam. Ha! why,

Do you think I fable with you? I assure you,
He that has once the flower of the Sun,

The perfect ruby, which we call Elixir,

Not only can do that, but by its virtue
Can confer honour, love, respect, long life,
Give safety, valour, yea, and victory

To whom he will. In eight and twenty days
I'll make an old man of fourscore a child.
Sur. No doubt; he's that already.

Mam. Nay, I mean,

Restore his years, renew him like an eagle,
To the fifth age;

Of Nature naturized 'gainst all infections,
Cures all diseases, coming of all causes ;

A month's grief in a day; a year's in twelve ;
And of what age soever, in a month;

Past all the doses of your drugging doctors.

I'll undertake withal to fright the plague

Out of the kingdom in three months.

Sur. And I'll

Be bound, the players shall sing your praises, then,
Without their poets.

Mam. Sir! I'll do it. Meantime

I'll give away so much unto my man,

Shall serve the whole city with preservative

Weekly; each house his dose, and at the rate

Sur. As he that built the waterwork, does with water! Mam. You are incredulous.

Sur. 'Faith, I have a humour,

I would not willingly be gull'd. Your stone

Can not transmute me.

Mam. Pertinax Surly!

Will you believe antiquity? records?

I'll show you a book, where Moses, and his sister,
And Solomon, have written of the art;

Ay, and a treatise penn'd by Adam.

Sur. How?

Mam. Of the philosopher's stone, and in High Dutch.
Sur. Did Adam write, sir! in High Dutch?

Mam. He did:

Which proves it was the primitive tongue. Sur. What paper?

Mam. On cedar-board.

Sur. O, that indeed, they say,

Will last 'gainst worms.

Mam. 'Tis like your Irish wood

'Gainst cobwebs. I have a piece of Jason's fleece too,

Which was no other than a book of alchemy,

Writ in large sheepskin, a good fat ram-vellum.
Such was Pythagoras' thigh, Pandora's tub,

And all that fable of Medea's charms,

The manner of our work: the bulls, our furnace,
Still breathing fire; our Argent-vive, the dragon;
The dragon's teeth, mercury sublimate,

That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the biting:
And they are gather'd into Jason's helm

(The alembic) and then sow'd in Mars his field,
And thence sublimed so often, till they are fix'd.
Both this, the Hesperian garden, Cadmus' story,
Jove's shower, the boon of Midas, Argus' eyes,
Boccace his Demogorgon, thousands more,
All abstract riddles of our stone.

How now?

FACE enters.

Do we succeed? is our day come? and holds it?

Face. The evening will set red upon you, sir !

You have colour for it, crimson: the red ferment

Has done his office. Three hours hence prepare you
To see projection!

Mam. Pertinax, my Surly!

Again I say to thee aloud, Be rich!

This day thou shalt have ingots, and to-morrow
Give lords the affront. Is it, my Zephyrus! right?
Blushes the bolt's head?

Face. Like a wench with child, sir!

That were but now discover'd to her master. Mam. Excellent witty Lungs! My only care is, Where to get stuff enough now, to project on. This town will not half serve me.

Face. No? sir! buy

The covering off of churches.

Mam. That is true.

Face. Yes!

Let them stand bare, as do their auditory;
Or cap them new with shingles.

Mam. No! good thatch :

Thatch will lie light upon the rafters, Lungs !
Lungs! I will manumit thee from the furnace ;
I will restore thee thy complexion, Puffe!
Lost in the embers; and repair this brain
Hurt with the fume o' the metals.

Face. I have blown, sir !

Hard for your worship; thrown by many a coal,
When 'twas not beech; weigh'd those I put in, just,

To keep your heat still even; these blear'd eyes
Have waked to read your several colours, sir!

Of the pale citron, the green lion, the crow,
The peacock's tail, the plumèd swan-

Mam. And lastly,

Thou hast descryed the flower, the sanguis agni?

Face. Yes, sir!

Mam. Where's master?

Face. At his prayers, sir! he,

Good man, he is doing his devotions

For the success.

We will be brave, Puffe! now we have the medicine.
My meat shall all come in in Indian shells,

Dishes of agate set in gold, and studded

With emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies;
The tongues of carps, dormice, and camels' heels,
Boil'd in the spirit of Sol, and dissolved pearl
(Apicius' diet 'gainst the epilepsy),

And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber,
Headed with diamond and carbuncle.

My footboy shall eat pheasants, calver'd salmons,
Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have
The beards of barbels served, instead of salads;
Oil'd mushrooms; and the swelling unctuous paps
Of a fat pregnant sow, newly cut off,

66

Dress'd with an exquisite and poignant sauce;
For which, I'll say unto my cook, There's gold;
Go forth, and be a knight!"

Face. Sir! I'll go look

A little, how it heightens.

Mam. Do!-My shirts

I'll have of taffeta-sarsnet, soft and light
As cobwebs; and, for all my other raiment,
It shall be such as might provoke the Persian,
Were he to teach the world riot anew.

My gloves of fishes' and birds' skins, perfumed
With gums of paradise, and eastern air.

Sur. And do you think to have the stone with this?
Mam. No! I do think to have all this with the stone.

GEORGE CHAPMAN.

1557-9-1634.

BUSSY D'AMBOIS.

BUSSY D'AMBOIS, a poor soldier, having been grossly insulted by three Courtiers, challenges all three. Two Lords, who had witnessed the insult, take his part and join in the challenge. A NUNTIUS (Messenger) relates, to KING HENRY the third of France (where the scene occurs), the circumstances of the fight: GUISE, BEAUPRÉ, and other Lords present.

Nuntius. I saw fierce D'Ambois and his two brave friends
Enter the field, and at their heels their foes,
Which were the famous soldiers, Barrisor,
L'Anou, and Pyrrhot, great in deeds of arms :
All which arrived at the evenest piece of earth
The field afforded, the three challengers

Turn'd head, drew all their rapiers, and stood rank'd;
When face to face the three defendants met them,
Alike prepared, and resolute alike.

Like bonfires of contributory wood

Every man's look show'd, fed with either's spirit;

As one had been a mirror to another,

Like forms of life and death each took from other:
And so were life and death mix'd at their heights,
That you could see no fear of death (for life)
Nor love of life (for death): but in their brows
Pyrrho's opinion in great letters shone ;

That "life and death in all respects are one."
Henry. Pass'd there no sort of words at their encounter?
Nuntius. As Hector 'twixt the hosts of Greece and Troy,
When Paris and the Spartan king should end
The nine years' war, held up his brazen lance
For signal that both hosts should cease from arms,
And hear him speak; so Barrisor (advised)

Advanced his naked rapier 'twixt both sides,