(Not usual to stern eyes) and she besought Her husband to bestow on her that prize, With safeguard of her body at her will. The captain seeing his wife, the child, the nymph, Felt his rough nature shaken too, and grants And some beholders stood not with dry eyes; Such passion wrought the passion of their prize. 10 And from the woman's feet she would not part, To them, all rapt with passion, down she kneels, 20 30 And made a slave in Egypt; and besought Did hold their native country dear, they would 40 Take pity on her, and relieve her youth Would thank them one day, and reward them too; 10 20 20 XXXIII. THE CASE IS ALTERED: A COMEDY. BY BEN JONSON. The present Humour to be followed. AURELIA, PHOENIXELLA, Sisters: their Mother being lately dead. Aur. Room for a case of matrons, colour'd black : How motherly my mother's death hath made us ! I would I had some girls now to bring up; Oh I could make a wench so virtuous, She should say grace to every bit of meat, And she should make French court'sies so most low 30 Phan. Sister, these words become not your attire, Nor your estate; our virtuous mother's death Should print more deep effects of sorrow in us, Than may be worn out in so little time. Aur. Sister, i' faith you take too much tobacco, Eat when your stomach serves, saith the physician, Give it the reins, and spare not; as I do It is Precisianism to alter that, With austere judgment, that is giv'n by nature. And fitter with my mood, than not to weep: But now 'tis otherwise. Another time 10 Perhaps I shall have such deep thoughts of her, 20 And put on black as grimly then as now.— Presentiment of treachery, vanishing at the sight of the person suspected. Lord PAULO FARNEZE. (Speaking to himself of ANGELO.) -My thoughts cannot propose a reason Why I should fear or faint thus in my hopes Of one so much endeared to my love: Some spark it is, kindled within the soul, Whose light yet breaks not to the outward sense, 30 That propagates this timorous suspect. His actions never carried any face Of change, or weakness; then I injure him, O here he comes. [While he speaks ANGELO enters. Of my stray'd thoughts. JAQUES (a Miser) worships his Gold. What servile villainies men will do for gold. 10 And that's enough. Rot all hands that come near thee, Except mine own. Burn out all eyes that see thee, I'll take no leave, sweet prince, great emperor, 20 20 With my face toward thee, with humble courtesies. [The passion for wealth has worn out much of its grossness by tract of time. Our ancestors certainly conceived of money as able to confer a distinct gratification in itself, not alone considered simply as a symbol of wealth. The oldest poets, when they introduce a miser, constantly make him address his gold as his mistress; as something to be seen, felt, and hugged; as capable of satisfying two of the senses at least. The substitution of a thin unsatisfying medium for the good old tangible gold, has made avarice quite a Platonic affection in comparison with the seeing, touching, and handling pleasures of the old Chrysophilites. A bank note can no more satisfy the touch of a true sensualist in this passion, than Creusa could return her husband's embrace in the shades.-See the Cave of Mammon in Spenser; Barabas's contemplation of his wealth, in the Jew of Malta; Luke's raptures in the City Madam, &c. Above all, hear Guzman, in that excellent old Spanish Novel, The Rogue, expatiate on the "ruddy cheeks of your golden Ruddocks, your Spanish Pistolets, your plump and full-faced Portuguese, and your clear-skinn'd pieces of eight of Castile," which he and his fellows the beggars kept secret to themselves, and did "privately enjoy in a plentiful manner." "For to have them, for to pay them away, is not to enjoy them; to enjoy them is to have them lying by us, having no other need of them than to use them for the clearing of the eye-sight, and the comforting of our senses. These we did carry about with us, sewing them in some patches of our doublets near unto the heart, and as close to the skin as we could handsomely quilt them in, holding them to be restorative."] XXXIV. POETASTER; OR, HIS ARRAIGNMENT: BY THE SAME. OVID bewails his hard condition in being banished from Court and the Society of the PRINCESS JULIA. OVID. Banish'd the court? let me be banish'd life, And no vice vicious, blanch'd with her white hand. 10 20 20 |