Wife. Reach me those cambricks and the lawns hither.

Can. What to do, wife? to lavish out my goods upon a fool?

Fust. Fool! Snails eat the fool, or I'll so batter your crown, that it shall scarce go for five shillings.

2 Pren. Do you hear, sir? y'are best be quiet, and say a fool tells you so.

Fust. Nails, I think so, for thou tellest me.
Can. Are you angry, sir, because I named thee
fool?

Trust me, you are not wise, in mine own house
And to my face to play the antic thus;
If you'll needs play the madman, chuse a stage
Of lesser compass, where few eyes may note
Your action's error; but if still you miss,
As here you do, for one clap, ten will hiss.
Fust. Zounds, cousin, he talks to me, as if I
were a scurvy tragedian.

2 Pren. Sirrah, George, I have thought upon a device how to break his pate, beat him soundly, and ship him away.

George. Do it.

2 Pren. I'll go in, pass through the house, give some of our fellow-prentices the watch-word when they shall enter, then come and fetch my master in by a while, and place one in the hall to hold him in conference, whilst we cudgel the cull out of his coxcomb.

George. Do't; away, do't.

Wife. Must I call twice for these cambricks and lawns?

Can. Nay see, you anger her; George, pr'ythee dispatch.

2 Pren. Two of the choicest pieces are in the warehouse, sir.

Can. Go fetch them presently. [Exit 1 Prentice.
Fust. Aye, do, make haste, sirrah.
Can. Why were you such a stranger all this
while, being my wife's cousin?

Fust. Stranger! no, sir, I am a natural Milaner born.

Can. I perceive still it is your natural guise to mistake me; but you are welcome, sir, I much wish your acquaintance.

Fust. My acquaintance! I scorn that i'faith. I hope my acquaintance goes in chains of gold three and fifty times double; you know who I mean, cuz; 44 the posts of his gate are a painting too.

Enter the Second Prentice.

2 Pren. Signor Pandulfo, the merchant, desires conference with you.

Can. Signor Pandulfo ? I'll be with him straight. Attend your mistress and the gentleman. [Exit. Wife. When do you show those pieces? Fust. Aye, when do you show those pieces? Omnes. Presently, sir, presently, we are but charging them. Fust. Come, sirrah, you 45 flat сар, where be those whites?

George. Flat-cap? hark in your ear, sir, you're a flat fool, an ass, a gull, and I'll thrumb you; do you see this cambrick, sir?

So, in A Woman

44 The posts of his gate are a painting too.-i. e. He will soon be sheriff. At the door of that officer large posts, on which it was customary to stick proclamations, were always set up. never ver'd, by Rowley, 1632:

"If e'er I live to see thee Sheriff of London,
I'll gild thy posts,”—S.

Again, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, A 3. S. 9:

"How long should I be, ere I should put off

To the Lord Chancellor's tomb, or the sheriff's posts ?"

Mr Whalley observes, that it was usual, out of respect, to read the proclamations fastened on the sheriff's posts bare-headed.

45 Flat-cap.-Flat-caps, like those now worn by the children belonging to Christ-Church Hospital, and to the apprentices of Bridewell, were, I apprehend, formerly part of the dress particularly confined to the Citizens of London. They are mentioned as such in several contemporary writers. As Ben Jonson,' in Every Man in his Humour, A. 2. S. 1:

"Make their loose comments upon every word,
Gesture, or look I use; mock me all over,
From my flat-cap, unto my shining shoes."

Marston's Dutch Curtezan, A. 2. S. 1: "-Who helped thee to thy custome, not of swaggering Ireland Captains, nor of 2s. Innes-a-court men, but with honest art caps, wealthy flat-caps, that pay for their pleasure the best of any men in Europe."

Dekker's Wonderful Yeare, 1603 : "For those misbelieving Pagans, the Plough-drivers, those worse than infidels, that (like their swine) never looke up so high as heaven, when citizens borded them, the wrung their hands, and wisht rather they had fallne into the hands of Spaniards: for the sight of a fla cap was more dreadful to a Lob, than the discharging of a caliver."

Dekker's Newes from Hell, 1606: “—You may eyther meete him at dicing ordinaries like a captay at cocke-pits like a young countrey gentleman; or else at a bowling-ally in a flat-cap like a Shopkeepe SY

VOL. I.

46 Gules.-Gulls in the Editions of 1615, 1616, 1635.

47. Go, wish the surgeon, &c.-To wish, was, in the language of the times, to recommend, or desire. So, in The City Night Cap, vol, xi. p. 305: "She looks for one, they call father Antony, sir; and he's wish'd to her by Madona Lussuriosa."

You get nor key, nor gown; and so depart.-
This trick will vex him sure, and fret his heart.
[Exit.
Can. Stay, let me see, I must have some de-
vice;

My cloak's too short: fie, fie, no cloak will do't;
It must be something fashioned like a gown,
With my arms out.-Oh, George, come hither.
George;

I pr'ythee lend me thine advice.

George. Troth, sir, were it any but you, they would

Break open chest.

Can. O no, break open chest! that's a thief's
office;

Therein you counsel me against my blood:
'Twould shew impatience that. Any meek means
I would be glad to embrace. Mass, I have got it;
Go, step up, fetch me down one of the carpets,
The saddest coloured carpet, honest George;
Cut thou a hole in the middle for my neck,
Two for mine arms.-Nay, pr'ythee look not
strange.

George. I hope you do not think, sir, as you

mean.

|

'Tis very well, I thank thee; help it on.
George. It must come over your head, sir, like
a wench's petticoat.

Can. Thou'rt in the right, good George; it
must, indeed.

Fetch me a night-cap; for I'll gird it close,
As if my health were queasy: 'twill show well
For a rude careless night-gown; will't not, think'st?
George. Indifferent well, sir, for a night-gown,
being girt and plaited.

Can. Aye, and a night-cap on my head.
George. That's true, sir; I'll run and fetch one,
and a staff.
[Exit GEORGE.
Can. For thus they cannot chuse but con-
strue it :

One that is out of health takes no delight,
Wears his apparel without appetite,
And puts on heedless raiment without form.
Enter GEORGE.

So, so, kind George, be secret now; and, pr'ythee,
Do not laugh at me, till I'm out of sight.
George. I laugh! not I, sir.

Can. Now to the senate-house;
Methinks I'd rather wear, without a frown,
A patient carpet than an angry gown. [Exit.

George. Now looks my master just like one of our 49 carpet knights, only he's somewhat the ho

nester of the two.

43 Cruzadoes. A cruzado is a Portuguese coin, struck under Alphonsus V. about the year 1457, at the time when Pope Calixtus sent thither the bull for a croisade against the infidels. It had its name from a cross which it bears on one side; the arms of Portugal being on the other. The value of it is 40 French sols, or upwards of 2s 10d. sterling.

49 Carpet-knights.—The following account of this Order of Knighthood is taken from a Note, by Sir James Burrows, on Twelfth Night, A. 3. S. 4 : "There was an order of Knighthood of the appellation of KNIGHTS OF THE CARPET, though few or no persons (at least among those whom I have consulted) seem to know any thing about it, or even to have heard of it. I have taken some memorandum concerning the institution, and know that William Lord Burgh of Scarborough-castle in the County of Surry, father to Thomas Lord Burgh, Deputy of Ireland, and to Sir John Burgh (who took the great Caracca ship in 1592) was made a Knight of the carpet, at Westminister, on the 2d of October, 1553, the day after Queen Mary's coronation: and I met with a list of all who were made so at the same time, in Strype's Memorials, vol. III. Appendix, p. 11. See Anstis's Observations on the Knighthood of the Bath, (Lond. 1725.) p. 50. Upon the accession of Queen Mary to the throne, a commission was granted to the Earl of Arundel, empowering him to make Knights, but WITHOUT any additional title, within two days after the date of that patent, which were the two days preceding her coronation. In pursuance hereof, we

Enter CANDIDO's Wife.

Wife. What, is your master gone?
George. Yes, forsooth, his back is but new

turned.

Wife. And in his cloak? did he not vex and swear?

George. No; but he'll make you swear anon; no, indeed, he went away like a lamb.

Wife. Key, sink to hell; still patient, patient ́
still!

I am with child to vex him. Pr'ythee, George,
If e'er thou lookest for favour at my hands,
Uphold one jest for me.

George. Against my master?

where's your mistress? there's the finest, neatest gentleman at my house, but newly come over; O where is she, where is she, where is she?

Roger. My mistress is abroad, but not amongst them; my mistress is not the whore now that you take her for.

Bawd. How is she not a whore? do you go about to take away her good name, Roger? you are a fine pander, indeed.

Roger. I tell you, Madona Finger-lock, I am not sad for nothing; I ha' not eaten one good meal this three and thirty days; I had wont to get sixteen-pence by fetching a pottle of Ipocras; but now those days are past; we had as good doings, Madona Finger-lock, she within doors, and

Wife. 'Tis a mere jest, in faith; say, wilt thou 1 without, as any poor young couple in Milan.

do't?

George. Well, what is't?

Bawd. God's my life, and is she changed now?
Roger. I ha' lost by her squeamishness more

Wife. Here, take this key; thou know'st where than would have builded twelve bawdy houses.

Bawd. And had she no time to turn honest but now? what a vile woman is this! twenty pound a night, I'll be sworn, Roger, in gold and no silver. Why, here was a time! if she should ha' picked out a time, it could not be better! gold enough stirring; choice of men, choice of hair, choice of beards, choice of legs, and choice of every, every, every thing. It cannot sink into my head, that she should be such an ass. Roger, I'll never believe it.

Roger. Here she comes now.

Enter BELLAFRONT.

Bawd. O sweet Madona, on with your loose gown, your felt and your feather! there's the sweetest, prop'rest, gallantest, gentleman at my house; he smells all of musk and ambergrise, his pocket full of crowns, flame-coloured doublet, red sattin hose, carnation silk stockings, and a leg and a body,--oh!

find the names of the Knights, created by him, according to the stated form of creating Knights of the Bath; and the variety of the ceremonies used so distinctly related, that it particularly deserves to be consulted in the Appendix,

"So that Mr Anstis plainly considers them as being only a species of Knights of the Bath, though with out any additional title.

"If so, the appellation of Knights of the Carpet might be only popular; not their strict or proper title. This, however, was sufficient to induce Shakespeare (who wrote whilst they were commonly spoken of by such an appellation) to use that term in contrast to a knighthood conferred upon a real soldier, as a reward of military valour."

These Carpet Knights are spoken of with great contempt by many contemporary writers.

Massinger's Maid of Honour, A. 2. S. 5 :

"To men I had forborn it; you are women,
Or, at the best, loose Carpet Knights."

The Unnatura Combat, A. 3. S. 3.

"There your Carpet Knights,

That never charged beyond a mistress' lips,
Are still most keen and valiant."

See also Mr Steevens's Note on The Twelfth Night, vol. 1 V. p. 245, and Note to Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. IX. p. 349. edit. 1778.

Thou that art slave to six-pence; base metal'd Enter BELLAFRONT, with a Lute; Pen, Ink, and

50 Blurt of your service. An expression of contempt very frequent in writers of the times. Marston's First Part of Antonio and Mellida, A. 4:

"Blirt on your Aye mees, guard her safely hence."

"This day hath set derision on the French,
And all the world will blurt and scorn at us."