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The dangerous and malignant influence is past;
But thank my charity that put by the blows,
The least of which threaten'd a dozen graves.
Now learn to scoff divine astrology,

And slight her servants!

Cricca. A surgeon, good sir, a surgeon.

Albumazar. Stand up man, th' hast no harm; my for thine.

Pandolfo. Th'art well, th'art well.

Cricca. Now I perceive I am :

I pray you pardon me, divine astrologer.

life

Albumazar. I do: but henceforth laugh at astrology, And call her servants cheaters.

Pandolfo. Now to our business. On, good Albu

mazar.

Albumazar. Now, since the moon passeth from
Capricorn,

Thro' Aquarius, to the watry sign of Pisces,
Antonio's drown'd, and is devour'd' by fishes.
Pandolfo. Is't certain?

Albumazar. Certain.

Pandolfo. Then let my earnestness

Intreat your skill a favour.

Albumazar. It shall, but first

I'll tell you what you mean to ask me.

Pandolfo. Strange!

Albumazar. Antonio dead, that promis'd you his

daughter:

.

Your business is to entreat me raise his ghost,
And force it stay at home till it have perform'd
The promise past, and so return to rest.

Pandolfo. That, that; ye 'ave hit it, most divine
Albumazar.

Albumazar. 'Tis a hard thing; for deprivatione ad
habitum non datur regressus.

O, what a business, what a master-piece
"Tis, to raise up his ghost whose body's eaten
By fish! This work desires a planetary intelligence
Of Jupiter and Sol; and these great spirits
Are proud, fantastical. It asks much charges,

To entice them from the guiding of their spheres,
To wait on mortals.

Pandolfo. So I may have my purpose spare for no

cost.

Albumazar. Sir, spare your purse; I'll do it an easier way;

The work shall cost you nothing.

We have an art is call'd præstigiatory, "7
That deals with spirits, and intelligences

Of meaner office and condition,

Whose service craves small charges: with one of these
I'll change some servant, 18 or good friend of yours,
To the perfect shape of this Antonio :

So like in face, behaviour, speech, and action,
That all the town shall swear Antonio lives.
Pandolfo. Most necromantical astrologer!
Do this, and take me for your servant ever.
And, for your pains, after the transformation,
This chain is yours: * it cost two hundred pound,
Beside the jewel.

Albumazar. After the work is finish'd, then-how now?

What lines are these that look sanguineous,

As if the stars conjur❜d to do you

Pandolfo. How! mean you me?

mischief?

Albumazar. They're dusky marks of Saturn:

It seems some stone shall fall

upon your head, Threat'ning a fracture of the pericranium.

17 præstigiatory,] i. e. juggling or deceiving.

18 I'll change some servant, &c.] So in Jeffrey of Monmouth's History, 1718, p. 264, Merlin changes Uther, Ulfin, and himself, into the shapes of Gorlois, Jordan of Tintagol, and Bricet, by which means Uther obtains the possession of Igerna the wife of Gorlois. S. P.

* People of rank and condition generally wore chains of gold at this time. Hence Trincalo says, that, when he was a gentleman, he would

"Wear a gold chain at every quarter sessions." S. P. Many instances of this fashion are to be met with in these volumes. Some of the magistrates of London, the aldermen, wear chains of gold on publick days at this time.

VOL. VII.

K

Pandolfo. Cricca, come hither; fetch me my staff

again;

Threescore and ten's return'd: a general palsy
Shakes out the love of Flavia with a fear.
Is there no remedy?

Albumazar. Nothing but patience.

The planet threatens so, whose prey you are.
The stars and planets daily war together;
For, should they stand at truce but one half hour,
This wond'rous machine of the world would ruin :
Who can withstand their powerful influence?

Pandolfo. You, with your wisdom, good Albumazar. Albumazar. Indeed, th' Egyptian Ptolomy the wise Pronounc'd it as an oracle of truth,'sapiens dominabitur

astris.

Who's above there? Ronca, bring down the cap
Made in the point of Mercury being ascendant.
Here, put it on; and in your hand this image,
Fram'd on a Tuesday, when the fierce god of war
Mounted th' horizon in the sign of Aries.
With these walk as unwounded as Achilles,
Dipt by his mother Thetis.

Pandolfo. You bind me to your service.

Albumazar. Next get the man you purpose to transform,

And meet me here.

Pandolfo. I will not fail to find

you.

Albumazar. Mean while, with scioferical 19 instru

ment,

By way of azimuth 20 and almicantarath, 21

19 scioferical,] belonging to a sun-dial: it should be written skiatherical. Johnson's Dictionary. 20 azimuth.] Azimuths, called also vertical circles, are great circles, intersecting each other in the zenith and nadir, and cutting the horizon at right angles, in all the points thereof.

Chambers's Dictionary.

21 almicantarath,] an Arabic word, written variously by various authors, and signifies a circle drawn parallel to the horizon. It is generally used in the plural, and means a series of parallel circles, drawn through the several degrees of the meridian. Johnson's Dictionary.

I'll seek some happy point in heaven for you.
Pandolfo. I rest your servant, sir.
Albumazar. Let all the stars

Guide you with most propitious influence.

SCENE VIII.

PANDOLFO, CRICCA.

Pandolfo. Here's a strange man indeed, of skill profound!

How right he knew my business 'fore he saw me! And how thou scoff'st him when we talk'd in private! 'Tis a brave instrument, his otacousticon.

Cricca. In earnest, sir, I took him for a cheater ; As many, under name of cunning men,

With promise of astrology, much abuse

The gaping vulgar, wronging that sacred skill
That in the stars reads all our actions.

Pandolfo. Are there no arches o'er our heads? Look,
Cricca.

Cricca. None but the arch of heaven; that cannot fall.

Pandolfo. Is not that made of marble? I have read A stone dropt from the moon *; and much I fear The fit should take her now, and void another.

Cricca. Fear nothing, sir; this charm'd mercurial cap

Shields from the fall of mountains; 'tis not a stone Can check his art: walk boldly.

Pandolfo. I do.

Let's in.

ACT II. SCENE I.

TRINCALO, ARMELLINA.

Trincalo. He that saith I am not in love, he lies de cap-a-pie; for I am idle, choicely neat in my clothes, valiant, and extreme witty. My meditations are loaded

* See Bishop Wilkins' Voyage to the Moon, p. 110. S. P.

with metaphors, songs, and sonnets; not a cur shakes his tail, but I sigh out a passion 23: thus do I to my mistress; but, alas, I kiss the dog, and she kicks me. I never see a young wanton filly, but say I, there goes Armellina; nor a lusty strong ass, but I remember myself, and sit down to consider, what a goodly race of mules would inherit, if she were willing: only I want utterance, and that's a main mark of love too. Armellina. Trincalo, Trincalo.

Trincalo. O, 'tis Armellina! Now if she have the wit to begin, as I mean she should, then will I confound her with compliments, drawn from the plays I see at the Fortune, and Red Bull 24, where I learn all the words I speak and understand not.

Armellina. Trincalo, what price bears wheat and saffron, that your band's so stiff and yellow ?-not a

22 Both the editions read "not a one," Mr. Dodsley altered it to not a dog. In Macbeth, A. 3. S. 4. is the same phrase; which, Mr. Steevens observes, however uncouth, signifies an individual: "There's not a one of them, but in his house

"I keep a servant fee'd."

Again we have an instance of extreme carelessness, or rather total negligence of collation, since the quarto of 1615 gives the sense as clearly as possible, without the slightest misprint. "Not a cur shakes his tail but I sigh out a passion." &c. It has been accordingly altered in the text to the true reading.

C.

23 a passion.] See note 11, to Green's Tu quoque, vol. VI. 24 The Fortune and Red Bull.] Two play-houses. The Fortune belonged to the celebrated Edward Alleyn, and stood in Whitecross Street. The Red Bull was situated in St. John's Street.

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25 Trincalo, what price bears wheat and saffron, that your band's so stiff and yellow?] This alludes to the fashion then much followed, of wearing bands washed and dyed with yellow starch. The inventress of them was Mrs. Turner, a woman of an infamous character; who, being concerned in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, was executed at Tyburn in a lawn ruff of her favourite colour." With 'her," says Howell, in his Letters, p. 19. edit. 1754, "I believe "that yellow starch, which so much disfigured our nation, and "rendered them so fantastic and ridiculous, will receive its fune"ral." And of the same opinion was Sir Simon D'ewes, who, in the MS. account of his life, now in the British Museum, p. 24. says, "Mrs. Turner had first brought upp that vaine and foolish "" use of yellow starch, and therefore, when shee was afterwards "executed at Tiburne, the hangman had his bande and cuffs of the

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