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Rollo. You are in your own sphere, La

torch; and rather

Than I'll contend w'ye for it, I'll believe it:
You've won upon me that I wish to see
My fate before me now, whate'er it be.

Lat. And I'll endeavour, you shall know't
with speed;

[me, For which I should have one of trust go with (If you please, Hamond) that I may by him Send you my first dispatches; after, I Shail bring you more 53, and as they come still more,

And accurate forth from them.

Rollo. Take your way,

Chuse your own means, and be it prosperous to us!

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Enter Rusee, de Bube, a Fiske, Norbret, and
Pippeau.

Rusee. Come, bear up, sirs; we shall have
better days,

My almanack tells me.

Bube. What is that? your rump?

Kusce. It never itch'd in vain yet. 'Slid,
la Fiske,

Throw off thy sluggish face; I can't abide
To see thee look like a poor jade i'th' pound,
That saw no meat these three days.
Fiske. Slight, to me

It seems thirteen days since I saw any.
Rusee. How !

Fiske. I can't remember that I ever saw
Gr meat, or money; you may talk of both,
To open a man's stomach or his purse,
But feed 'em still with air.

Bube. Friar, I fear

You do not say your office well a-days;
I cannot hear your beads knack.

Norb. Pox, he feeds

With lechery, and lives upon th' exchange Of his two eggs and pudding with the marketwomen!

Rusee. And what do you, sir, with the
advocate's wife,

Whom you persuade, upon your doctoral bed,
To take the mathematical trance so often?

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The two following editions exhibit,

53 Shall bring you more, as they come more,
And accurate forth from them.] So quarto.
Shall bring you more, and as they come still more,'

and omit the last line. Mr. Seward reads,

Shall bring you more, and as they come forth from 'em, 'More and more accurate.'

34 Cardecu.] A corruption of quart d'ecu, the quarter part of a crown-piece.

55

-yet I am for you

To any bog or sleights. Mr. Theobald proposed reading bog or sloughs; Mr. Seward introduced gulf for bog; and he and Mr. Sympson concurred in altering sleights to streights, and quote the following passage from Jonson's Underwoods as a confirmation of its propriety: their very trade

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Your own good motions, doctor, your dear
Fiske. Yes, for we all do know the latitude
Of your concupiscence.

Rusee. Here about your belly.

[sey,

Bube. You'll pick a bottle open, or a whimAs soon as the best of us.

Fiske. And dip your wrist-bands

. (For cuffs you've none) as comely in the sauce As any courtier-[Bellrings.] Hark, the bell! Who's there?

Rusee. Good luck, I do conjure thee! Boy, look out. [Exit Pip. and enter again. Pip. They're gallants, courtiers; one of Of the duke's bed-chamber. ['em is

Rusee. Latorch,-Down!

On with your gown [to Norb.]; there's a new

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you.

So come, and put me on that vizard only.
[Exeunt omnes præter Rusee and Pippeau.

Enter Latorch and Humond,

Lat. You'll not be far hence, captain.
When the business

Is done, you shall receive present dispatch.
Ham. I'll walk, sir, in the cloister. [Exit.
Rusee. Monsieur Latorch? my son,
The stars are happy still that guide you hither.

Lat. I'm glad to hear their secretary say so,
My learned father Rusee. Where's la Fiske?
Monsieur de Bube? how do they?

Rusee. At their studies;

They are the secretaries of the stars, sir,
Still at their books, they will not be pull'd
off,

They stick like cupping-glasses. If ever men
Spoke with the tongue of destiny, 'tis they.
Lat. For love's sake, let's salute 'em.
Rusee. Boy, go see;

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On what you lately erected for my love.
Rusee. Oh, sir, we dare not!

Fiske. For our lives!

Bube. It is

The prince's scheme!

Lat. T'encounter with that fear,
Here's, to assure you, his signet; write your
And be secur'd all three.

[names, Bube. We must entreat some time, sir. Lat. I must then

Entreat, it be as present as you can.
Fiske. Have you the scheine here?
Lat. Yes.

Rusee. I would you had, sir,
Another warrant!

56 With wholsome two souz'd petitoes.] Mr. Theobald reads, from the old quarto, two sous'd; the idea which he would affix is, I suppose, twice pickled, or twice salted: But solz, soulz, or sous, the French coin, making a more natural expression, and a stronger antithesis to the crown ordinaries, I think that the true one. Seward.

57 Almucanturies.] Almacantors, Almicunterahs, or Almicanturahs, circles of altitude parallel to the horizon, the common pole of which is in the zenith. Bailey.

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Fiske. Sir, he, if you do please to give him any thing,

Must have't convey'd under a paper.

Rusee. Or left behind some book in his study. Bube. Or in some old wall. Fiske. Where his familiars May tell him of it, and that pleases him, sir. Bube. Or else, I'll go and assay bim 59. Lat. Take gold with you.

Rusee. That will not be amiss. Give it the boy, sir;

He knows his holes, and how to bait his spirits.

Pip. We must lay in several places, sir.
Rusee. That's true;

That if one come not, the other may hit.
[Exeunt Rusee and Pippeau.
Lat. Well, go then. Is he so learned,
gentlemen?

Fiske. The very top of our profession, mouth o'th' fates!

[take, 'Pray Heav'n his spirits be in good humour to They'll fling the gold about the house else! Bube. Av,

And beat the friar, if he go not well
Furnish'd with holy water.

Fiske. Sir, you must observe him.

Bube. Not cross him in a word; for then

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Let's see't; dispatch; nay, fumbling now! Who's this?

I'll

Rusee, Chief gentleman of the duke's chamber, doctor.

Norb. Oh, let him be; good ev'n to him! he's a courtier; There?

spare his compliment, tell him. What is The geniture nocturnal, longitude At twenty-one degrees 58, the latitude At forty-nine and ten minutes? How are the Cardines? [nutes; Fiske. Libra in twenty-four, forty-four miAnd Capricorn—

Norb. I see it; see the planets,
Where, how they are dispos'd; the Sun and
Mercury,

Mars with the Dragon's tail in the third house,
And pars Fortuna in the Imo Cali,
Then Jupiter in the twelfth, the Cacolemon.
Bube. And Venus in the second Inferna

Porta.

dent,

[fifth, Norb. I see it; peace! then Saturn in the Luna i'th' seventh, and much of Scorpio, Then Mars his Gaudium, rising in th' Ascen [Venus, And join'd with Libra too, the house of And Imum Cali, Mars his exaltation In the seventh house, Aries being his natural Thim And where he is now seated, and all these show To be the Almuter.

house

Rusee. Yes, he's lord of the geniture, Whether you examine it by Ptolomy's way, Or Messahalah's, Luel, or Alkindus.

Fiske. No other planet hath so many dignities,

Either by himself, or in regard of the cuspes. Norb. Why, hold your tongue then, if you know it; Venus

The lady of the horoscope, being Libra,
The other part, Mars rules: So that, the geni-
Being nocturnal, Luna is the highest, [ture
None else being in sufficient dignity,
She being in Aries in the seventh house,
Where Sol exalted, is the Alchoroden.

Bube. Yes, for you see he hath his termine
In the degrees where she is, and enjoys
By that six dignities.

Fiske. Which are clearly more
Than any else that view her in the scheme."
Norb. Why, I saw this, and could have
told you too,

That he beholds her with a trine aspect
Here out of Sagittary, almost quartile,

58 Bube. Or else I'll go and assay him.] The words or else were struck out by Seward and Sympson, as injurious to sense and measure.'

In our opinion, they assist both.

59 At twenty-one degrees, the latitude.] This line, strange as it inay appear, is in no edition but the old quarto.

60 Or Messethales.] The quarto reads, Nassahales. The right name is Messahalah: he ́ was a Jew famous for judicial astrology, and lived in the times of the chalifs Almansor and Almamon. Vide Salmasium de Annis Climactericis, p. 309. Sympson.

61

6

-almost partile.] The old quarto reads, almost partly;' quartile is undoubtedly the true word. It is difficult to us at present to relish the jargon of a science so long exploded,

but

And how that Mars out of the self-same house,
(But another sign) here by a platique aspect
Looks at the hyleg, with a quartile ruling
The house where the sun is; all this could I
Ilave told you, but that you'll out-run me;
and more,
[life,

That this same quartile aspect to the lady of
Here in the seventh, promises some danger,
Cauda Draconis being so near Mars,
And Caput Algol in the house of death.

Lat. How, sir? I pray you clear that.
Norb. What is the question first?

Rusee. Of the duke's life; what dangers
threaten hin?

Norb. Apparent, and those sudden, when
the byleg

Or Alchoroden by direction come
To a quartile opposition of the place
Where Mars is in the geniture, (which is now
At hand) or else oppose to Mars himself;
expect it.

Lat. But they may be prevented?
Norb. Wisdom only

[ing

That rules the stars, may do it; for Mars be-
Lord of the geniture in Capricorn,
Is, if you mark it, now a Sextile here,
With Venus lady of the horoscope.

So she being in her exilium, which is Scorpio,
And Mars his gaudium, is o'er-rul'd by him,
And clear debilitated five degrees
Bencath her ordinary power, so
That, at the most, she can but mitigate.

Lat. You cannot name the persons bring
this danger?

Norb. No, that the stars tell not us; they

name no man;

That is a work, sir, of another place.
Rusee. Tell him whom you suspect, and
he'll guess shrewdly.

Lat. Sir, we do fear one Aubrey; if 'twere
he,
[him.

I should be glad; for we should soon prevent
(Fiske. I know him; the duke's kinsman ;

a tall man.

Lay hold of't, Norbret)

Norb. Let me pause a little:

Is he not near of kin unto the duke?
Lat. Yes, reverend sir.

(Norb. Fart for

your reverence!

Keep it till then.)-And somewhat high of

Lat. He is so.

[stature?

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Enter Sophia, Matilda, and Edith.
Mat. Good madam, hear the suit that
Edith urges,

With such submiss beseeches; nor remain
So strictly bound to sorrow for your son,
That nothing else, tho' never so befitting,
Obtains your ears or observation.

Soph. What would she say? I hear.
Edith. My suit is, madam,

That you would please to think as well of
justice
Due to your son's revenge, as of more wrong
[added
To both yourselves for it, in only grieving.
Th' undaunted power of princes should not be
Confin'd in deedless cold calamity;
Anger (the twin of Sorrow) in your wrongs
Should not be smother'd when his right of
birth
[forth.

Claims th' air as well, and force of coming
Soph. Sorrow is due already 2; Anger never
Should be conceiv'd, but where it may be born

but it is certainly a very just banter upon the ridiculous credulity of our Authors' age. The words Almuter and Alcoroden are two words which Bailey, the only dictionary I found them in, makes pretty near the same thing, viz. The star that reigns at our nativity. 62 Sorrow is due already. ] Thus read the old books; and who can read with Seward, HAS's Seward. due, without the organs of a serpent? Edith desires them

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to think as well of justice

Due to her son's revenge, as of more wrong
Added to both themselves, in only grieving:'

and further says, that Anger is the twin of Sorrow.' Sophia replies, that 'Sorrow is due already, but that Anger, unless it could be brought forth with effect, had better not be conceived;' by which answer she both replies to Edith's argument and her metaphor: At least, the reading is intelligible, and Mr. Seward's variation illegible. We have therefore followed the old books.

In some fact fit t' employ his active flame, That else consumes who bears it, and abides Like a false star that quenches as it glides. Edith. I have such means t' employ it as your wish

Can think no better, easier, or securer; And such as, but for the honours I intend To your partakings, I alone could end. But your parts in all dues to crying blood For vengeauce in the shedder, are much greater, [slaughter;

And therefore should work your hands to his For your consent to which, 'twere infinite

wrong

To your severe and most impartial justice,
To move you to forget so false a son
As with a mother's duty made you curse him.
Mat. Edith, he is forgot for any son
Born of my mother, or to me a brother;
For, should we still perform our rights to him,
We should partake his wrongs, and as foul be
In blood and damned parricide as he:

And therefore tell the happy means that
Heav'n

Puts in thy hand, for all our long'd-for freedom

From so abhorr'd and impious a monster.

Soph. Tell what she will, I'll lend nor hand

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Is but some richer ornaments and jewels
Than I am able to provide myself,
To help out the defects of my poor beauty,
That yet hath been enough, as 'now it is,
To make his fancy mad with my desire.
But you know, madam, women never can
Be too fair to torment an amorous man;
And this man's torments I would heighten still,
'Till at their highest he were fit to kill.

Mat. Thou shalt have all my jewels and
my mother's;

And thou shalt paint too, that his blood's de

sire

May make him perish in a painted fire.
Hast thou been with him yet?

Edith. Been with him? no;

I set that hour back to haste more his longing:
But I have promis'd to his instruments,
The admittance of a visit at our house;
Where yet I would receive him with all lustre
My sorrow would give leave to, to remove
Suspicion of my purpose.

Mat. Thou shalt have

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