A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Xi Part 81

ALB. 'Tis a hard thing; for _de privatione ad habitum non datur regressus_.

O, what a business, what a masterpiece '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.

PAN. So I may have my purpose, spare for no cost.

ALB. Sir, spare your purse; I'll do it an easier way; The work shall cost you nothing.

We have an art is call'd praestigiatory,[265]

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[266] 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.

PAN. Most necromantical astrologer!

Do this, and take me for your servant ever.

And, for your pains, after the transformation, This chain is yours:[267] it cost two hundred pound, Beside the jewel.

ALB. 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 mischief?

PAN. How! mean you me?

ALB. They're dusky marks of Saturn: It seems some stone shall fall upon your head, Threat'ning a fracture of the pericranium.

PAN. 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?

ALB. 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?

PAN. You with your wisdom, good Alb.u.mazar.

ALB. Indeed, th' Egyptian, Ptolemy the Wise, p.r.o.nounc'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 G.o.d of war Mounted th' horizon in the sign of Aries.

With these walk as unwounded as Achilles, Dipp'd by his mother Thetis.

PAN. You bind me to your service.

ALB. Next get the man you purpose to transform, And meet me here.

PAN. I will not fail to find you.

ALB. Meanwhile, with sciotherical[268] instrument, By way of azimuth[269] and almicantarath,[270]

I'll seek some happy point in heaven for you.

PAN. I rest your servant, sir.

ALB. Let all the stars Guide you with most propitious influence.

SCENE VIII.

PANDOLFO, CRICCA.

PAN. 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 autocousticon.

CRI. 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.

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

CRI. None but the arch of heaven, that cannot fall.

PAN. Is not that made of marble? I have read A stone dropp'd from the moon;[271] and much I fear The fit should take her now, and void another.

CRI. Fear nothing, sir; this charm'd mercurial cap Shields from the fall of mountains: 'tis not a stone Can check his art: walk boldly.

PAN. I do. Let's in. [_Exeunt._

FOOTNOTES:

[227] This play seems to have been planned on "L'Astrologo" of Giam Battista della Porta.--_Pegge._

Battista Porta was the famous physiognomist of Naples. His play was printed at Venice in 1606. See Mr Steevens's note on "Timon of Athens," act iv. sc. 3.

[228] The Spartans held stealing lawful, and encouraged it as a piece of military exercise; but punished it very severely if it was discovered. See Stanyan's "Grecian History," i. 80.

[229] Mr Sale (p. 30 of "Preliminary Discourse to his Translation of the Koran," 4 edit.) says, "The frequent robberies committed by these people on merchants and travellers have rendered the name of an Arab almost infamous in Europe: this they are sensible of, and endeavour to excuse themselves by alleging the hard usage of their father Ishmael who, being turned out of doors by Abraham, had the open plains and deserts given him by G.o.d for his patrimony, with permission to take whatever he could find there; and, on this account, they think they may, with a safe conscience, indemnify themselves as well as they can, not only on the posterity of Isaac, but also on everybody else; always supposing a sort of kindred between themselves and those they plunder.

And in relating their adventures of this kind, they think it sufficient to change the expression, and, instead of _I robbed a man of such or such a thing_, to say, _I gained it_. We must not, however, imagine that they are the less honest for this among themselves, or towards those whom they receive as friends; on the contrary, the strictest probity is observed in their camp, where everything is open, and nothing ever known to be stolen."

[230] The _wanderers_ are the _planets_, called by the Greeks _planetae_, from their moving or wandering, and by the Latins, from the same notion, _stellae errantes;_ as on the contrary the fixed stars are termed by them _stellae inerrantes_. The character appropriated by astronomers and astrologers to the planet Mercury, is this [Symb. of Mercury], which may be imagined to contain in it something of the characters of all the other planets [Symb. of Saturn] [Symb. of Jupiter] [Symb.

of Mars] [Symb. of Sun] [Symb. of Venus] [Symb. of First Quarter Moon]. The history of the heathen deities, whose names were a.s.signed to the several planets, is full of tricks and robberies, to say no worse, as is remarked by the apologetical fathers, who are perpetually inveighing against them on that account; and to this mythological history the poet here alludes.--_Pegge._

[231] Phantasia of Memphis, as Ptolemeus Hephestion tells us, in Photius, Cod. 190. See Fabricius "Biblioth," gr. i. p. 152. This comes excellently well out of the mouth of such a consummate villain as Alb.u.mazar.--_Pegge._

See also Blackwell's "Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer,"

1736, p. 135.

[232] So Shakespeare, in "Timon of Athens," act iv. sc. 3--

"I'll example you with thievery.

The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she s.n.a.t.c.hes from the sun; The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief.

That feeds and breeds, by a composture stolen From general excrement: each thing's a thief; The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power Have uncheck'd theft."

See also the 19th Ode of Anacreon.

[233] A _settle_ is a wooden bench with a back to it, and capable of holding several people. These kind of seats are only to be found in ancient halls, or the common drinking-rooms in the country.--_Steevens._