Cynthia's Revels Part 27

JEW. You shall give me six crowns, sir.

MER. Six crowns! By heaven, 'twere a good deed to borrow it of thee to shew, and never let thee have it again.

JEW. I hope your worship will not do so, sir.

MER. By Jove, sir, there be such tricks stirring, I can tell you, and worthily too. Extorting knaves, that live by these court-decorums, and yet--What's your jewel worth, I pray?

JEW. A hundred crowns, sir.

MER. A hundred crowns, and six for the loan on't an hour! what's that in the hundred for the year? These impostors would not be hang'd! Your thief is not comparable to them, by Hercules. Well, put it in, and the feather; you will have it and you shall, and the pox give you good on't!

AMO. Give me my confects, my moscadini, and place those colours in my hat.

MER. These are Bolognian ribands, I warrant you.

MIL. In truth, sir, if they be not right Granado silk--

MER. A pox on you, you'll all say so.

MIL. You give me not a penny, sir.

MER. Come, sir, perfume my devant; "May it ascend, like solemn sacrifice, Into the nostrils of the Queen of Love!"

HED. Your French ceremonies are the best.

ANA. Monsieur, signior, your Solemn Address is too long; the ladies long to have you come on.

AMO. Soft, sir, our coming on is not so easily prepared. Signior Fig!

PER. Ay, sir.

AMO. Can you help my complexion, here?

PER. O yes, sir, I have an excellent mineral fucus for the purpose. The gloves are right, sir; you shall bury them in a muck-hill, a draught, seven years, and take them out and wash them, they shall still retain their first scent, true Spanish. There's ambre in the umbre.

MER. Your price, sweet Fig?

PER. Give me what you will, sir; the signior pays me two crowns a pair; you shall give me your love, sir.

MER. My love! with a pox to you, goodman Sa.s.safras.

PER. I come, sir. There's an excellent diapasm in a chain, too, if you like it.

AMO. Stay, what are the ingredients to your fucus?

PER. Nought but sublimate and crude mercury, sir, well prepared and dulcified, with the jaw-bones of a sow, burnt, beaten, and searced.

AMO. I approve it. Lay it on.

MER. I'll have your chain of pomander, sirrah; what's your price?

PER. We'll agree, monsieur; I'll a.s.sure you it was both decocted and dried where no sun came, and kept in an onyx ever since it was balled.

MER. Come, invert my mustachio, and we have done.

AMO. 'Tis good.

BAR. Hold still, I pray you, sir.

PER. Nay, the fucus is exorbitant, sir.

MER. Death, dost thou burn me, harlot!

BAR. I beseech you, sir.

MER. Beggar, varlet, poltroon. [BEATS HIM.]

HED. Excellent, excellent!

ANA. Your French beat is the most natural beat of the world.

ASO. O that I had played at this weapon. [A CHARGE.]

PHA. Peace, now they come on; the second part.

AMO. "Madam, your beauties being so attractive, I muse you are left thus alone."

PHI. "Better be alone, sir, than ill accompanied."

AMO. "Nought can be ill, lady, that can come near your goodness."

MER. "Sweet madam, on what part of you soever a man casts his eye, he meets with perfection; you are the lively image of Venus throughout; all the graces smile in your cheeks; your beauty nourishes as well as delights; you have a tongue steeped in honey, and a breath like a panther; your b.r.e.a.s.t.s and forehead are whiter than goats' milk, or May blossoms; a cloud is not so soft as your skin--"

HED. Well strook, monsieur! He charges like a Frenchman indeed, thick and hotly.

MER. "Your cheeks are Cupid's baths, wherein he uses to steep himself in milk and nectar: he does light all his torches at your eyes, and instructs you how to shoot and wound with their beams.

Yet I love nothing in you more than your innocence; you retain so native a simplicity, so unblamed a behaviour! Methinks, with such a love, I should find no head, nor foot of my pleasure: you are the very spirit of a lady."

ANA. Fair play, monsieur, you are too hot on the quarry; give your compet.i.tor audience.

AMO. "Lady, how stirring soever the monsieur's tongue is, he will lie by your side more dull than your eunuch."

ANA. A good stroke; that mouth was excellently put over.

AMO. "You are fair, lady--"

CRI. You offer foul, signior, to close; keep your distance; for all your bravo rampant here.

AMO. "I say you are fair, lady, let your choice be fit, as you are fair."