Possess’d of this untruth, -to quit all scruple
Please you peruse this letter; 'tis to you.

Thor. From whom?
Frank. Sir Arthur Clarington, my master.
Thor. Well, sir.

[Reads.
Frank. On every side I am distracted;
Am waded deeper into mischief
Than virtue can avoid; but on I must:
Fate leads me; I will follow.——(Aside.) There

you read may confirm

What

you.
Thor. Yes, and wonder at it.
Forgive me, Frank; credulity abus'd me.
My tears express my joy; and I am sorry
I injured innocence.

Frank. Alas! I knew
Your rage and grief proceeded from your love
To me ; so I conceiv'd it.

8

-on I must : Fate leads me ; I will follow.] Ford has furnished Frank with the same apology which he had previously put in the mouth of Giovanni. See vol. i., p. 140. Nothing need be added to what is said on that passage, to which the reader will have the goodness to turn. Giovanni, indeed, is a villain of a gigantic stamp, but he has an accomplice in his crime, and is at once seducing and seduced; whereas, the person before us is a cold, calculating wretch, an agent of evil, upon principle; for (to say nothing of his fearful perjuries in the first scene) he must have planned the seduction of Winnifrede, with the full knowledge of his engagement to marry Susan. With the usual inconsistency of those who seek to smother their conscience by plunging deeper into guilt, be observes, just below, that the fate which here "leads him on,"

pursues him!

Thor. My good son,
I'll bear with many faults in thee hereafter;
Bear thou with mine.

Frank. The peace is soon concluded.

Re-enter Old CARTER and Susan.

Car. Why, master Thorney, do you mean to talk out your dinner? the company

dinner? the company attends your coming. What must it be, master Frank ? or son Frank? I am plain Dunstable.'

Thor. Son, brother, if your daughter like to have

it so.

Frank. I dare be confident, she is not alter'd From what I left her at our parting last:Are you, fair maid ?

Sus. You took too sure possession Of an engaged heart.

Frank. Which now I challenge.

Car. Marry, and much good.may it do thee, son. Take her to thee; get me a brace of boys at a burthen, Frank; the nursing shall not stand thee in a pennyworth of milk; reach her home and spare not: when's the day? Thor. To-morrow, if you please. To use cere

mony Of charge and custom were to little purpose; Their loves are married fast enough already.

row.

Car. A good motion. We'll e'en have an household dinner, and let the fiddlers go scrape : let the bride and bridegroom dance at night together; no matter for the guests :-to-morrow, Sue, to-mor

Shall's to dinner now? Thor. We are on all sides pleased, I hope. Sus. Pray Heaven I may deserve the blessing

sent me! Now my heart's settled.

Frank. So is mine.

Car. Your marriage-money shall be received before your wedding-shoes can be pulled on. Blessing on you both! Frank. (Aside.) No man can hide his shame

from Heaven that views him; In vain he flees whose destiny pursues him.'

[Exeunt.

ACT II.-SCENE I.

The Fields near Edmonton.

Enter Elizabeth SAWYER, gathering sticks. Saw. And why on nie? why should the envious

By, some more strong in mischiefs than myself,
Must I for that be made a common sink,
For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues
To fall and run into? Some call me Witch,
And being ignorant of myself, they go
About to teach me how to be one; urging,
That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)
Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,
Themselves, their servants, and their babes at

nurse.

This they enforce upon me; and in part
Make me to credit it; and here comes one
Of

my chief adversaries.

Enter Old Banks. Banks. Out, out upon thee, witch! Saw. Dost call me witch?

Banks. I do, witch, I do; and worse I would, knew I a name more hateful. What makest thou upon my ground ?

Saw. Gather a few rotten sticks to warm me.

Banks. Down with them when I bid thee, quickly; I'll make thy bones rattle in thy skin else.

Saw. You won't, churl, cut-throat, miser!there they be; (Throws them down) would they

? Forespeaks their cattle.] A very common term for bewitch. Thus Burton: “ They are surely forespoken, or bewitched."— Anat. of Mel.

And Jonson : “Pray Heaven, some of us be not a witch, gossip, to forespeak the matter thus."-Staple of News. And see Cynthia's Revels, vol. ii. p. 275. It is but justice to the speaker to observe, that she details the process of witch-making with dreadful accuracy; there is but too much reason to believe, that many a Mother Sawyer has been formed in this manner.

stuck cross thy throat, thy bowels, thy maw, thy midriff.

Banks. Say'st thou me so, hag? Out of my ground!

[Beats her. Saw. Dost strike me, slave, curmudgeon! Now thy bones aches, thy joints cramps, and convulsions stretch and crack thy sinews ! Banks. Cursing, thou hag! take that, and that.

[Beats her, and exit. Saw. Strike, do!—and wither'd may that hand

and arm Whose blows have lamed me, drop from the rotten

trunk! Abuse me! beat me! call me hag and witch! What is the name ? .where, and by what art

learn'd, What spells, what charms or invocations ? May the thing call’d Familiar be purchased ?

Enter Cuddy Banks, and several other clowns.

Cud. A new head for the tabor, and silver tipping for the pipe; remember that: and forget not five leash of new bells.

I CI. Double bells;-Crooked-Lanet-you shall