Rom. Sure some dotage Of living stately, richly, lends a cunning Rom. A devil of pride Ranges in airy thoughts to catch a star, Cast. Worse and worse, I vow. Rom. But that some remnant of an honest sense Ebbs a full tide of blood to shame, all women Would prostitute all honour to the luxury Of ease and titles. Cast. Romanello, know You have forgot the nobleness of truth, Rom. A dog, a parrot, A monkey, a caroch, a garded lackey, Or else be sick and whine. Cast. This is uncivil; 1; I am not, sir, your charge. as synonimous; with a reference, perhaps, to the insinuation of the old proverb, that the latter is a necessary consequence of the former. In the next line, she seems to say-It (love) is rarely cherished by those, who, like Romanello, embrace a voluntary poverty. But this is all conjecture. The reader must decide whether the play on words has led the poet into this perplexed expression, or whether any part of it has been corrupted at the press. Rom. My grief you are; For all my services are lost and ruin'd. Cast. So is my chief opinion of your worthiness, When such distractions tempt you; you would prove A cruel lord, who dare, being yet a servant, Of duty to your welfare; 'tis a madness Enter LIVIO, richly habited. Liv. Sister! look ye, How by a new creation of my tailor's, Of home-spun gentry-prithee, sister, mark it— Cast. True, good brother, For my well-doing must consist in yours. Liv. Here's Romanello, a fine temper'd gallant, Of decent carriage, of indifferent means, Considering that his sister, new hoist up, From a lost merchant's warehouse, to the titles Of a great lord's bed, may supply his wants;Not sunk in his acquaintance, for a scholar Able enough, and one who may subsist Without the help of friends, provided always, He fly not upon wedlock without certainty Of an advancement; else a bachelor Rom. Is't a mystery, You've lately found out, Livio, or a cunning Liv. Pish! believe it, Endeavours and an active brain are better Than patrimonies left by parents.-Prove it.One thrives by cheating; shallow fools and unthrifts Are game knaves only fly at: then a fellow Presumes on his hair, and that his back can toil For fodder from the city;-lies: another, 8 Reputed valiant, lives by the sword, and takes up Quarrels, or braves them, as the novice likes, A single life's no burden.] For a the quarto reads, as single life's, &c. Another, Reputed valiant, lives by the sword, &c.] "Your high offers Taught by the Masters of Dependencies, That, by compounding differencies 'tween others, Will never carry it.” 66 These masters of dependencies," as they called themselves, were a set of low bullies and bravoes, who undertook to instruct such country novices, as aspired to the reputation of valour, in the fashionable mode of getting up a quarrel; and, if need were, submitted to be beaten by them. They are noticed with ridicule and contempt by most of our old dramatists. To gild his reputation;-most improbable. A world of desperate undertakings, possibly, Procures some hungry meals, some tavern surfeits, Some frippery to hide nakedness; perhaps Rom. You are pleasant In new discoveries of fortune; use them Cast. Such wild language Was wont to be a stranger to your custom; Liv. Name and honour What are they? a mere sound without support ance, A begging-Chastity, youth, beauty, handsome ness, Discourse, behaviour which might charm attention, • The scambling half a ducat, &c.] Scambling appears to be used in this place for obtaining by impudent importunity, by false pretences, &c.; in a word, much in the sense of skelder, as we have it in Jonson, Decker, and others. Uncut, so flowers unworn, so silk-worms' webs Unwrought, gold unrefined; then all those glories Are of esteem, when used and set at price:There's no dark sense in this. Rom. I understand not The drift on't, nor how meant, nor yet to whom. Cast. Pray, brother, be more plain. Liv. First, Romanello, This for your satisfaction: if you waste More hours in courtship to this maid, my sister, Rom. A sure acquittance, If I must be discharged. Liv. Next, Castamela, To thee, my own loved sister, let me say, To fame the treasure which this age hath open'd, Cast. You are merry. Liv. My jealousy of thy fresh blooming years, Prompted a fear of husbanding too charily Thy growth to such perfection, as no flattery Of art can perish now. Cast. Here's talk in riddles !1 Brother, the exposition? 1 Here's talk in riddles.] Here is, indeed; and, what is worse, no Edipus at hand to solve them. It would be mere presumption to alter the text; but if the reader, in the following line, Prompted a fear of husbanding too charily, be pleased to suppose care and so, in the place of fear and too, hè will catch, I believe, some glimpse of the poet's meaning. |