Sub. This is heathen Greek to you still! Your lapis philosophicus?

Face. 'Tis a stone,

And not a stone; a spirit, a soul, and a body:
Which if you do dissolve, it is dissolved;

If you coagulate, it is coagulated;

If you make it to fly, it flieth.

Sub. Enough.

This is heathen Greek to you! What are you, sir?
Ana. Please you, a servant of the exiled brethren
That deal with widows' and with orphans' goods,
And make a just account unto the saints:
A deacon.

Sub. Oh, you are sent from Master Wholesome,
Your teacher?

Ana. From Tribulation Wholesome,

Our very zealous pastor.

Sub. Good! I have

Some orphans' goods to come here.

Ana. Of what kind, sir.

[Exit FACE.

Sub. Pewter and brass, andirons and kitchenware, Metals, that we must use our medicine on:

Wherein the brethren may have a penn'orth

For ready money.

Ana. Were the orphans' parents

Sincere professors?

Sub. Why do you ask?

Ana. Because

We then are to deal justly, and give in truth

Their utmost value.

Sub. 'Slid, you'd cozen else,

And if their parents were not of the faithful!

I will not trust you, now I think on it,

Till I have talked with your pastor. Have you brought money

To buy more coals?

Ana. No, surely.

Sub. No, how so?

Ana. The brethren bid me say unto you, sir,

Surely they will not venture any more

Till they may see projection.

Sub. How!

Ana. You have had,

For the instruments, as bricks, and loam and glasses,
Already thirty pounds; and for materials,

They say, some ninety more: and they have heard since

That one at Heidelberg made it of an egg
And a small paper of pin-dust.

Sub. What's your name?

Ana. My name is Ananias.
Sub. Out, the varlet

That cozen'd the apostles! Hence, away,
Flee, mischief! Had your holy consistory
No name to send me of another sound
Than wicked Ananias? send your elders
Hither to make atonement for you quickly,
And give me satisfaction; or out goes

The fire; and down th' alembics, and the furnace,
Piger Henricus, or what not. Thou wretch!
Both sericon and bufo shall be lost,

Tell them. All hope of rooting out the bishops,
Or the antichristian hierarchy, shall perish,
If they stay threescore minutes: the aqueity,
Terreity, and sulphureity

Shall run together again, and all be annulled,

Thou wicked Ananias! [Exit ANANIAS.] This will fetch 'em, And make them haste towards their gulling more.

A man must deal like a rough nurse, and fright

Those that are froward to an appetite.

Re-enter FACE in his uniform, followed by DRUGGER.
Face. He is busy with his spirits, but we'll upon him.
Sub. How now! what mates, what Bayards have we here?
Face. I told you he would be furious. Sir, here's Nab
look on

Has brought you another piece of gold to

We must appease him. Give it me

and prays you,

Face. Ay, a good lucky one, a thriving sign, doctor?
Sub. I was devising now.

Face. 'Slight, do not say so,

He will repent he gave you any more

What say you to his constellation, doctor?
The Balance?

Sub. No, that way is stale and common.
A townsman born in Taurus gives the bull,
Or the bull's-head; in Aries, the ram,
A poor device! No, I will have his name
Formed in some mystic character; whose radii,
Striking the senses of the passers-by,

Shall, by a virtual influence, breed affections

Sub. He shall have "a bel," that's "Abel"

And by it standing one whose name is "Dee,"

In a "rug" gown, there's "D, Rug," that's "drug";
And right anenst him a dog snarling "er";

There's "Drugger," Abel Drugger. That's his sign.
And here's now mystery and hieroglyphic !

Face. Abel, thou art made.

Drug. Sir, I do thank his worship.

Face. Six o' thy legs more will not do it, Nab. He has brought you a pipe of tobacco, doctor. Drug. Yes, sir:

I have another thing I would impart

Face. Out with it, Nab.

Drug. Sir, there is lodged, hard by me,

A rich young widow

Face. Good! a bona roba?

Drug. But nineteen at the most.

Face. Very good, Abel.

Drug. Marry, she's not in fashion yet; she wears

A hood, but it stands a cop.

Face. No matter, Abel.

Drug. And I do now and then give her a fucus—

Face. What! dost thou deal, Nab?

Sub. I did tell you, captain.

Drug. And physic, too, sometime, sir; for which she trusts

me

With all her mind. She's come up here of purpose

To learn the fashion.

Face. Good (his match too!) — On, Nab.

Drug. And she does strangely long to know her fortune. Face. Ods lid, Nab, send her to the doctor, hither. Drug. Yes I have spoke to her of his worship already; But she's afraid it will be blown abroad,

And hurt her marriage.

Face. Hurt it! 'tis the way

To heal it, if 'twere hurt; to make it more

Followed and sought; Nab, thou shalt tell her this.
She'll be more known, more talked of; and your widows

Are ne'er of any price till they be famous :
Their honour is their multitude of suitors:
Send her, it may be thy good fortune. What,
Thou dost not know,

Drug. No, sir; she'll never marry

Under a knight: her brother has made a vow.

Face. What! and dost thou despair, my little Nab,
Knowing what the doctor has set down for thee,
And seeing so many of the city dubbed?

One glass o' thy water, with a madam I know,

Will have it done, Nab; what's her brother - a knight?
Drug. No, sir, a gentleman newly warm in his land, sir,
Scarce cold in his one-and-twenty, that does govern

His sister here; and is a man himself

Of some three thousand a year, and is come up
To learn to quarrel, and to live by his wits,

And will go down again, and die in the country.
Face. How! to quarrel?

Drug. Yes, sir, to carry quarrels,

As gallants do; to manage them by line.

Face. 'Slid, Nab, the doctor is the only man
In Christendom for him. He has made a table,
With mathematical demonstrations,

Touching the art of quarrels: he will give him
An instrument to quarrel by. Go, bring them both,
Him and his sister. And, for thee, with her
The doctor haply may persuade. Go to:

Shalt give his worship a new damask suit

Upon the premises.

Sub. Oh, good captain!

Face. He shall ;

He is the honestest fellow, doctor.

Stay not,

No offers; bring the damask, and the parties.

Drug. I'll try my power, sir.

Face. And thy will, too, Nab.

Sub. 'Tis good tobacco, this!

What is't an ounce?

Face. He'll send you a pound, doctor.

Sub. Oh, no.

Face. He will do't.

It is the goodest soul Abel! - Abel, about it.

Thou shalt know more anon. Away, begone. [Exit ABEL. A miserable rogue, and lives with cheese,

And has the worms. That was the cause, indeed,

Why he came now he dealt with me in private,

To get a med'cine for them.

Sub. And shall, sir. This works.

Face. A wife, a wife for one of us, my dear Subtle! We'll e'en draw lots,

Sub. Faith, best let's see her first, and then determine.

Face. Content: but Dol must have no breath on 't.
Sub. Mum.

Away you, to your Surly yonder, catch him.

Face. Pray God, I have not stayed too long.
Sub. I fear it.

ACT III

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.-THE LANE BEFORE LOVEWIT'S HOUSE

T

Enter TRIBULATION WHOLESOME and ANANIAS.

RI. These chastisements are common to the saints,
And such rebukes, we of the separation

Must bear with willing shoulders, as the trials

Sent forth to tempt our frailties.

Ana. In pure zeal,

I do not like the man, he is a heathen,
And speaks the language of Canaan, truly.
Tri. I think him a profane person indeed.
Ana. He bears

The visible mark of the beast in his forehead.
And for his stone, it is a work of darkness,
And with philosophy blinds the eyes of man.

Tri. Good brother, we must bend unto all means
That may give furtherance to the holy cause.
Ana. Which his cannot: the sanctified cause
Should have a sanctified course.

Tri. Not always necessary :

The children of perdition are ofttimes

Made instruments even of the greatest works:
Beside, we should give somewhat to man's nature,
The place he lives in, still about the fire,
And fume of metals, that intoxicate

The brain of man, and made him prone to passion.
Where have you greater atheists than your cooks?
Or more profane, or choleric, than your glass-men?
More antichristian than your bell-founders?
What makes the devil so devilish, I would ask you,
Satan, our common enemy, but his being
Perpetually about the fire, and boiling

Brimstone and arsenic? We must give, I say,
Unto the motives, and the stirrers-up