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M AMMON, S URLY. [ Enter] F ACE, [ as a Servant] 1
MAM. Do we succeed? Is our day come? And holds it? | |
| FACE. The evening will set red upon you, sir; | |
| You have colour for it, crimson: the red ferment | |
| Has done his office; three hours hence prepare you | 4 |
| To see projection. | |
| MAM. Pertinax, my Surly. | |
| Again I say to thee, aloud, BE RICH. | |
| This day thou shalt have ingots; and to-morrow | 8 |
| Give lords th’ affront.—Is it, my Zephyrus, right? | |
| Blushes the bolt’s-head? 2 | |
| FACE. Like a wench with child, sir, | |
| That were but now discover’d to her master. | 12 |
| MAM. Excellent witty Lungs!—My only care is | |
| Where to get stuff enough now, to project on; 3 | |
| This town will not half serve me. | |
| FACE. No, sir! buy | 16 |
| The covering off o’ churches. | |
| MAM. That’s true. | |
| FACE. Yes. | |
| Let ’em stand bare, as do their auditory; 4 | 20 |
| Or cap ’em new with shingles. | |
| MAM. No, good thatch: | |
| Thatch will lie light upo’ the rafters, Lungs.— | |
| Lungs, I will manumit thee from the furnace; | 24 |
| I will restore thee thy complexion, Puff, | |
| Lost in the embers; and repair this brain, | |
| Hurt with the fume o’ the metals. | |
| FACE. I have blown, sir, | 28 |
| Hard, for your worship; thrown by many a coal, | |
| When ’twas not beech; weigh’d those I put in, just, | |
| To keep your heat still even. These blear’d eyes | |
| Have wak’d to read your several colours, sir, | 32 |
| Of the pale citron, the green lion, the crow, | |
| The peacock’s tail, the plumed swan. | |
| MAM. And lastly, | |
| Thou hast descried the flower, the sanguis agni? | 36 |
| FACE. Yes, sir. | |
| MAM. Where’s master? | |
| FACE. At’s prayers, sir, he; | |
| Good man, he’s doing his devotions | 40 |
| For the success. | |
| MAM. Lungs, I will set a period | |
| To all thy labours; thou shalt be the master | |
| Of my seraglio. | 44 |
| FACE. Good, sir. | |
| MAM. But do you hear? | |
| I’ll geld you, Lungs. | |
| FACE. Yes, sir. | 48 |
| MAM. For I do mean | |
| To have a list of wives and concubines | |
| Equal with Solomon, who had the stone | |
| Alike with me; and I will make me a back | 52 |
| With the elixir that shall be as tough | |
| As Hercules, to encounter fifty a night.— | |
| Thou’rt sure thou saw’st it blood? | |
| FACE. Both blood and spirit, sir. | 56 |
| MAM. I will have all my beds blown up, not stuft; | |
| Down is too hard: and then, mine oval room | |
| Fill’d with such pictures as Tiberius took | |
| From Elephantis, and dull Aretine | 60 |
| But coldly imitated. Then, my glasses | |
| Cut in more subtle angles, to disperse | |
| And multiply the figures, as I walk | |
| Naked between my succubæ. My mists | 64 |
| I’ll have of perfume, vapour’d ’bout the room, | |
| To lose our selves in; and my baths, like pits | |
| To fall into; from whence we will come forth | |
| And roll us dry in gossamer and roses.— | 68 |
| Is it arrived at ruby?——Where I spy | |
| A wealthy citizen, or [a] rich lawyer, | |
| Have a sublim’d pure wife, unto that fellow | |
| I’ll send a thousand pound to be my cuckold. | 72 |
| FACE. And I shall carry it? | |
| MAM. No. I’ll ha’ no bawds | |
| But fathers and mothers: they will do it best, | |
| Best of all others. And my flatterers | 76 |
| Shall be the pure and gravest of divines, | |
| That I can get for money. My mere fools, | |
| Eloquent burgesses, and then my poets | |
| The same that writ so subtly of the fart, | 80 |
| Whom I will entertain still for that subject. | |
| The few that would give out themselves to be | |
| Court and town-stallions, and, each-where, bely | |
| Ladies who are known most innocent, for them, | 84 |
| Those will I beg, to make me eunuchs of: | |
| And they shall fan me with ten estrich tails | |
| A-piece, made in a plume to gather wind. | |
| We will be brave, Puff, now we ha’ the med’cine. | 88 |
| My meat shall all come in, in Indian shells, | |
| Dishes of agate set in gold, and studded | |
| With emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies. | |
| The tongues of carps, dormice, and camels’ heels, | 92 |
| Boil’d i’ the spirit of sol, and dissolv’d pearl | |
| (Apicius’ diet, ’gainst the epilepsy): | |
| And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber, | |
| Headed with diamond and carbuncle. | 96 |
| My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calver’d salmons, 5 | |
| Knots, 6 godwits, lampreys: I myself will have | |
| The beards of barbel 7 serv’d, instead of salads; | |
| Oiled mushrooms; and the swelling unctuous paps | 100 |
| Of a fat pregnant sow, newly cut off, | |
| Drest with an exquisite and poignant sauce; | |
| For which, I’ll say unto my cook, There’s gold, | |
| Go forth, and be a knight. | 104 |
| FACE. Sir, I’ll go look | |
| A little, how it heightens. [Exit.] | |
| MAM. Do.—My shirts | |
| I’ll have of taffeta-sarsnet, 8 soft and light | 108 |
| As cobwebs; and for all my other raiment, | |
| It shall be such as might provoke the Persian, | |
| Were he to teach the world riot anew. | |
| My gloves of fishes and birds’ skins, perfum’d | 112 |
| With gums of paradise, and Eastern air—— | |
| SUR. And do you think to have the stone with this? | |
| MAM. No, I do think t’ have all this with the stone. | |
| SUR. Why, I have heard he must be homo frugi, 9 | 116 |
| A pious, holy, and religious man, | |
| One free from mortal sin, a very virgin. | |
| MAM. That makes it, sir; he is so: but I buy it; | |
| My venture brings it me. He, honest wretch, | 120 |
| A notable, superstitious, good soul, | |
| Has worn his knees bare, and his slippers bald, | |
| With prayer and fasting for it: and, sir, let him | |
| Do it alone, for me, still. Here he comes. | 124 |
| Not a profane word afore him; ’tis poison.— | |
