Lady L. Have you talk'd with him, And made the overture?

Com. Yes, first I moved

The business trusted to me by your ladyship,
In your own words, almost your very syllables,
Save where my memory trespass'd 'gainst their
elegance,

For which I hope your pardon. Then I enlarged,
In my own homely style, the special goodness.
And greatness of your bounty in your choice,
And free conferring of a benefit

So without ends, conditions, any tie
But his mere virtue, and the value of it,
To call him to your kindred, to your veins,
Insert him in your family, and to make him
A nephew by the offer of a niece,

With such a portion; which when he had heard,
And most maturely acknowledg'd (as his calling
Tends all unto maturity) he return'd

A thanks as ample as the courtesy,
In my opinion; said it was a grace
Too great to be rejected or accepted

By him but as the terms stood with his fortune,
He was not to prevaricate with your ladyship,
But rather to require ingenuous leave,

He might with the same love that it was offer'd
Refuse it, since he could not with his honesty,
(Being he was engaged before,) receive it.
Pal. The same he said to me.

Com. And named the party?

Pal. He did and he did not.

Com. Come, leave your schemes,

And fine amphibolies, parson.

Pal. You'll hear more.

Pol. Why, now your ladyship is free to choose The courtier sir Diaphanous: he shall do it, I'll move it to him myself.

Lady L. What will you move to him?
Pol. The making you a countess.
Lady L. Stint, fond woman.

Know you the party master Practice means?
Com. No, but your parson says he knows, madam.
Lady L. I fear he fables; parson, do you know
Where master Practice is engaged?

Pal. I'll tell you,

But under seal; her mother must not know: 'Tis with your ladyship's woman, mistress Plea

sance.

Com. How!

Lady L. He is not mad?

Pal. O hide the hideous secret

From her; she'll trouble all else. You do hold
A cricket by the wing."

Com. Did he name Pleasance?

Are you sure, parson

?

Lady L. O'tis true, your mistress!

I find where your shoe wrings you, master Com

pass:

But you'll look to him there.

Com. Yes; here's sir Moth,

Your brother, with his Bias, and the party
Deep in discourse; 'twill be a bargain and sale,
I see, by their close working of their heads,
And running them together so in counsel.

Enter at a distance, in discourse, sir MOTH IN-
TEREST, PRACTICE, and BIAS.

7

Lady L. Will master Practice be of counsel against us?

Com. He is a lawyer, and must speak for his fee,

You do hold

A cricket by the wing.] i. e. increase the clamour which you wish to silence. See Vol. III. p. 239.

Against his father and mother, all his kindred,
His brothers or his sisters; no exception
Lies at the common law. He must not alter
Nature for form, but go on in his path:
It may be, he'll be for us. Do not you
Offer to meddle, let them take their course.
Dispatch, and marry her off to any husband;
Be not you scrupulous; let who can have her:
So he lay down the portion, though he geld it,
It will maintain the suit against him, somewhat;
Something in hand is better than no birds;
He shall at last accompt for the utmost farthing,
If you can keep your hand from a discharge.
[Exit Lady L.
Pol. [to Diaphanous.] Sir, do but make her
worshipful aunt a countess,

And she is yours, her aunt has worlds to leave you:

The wealth of six East-Indian fleets at least.
Her husband, sir John Loadstone, was the go-

vernor

Of the company seven years.

Sir Dia. And came there home

Six fleets in seven years?

Pol. I cannot tell,

I must attend my gossip her good ladyship.

[Exit.

Pla. And will you make me a vicountess too,

sir?

How do they make a countess? in a chair,
Or on a bed?

Sir Dia. Both ways, sweet bird; I'll shew you. [Exeunt sir Diaphanous and Placentia. Sir Moth. [coming forward.] The truth is, master Practice, now we are sure

That you are off, we dare come on the bolder;
The portion left was sixteen thousand pound,

I do confess it, as a just man should.

And call here master Compass, with these gen

tlemen,

To the relation; I will still be just.

Now for the profits every way arising,

It was the donor's wisdom, those should pay
Me for my watch, and breaking of my sleeps;
It is no petty charge, you know, that sum,
To keep a man awake for fourteen year.

Prac. But, as you knew to use it in that time, It would reward your waking.

Sir Moth. That's my industry,

As it might be your reading, study, and counsel,
And now your pleading; who denies it you ?
I have my calling too. Well, sir, the contract
Is with this gentleman, ten thousand pound.
An ample portion for a younger brother,
With a soft, tender, delicate rib of man's flesh,
That he may work like wax, and print upon.—
He expects no more than that sum to be tender'd,
And he receive it; these are the conditions.

Prac. A direct bargain, and sale in open market.
Sir Moth. And what I have furnish'd him
withal o' the by,

To appear or so; a matter of four hundred,
To be deduced upon the payment――

Bia. Right:

You deal like a just man still.

Sir Moth. Draw up this,

Good master Practice, for us, and be speedy. Prac. But here's a mighty gain, sir, you have made

Of this one stock: the principal first doubled,
In the first seven year; and that redoubled
In the next seven! beside six thousand pound,
There's threescore thousand got in fourteen year,

After the usual rate of ten in the hundred,
And the ten thousand paid.

Sir Moth. I think it be.

Prac. How will you 'scape the clamour and the envy?

Sir Moth. Let them exclaim and envy, what care I?

Their murmurs raise no blisters in

my flesh. My monies are my blood, my parents, kindred; And he that loves not these, he is unnatural. I am persuaded that the love of money

Is not a virtue only in a subject,

But might befit a prince: and were there need,
I find me able to make good the assertion,
To any reasonable man's understanding,
And make him to confess it.

Com. Gentlemen,

Doctors, and scholars, you'll hear this, and look for
As much true secular wit, and deep lay-sense,
As can be shown on such a common place.

Sir Moth. First, we all know the soul of man is infinite

In what it covets. Who desireth knowledge,
Desires it infinitely; who covets honour,
Covets it infinitely: It will be then

No hard thing for a coveting man to prove,
Or to confess, he aims at infinite wealth.
Com. His soul lying that way.

Sir Moth. Next, every man
Is in the hope or possibility

Of a whole world; this present world being nothing,

But the dispersed issue of [the] first one.
And therefore I not see, but a just man
May, with just reason, and in office ought
Propound unto himself--