consulted me for the time. Well, but we'll make haste.

Sir S. Haste! ay, ay, haste enough; my son Ben will be in town to-night-I have ordered my lawyer to draw up writings of settlement and jointure—all shall be done to-night.-No matter for the time; pr'ythee, brother Foresight, leave superstition.-Pox o' th' time; there's no time but the time present; there's no more to be said of what's past; and all that is to come will happen. If the sun shine by day, and the stars by night-why, we shall know one another's faces without the help of a candle; and that's all the stars are good for.

For. How, how, Sir Sampson? that all? Give me leave to contradict you, and tell you, you are ignorant. Sir S. I tell you, I am wise; and sapiens dominabitur astris; there's Latin for you to prove it, and an argument to confound your Ephemeris.—Ignorant !—I tell you, I have travelled, old Fercu: and know the globe. I have seen the antipodes, where the sun rises at mid-night, and sets at noon-day.

For. But I tell you, I have travelled, and travelled in the celestial spheres; know the signs and the planets, and their houses; can judge of motions direct and retrograde, of sextiles, quadrates, trines and oppositions, fiery trigons, and acquatical trigons; know whether life shall be long or short, happy or unhappy; whether diseases are curable or incurable; if journies shall be prosperous, undertakings success ful, or goods stolen recovered: I know

Sir S. I know the length of the emperor of China's foot; have kissed the Great Mogul's slipper, and rid a hunting upon an elephant with the cham of Tartary.-Body o'me, I have made a cuckold of a king; and the present majesty of Bantam is the issue of these loins.

For. I know when travellers lie or speak truth, when they don't know it themselves.

Sir S. I have known an astrologer made a cuckold in the twinkling of a star; and seen a conjuror, that could not keep the devil out of his wife's circle.

For. What, does he twit me with my wife too? I must be better informed of this. [Aside. ]-Do you mean my wife, Sir Sampson? Though you made a cuckold of the king of Bantam, yet by the body of the sunSir S. By the horns of the moon, you would say, brother Capricorn.

For. Capricorn in your teeth, thou modern Mandeville; Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude. Take back your paper of inheritance; send your son to sea again, I'll wed my daughter to an Egyptian mummy, ere she shall incorporate with a contemner of sciences, and a defamer of virtue.

Sir S. Body o'me, I have gone too far-I must not provoke honest Albumazar.-An Egyptian mummy is an illustrious creature, my trusty hieroglyphick; and may have significations of futurity about him. Odsbud, I would my son were an Egyptian mummy for thy sake. What, thou art not angry for a jest,

my good Haly?—I reverence the sun, moon, and stars, with all my heart.-What! I'll make thee a preIsent of a mummy. Now I think on't, body o’me, I have a shoulder of an Egyptian king, that I purloined from one of the pyramids, powdered with hieroglyphicks; thou shalt have it brought home to thy house and make an entertainment for all the Philomaths, and students in physic and astrology, in and about London.

ཏི

For. But what do you know of my wife, Sir Samp

son ?

Sir S. Thy wife is a constellation of virtues; she is the moon, and thou art the man in the moon; nay, she is more illustrious than the moon; for she has her chastity, without her incontinency: 'sbud, I was but in jest.

Enter JEREMY.

Sir S. How now? who sent for you, ha? what would you have?

For. Nay, if you were but in jest!-Who's that fellow? I don't like his physiognomy.

Sir S. [To Jeremy.] My son, sir? what son, sir? my son Benjamin, ha?

Jer. No, sir; Mr. Valentine, my master;—it is the first time he has been abroad since his confinement, and he comes to pay his duty to you.

Sir S. Well, sir.

Enter VALENTINE.

Jer. He is here, sir.

Val. Your blessing, sir!

Sir S. You've had it already, sir; I think I sent it you to-day in a bill of four thousand pounds.-A great deal of money, brother Foresight!

For. Ay, indeed, Sir Sampson, a great deal of money for a young man; I wonder what he can do with it!

Sir S. Body o'me, so do I.- -Hark ye, Valentine, if there be too much, refund the superfluity; dost hear boy?

Val. Superfluity, sir! it will scarce pay my debts. -I hope you will have more indulgence, than to oblige me to those hard conditions which my necessity signed to.

Sir S. Sir! how, I beseech you, what were you pleased to intimate, concerning indulgence?

Val. Why, sir, that you would not go to the extremity of the conditions, but release me at least from some part.

Sir S. O, sir, I understand you—that's all, ha ?

Val. Yes, sir, all that I presume to ask-But what you, out of fatherly fondness, will be pleased to add, will be doubly welcome.

Sir S. No doubt of it, sweet sir; but your filial piety and my fatherly fondness would fit like two tallies—Here's a rogue, brother Foresight, makes a bargain under hand and seal in the morning, and would be released from it in the afternoon? here's a rogue, dog; here's conscience and honesty! This is your wit now, this is the morality of your wit! You

are a wit, and have been a beau, and may be a

-Why,

sirrah, is it not here under hand and seal?—Can you deny it?

Val. Sir, I don't deny it.

Sir S. Sirrah, you'll be hang'd; I shall live to see you go up Holborn-hill.-Has he not a rogue's face? -Speak, brother; you understand physiognomy; a hanging look to me-of all my boys the most unlike me. He has a damn'd Tyburn face, without the benefit of the clergy.

For. Hum!-truly, I don't care to discourage a young man-he has a violent death in his face; but I hope no danger of hanging.

Val. Sir, is this usage for your son?-For that old weather-headed fool, I know how to laugh at him; but you, sir

Sir S. You, sir; and you, sir.—Why, who are you, sir?

Val. Your son, sir.

Sir S. That's more than I know, sir: and I believe

not.

Val. Faith, I hope not.

Sir S. What, would you have your mother a whore? Did you ever hear the like; did you ever hear the like? body o'me

Val. I would have an excuse for your barbarity and unnatural usage.

Sir S. Excuse-Impudence! Why, sirrah, mayn't I do what I please? are not you my slave? did not I beget you? and might not I have chosen whether

E