The Alchemist, Ben Jonson [best short novels TXT] 📗

she make curtsey? Subtle

’Ods will, she must go to him, man, and kiss him!
It is the Spanish fashion, for the women
To make first court.

Face

’Tis true he tells you, sir:
His art knows all.

Pertinax Surly

Porqué no se acude?

Kastril

He speaks to her, I think.

Face

That he does, sir.

Pertinax Surly

Por el amor de Dios, qué es esto que se tarda?

Kastril

Nay, see: she will not understand him! Gull,
Noddy.

Dame Pliant

What say you, brother?

Kastril

Ass, my sister.
Go kiss him, as the cunning man would have you;
I’ll thrust a pin in your buttocks else.

Face

O no, sir.

Pertinax Surly

Señora mía, mi persona esta muy indigna de
Allegara tanta hermosura.

Face

Does he not use her bravely?

Kastril

Bravely, i’faith!

Face

Nay, he will use her better.

Kastril

Do you think so?

Pertinax Surly

Señora, si sera servida, entremonos.

Exit with Dame Pliant. Kastril

Where does he carry her?

Face

Into the garden, sir;
Take you no thought: I must interpret for her.

Subtle

Give Dol the word.
Aside to Face, who goes out.
—Come, my fierce child, advance,
We’ll to our quarrelling lesson again.

Kastril

Agreed.
I love a Spanish boy with all my heart.

Subtle

Nay, and by this means, sir, you shall be brother
To a great count.

Kastril

Ay, I knew that at first,
This match will advance the house of the Kastrils.

Subtle

’Pray God your sister prove but pliant!

Kastril

Why,
Her name is so, by her other husband.

Subtle

How!

Kastril

The widow Pliant. Knew you not that?

Subtle

No, faith, sir;
Yet, by erection of her figure, I guessed it.
Come, let’s go practise.

Kastril

Yes, but do you think, Doctor,
I e’er shall quarrel well?

Subtle

I warrant you.

Exeunt. Scene III

Another room in the same.

Enter Dol in her fit of raving, followed by Mammon. Dol Common

“For after Alexander’s death”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

Good lady⁠—

Dol Common

“That Perdiccas and Antigonus, were slain,
The two that stood, Seleuc’, and Ptolomee”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

Madam⁠—

Dol Common

“Made up the two legs, and the fourth beast,
That was Gog-north, and Egypt-south: which after
Was called Gog-iron-leg and South-iron-leg”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

Lady⁠—

Dol Common

“And then Gog-horned. So was Egypt, too:
Then Egypt-clay-leg, and Gog-clay-leg”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

Sweet madam⁠—

Dol Common

“And last Gog-dust, and Egypt-dust, which fall
In the last link of the fourth chain. And these
Be stars in story, which none see, or look at”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

What shall I do?

Dol Common

“For,” as he says, “except
We call the Rabbins, and the heathen Greeks”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

Dear lady⁠—

Dol Common

“To come from Salem, and from Athens,
And teach the people of Great Britain”⁠—

Enter Face, hastily, in his servant’s dress. Face

What’s the matter, sir?

Dol Common

“To speak the tongue of Eber, and Javan”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

O,
She’s in her fit.

Dol Common

“We shall know nothing”⁠—

Face

Death, sir,
We are undone!

Dol Common

“Where then a learned linguist
Shall see the ancient used communion
Of vowels and consonants”⁠—

Face

My master will hear!

Dol Common

“A wisdom, which Pythagoras held most high”⁠—

Sir Epicure Mammon

Sweet honourable lady!

Dol Common

“To comprise
All sounds of voices, in few marks of letters”⁠—

Face

Nay, you must never hope to lay her now.

They all speak together. Dol Common

“And so we may arrive by Talmud skill,
And profane Greek, to raise the building up
Of Helen’s house against the Ismaelite,
King of Thogarma, and his habergions
Brimstony, blue, and fiery; and the force
Of king Abaddon, and the beast of Cittim:
Which rabbi David Kimchi, Onkelos,
And Aben Ezra do interpret Rome.”

Face

How did you put her into’t?

Sir Epicure Mammon

Alas, I talked
Of a fifth monarchy I would erect,
With the philosopher’s stone, by chance, and she
Falls on the other four straight.

Face

Out of Broughton!
I told you so. ’Slid, stop her mouth.

Sir Epicure Mammon

Is’t best?

Face

She’ll never leave else. If the old man hear her,
We are but faeces, ashes.

Subtle

Within. What’s to do there?

Face

O, we are lost! Now she hears him, she is quiet.

Enter Subtle, they run different ways. Sir Epicure Mammon

Where shall I hide me!

Subtle

How! What sight is here?
Close deeds of darkness, and that shun the light!
Bring him again. Who is he? What, my son!
O, I have lived too long.

Sir Epicure Mammon

Nay, good, dear Father,
There was no unchaste purpose.

Subtle

Not? And flee me
When I come in?

Sir Epicure Mammon

That was my error.

Subtle

Error?
Guilt, guilt, my son: give it the right name. No marvel,
If I found check in our great work within,
When such affairs as these were managing!

Sir Epicure Mammon

Why, have you so?

Subtle

It has stood still this half hour:
And all the rest of our less works gone back.
Where is the instrument of wickedness,
My lewd false drudge?

Sir Epicure Mammon

Nay, good sir, blame not him;
Believe me, ’twas against his will or knowledge:
I saw her by chance.

Subtle

Will you commit more sin,
To excuse a varlet?

Sir Epicure Mammon

By my hope, ’tis true, sir.

Subtle

Nay, then I wonder less, if you, for whom
The blessing was prepared, would so tempt heaven,
And lose your fortunes.

Sir Epicure Mammon

Why, sir?

Subtle

This will retard
The work a month at least.

Sir Epicure Mammon

Why, if it do,
What remedy? But think it not, good Father:
Our purposes were honest.

Subtle

As they were,
So the reward will prove.
A loud explosion within.
—How now! Ah me!
God, and all saints be good to us.⁠—

Re-enter Face.

What’s that?

Face

O, sir, we are defeated! All the works
Are flown in fumo, every glass is burst;
Furnace, and all rent down, as if a bolt
Of thunder had been driven through the house.
Retorts, receivers, pelicans, bolt-heads,
All struck in shivers!
Subtle falls down as in a swoon.
Help, good sir! Alas,
Coldness and death invades him. Nay, Sir Mammon,
Do the fair offices of a man! You stand,
As you were readier to depart than he.
Knocking within.
Who’s there? My lord her brother is come.

Sir Epicure Mammon

Ha, Lungs!

Face

His coach is at the door. Avoid his sight,
For he’s