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S UBTLE [ Enter] F ACE [ in his uniform, followed by] D RUGGER 1
FACE. He’s busy with his spirits, but we’ll upon him. | |
| SUB. How now! What mates, what Bayards 2 ha’ we here? | |
| FACE. I told you he would be furious.—Sir, here’s Nab | |
| Has brought you another piece of gold to look on; | 4 |
| —We must appease him. Give it me,—and prays you, | |
| You would devise—what is it, Nab? | |
| DRUG. A sign, sir. | |
| FACE. Ay, a good lucky one, a thriving sign, doctor. | 8 |
| SUB. I was devising now. | |
| FACE. [Aside to SUB.] ’Slight, do not say so, | |
| He will repent he ga’ you any more— | |
| What say you to his constellation, doctor, | 12 |
| 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, | 16 |
| A poor-device! No, I will have his name | |
| Form’d in some mystic character; whose radii, | |
| Striking the senses of the passers-by, | |
| Shall, by a virtual 3 influence, breed affections, | 20 |
| That may result upon the party owns it: | |
| As thus—— | |
| FACE. Nab! | |
| SUB. He first shall have a bell, that’s Abel; | 24 |
| And by it standing one whose name is Dee, 4 | |
| In a rug 5 gown, there’s D, and Rug, that’s drug: | |
| And right anenst him a dog snarling er; | |
| There’s Drugger, Abel Drugger. That’s his sign. | 28 |
| And here’s now mystery and hieroglyphic! | |
| FACE. Abel, thou art made. | |
| DRUG. Sir, I do thank his worship. | |
| FACE. Six o’ thy legs 6 more will not do it, Nab. | 32 |
| He has brought you a pipe of tobacco, doctor. | |
| DRUG. Yes, sir; | |
| I have another thing I would impart—— | |
| FACE. Out with it, Nab. | 36 |
| DRUG. Sir, there is lodg’d, hard by me, | |
| A rich young widow—— | |
| FACE. Good! a bona roba? 7 | |
| DRUG. But nineteen at the most. | 40 |
| FACE. Very good, Abel. | |
| DRUG. Marry, she’s not in fashion yet; she wears | |
| A hood, but ’t stands a cop. 8 | |
| FACE. No matter, Abel. | 44 |
| DRUG. And I do now and then give her a fucus 9—— | |
| FACE. What! dost thou deal, Nab? | |
| SUB. I did tell you, captain | |
| DRUG. And physic too, sometime, sir; for which she trusts me | 48 |
| 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. | 52 |
| 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. | 56 |
| FACE. Hurt it! ’tis the way | |
| To heal it, if ’twere hurt; to make it more | |
| Follow’d and sought. Nab, thou shalt tell her this. | |
| She’ll be more known, more talk’d of; and your widows | 60 |
| 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. | 64 |
| 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, | 68 |
| And seeing so many o’ the city dubb’d? | |
| 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’s land, sir, | 72 |
| 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, | 76 |
| And will go down again, and die i’ the country. | |
| FACE. How! to quarrel? | |
| DRUG. Yes, sir, to carry quarrels, | |
| As gallants do; to manage ’em by line. | 80 |
| 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 | 84 |
| An instrument to quarrel by. Go, bring ’em both, | |
| Him and his sister. And, for thee, with her | |
| The doctor happ’ly may persuade. Go to: | |
| ’Shalt give his worship a new damask suit | 88 |
| Upon the premises. | |
| SUB. O, good captain! | |
| FACE. He shall; | |
| He is the honestest fellow, doctor. Stay not, | 92 |
| 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? | 96 |
| FACE. He’ll send you a pound, doctor. | |
| SUB. O no. | |
| FACE. He will do’t. | |
| It is the goodest soul!—Abel, about it. | 100 |
| Thou shalt know more anon. Away, be gone. [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, | 104 |
| To get a med’cine for ’em. | |
| SUB. And shall, sir. This works. | |
| FACE. A wife, a wife for one on us, my dear Subtle! | |
| We’ll e’en draw lots, and he that fails, shall have | 108 |
| The more in goods. | |
| SUB. Faith, best let’s see her first, and then determine. | |
| FACE. Content: but Dol must ha’ no breath on’t. | |
| SUB. Mum. | 112 |
| Away you, to your Surly yonder, catch him. | |
| FACE. Pray God I ha’ not staid too long. | |
| SUB. I fear it. [Exeunt.] | |
