Free. Beauty is woman's virtue, love the life's music, and woman the dainties, or second course of heaven's curious workmanship. Since then beauty, love, and woman are good, how can the love of woman's beauty be bad? and, Bonum, quo communius, eo melius: wilt then go with me?

Mal. Whither?

Free. To a house of salvation.

Mal. Salvation ?

152

Free. Yes, 'twill make thee repent. Wilt go to the family of love ?1 I will show thee my creature; a pretty nimble-ey'd Dutch tanakin; 2 an honest soft-hearted impropriation; a soft, plump, round-cheek'd froe,3 that has beauty enough for her virtue, virtue enough for a woman, and woman enough for any reasonable man in my knowledge. Wilt pass along with me?

162

Mal. What, to a brothel ?-to behold an impudent prostitution; fie on't, I shall hate the whole sex to see her. The most odious spectacle the earth can present is an immodest vulgar woman.

Free. Good still; my brain shall keep't. You must go as you love me.

1 For an account of the religious sect called The Family of Love, see Middleton, iii. 3-5.

Halliwell (Dict. of Arch, and Prov. Words) quotes from Armin's Nest of Ninnies:-"Out she would, tucks up her trinkets, like a Dutch tannikin sliding to market on the ice, and away she flings."

Woman (Dutch).

Whore. (The word brothel was so used).-Cf. Middleton, i. 269: "I may grace her with the name of a courtezan, a backslider, a prostitution," &c.

Mal. Well, I'll go to make her loath the shame she's in; The sight of vice augments the hate of sin.

Free. The sight of vice augments the hate of sin ! Very fine, perdy!

170

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Brothel.

Enter COCLEDEMOY and MARY FAUGH.

Coc. Mary, Mary Faugh.

Mar. Hem.1

Coc. Come, my worshipful rotten rough-bellied bawd! ha! my blue-tooth'd patroness of natural wickedness, give me the goblets.

Mar. By yea and by nay, Master Cocledemoy, I fear you'll play the knave, and restore them.

Coc. No, by the lord, aunt,2 restitution is catholic, and thou know'st we love

Mar. What?

IO

Coc. Oracles are ceased: tempus præteritum, doest hear, my worshipful glysterpipe, thou ungodly fire that burnt Diana's temple?—doest hear, bawd?

Mar. In very good truthness, you are the foulestmouth'd, profane, railing brother, call a woman the most ungodly names: I must confess, we all eat of the forbidden fruit, and for mine own part, though I am one of

1 Cf. Middleton, iv. 246.
Cant term for a bawd.

the family of love, and, as they say, a bawd that covers the multitude of sins, yet I trust I am none of the wicked that eat fish o' Fridays.

20

Coc. Hang toasts! I rail at thee, my worshipful organbellows that fills the pipes, my fine rattling fleamy cough o' the lungs, and cold with a pox? I rail at thee? what, my right precious pandress, supportress of barbersurgeons, and enhanceress 1 of lotium 2 and diet-drink? 3 I rail at thee, necessary damnation? I'll make an oration, I, in praise of thy most courtly in-fashion and most pleasureable function, I.

Mar. Ay, prithee do, I love to hear myself praised, as well as any old lady, I.

30

Coc. List then :-a bawd; first for her profession or vocation, it is most worshipful of all the twelve companies; for, as that trade is most honourable that sells the best commodities-as the draper is more worshipful than the pointmaker, the silkman more worshipful than the draper, and the goldsmith more honourable than both, little Mary, so the bawd above all: her shop has the best ware; for where these sell but cloth, satins, and jewels, she sells divine virtues, as virginity, modesty, and such rare gems; and those not like a petty chapman, by retail, but like a great merchant, by wholesale; wa, ha, ho! And who are her customers? Not base corn

1 "Encherisseur. A high bidder or out-bidder of others; a raiser or enhancer of the price of things," &c.-Cotgrave.

2 Old eds. "lotinus."

3 11 Diet-drink "-medicine prescribed for a patient who was taking diet (i.e., being treated for the pox).

cutters or sowgelders, but most rare wealthy knights, and most rare bountiful lords, are her customers. Again, whereas no trade or vocation profiteth but by the loss and displeasure of another-as the merchant thrives not but by the licentiousness of giddy 1 and unsettled youth; the lawyer, but by the vexation of his client; the physician, but by the maladies of his patient-only my smooth-gumm'd bawd lives by others' pleasure, and only grows rich by others' rising. O merciful gain, O righteous in-come! So much for her vocation, trade, and life. As for their death, how can it be bad, since their wickedness is always before their eyes, and a death's head most commonly on their middle-finger? To conclude, 'tis most certain they must needs both live well and die well, since most commonly they live in Clerkenwell, and die in Bride-well.

Dixi, Mary.

Enter FREEVILL and MALHEUREUX.

158

Free. Come along, yonder's the preface or exordium to my wench, the bawd.

Fetch, fetch! What! Mr.

Cocledemoy, is your knaveship yet stirring? Look to it, Mulligrub lies for you.

1 Ed. 2. "giddy youth, and unsetled."

2 It appears from many passages in old writers that bawds were accustomed to wear rings with death's heads on them. Cf. Dekker and Webster's Northward Ho, iv. 1:-"And as if I were a bawd no ring pleases me but a death's head."

3 Turnmill Street, the headquarters of Elizabethan whores, was situated in Clerkenwell.

4 i.e., is in ambush.

Enter COCLEDEMOY.

Coc. The more fool he; I can lie for myself, worshipful friend. Hang toasts! I vanish. Ha! my fine boy, thou art a scholar, and hast read Tully's Offices, my fine knave. Hang toasts!

Free. The vintner will toast you, and he catch you.

Coc. I will draw the vintner to the stoop, and when he runs low, tilt him. Ha! my fine knave, art going to thy recreation?

Free. Yes, my capricious rascal.

Coc. Thou wilt look like a fool then, by and by.
Free. Look like a fool, why?

170

Coc. Why, according to the old saying: a beggar when he is lousing of himself, looks like a philosopher; a hard-bound philosopher, when he is on the stool, looks like a tyrant; and a wise man, when he is in his belly act, looks like a fool. God give your worship good rest! grace and mercy keep your syringe straight, and your lotium unspilt.

180

Enter FRANCESCHINA.

Free. See, sir, this is she.

Mal. This?

Free. This.

Mal. A courtezan ?-Now, cold blood defend me! What a propension afflicts me!