Eum. Why, so thou shalt, Jack.

[G. of] Jack. Why, then, master, draw your sword, part your lady, let me have half of [1030 her presently.

Eum. Why, I hope, Jack, thou dost but jest. I promised thee half I got, but not half my lady.

G. of] Jack. But what else, master? [1035 Have you not gotten her? Therefore divide her straight, for I will have half; there is no remedy.

Eum. Well, ere I will falsify my word unto my friend, take her all. Here, Jack, I'll [1040 give her thee.

[G. of] Jack. Nay, neither more nor less, master, but even just half.

Eum. Before I will talsify my faith unto my friend, I will divide her. Jack, thou shalt [1045 have half.

1 Bro. Be not so cruel unto our sister, gentle knight.

1050

2 Bro. O, spare fair Delia! She deserves no death. Eum. Content yourselves; my word is passed to him. Therefore prepare thyself, Delia, for thou must die.

Del. Then farewell, world! Adieu, Eumenides!

EUMENIDES offers to strike, and [the GHOST OF]

JACK stays him.

[G. of] Jack. Stay, master; it is suffi- [1055 cient I have tried your constancy. Do you now

We will to Thessaly with joyful hearts.
All. Agreed: we follow thee and Delia.
Exeunt all [except FROLIC, FANTASTIC, and
MADGE].

Fan. What, gammer, asleep?

1070

Madge. By the mass, son, 't is almost day; and my windows shut at the cock's-crow. Fro. Do you hear, gammer? Methinks this Jack bore a great sway amongst them.

Madge. O, man, this was the ghost of the poor man that they kept such a coil to bury; and that makes him to help the wander- [1075 ing knight so much. But come, let us in: we will have a cup of ale and a toast this morning, and so depart.1

Fan. Then you have made an end of your tale, gammer?

1080

Madge. Yes, faith: when this was done, I took a piece of bread and cheese, and came my way; and so shall you have, too, before you go, to your breakfast. [Exeunt.]

1 Separate.

As Pallas 'mongst her princely huswifery.
She turn'd her smock over her lily arms,
And div'd them into milk to run her cheese;
But, whiter than the milk, her crystal skin,
Checked with lines of azure, made her blush 4
That art or nature durst bring for compare.
Ermsby, if thou hadst seen, as I did note it
well,

How Beauty play'd the huswife, how this girl, Like Lucrece, laid her fingers to the work, Thou wouldst, with Tarquin, hazard Rome and all

To win the lovely maid of Fressingfield.

Ralph. Sirrah Ned, wouldst fain have her? P. Edw. Ay, Ralph.

Ralph. Why, Ned, I have laid the plot in [95 my head; thou shalt have her already.

P. Edw. I'll give thee a new coat, an learn me that.

Ralph. Why, Sirrah Ned, we 'll ride to Oxford to Friar Bacon. O, he is a brave scholar, [100 sirrah; they say he is a brave necromancer, that he can make women of devils, and he can juggle cats into costermongers.

P. Edw. And how then, Ralph ?

Ralph. Marry, sirrah, thou shalt go to [105 him: and because thy father Harry shall not miss thee, he shall turn me into thee; and I'll to the court, and I'll prince it out; and he shall make thee either a silken purse full of gold, or else a fine wrought smock.

110

P. Edw. But how shall I have the maid? Ralph. Marry, sirrah, if thou be'st a silken

1 Pearls. 2 Rare appearance. 3 Tint. Would have made that woman blush whom art, etc.

purse full of gold, then on Sundays she 'll hang thee by her side, and you must not say a word. Now, sir, when she comes into a great [us press of people, for fear of the cutpurse, on a sudden she 'll swap thee into her plackerd; 5 then, sirrah, being there, you may plead for yourself.

Erms. Excellent policy!

120

P. Edw. But how if I be a wrought smock? Ralph. Then she 'll put thee into her chest and lay thee into lavender, and upon some good day she'll put thee on; and at night when you go to bed, then being turned from a smock [125 to a man, you may make up the match. Lacy. Wonderfully wisely counselled, Ralph. P. Edw. Ralph shall have a new coat. Ralph. God thank you when I have it on my back, Ned.

130

P. Edw. Lacy, the fool hath laid a perfect plot;

135

For-why our country Margaret is so coy,
And stands so much upon her honest points,
That marriage or no market with the maid.
Ermsby, it must be necromantic spells
And charms of art that must enchain her love,
Or else shall Edward never win the girl.
Therefore, my wags, we'll horse us in the

Lacy. I will, my lord, so execute this charge As if that Lacy were in love with her.

P. Edw. Send letters speedily to Oxford of the news.

Ralph. And, Sirrah Lacy, buy me a thou- [170 sand thousand million of fine bells.

Lacy. What wilt thou do with them, Ralph ? Ralph. Marry, every time that Ned sighs for the Keeper's daughter, I'll tie a bell about him; and so within three or four days I will send [175 word to his father Harry that his son and my master Ned is become Love's morris-dance.

P. Edw. Well, Lacy, look with care unto thy charge,

180

And I will haste to Oxford to the friar,
That he by art and thou by secret gifts
Mayst make me lord of merry Fressingfield.
Lacy. God send your honour your heart's
desire.

speak mystically; for he knows, if your skill fail to make a brazen head, yet Mother Waters' strong ale will fit his turn to make him have a copper nose.

Clem. Bacon, we come not grieving at thy skill,

But joying that our académy yields

A man suppos'd the wonder of the world;
For if thy cunning work these miracles,
England and Europe shall admire thy fame,
And Oxford shall in characters of brass,
And statues, such as were built up in Rome,
Etérnize Friar Bacon for his art.

2

40

45

50

55

Mason. Then, gentle friar, tell us thy intent.
Bacon. Seeing you come as friends unto the
friar,
Resolve you, doctors, Bacon can by books
Make storming Boreas thunder from his cave,
And dim fair Luna to a dark eclipse.
The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell,
Trembles when Bacon bids him or his fiends
Bow to the force of his pentagonon.
What art can work, the frolic friar knows;
And therefore will I turn my magic books,
And strain out necromancy to the deep.
I have contriv'd and fram'd a head of brass
11 made Belcephon hammer out the stuff),
And that by art shall read philosophy;
And I will strengthen England by my skill,
That if ten Caesars liv'd and reign'd in Rome,
With all the legions Europe doth contain,
They should not touch a grass of English
ground.

The work that Ninus rear'd at Babylon,
The brazen walls fram'd by Semiramis,
Carv'd out like to the portal of the sun,
Shall not be such as rings the English strand
From Dover to the market-place of Rye.

Burd. Is this possible?

Miles. I'll bring ye two or three witnesses. Burd. What be those?

60

es

70

75

Miles. Marry, sir, three or four as honest devils and good companions as any be in hell. [7 Mason. No doubt but magic may do much in

this;

For he that reads but mathematic rules
Shall find conclusions that avail to work
Wonders that pass the common sense of men.
Burd. But Bacon roves a bow beyond his
reach,

And tells of more than magic can perform,
Thinking to get a fame by fooleries.
Have I not pass'd as far in state of schools,
And read of many secrets? Yet to think
That heads of brass can utter any voice,
Or more, to tell of deep philosophy,-
This is a fable Esop had forgot.

80

85

Bacon. Burden, thou wrong'st me in detracting thus ;

Bacon loves not to stuff himself with lies.
But tell me 'fore these doctors, if thou dare, 90
Of certain questions I shall move to thee.
Burd. I will: ask what thou can.

And sore he doubts of Bacon's cabalism,
I'll show you why he haunts to Henley oft:
Not, doctors, for to taste the fragrant air,
But there to spend the night in alchemy,
To multiply with secret spells of art;
Thus private steals he learning from us all.
Το prove my sayings true, I'll show you straight
The book he keeps at Henley for himself.

Miles. Nay, now my master goes to conjuration, take heed.

120

Bacon. Masters, stand still, fear not, I'll show you but his book. Here he conjures.

Per omnes deos infernales, Belcephon ! Enter a Woman with a shoulder of mutton on a spit, and a Devil.

Miles. O master, cease your conjuration, or you spoil all; for here's a she-devil come [125 with a shoulder of mutton on a spit. You have marr'd the devil's supper; but no doubt he thinks our college fare is slender, and so hath sent you his cook with a shoulder of mutton, to make it exceed.

130

Bacon. Well, mistress, for I will not have you miss'd,

You shall to Henley to cheer up your guests 188
'Fore supper gin.- Burden, bid her adieu;
Say farewell to your hostess 'fore she goes.-
Sirrah, away, and set her safe at home.

Hostess. Master Burden, when shall we see you at Henley ?

Ereunt Hostess and Devil. Burd. The devil take thee and Henley too. Miles. Master, shall I make a good motion? Bacon. What's that?

170

Miles. Marry, sir, now that my hostess is gone to provide supper. conjure up another [176 spirit, and send Doctor Burden flying after.

Bacon. Thus, rulers of our academic state, You have seen the friar frame his art by proof; And as the college called Brazen-nose Is under him, and he the master there, So surely shall this head of brass be fram'd, And yield forth strange and uncouth aphorisms,

180

And hell and Hecate shall fail the friar,
But I will circle England round with brass.
Miles. So be it et nunc et semper, amen. 185
Exeunt.

[SCENE III.]

Enter MARGARET, the fair maid of Fressingfield, and JOAN; THOMAS, RICHARD,] and other Clowns; and LACY disguised in country apparel.

Thom. By my troth, Margaret, here's a weather is able to make a man call his father "whoreson": if this weather hold, we shall have hay good cheap, and butter and cheese at Harleston will bear no price.

Mar. Thomas, maids when they come to see the fair

Count not to make a cope for dearth of hay; When we have turn'd our butter to the salt, And set our cheese safely upon the racks,