Volpone and Other Plays (37 page)

And for his Stone, it is a work of darkness,

10      And with philosophy blinds the eyes of man

TRIBULATION
: Good Brother, we must bend unto all means

That may give furtherance to the Holy Cause.

ANANIAS
: Which his cannot. The Sanctifièd Cause

Should have a sanctified course.

TRIBULATION
:                                       Not always necessary.

The children of perdition are oft-times

Made instruments even of the greatest works.

Beside, we should
give somewhat to
man's nature,

The place he lives in, still about the fire,

And fume of metals, that intoxicate

20      The brain of man, and make him prone to passion.

Where have you greater atheists than your cooks?

Or more profane, or choleric, than your glass-men?

More Anti-Christian than your bell-founders?

What makes the devil so devilish, I would ask you,

Satan, our common enemy, but his being

Perpetually about the fire, and boiling

Brimstone and arsenic? We must give, I say,

Unto the motives, and the stirrers up

Of humours in the blood. It may be so,

30      Whenas the work is done, the Stone is made,

This heat of his may turn into a zeal,

And stand up for the beauteous discipline

Against the menstruous cloth and rag of Rome.

We must await his calling, and the coming

Of the good spirit. You did fault, t' upbraid him

With the Brethren's blessing of Heidelberg, weighing

What need we have to hasten on the work,

For the restoring of the
silenced Saints
,

Which ne'er will be but by the Philosopher's Stone.

40      And so a learnèd elder, one of Scotland,

Assured me;
aurum potabile
being

The only med' cine for the civil magistrate,

T' incline him to a feeling of the Cause;

And must be daily used in the disease.

ANANIAS
: I have not edified more, truly, by man,

Not since the beautiful light first shone on me,

And I am sad my zeal hath so offended.

TRIBULATION
: Let us call on him then.

ANANIAS
:                                                          The motion's good,

And of the spirit; I will knock first.

[
Knocks
.]                                                   Peace be within!

[
SUBTLE
admits
TRIBULATION WHOLESOME
and
ANANIAS
into the house
.]

[
SUBTLE
:] O, are you come? 'Twas time. Your three-score minutes

Were at the last thread, you see; and down had gone

Furnus acedicæ, turris circulatorius
:

Lembec, bolt-head, retort, and pelican

Had all been cinders. Wicked Ananias!

Art thou returned? Nay, then, it goes down yet.

TRIBULATION
: Sir, be appeasèd; he is come to humble

Himself in spirit, and to ask your patience,

If too much zeal hath carried him aside

From the due path.

10        
SUBTLE
:                          Why, this doth
qualify
!

TRIBULATION
: The Brethren had no purpose, verily,

To give you the least grievance; but are ready

To lend their willing hands to any project

The spirit and you direct.

SUBTLE
:                                         This qualifies more!

TRIBULATION
: And for the orphans' goods, let them be valued,

Or what is needful else to the holy work,

It shall be numb' red. Here, by me, the Saints

Throw down their purse before you.

SUBTLE
:                                                              This qualifies most!

Why, thus it should be, now you understand.

20      Have I discoursed so unto you of our Stone,

And of the good that it shall bring your cause?

Showed you (beside the main of hiring forces

Abroad, drawing the Hollanders, your friends,

From th' Indies, to serve you, with all their fleet)

That even the med'cinal use shall make you a faction

And party in the realm? As, put the case,

That some great man in state, he have the gout,

Why, you but send three drops of your elixir,

You help him straight. There you have made a friend.

30      Another has the palsy or the dropsy,

He takes of your incombustible stuff,

He's young again: there you have made a friend.

A lady that is past the feat of body,

Though not of mind, and hath her face decayed

Beyond all cure of paintings, you restore

With the oil of talc. There you have made a friend;

And all her friends. A lord that is a leper,

A knight that has the
bone-ache
, or a squire

That hath both these, you make 'em smooth and sound

40      With a bare
fricace
of your med'cine. Still

You increase your friends.

TRIBULATION
:                           Ay, 'tis very pregnant.

SUBTLE
: And then the turning of this lawyer's pewter

To plate at Christmas –

ANANIAS
:                             Christ-tide, I pray you.

SUBTLE
: Yet, Ananias!

ANANIAS
:                      I have done.

SUBTLE
:                                                  Or changing

His
parcel gilt
to massy gold. You cannot

But raise you friends withal, to be of power

To pay an army in the field, to buy

The King of France out of his realms, or Spain

Out of his Indies. What can you not do

50      Against lords spiritual or temporal,

That shall oppone you?

TRIBULATION
:                    Verily, 't is true.

We may be temporal lords ourselves, I take it.

SUBTLE
: You may be anything, and leave off to make

Long-winded exercises, or suck up

Your ‘ha!' and ‘hum!' in a tune. I not deny,

But such as are not gracèd in a state,

May, for their ends, be adverse in religion,

And get a tune to call the flock together.

For, to say sooth, a tune does much with women

60      And other phlegmatic people; it is your bell.

ANANIAS
: Bells are profane; a tune may be religious.

SUBTLE
: No warning with you? Then farewell my patience.

'S light, it shall down! I will not be thus tortured.

TRIBULATION
: I pray you, sir.

SUBTLE
:                                            All shall perish. I have spoke it.

TRIBULATION
: Let me find grace, sir, in your eyes. The man,

He stands corrected. Neither did his zeal,

But as yourself, allow a tune somewhere,

Which now,
being toward
the Stone, we shall not need.

SUBTLE
: No, nor your holy vizard, to win widows

70      To give you legacies, or make zealous wives

To rob their husbands for the common cause;

Nor take the start of bonds broke but one day,

And say they were forfeited by providence.

Nor shall you need o' er-night to eat huge meals,

To celebrate your next day's fast the better;

The whilst the Brethren and the Sisters, humbled,

Abate the stiffness of the flesh. Nor cast

Before your hungry hearers
scrupulous bones
:

As whether a Christian may hawk or hunt,

80      Or whether matrons of the holy assembly

May lay their hair out, or wear doublets,

Or have that idol, starch, about their linen.

ANANIAS
: It is indeed an idol.

TRIBULATION
:                               Mind him not, sir.

I do command thee, spirit of zeal, but trouble,

To peace within him! Pray you, sir, go on.

SUBTLE
: Nor shall you need to libel ' gainst the prelates,

And
shorten so your ears
against the hearing

Of the next wire-drawn grace. Nor of necessity

Rail against plays, to please the alderman

90      Whose daily custard you devour; nor lie

With zealous rage till you are hoarse; not one

Of these so singular arts. Nor call yourselves

By names of Tribulation, Persecution,

Restraint, Long-patience, and such-like, affected

By the whole family or
wood
of you,

Only for glory, and to catch the ear

Of the disciple.

TRIBULATION
: Truly, sir, they are

Ways that the godly Brethren have invented,

For propagation of the glorious Cause,

100   As very notable means, and whereby also

Themselves grow soon and profitably famous.

SUBTLE
: O, but the Stone, all's idle to't! Nothing!

The art of angels, nature's miracle,

The divine secret that doth fly in clouds

From east to west, and whose tradition

Is not from men, but spirits.

ANANIAS
:                                      I hate traditions!

I do not trust them –

TRIBULATION
:                   Peace!

ANANIAS
:                                           They are Popish all.

I will not peace! I will not –

TRIBULATION
:                            Ananias!

ANANIAS
: Please the profane to grieve the godly,

I may not.

110  
SUBTLE
: Well, Ananias, thou shalt overcome.

TRIBULATION
: It is an ignorant zeal that haunts him, sir,

But truly else a very faithful Brother,

A
botcher
, and a man by revelation

That hath a competent knowledge of the truth.

SUBTLE
: Has he a competent sum there i' the bag

To buy the goods within? I am made guardian,

And must, for charity and conscience' sake,

Now see the most be made for my poor orphan,

Though I desire the Brethren, too, good gainers;

120    There they are within. When you have viewed and bought 'em,

And ta' en the inventory of what they are,

They are ready for projection; there's no more

To do, Cast on the med' cine, so much silver

As there is tin there, so much gold as brass,

I'll gi' it you in by weight.

TRIBULATION
:                       But how long time,

Sir, must the Saints expect yet?

SUBTLE
:                                                   Let me see,

How's the moon now? Eight, nine, ten days hence,

He will be silver potate; then three days

Before he
citronize
. Some fifteen days,

130    The magisterium will be perfected

ANANIAS
: About the second day of the third week,

In the ninth month?

SUBTLE
:                           Yes, my good Ananias.

TRIBULATION
: What will the orphans' goods arise to, think you?

SUBTLE
: Some hundred marks, as much as filled three cars,

Unladed now. You'll make six millions of 'em –

But I must ha' more coals laid in.

TRIBULATION
:                                       How?

SUBTLE
:                                                              Another load,

And then we ha' finished. We must now increase

Our fire to
ignis ardens;
we are past

Fimus equinus, balnei, cineris
,

140    And all those lenter heats. If the holy purse

Should with this draught fall low, and that the Saints

Do need a present sum, I have a trick

To melt the pewter, you shall buy now instantly,

And with a tincture make you as good Dutch dollars

As any are in Holland.

TRIBULATION
:                    Can you so?

SUBTLE
: Ay, and shall bide the third examination.

ANANIAS
: It will be joyful tidings to the Brethren.

SUBTLE
: But you must carry it secret.

TRIBULATION
:                                            Ay; but stay,

This act of coining, is it lawful?