SCENE VIII.

PANDOLFO, CRICCA.

PAN. Here's a strange man indeed, of skill profound! How right he knew my business, 'fore he saw me! And how thou scoff'st him, when we talk'd in private! 'Tis a brave instrument, his autocousticon.

CRI. In earnest, sir, I took him for a cheater; As many, under name of cunning men, With promise of astrology much abuse The gaping vulgar, wronging that sacred skill, That in the stars reads all our actions.

PAN. Are there no arches o'er our heads? Look, Cricca.

CRI. None but the arch of heaven, that cannot fall.

PAN. Is not that made of marble? I have read A stone dropp'd from the moon;[271] and much I fear The fit should take her now, and void another.

CRI. Fear nothing, sir; this charm'd mercurial cap Shields from the fall of mountains: 'tis not a stone Can check his art: walk boldly.

PAN. I do. Let's in. [_Exeunt._

FOOTNOTES:

[227] This play seems to have been planned on "L'Astrologo" of Giam Battista della Porta.--_Pegge._

Battista Porta was the famous physiognomist of Naples. His play was printed at Venice in 1606. See Mr Steevens's note on "Timon of Athens," act iv. sc. 3.

[228] The Spartans held stealing lawful, and encouraged it as a piece of military exercise; but punished it very severely if it was discovered. See Stanyan's "Grecian History," i. 80.

[229] Mr Sale (p. 30 of "Preliminary Discourse to his Translation of the Koran," 4º edit.) says, "The frequent robberies committed by these people on merchants and travellers have rendered the name of an Arab almost infamous in Europe: this they are sensible of, and endeavour to excuse themselves by alleging the hard usage of their father Ishmael who, being turned out of doors by Abraham, had the open plains and deserts given him by God for his patrimony, with permission to take whatever he could find there; and, on this account, they think they may, with a safe conscience, indemnify themselves as well as they can, not only on the posterity of Isaac, but also on everybody else; always supposing a sort of kindred between themselves and those they plunder. And in relating their adventures of this kind, they think it sufficient to change the expression, and, instead of _I robbed a man of such or such a thing_, to say, _I gained it_. We must not, however, imagine that they are the less honest for this among themselves, or towards those whom they receive as friends; on the contrary, the strictest probity is observed in their camp, where everything is open, and nothing ever known to be stolen."

[230] The _wanderers_ are the _planets_, called by the Greeks _planetæ_, from their moving or wandering, and by the Latins, from the same notion, _stellæ errantes;_ as on the contrary the fixed stars are termed by them _stellæ inerrantes_. The character appropriated by astronomers and astrologers to the planet Mercury, is this [Symb. of Mercury], which may be imagined to contain in it something of the characters of all the other planets [Symb. of Saturn] [Symb. of Jupiter] [Symb. of Mars] [Symb. of Sun] [Symb. of Venus] [Symb. of First Quarter Moon]. The history of the heathen deities, whose names were assigned to the several planets, is full of tricks and robberies, to say no worse, as is remarked by the apologetical fathers, who are perpetually inveighing against them on that account; and to this mythological history the poet here alludes.--_Pegge._

[231] Phantasia of Memphis, as Ptolemeus Hephestion tells us, in Photius, Cod. 190. See Fabricius "Biblioth," gr. i. p. 152. This comes excellently well out of the mouth of such a consummate villain as Albumazar.--_Pegge._

See also Blackwell's "Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer," 1736, p. 135.

[232] So Shakespeare, in "Timon of Athens," act iv. sc. 3--

"I'll example you with thievery. The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea: the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief. That feeds and breeds, by a composture stolen From general excrement: each thing's a thief; The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power Have uncheck'd theft."

See also the 19th Ode of Anacreon.

[233] A _settle_ is a wooden bench with a back to it, and capable of holding several people. These kind of seats are only to be found in ancient halls, or the common drinking-rooms in the country.--_Steevens._

[234] [Edits., _profit_.]

[235] Edits., _smoothest_. The versification of this play in general is regular and without hemistiches, were the measure properly attended to.

[236] [Steevens's emendation. Edits, have--

"My life h'as learnt out all, I know't by's music."

[237] The quartos read, _by the height of stars_, but the rhyme requires the alteration.--_Collier._

[238] _Closely_ is _privately_, as in act iii. sc. 1--

"I'll entertain him here, meanwhile steal you _Closely_ into the room."

Again, in "The Spanish Tragedy"--

"Boy, go, convoy this purse to Pedringano; Thou knowest the prison, _closely_ give it him."

And again, _ibid._--

"Wise men will take their opportunity _Closely_ and safely, fitting things to time."

--_Pegge._

[239] [Blushing.]

[240] Alluding to the custom of the harbingers, who in the royal progresses were wont to mark the lodgings of the several officers of the Court. _For Flavia_ should therefore be in italics. We now commonly write harbinger with the first vowel; but the ancients applied the second, which is more agreeable to the etymology. See Junius _v._ Harbour.--_Pegge._

To this explanation I shall only add that the office of harbinger remains to this day, and that the part of his duty above alluded to was performed in the latter part of the 17th century. Serjeant Hawkins, in his life of Bishop Ken, observes that when, on the removal of the Court to pass the summer at Winchester, that prelate's house, which he held in the right of his prebend, _was marked by the harbinger_ for the use of Mrs Eleanor Gwyn, he refused to grant her admittance; and she was forced to seek for lodgings in another place.--_Reed._

[241] The 4º of 1615 reads--

"Spight of a _last_ of Lelios."

[242] [Edits., _two_.]

[243] A term of astrology.--_Pegge._

"_Ascendant_ in astrology denotes the horoscope, or the degree of the ecliptic which rises upon the horizon at the time of the birth of any one. This is supposed to have an influence on his life and fortune, by giving him a bent to one thing more than another."--_Chambers's Dictionary._

[244] [Entrance to a house.]

[245] Cornelius Agrippa, on "The Vanitie and Uncertaintie of Artes and Sciences," 4º, 1569, p. 55, mentions _Apollonius:_ "They saie that Hierome made mention thereof, writinge to Paulinus, where he saithe, that _Apollonius Tianeus_ was a magitien, or a philosopher, as the Pithagoreans were." He is also noticed among those who have written on the subject of magic. Apollonius was born at Tyana about the time our Saviour appeared in the world. He died at the age of near or quite 100 years, in the reign of Nerva. By the enemies of Christianity he was reported to have worked miracles in the same manner as the Founder of our religion, and in the works of Dr Henry More is inserted a parallel between them. The degree of credit which the pagan miracles are entitled to is very clearly shown in Dr Douglas's learned work, entitled, "The Criterion, or Miracles Examined," 8º, 1757, p. 53. See a further account of Apollonius in Blount's translation of "The Two First Books of Philostratus, concerning the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus," fol., 1680, and Tillemont's "Account of the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus," translated by Dr Jenkin, 8º, 1702.

[246] Telescope.

[247] A stroke of satire in regard to cuckoldom: there are others afterwards in this act.--_Pegge._

[248] Coriat the traveller.

[249] Before the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral, the wall at Gloucester, here alluded to, was much more celebrated than it is at present. Camden, in his "Britannia," i. 275, edit. 1722, speaking of it, says: "Beyond the quire, in an arch of the church, there is a _wall_, built with so great artifice, in the form of a semicircle with corners, that if any one whisper very low at one end, and another lay his ear to the other end, he may easily hear every syllable distinct."

[250] [In the edits, this direction is made part of the text.]

[251] Alluding to the following passage in the Amphitruo of Plautus, where the night is lengthened, that Jupiter may continue the longer with Alcmena. Mercury says--

"Et meus pater nunc intus hie cum ilia cubat; Et haec ob eam rem nox est facta longior, Dum ille, quaquam volt, voluptatem capit."

--"Prolog. Amphitr." 112.--_Pegge._

[252] An instrument to aid and improve the sense of hearing.

[253] [Edits., _A cousticon. Autocousticon_ is] a repetition, by way of admiration, of the word in the preceding line; for it is plain it was not intended by the poet that Pandolfo should blunder through ignorance, because he has it right in the next scene, and Ronca has never repeated the word in the interim.--_Pegge._

[254] The flap or cover of the windpipe.--_Steevens._ Ronca here blunders _comicé_, and on purpose; for the _epiglottis_ is the cover or lid of the larynx, and has no connection with the ear.--_Pegge._

[255] _i.e._, In spite of his head.--_Steevens._

[256] Galileo, the inventor of the telescope, was born February 19, 1564, according to some writers, at Pisa, but more probably at Florence. While professor of mathematics at Padua, he was invited by Cosmo the Second, Duke of Tuscany, to Pisa, and afterwards removed to Florence. During his residence at the latter place, he ventured to assert the truth of the Copernican system; which gave so much offence to the Jesuits that, by their procurement, he was ever after harassed by the Inquisition. He suffered very frequent and long imprisonments on account of his adherence to the opinions he had formed, and never obtained his liberty without renouncing his sentiments, and undertaking not to defend them either by word or writing. His assiduity in making discoveries at length proved fatal to him. It first impaired his sight, and at length totally deprived him of it. He died at Arcetre, near Florence, January 8, 1642, N.S., in the 78th year of his age, having been for the last three years of his life quite blind. See a comparison between him and Bacon in Hume's "History of England," vi. 133, 8º, edit. 1763.

[257] [A horn.]

[258] To the great Mogul's country, who was then called _Maghoore_.--Howes' "Continuation of Stowe's Chronicle," p. 1003, where he esteems it a corruption to call him _Mogul_.

[259] [Edits, give this and next two lines, down to _return_, to Ronca.]

[260: There was an opinion pretty current among Christians that the Mahometans were in expectation of their prophet's return; and what gave occasion to that was the 16th sign of the resurrection, the coming of the Mohdi or director; concerning whom Mahomet prophesied that the world should not have an end till one of his own family should govern the Arabians, whose name should be the same with his own name, and whose father's name should also be the same with his father's name, and who should fill the earth with righteousness. Sale's "Preliminary Discourse to the Koran," 4º, edit. 82.

[261] [Edits., _gorgon_.]

[262] [Edits., _Upon_.]

[263] Terms of astrology meaning, be they inhabited by the best and most fortunate planets.--_Pegge._

[264] A book of astronomy, in use among such as erect figures to cast men's nativities, by which is shown how all the planets are placed every day and hour of the year.

[265] _i.e._, Juggling or deceiving.

[266] So in Jeffrey of Monmouth's History, 1718, p. 264, Merlin changes _Uther, Ulfin_, and _himself_, into the shapes of _Gorlois_, _Jordan of Tintagel_, and _Bricet_, by which means _Uther_ obtains the possession of _Igerna_, the wife of Gorlois.--_Pegge._

[267] People of rank and condition generally wore chains of gold at this time. Hence Trincalo says that, when he was a gentleman, he would

"Wear a gold chain at every quarter sessions."

--_Pegge._ Many instances of this fashion are to be met with in these volumes. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London wear chains of gold on public days at this time.

[268] Belonging to a sundial.--_Johnson's Dictionary._

[269] Azimuths, called also vertical circles, are great circles intersecting each other in the zenith and nadir, and cutting the horizon at right angles, in all the points thereof.--_Chambers's Dictionary._

[270] An Arabic word, written variously by various authors, and signifies a circle drawn parallel to the horizon. It is generally used in the plural, and means a series of parallel circles, drawn through the several degrees of the meridian.--_Johnson's Dictionary._

[271] See Bishop Wilkins's "Voyage to the Moon," p. 110.--_Pegge._