SCENE II.[1909

[_Enter_] SUBTLE, [_followed by_] TRIBULATION _and_ ANANIAS.

_Sub._ O, are you come? ’T was time. Your threescore minutes Were at last thread, you see; and down had gone _Furnus acediae, turris circulatorius:_ Limbec, bolt’s-head, retort, and pelican Had all been cinders. Wicked Ananias! 5 Art thou return’d? Nay, then it goes down yet.

_Tri._ Sir, be appeased; 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.

_Sub._ Why, this doth qualify! 10

_Tri._ 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.

_Sub._ This qualifies more!

_Tri._ And for the orphans’ goods, let them be valu’d, 15 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.

_Sub._ This qualifies most! Why, thus it should be, now you understand. Have I discours’d so unto you of our stone, 20 And of the good that it shall bring your cause? Show’d 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 25 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. Another has the palsy or the dropsy, 30 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 decay’d Beyond all cure of paintings, you restore 35 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 With a bare fricace[1910] of your med’cine; still 40 You increase your friends.

_Tri._ Ay, ’t is very pregnant.

_Sub._ And then the turning of this lawyer’s pewter To plate at Christmas——

_Ana._ Christ-tide, I pray you.

_Sub._ Yet, Ananias!

_Ana._ I have done.

_Sub._ Or changing His parcel[1911] gilt to massy gold. You cannot 45 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 Against lords spiritual or temporal, 50 That shall oppone[1912] you?

_Tri._ Verily, ’t is true. We may be temporal lords ourselves, I take it.

_Sub._ 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, 55 But such as are not graced 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 And other phlegmatic people; it is your bell. 60

_Ana._ Bells are profane; a tune may be religious.

_Sub._ No warning with you? Then farewell my patience. Slight, it shall down; I will not be thus tortur’d.

_Tri._ I pray you, sir.

_Sub._ All shall perish. I have spoke it.

_Tri._ Let me find grace, sir, in your eyes; the man, 65 He stands corrected; neither did his zeal, But as your self, allow a tune somewhere, Which now, being tow’rd[1913] the stone, we shall not need.

_Sub._ No, nor your holy vizard,[1914] to win widows To give you legacies; or make zealous wives 70 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; 75 The whilst the brethren and the sisters humbled, Abate the stiffness of the flesh. Nor cast Before your hungry hearers scrupulous bones;[1915] As whether a Christian may hawk or hunt, Or whether matrons of the holy assembly 80 May lay their hair out, or wear doublets, Or have that idol, starch, about their linen.

_Ana._ It is indeed an idol.

_Tri._ Mind him not, sir. I do command thee, spirit (of zeal, but trouble), To peace within him! Pray you, sir, go on. 85

_Sub._ Nor shall you need to libel ’gainst the prelates, And shorten so your ears[1916] against the hearing Of the next wire-drawn grace. Nor of necessity Rail against plays, to please the alderman Whose daily custard you devour; nor lie 90 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[1917] of you, 95 Only for glory, and to catch the ear Of the disciple.

_Tri._ Truly, sir, they are Ways that the godly brethren have invented, For propagation of the glorious cause, As very notable means, and whereby also 100 Themselves grow soon, and profitably, famous.

_Sub._ 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 105 Is not from men, but spirits.

_Ana._ I hate traditions; I do not trust them——

_Tri._ Peace!

_Ana._ They are popish all. I will not peace: I will not——

_Tri._ Ananias!

_Ana._ Please the profane, to grieve the godly; I may not.

_Sub._ Well, Ananias, thou shalt overcome. 110

_Tri._ It is an ignorant zeal that haunts him, sir: But truly else a very faithful brother, A botcher,[1918] and a man by revelation That hath a competent knowledge of the truth.

_Sub._ Has he a competent sum there i’ the bag 115 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: There they are within. When you have view’d and bought ’em, 120 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.

_Tri._ But how long time, 125 Sir, must the saints expect yet?

_Sub._ Let me see, How ’s the moon now? Eight, nine, ten days hence, He will be silver potate: then three days Before he citronise.[1919] Some fifteen days, The magisterium[1920] will be perfected. 130

_Ana._ About the second day of the third week, In the ninth month?

_Sub._ Yes, my good Ananias.

_Tri._ What will the orphans’ goods arise to, think you?

_Sub._ Some hundred marks, as much as fill’d three cars, Unladed now: you ’ll make six millions of ’em—— 135 But I must ha’ more coals laid in.

_Tri._ How?

_Sub._ Another load, And then we ha’ finish’d. We must now increase Our fire to _ignis ardens_;[1921] we are past _Fimus equinus_, _balnei_, _cineris_,[1922] And all those lenter[1923] heats. If the holy purse Should with this draught fall low, and that the saints 141 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.

_Tri._ Can you so? 145

_Sub._ Ay, and shall bide the third examination.

_Ana._ It will be joyful tidings to the brethren.

_Sub._ But you must carry it secret.

_Tri._ Ay; but stay, This act of coining, is it lawful?

_Ana._ Lawful! We know no magistrate: or, if we did, 150 This ’s foreign coin.

_Sub._ It is no coining, sir. It is but casting.

_Tri._ Ha! you distinguish well: Casting of money may be lawful.

_Ana._ ’T is, sir.

_Tri._ Truly, I take it so.

_Sub._ There is no scruple, Sir, to be made of it; believe Ananias; 155 This case of conscience he is studied in.

_Tri._ I ’ll make a question of it to the brethren.

_Ana._ The brethren shall approve it lawful, doubt not. Where shall ’t be done?

_Sub._ For that we ’ll talk anon. _Knock without._ There ’s some to speak with me. Go in, I pray you, 160 And view the parcels. That ’s the inventory. I ’ll come to you straight. [_Exeunt_ TRIB. _and_ ANA.] Who is it?—Face! appear.