PER. For I have heard it said, There is _an art_, which, _in their piedness_, shares _With great creating nature_." "This art," says Steevens, in a note on that passage, "is pretended to be taught at the end of some of the old books that treat of cookery." As I understand the passage then, Jane means to say, _I have such good qualities and beauty as nature has given, but none that are produced by art_. If the passage be thus understood, the opposition of the _rose_ and the _gilliflower_ is complete. If the reader is not satisfied with this conjecture, I will further suggest that _gill-flirt_ was then a well-known term for a wanton; and Steevens has informed us that _gilly'vors_ (the vulgar way of calling gilly-flowers) is still in use in Sussex to denote a _harlot_. Jane has spoken more than once of her _honesty_, and here may be the allusion. [87] [Old copy, _and_.] [88] [The 4o reads _eares_.] [89] [Old copy, _new to_.] [90] [Or, _Jack will be a gentleman_. This is a common proverb. It occurs in "A Garden of Spiritual Flowers," 1610, edit. 1638, part ii. p. 303.] [91] These four lines seem to be a quotation, probably from some old ballad. [92] Here is an evident allusion to two passages in the Gospel of St Matthew. ACT IV., SCENE I. _Enter_ MISTRESS JANE, GODFREY SPEEDWELL, _and_ MASTER LAMBSKIN. JANE. Gentlemen, my father's not within; please you to walk a turn or two in the garden; he'll not be long. LAMB. Your father, Mistress Jane? I hope you have observation in you, and know our humours; we come not a-wooing to your father. SPEED. Experience must bear with folly; thou art all innocent, and thy name is Lambskin; grave sapience guides me, and I care not a pin for thy squibs and thy crackers. My old dry wood shall make a lusty bonfire when thy green chips shall lie hissing in the chimney-corner. Remember, mistress, I can make you a lady by mine own experience. LAMB. Prythee, do not stand troubling the gentlewoman with thy musty sentences, but let her love be laid down betwixt us like a pair of cudgels, and into whose hands she thrusts the weapons first, let him take up the bucklers.[93] SPEED. A match between us. JANE. Must I be stickler, then? LAMB. We are both to run at the ring of your setting-up, and you must tell us who deserves most favour. JANE. But will you stand both at my disposing? LAMB. Else let me never stand but in a pillory. JANE. You love me both, you say? SPEED. By this hand! LAMB. Hand? Zounds! by the four-and-twenty elements. JANE. Pray spare your oaths; I do believe you do, You would not else make all this stir to woo. Sir Godfrey, you are a knight both tough and old; A rotten building cannot long time hold.