[526] Isham copy, "Heuens;" and eds. B, C "Heauens."--MS. "helevs."--Davies alludes to _Odyssey_ iv., 219, &c. [527] So MS.--Old eds. "substantiall." [528] We are reminded of Bobadil's encomium of tobacco:--"I could say what I know of the virtue of it, for the expulsion of rheums, raw humours, crudities, obstructions, with a thousand of this kind; but I profess myself no quacksalver. Only this much: by Hercules I do hold it and will affirm it before any prince in Europe to be the most sovereign and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man." [529] So MS.--Not in old eds. [530] Dyce quotes from More's _Lucubrationes_ (ed. 1563, p. 261), an epigram headed "MedicinÊ ad tollendos foetores anhelitus, provenientes a cibis quibusdam." [531] So eds. A, B, C.--Isham copy "so smooth."--MS. "so faire." IN CRASSUM. XXXVII. Crassus his lies are no[532] pernicious lies, But pleasant fictions, hurtful unto none But to himself; for no man counts him wise To tell for truth that which for false is known. He swears that Gaunt[533] is three-score miles about, And that the bridge at Paris[534] on the Seine Is of such thickness, length, and breadth throughout, That six-score arches can it scarce sustain; He swears he saw so great a dead man's skull At Canterbury digg'd out of the ground, 10 As[535] would contain of wheat three bushels full; And that in Kent are twenty yeomen found, Of which the poorest every year[536] dispends Five thousand pound: these and five thousand mo So oft he hath recited to his friends, That now himself persuades himself 'tis so. But why doth Crassus tell his lies so rife, Of bridges, towns, and things that have no life? He is a lawyer, and doth well espy That for such lies an action will not lie. 20 FOOTNOTES: [532] So MS.--Eds. "not." [533] Ghent. [534] The reference probably is to the Pont Neuf, begun by Henry III. and finished by Henry IV. [535] So MS.--Old eds. "That." [536] MS. "day!" IN PHILONEM. XXXVIII.