_Jaco._ I warrant you, give him but fair rich clothes,
He can be ta'en, reputed anything.
Apparel's grown a god, and goes[467] more neat;
Makes men of rags, which straight he bears aloft,
Like patch'd-up scarecrows to affright the rout
Of the idolatrous vulgar that worship images,
Stand awed and bare-scalp'd at the gloss of silks,
Which, like the glorious A-jax[468] of Lincoln's-Inn
(Survey'd with wonder by me when I lay
Factor in London), laps up naught but filth 20
And excrements, that bear the shape of men,
Whose inside every daw[469] would peck and tear,
But that vain scarecrow clothes entreats forbear.
_Fra._ You would have me take upon me, Albano,
A valiant gallant Venetian burgomasco.
Well my beard, my feather, short sword, and my oath,
Shall do't, fear not. What! I know a number,
By the sole warrant of a lappy beard,
A rain-beat plume, and a good chop-filling oath,
With an odd French shrug, and "by the Lord," or so, 30
Ha' leapt into sweet captain with such ease
As you would--Fear't not. I'll gage my heart I'll do't.
How sits my hat? Ha! Jack, doth my feather wag?
_Jaco._ Methinks now, in the common sense of fashion,
Thou shouldst grow proud, and like a fore-horse view,
None but beforehand gallants; as for sides,
Study a faint salute, give a strange eye;
And those that rank in equal file with thee,
But as to those in rearward, O be blind!
The world wants eyes--it[470] cannot see behind. 40
_Fra._ Where is the strumpet? Where's the hot-vein'd French?
Lives not Albano? Hath Celia so forgot
Albano's love, that she must forthwith wed
A runabout, a skipping Frenchman?
_Jaco._ Now you must grow in heat, and stut.
_Fra._ An odd phantasma--a beggar--a sir--a who,
who, who--What You Will--a straggling go-go-go-gunds--f-f-f-f-fut----
_And._ Passing like him--passing like him. O 'twill
strike all dead! 50
_Ran._ I am ravished! 'Twill be peerless exquisite
Let him go out instantly!
_Jaco._ O, not till twilight; meantime I'll prop up
The tottering rumour of Albano's scape,
And safe arrival; it begins to spread.
If this plot live, Frenchman, thy hopes are dead.
[_Exeunt._
_Bid._ And if it live, strike off this little head.
[_Exit._
[467] Ed. 1. "does."
[468] _A jakes._ The joke (originated by Sir John Harrington) is
very common. Concerning the jakes of Lincoln's Inn, see the
droll, though not very delicate, story in Gayton's _Festivous
Notes on Don Quixote_, 1654, p. 74.
[469] Old eds. "day" (which Dilke retains!).
[470] Ed. 2. "and."
SCENE II.
_A Public Place._
_Enter_ ALBANO _with_ SLIP, _his Page_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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