 | The Bride |  |
The first Scene.
Maligo and Rhenish meeting Horten.Mal.
It should be he by the description was made of him.
Rhe.
Let us salute him then. If your name be Horten sir?
Hor.
I own no other.
Mal.
We are commended to you by some freinds of yours,
that request for us your leave to see rarities and antiquities
you have, and for which you are so much spoken of abroad in the
world.
Hort.
The world I do beleeve speakes grosly of me;
Such things, a prodigall vainesse being one
That lives by my endeavors: have no state
But what my labor purchaseth.
Mal.
May we have leave to walke to your house?
Hor.
And command
The sight of all. I must confesse my care
Of knowing and possessing rarities
Makes me so skilfull, I dare undertake
To pick a sallet out of Dioscorides,
Shall feast the Doctors colledge, with rare practises
Stranger then Æsons restitution
To youth by Magick. From my garden sir
I can produce those simples, shall out-worke
All the compounds of drugs, and shew like miracles
Compar'd with them. What needs the weapon salve,
Condemn'd by some for witchraft? when each dunghill
Affords the Persicaria, that on wounds
Works the like Magick. Panax Coloni
Is known to every rustick; and Hipericon.
And yet we must from Memphis and Judes
Fetch Balsame, though sophisticate; there is not
An ounce in Europe, will endure the triall
Of milke or water. Yet my Ladyes gentlewoman
Bit by her Monkey, sweares by her lost maydenhead
The world hath not a Balsame like to that
Her closet yeelds; when 'tis perhaps but oyle
A little aromatiz'd for lamps.
Rhe.
You are learned likewise in antiquities.
Hor.
A little sir.
I should affect them more, were not tradition
One of the best assurances to show
They are the things we thinke them. What more proofes
(Unlesse perhaps a little circumstance)
Have we for this or that to be a peece
Of delphos ruines? or the marble statues
Made Athens glorious, when she was suppos'd
To have more images of men then men?
That is not legible but through an optick,
Tells us its age; that in some Sibills cane
Three thousand yeares ago it was an altar.
'Tis satisfaction to our curiosity;
But ought not to necessitate beliefe.
Mal.
Antiquities sir are grown of late good merchandize.
Hor.
Th'affection of some Princes hath begot
An imitation, and 'tis nobly done.
For by such things mans knowledge is inform'd
In principles of art, and many times
They light upon instruction by them, that
Direct invention to recover what
Neglect or ignorance hath lost.
Rhe.
Pray' sir what are the rarities and antiquities you have?
Hor.
Nor Pliny sir, nor Gesner ever made
Discription of a creature, but I have
Some particle thereof: and for antiquity
I do not store up any under Grecian.
Your Roman antiques are but modern toyes
Compar'd to them. Besides, they are so counterfet
With mouldings, 'tis scarce possible to find
Any but copies.
Mal.
Yet you are confident of yours that are of more doubt.
Hor.
Others from their easinesse
May credit what they please. My triall's such
Of any thing I own, all the impostors
That ever made antiquity ridiculous
Cannot deceive me. If I light upon
Ought that's above my skill, I have recourse
To those whose judgements at the second view
(If not the first) will tell me what Philosophers
That eylesse, noselesse, mouthlesse statue is,
And who the workman was, though since his death
Thousands of yeeres have been revolv'd—
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