that go about to match your girl with my boy, she being more fit for seams than for marriage, and he for a rod than a wife.

Pris. Her birth requires a better bridegroom than such a groom.

Sper. And his bringing up another gates marriage than such a minion*.

Pris. Marry-gup, I am sure he hath no better bread than is made of wheat, nor worn finer cloth than is made of wool, nor learned better manners than is taught in schools.

Sper. Nor your minx had no better grandfather than a tailor, who, as I have heard, was poor and proud, nor a better father than yourself; unless your wife borrowed a better to make your daughter a gentlewoman.

Pris. Twit not me with my ancestors, nor my wife's honesty, for if thou dost

Sper. Hold thy hands still, thou hadst best; and yet it is impossible, now I remember, for thou hast the palsy.

Pris. My hands shake so, that wert thou in place where, I would teach thee to cog↑.

Sper. Nay, if thou shake thy hands I warrant thou canst not teach any to cog. But, neighbour, let not two old fools fall out for two young wantons.

* "Another gates marriage," means a marriage of a very different description. It is a mode of speech still used in the North of England.

+ I believe the sense is,-if I had thee in a proper place I would teach thee to lie, and slander me, as thou hast done,

I Cog" is here used in a different sense, and means to cheat at cards or dice. The shaking of Prisius' hands would naturally prevent his being able to slip cards or dice without discovery.

Pris. Indeed it becometh men of our experience to reason, not rail; to debate the matter, not to combat it.

*

Sper. Well then, this I'll tell thee friendly: I have almost these two years cast in my head, how I might match my princocks with Stellio's daughter, whom I have heard to be very fair, and know shall be very rich; she is his heir, he doats, he is stooping old, and shortly must die; yet, by no means, either by blessing or cursing, can I win my son to be a wooer; which I know proceeds not of bashfulness, but stubborness; for he knows his good, though I say it, he hath wit at will as for his personage, I care not who sees him; I can tell you he is able to make a lady's mouth water, if she wink not.

Pris. Stay, Sperantus; this is like my case; for I have been tampering as long to have a marriage committed between my wench and Memphio's only son: they say he is as goodly a youth as one shall see in a summer's day, and as neat a stripling as ever went on neat's leather; his father will not let him be forth of his sight, he is so tender over him; he yet lies with his mother for catching cold: now my pretty elf, as proud as the day is long, she will none of him; she, forsooth, will choose her own husband: made marriages prove mad marriages; she will choose with her eye, and like with her heart, before she

* 6. Princocks," a coxcomb, a conceited fellow.

STEVENS.

“It is rather a cockered or spoiled child, than a coxcomb."

MALONE.

'consent with her tongue; neither father nor mother, kith nor kin, shall be her carver in a husband; she will fall to where she likes best; and thus the chick, scarce out of the shell, cackles as though she had been trodden with an hundred cocks, and mother of a thousand eggs.

Sper. Well, then, this is our best, seeing we know each others mind, to devise, to govern our own children; for my boy I'll keep to his books, and study shall make him leave to love; I'll break him of his will, or his bones with a cudgel.

Pris. And I'll no more dandle my daughter; she shall prick on a clout till her fingers ake, or I'll cause her leave to make my heart ake. But in good time, though with ill luck, behold if they be not both together; let us stand close and hear all, so shall we prevent all. [They stand aside.

Enter CANDIUS and LIVIA.

Sper. This happens pat; take heed you cough not, Prisius.

Pris. Tush, spit not you, and I'll warrant I; my beard is as good as a handkerchief.

Liv. Sweet Candius, if thy father should see us alone, would he not fret? The old man methinks should be full of fumes.

Cand. Tush, let him fret one heartstring against another, he shall never trouble the least vein of my little finger; the old churl thinks none wise unless he have a beard hang dangling to his waist; when my face is bedaubed with hair as his, then

Pris. Ah! in what book read you that lesson? Sper. I know not in what book he read it, but I am sure he was a knave to learn it.

Cand. I believe, fair Livia, if your sour sire should see you with your sweetheart, he would not be very patient.

Liv. The care is taken; I'll ask his blessing as a father, but never take counsel for a husband; there is as much odds between my golden thoughts and his leaden advice, as between his silver hairs and my amber locks; I know he will cough for anger that I yield not, but he shall cough me a fool for his labour †.

Sper. Where pricked your daughter that work? out of broad stitch?

Pris. Out of a flirt's sampler; but let us stay the end, this is but the beginning, you shall hear two children well brought up.

Cand. Parents in these days are grown peevish‡;

*Or in other words, "my desires may chance to be as methodical and selfish as his own."

+ Perhaps the text should be, "but he shall not cough me a fool for his labour." I have not altered it, because the present reading may be defended, and explained in this way," he shall only cough like a fool for his pains." This affected phraseology may be found in the second scene of the first act of " the Taming of the Shrew;” where, "to knock me," means to knock; therefore, "to cough me," in the text, may mean simply to cough.

That peevish in the time of our poet was generally meant to denote foolish, appears from Shakspeare's Third Part of Henry VI.

Why what a peevish fool was that of Crete,

That taught his son the office of a fowl.

they rock their children in their cradles till they sleep, and cross them about their bridals till their hearts ake. Marriage among them is become a market: what will you give with your daughter? what jointure will you make for your son? And many a match is broken off for a penny, more or less, as though they could not afford their children at such a price; when none should cheapen such ware but affection, and none buy it but love. Sper. Learnedly and scholar-like.

Liv. Indeed our parents take great care to make us ask blessing and say grace when we are little ones, and growing to years of judgment, they deprive us of the greatest blessing and the most gracious things, to our minds, the liberty of our minds: they give us pap with a spoon before we can speak, and when we speak for that we love, pap with a hatchet; because their fancies being grown musty with hoary age, therefore nothing can relish in their thoughts that savours of sweet youth; they study twenty years to make us grow as straight as a wand; and in the end, by bowing us as crooked as a cammock *. For mine own part, sweet Candius, they shall pardon me; for I will measure my love by mine own judg

and again, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Mrs. Quickly, speaking of her fellow-servant, says, "his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish that way: but nobody but has his fault."

*

"Crooked as a cammock." Cammock is explained by Johnson to mean a herb called petty whin; but this does not seem agreeable to the context, which I think means something that is bent or shaped artificially. Camber is used to denote a piece of timber that is cut arching, and this agrees with the evident meaning of the word.