Lic. O, the oven of his wit was not thoroughly heated.

Pet. Only this odds I find between money and eggs, which makes me wonder; that being more pence in the world than eggs, that one should have three eggs for a penny, and not three pence for an egg.

Pip. A wonderful matter; but your wisdom is overshot in your comparison, for eggs have chickens, gold hath none.

Pet. Mops, I pity thee; gold hath eggs; change an angel into ten shillings, and all those pieces are the angel's eggs.

Lic. He hath made a spoke; wilt thou eat an ? But soft, here comes our masters; let us shrink aside.

egg

Enter MELLACRITES, MARTIUS, and ERISTUS. Mel. A short answer, yet a sound. Bacchus is pithy and pitiful.

ORACLE.

“In Pactolus go bathe thy wish and thee,

Thy wish the waves shall have, and thou be free.”

Mar. I understand no oracles; shall the water turn every thing to gold, what then shall become of the fish? Shall he be free from gold? What then shall become of us, of his crown, of our country? I like not these riddles.

Mel. Thou, Martius, art so warlike, that thou wouldst cut off the wish with a sword, not cure it with a salve; but the gods that can give the desires of the heart, can as easily withdraw the torment. Suppose Vulcan should so temper thy sword, that were thy heart never so valiant, thine

arm never so strong, yet thy blade should never draw blood, wouldest not thou wish to have a weaker hand, and a sharper edge?

Mart. Yes.

Mel. If Mars should answer thee thus: go bathe thy sword in water *, and wash thy hands in milk, and thy sword shall cleave adamant, and thy heart answer the sharpness of thy sword; wouldst not thou try the conclusion?

Mart. What else?

Mel. Then let Midas believe till he have tried, and think that the gods rule as well by giving remedies as granting wishes. But Eristus is

mum.

Mart. Cœlia hath sealed his mouth.

Erist. Cœlia hath sealed her face in my heart, which I am no more ashamed to confess, than thou that Mars hath made a scar in thy face, Martius. But let us in to the king. Sir boys, you wait well.

Pet. We durst not go to Bacchus; for if I see a grape my head akes.

Erist. And if I find a cudgel, I'll make your shoulders ake.

Mel. And you, Licio, wait on yourself.

Lic. I cannot choose, sir, I am always so near myself.

Mel. I'll be as near you as your skin presently. [Exeunt.

*This is evidently an allusion to the story of Naaman, the Syrian, in the second book of Kings. The attentive reader of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays will remark, that many of their images are drawn from the same source.

ACT III. SCENE I.

MIDAS, MELLACRITES, MARTIUS, and ERISTUS. Mid. "In Pactolus go bathe thy wish and thee, Thy wish the waves shall have, and thou

be free."

Miserable Midas, as unadvised in thy wish, as in thy success unfortunate. Oh, unquenchable thirst of gold! which turneth men's heads to lead, and makest them blockish; their hearts to iron, and makest them covetous; their eyes to delight in the view, and makest them blind in the use. I, that did possess mines of gold, could not be contented till my mind were all a mine. Could not the treasure of Phrygia, nor the tributes of Greece, nor mountains in the East, whose guts are gold, satisfy my mind with gold? Ambition eateth gold and drinketh blood; climbeth so high by other men's heads, that she breaketh her own neck. What should I do with a world of ground, whose body must be content with seven feet of earth? Or why did I covet to get so many crowns, having myself but one head? Those that took small vessels at the sea I accounted pirates, and myself that suppressed whole fleets, a conqueror; as though robberies of kingdoms Midas might mask under the names of triumphs, and the traffic of other nations be called treachery. Thou hast pampered up thyself with slaughter, as Diomedes

did his horses with blood; so unsatiable thy thirst, so heavy thy sword. Two books have I always carried in my bosom, calling them the dagger and the sword; in which the names of all princes, noblemen, and gentlemen, were dedicated to slaughter, or if not (what worse is) to slavery. O, my lords, when I call to mind my cruelties in Lycaonia, my usurping in Getulia, my oppression in Sola, then do I find neither mercies in my conquests, nor colour for my wars, nor measure in my taxes. I have written my laws in blood, and made my gods of gold: I have caused the mothers' wombs to be their childrens' tombs; cradles to swim in blood like boats, and the temples of the gods a stews* for strumpets. Have not I made the sea to groan under the number of my ships; and have they not perished, that there was not two left to make a number? Have I not thrust my subjects into a camp, like oxen into a cart; whom having made slaves by unjust wars, I use now as slaves for all wars? Have not I enticed the subjects of my neighbour princes to destroy their natural kings, like moths that eat the clothes in which they were bred; like vipers that gnaw the bowels of which they were born; and like worms that consume the wood in which they were engendered? To what kingdom have not I pretended claim? as though I had been by the gods created heir apparent to the world, making every trifle a title, and all the territories about me traitors to me.

* "Stews,” a brothel. Johnson thinks it questionable if this word has any singular: the use of it here will strengthen that opinion.

Why did I wish that all might be gold I touched, but that I thought all men's hearts would be touched with gold; that what policy could not compass, nor prowess, gold might have commanded and conquered. A bridge of gold did I mean to make in that island where all my navy could not make a breach. Those islands did I long to touch, that I might turn them to gold, and myself to glory: but unhappy Midas, who by the same means perisheth himself, that he thought to conquer others; being now become a shame to the world, a scorn to that petty prince, and to thyself a consumption. A petty prince, Midas? No, a prince protected by the gods, by nature, by his own virtue, and his subjects' obedience. Have not all treasons been discovered by miracle, not council *? that do the gods challenge. Is not the country walled with huge waves? that doth nature claim. Is he not through the whole world a wonder, for wisdom and temperance? that is his own strength. Do not all his subjects, like bees, swarm to preserve the king of bees? that their loyalty maintaineth. My lords, I faint both for lack of food and want of

*It has been before observed, that Philip II. of Spain was depicted in the character of Midas: but a few of the preceding and following lines evidently allude to James I. whose accession to the crown of England did not take place till after the death of Philip: and as the discovery of the gunpowder plot seems meant by the discovery of all treasons mentioned in the text, this passage must have been written and added to the original piece after the death of both Philip and Elizabeth; and our poet had probably the honour to set the example, which Shakspeare followed in the celebrated prediction of Cranmer, in his play of Henry VIII.