Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/26

22 being safe for a Jesuit priest to travel in England under his own name. He was known under the various aliases of 'Brooke,' 'Lee' and 'Staunton.' Father Edward Oldcorne was generally called 'Mr. Hall,' but he also answered to the names of 'Vincent,' and 'Parker' when occasion served. Father Garnet was often known as 'Mr. Farmer' under which name he is mentioned in the correspondence of Sir Everard Digby, but he also made use of 'Darcey' 'Roberts' 'Meaze' 'Phillips' and 'Walley.' His adoption of the name of 'Farmer' has become famous owing to Shakespeare's reference to him in Macbeth (act ii., scene 2).

Porter. 'Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of Hell-Gate, he should have old turning the key. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub?—Here's a "farmer," that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty.—Come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for it. Knock, knock! Who's there, i' the other devil's name? Faith, here's an "equivocator," that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to Heaven.—O, come in, Equivocator. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose.'

These references to the 'farmer' and the 'equivocator' are so pointed as to direct the reader's attention to Garnet, who in his notorious