Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/226

 210 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES Of Jeremy, the butler. In the meantime, Do you two pack up all the goods and purchase,* That we can carry in two trunks. I'll keep him Off for to-day, if I cannot longer : and then At night I'll ship you both away to RatclifiF, Where we will meet to-morrow, and there we'll share. Let Mammon's brass and pewter keep the cellar ; We'll have another time for that. But, Dol, Prithee go heat a little water quickly ; Subtle must shave me : all my captain's beard Must off, to make me appear smooth Jeremy." The neighbours tell Lovewit of the strange persons who have been flocking to his house, day and night, for weeks past, during which Jeremy has not been seen. Jeremy appears, and maintains that the house has been shut up and the keys in his pocket for the last three weeks, and that the neighbours must have had visions or been demented. These worthies waver before his assurance. Then the dupes come up, undeceived and raging; Mammon and Surly, Kastril for his sister (who is awaiting the genuine Spanish Don she has been promised for husband), Ananias and Tribulation Wholesome; Dapper cries out from within, and Subtle shouts to quieten him ; Lovewit overhears Face rebuking the latter for his noise; and finally Face, seeing that he is caught, and feehng that "nothing's more wretched than a guilty conscience" (when the guilt's found out), offers to confess in private : — • Whalley notes : "A cant term for goods stolen or dishonestly come by: thus Shakespeare, Henry V. — ' They will steal anything, and call it purchase. ' And this sense seems to be derived from Chaucer, who thus uses it in his ' Prophecy ' : — 'And robbery is holde purchase.' "