Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/184

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NOTES AND QUERIES. (us. xn. SEPT. 4, ,915.

that Forobosco has " no more resort of ladies to him." The Host replies :

He 's scarce known to be in town yet,

Ere long we shall have 'em come ^

Hurrying hither in feather-beds. ,

Dancer. How, bedridden ?

Host. No, sir, in feather-beds that move upon lour wheels in Spanish caroches, which recalls the speech of one of the mad- men in Act IV. sc. ii. of ' The Duchess of Malfy ' :

" Woe to the caroch that brought home my wife from the mask. . . .it had a large feather-bed in it." Hazlitt, ii. 240.

Forobosco now appears, and one after another the assembled clients seek his advice. After the dancer has preferred his suit, there comes a coxcomb. He intends to set up a press in Italy " to write all the corantoes in Christendom," and desires Forobosco to furnish him, with a familiar spirit from whom to gain his intelligence. He must be quiet, as the coxcomb " can by no means indure a terrible one." Forobosco reassures him on this head :

Foro. ... .1 '11 qualify him,

He shall not fright you. It shall be the ghost of some lying stationer,

A spirit shall look as if butter would not melt in his mouth. A new Mercurins Gallo-belgicits. Coxcomb. O there was a captain was rare at it.

Foro. Ne'er think of him. Though that captain writ a full hand gallop And wasted indeed more harmless paper than Ever did laxative physic, Yet will I make you to out-scribble him.

That Webster is here aiming a shaft at one of his contemporaries is evident, though who this " captain " was it is not possible to say. The passage is quoted here because the contemptuous observation applied by Forobosco to this unknown " captain " is taken from a passage that appears only in the sixth (1615) edition of Overbury's ' Characters.' The ' Character ' in which it occurs is that of ' An Excellent Actor.' Its author turns from the merits of the subject of his sketch to castigate the " imitating oharacterist " (i.e., Stephens, the writer of ' Satyrical Essays, Characters, and Others,' 1615) who, in his character of ' A Common Player,' had described actors as rogues :

" ... .1 would let his malicious ignorance understand that rogues are not to be imploide as maine ornaments to his Majesty's Revels ; but this itch of bestriding the presse. . . .hath defil'd more innocent paper than ever did laxative physic. "

In the subsequent editions of Overbury's

Characters ' this passage was suppressed.

The next person to apply to Forobosco

is a " Pedant," who wishes to confer with

him " about erecting four new sects of

religion at Amsterdam." Forobosco ob- serves :

This is somewhat difficult, And will ask some conference with the devil.

Compare ' A Cure for a Cuckold,' I. i. (iv. 13) :

tis a strange difficulty,

And it will ask much counsel.

When Forobosco has dealt with the requests of all his clients, the Clown enters with the Hostess and Biancha. There is in one of the Clown's speeches a curious expression applied to Forobosco's gullible customers :

" you whose purses are ready to cast the

calf,"

which is to be found again in ' An Impro- vident Young Gallant,' one of the 1615 ' Characters ' :

"Thus, when his purse has cast his calt, he goes down to the country."

Shortly afterwards the Clown says of Forobosco that

" for his conjuring, the witches of Lapland are the devil's charwomen to him, for they will sell a man wind to some purpose ; he sells wind, and tells you forty lies over and over " ; while, in ' A Cure for a Cuckold,' Lessing- ham observes :

Trust a woman !

Never ; henceforward I will rather trust The Winds which Lapland witches sell to men.

IV. ii. (iv. 71).

The Clown, continuing his abuse of Foro- bosco, thus sums up his career :

" In brief, he is a rogue of six reprieves, four pardons of course, thrice pilloried, twice snug Lacrymce to the virginals of a cart's tail," &c. The last expression, or one that closely resembles it, is to be found in ' The Devil's Law Case.' The Waiting Woman, whose perjury in the " law case " has been dis- covered, apprehensively inquires of Sanito- nella, the lawyer's clerk, what will become of her, and Sanitonella replies :

You'll be made dance Lacrymce, I fear, at a cart's tail. IV. ii. (iii. 99)

The Clown throws scorn upon his late master's claim to the possession of magical powers :

" Use all thy art, all thy roguery " [he says to Forobosco], " and make me do any thing before all this company I have not a mind to, I '11. . . .give thee leave to claim me for thy bond slave." Forobosco, who accepts the challenge, replies :

Foro. I will first send thee to Green-land for a haunch of venison, just of the thickness of thine own tallow.

Clown. Ha, ha, ha, I '11 not stir an inch for thee.

Foro. Thence to Amboyna i' th' East Indies, for pepper to bake it.

Clown. To Amboyna ? so I might be pepper'd,