16
THE ALCHEMIST.
Dol.Will you undo yourselves with civil war?
Sub.Never been known, past equi clibanum,
The heat of horse-dung, under ground, in cellars,
Or an ale-house darker than deaf John's; been lost
To all mankind, but laundresses and tapsters,
Had not I been.
Dol.Do you know who hears you, sovereign?
Face.Sirrah———
Dol.Nay, general, I thought you were civil.
Face.I shall turn desperate, if you grow thus loud.
Sub.And hang thyself, I care not.
Face.Hang thee, collier,
And all thy pots, and pans, in picture, I will,
Since thou hast moved me———
Dol.O, this will o'erthrow all.
Face.Write thee up bawd in Paul's, have all thy tricks
Of cozening with a hollow cole,[1] dust, scrapings,
Searching for things lost,[2] with a sieve and sheers,
- ↑ Of cozening with a hollow cole, &c.] This is a well known artifice; but the particular allusion is to an anecdote in "the Chanons Yeomans Tale," where a priest is imposed upon by it.—Under pretence of converting quicksilver into metal, "this cursed Chanon," as Chaucer calls him, while the honest priest was busied elsewhere,
"Out of his bosome toke a bechen cole,
In which ful subtelly was made an hole,
And therein was put of sylver lymayle,
An unce, und stopped was without tayle,
The hole with waxe to kepe the lymayle in," &c.
Lymayle is the "dust and scrapings" of gold and silver. - ↑ Searching for things lost, &c.] This species of divination, which is of the remotest antiquity, yet retains its credit among the vulgar. By "erecting figures," &c. in the next line, is meant delineating schemes of the different positions of the
