Tropicks in the coming to the Line, then under the Line it self, & in like manner they conceive that the fear & phancy in preparing for death is more terrible then death it self, which makes them by degrees desperately to contemne it. 5. In taking a prize he most prizeth the mens lives whom he takes; though some of them may chance to be Negroes or Savages. 'Tis the custome of some to cast them overbord, and there's an end of them for the dumbe fishes will tell no tales. But the murder is not so soon drown'd as the men. What, is a brother by the half bloud no kinne? a Savage hath God to his father by creation, though not the Church to his mother, and God will revenge his innocent bloud. But our Captain counts the image of God neverthelesse his image cut in ebony as if done in ivory, and in the blackest Moores he sees the representation of the King of heaven. 6. In dividing the gains he wrongs none who took pains to get them. Not shifting off his poore mariners with nothing, or giving them onely the garbage of the prize, and keeping all the flesh to himself. In time of peace he quietly returns home, and turns not to the trade of Pirates, who are the worst sea-vermine, and the devils water-rats. 7. His voyages are not onely for profit, but some for honour and knowledge; to make discoveries of new countreys, imitating the worthy Peter Columbus. Before his time the world was cut off at the middle; Hercules Pillars (which indeed are the navell) being made the feet, and utmost bounds of the continent, till his successefull industry inlarged it. THE GOOD SEA-CAPTAIN 69 Primus ab infusis quod terra emerserat undis Nuncius adveniens ipsa Columba fuit. Occiduis primus qui terram invenit in undis Nuncius adveniens ipse Columbus erat. Our Sea-captain is likewise ambitious to perfect what the other began. He counts it a disgrace, seeing all mankind is one familie, sundry countreys but severall rooms, that we who dwell in the parlour (so he counts Europe) should not know the out-lodgings of the same house, and the world be scarce acquainted with it self before it be dissolved from it self at the day of judgement. 8. He daily sees, and duly considers Gods wonders in the deep. Tell me, ye Naturalists, who sounded the first march and retreat to the Tide, Hither shalt thou come, and no further? why doth not the water recover his right over the earth, being higher in nature? whence came the salt, and who first boyled it, which made so much brine? when the winds are not onely wild in a storm, but even stark mad in an herricano, who is it that restores them again to their wits, and brings them asleep in a calm? who made the mighty whales, who swim in a sea of water, and have a sea of oyl swimming in them? who first taught the water to imitate the creatures on land? so that the sea is the stable of horse-fishes, the stall of kine-fishes, the stye of hogfishes, the kennell of dog-fishes, and in all things the sea the ape of the land. Whence growes the amber-greece in the Sea? which is not so hard to find where it is, as to know what it is. Was not God the first ship-wright? and all vessels on the water descended from the loyns (or ribs rather) of Noahs ark; or else who durst be so bold with a few crooked boards nayled together, a stick standing upright, and a rag tied to it, to adventure into the ocean? what loadstone first touched the loadstone? or how first fell it in love with the North, rather affecting that cold climate, then the pleasant East, or fruitfull South, or West? how comes that stone to know more then men, and to find the way to the land in a mist? In most of these men take sanctuary at Occulta qualitas, and complain that the room is dark, when their eyes are blind. Indeed they are Gods Wonders; and that Seaman the greatest Wonder of all for his blockishnesse, who seeing them dayly neither takes notice of them, admires at them, nor is thankfull for them. ULPIAN FULWEL (A. 1598) A pleasant Enterlude, intituled, Like will to Like quoth the Devil to the Collier. ... Made by Ulpian Fulwel.... London... 1587. 4to. [B4] First edition, 1568 [Bodleian]. Dodsley's Old Plays, iii. 1874. Tom Tospot FROM morning til night I sit tossing the black bole: then come I home and pray for my fathers soule. Saying my praiers with wounds, bloud, guts and hart, Swearing and staring thus play I my parte. If any poore man have in a whole week earn'd a grote: He shal spend it in one houre in tossing the pot. I use to call servants and poore men to my company, and make them spend all they have unthriftily. So that my company they think to be so good: that in short space their haire growes through their hood. 71 BEN JONSON (1573-1637) The Fountaine of Selfe-Love. 4to. Or Cynthias Revels. . . . The Magnetick Lady: Or, Humors Reconcil'd. . . . London, 1640. fol. Cynthia's Revels is a lengthy discussion of the typical failings of certain classes of courtiers. In Act II, Mercury and Cupid, disguised as pages, watch various courtiers as they exhibit their humours in turn, and as they go out, Mercury describes them to Cupid. The 'heavenly pair -as if they were giving a ruling for the Overburians who soon were to try their wits in the game-determine ' not to utter a phrase but what shall come forth steep'd in the very brine of conceit, and sparkle like salt in fire.' A typical humour is that of Asotus, the citizen's heir, who wishes to become a courtier. He has been receiving social hints from Amorphous, a traveller, and as he goes out with his preceptor, Mercury gives the character of the traveller and then of Criticus, who next comes in. In Every Man Out of His Humour, 1599, Jonson attaches brief tags which he calls 'The Characters of the Persons' to the list of his dramatis personae. There is no character-sketch in the play itself. In 1633, in The Magnetick Lady, he returns to some of the undramatic character-devices of his youth and gives set descriptions of his chief personages, especially Palate and Rut. A Traveller ONE SO made out of the mixture and shreds of formes, that himselfe is truely deformed: Hee walkes most commonlye with a Clove or Picktoothe in his mouth, Hee's the very Minte of Complement; All his behaviours are printed, his face is another volume of Essay es; and his beard |