THE ALCHEMIST.
19
Dol.Will you be
Your own destructions, gentlemen?
Face.Still spew'd out
For lying too heavy on the basket.[1]
Sub.Cheater!
Face.Bawd!
Sub.Cow-herd!
Face.Conjurer!
Sub.Cut-purse!
Face.Witch!
Dol.O me!
We are ruin'd, lost! have you no more regard
To your reputations? where's your judgment? 'slight,
Have yet some care of me, of your republic—
Face.Away, this brach![2] I'll bring thee, rogue, within
The statute of sorcery,[3] tricesimo tertio
Of Harry the Eighth: ay, and perhaps thy neck
Within a noose, for laundring gold and barbing it.[4]
- ↑ Still spew'd out
For lying too heavy on the basket.] i.e. for eating more than his share of the broken provisions collected, and sent in for the prisoners. This is mentioned by Shirley: "you shall howl all day at the grate for a meal at night from the basket." Bird in a Cage. Whal. - ↑ Away, this brach!] "A mannerly name for a b—h," as the old book on sports says. See Massinger, vol. i. 210.
- ↑ I'll bring thee, rogue, within
The statute of sorcery, &c.] By this statute, which Face has very accurately dated, all witchcraft and sorcery was declared to be felony without benefit of clergy. This was confirmed by the famous statute 1 Jac. I. c. 12. - ↑ For laundring gold and barbing it.] To launder gold is, probably, to wash it in aqua regia; a practice, it is to be feared, (while gold was,) not uncommon. This verb is not found in our dictionaries; though it is as regularly formed as the substantive, (laundress,) and seems altogether as necessary.
