Ben Jonson

“ Where it retains more of the humid fatness, It turns to sulphur, or to quicksilver, Who are the parents of all other metals. Nor can this remote matter suddenly Progress so from extreme unto extreme, As to grow gold, and leap o'er all the means. Nature doth first beget the imperfect, then Proceeds she to the perfect. Of that airy And oily water, mercury is engender'd; Sulphur of the fat and earthy part; the one, Which is the last, supplying the place of male, The other of the female, in all metals. Some do believe hermaphrodeity, That both do act and suffer. ”

“ FACE. No, sir! buy The covering off o' churches.
MAM. That's true.
FACE. Yes. Let them stand bare, as do their auditory; Or cap them, new, with shingles.
MAM. No, good thatch: Thatch will lie light upon the rafters, Lungs. -- Lungs, I will manumit thee from the furnace; I will restore thee thy complexion, Puffe, Lost in the embers; and repair this brain, Hurt with the fume o' the metals.
FACE. I have blown, sir, Hard for your worship; thrown by many a coal, When 'twas not beech; weigh'd those I put in, just, To keep your heat still even ”

“ That you should hatch gold in a furnace, sir, As they do eggs in Egypt!
SUB. Sir, do you Believe that eggs are hatch'd so?
SUR. If I should?
SUB. Why, I think that the greater miracle. No egg but differs from a chicken more Than metals in themselves.
SUR. That cannot be. The egg's ordain'd by nature to that end, And is a chicken in potentia.
SUB. The same we say of lead and other metals, Which would be gold, if they had time.
MAM. And that Our art doth further.
SUB. Ay, for 'twere absurb To think that nature in the earth bred gold Perfect in the instant: something went before. ”

“ The dragon's teeth, mercury sublimate, That keeps the whiteness, hardness, and the biting; And they are gathered into Jason's helm, The alembic, and then sow'd in Mars his field, And thence sublimed so often, till they're fixed. Both this, the Hesperian garden, Cadmus' story, Jove's shower, the boon of Midas, Argus' eyes, Boccace his Demogorgon, thousands more, All abstract riddles of our stone. [ENTER FACE, AS A SERVANT.] -- How now! Do we succeed? Is our day come? and holds it?
FACE. The evening will set red upon you, sir ”

“ SUB. Sirrah, my varlet, stand you forth and speak to him, Like a philosopher: answer in the language. Name the vexations, and the martyrisations Of metals in the work.
FACE. Sir, putrefaction, Solution, ablution, sublimation, Cohobation, calcination, ceration, and Fixation.
SUB. This is heathen Greek to you, now! -- And when comes vivification?
FACE. After mortification.
SUB. What's cohobation?
FACE. 'Tis the pouring on Your aqua regis, and then drawing him off, To the trine circle of the seven spheres.
SUB. What's the proper passion of metals? ”

“ One glass o' thy water, with a madam I know, Will have it done, Nab: what's her brother, a knight?
DRUG. No, sir, a gentleman newly warm in his land, sir, Scarce cold in his one and twenty, that does govern His sister here; and is a man himself Of some three thousand a year, and is come up To learn to quarrel, and to live by his wits, And will go down again, and die in the country.
FACE. How! to quarrel?
DRUG. Yes, sir, to carry quarrels, As gallants do; to manage them by line.
FACE. 'Slid, Nab, the doctor is the only man In Christendom for him. ”

“ Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your adrop, Your lato, azoch, zernich, chibrit, heautarit, And then your red man, and your white woman, With all your broths, your menstrues, and materials, Of piss and egg-shells, women's terms, man's blood, Hair o' the head, burnt clouts, chalk, merds, and clay, Powder of bones, scalings of iron, glass, And worlds of other strange ingredients, Would burst a man to name? ”

“ And there within, sir, are the golden mines, Great Solomon's Ophir! he was sailing to't, Three years, but we have reached it in ten months. This is the day, wherein, to all my friends, I will pronounce the happy word, BE RICH; THIS DAY YOU SHALL BE SPECTATISSIMI. You shall no more deal with the hollow dye, Or the frail card. No more be at charge of keeping The livery-punk for the young heir, that must Seal, at all hours, in his shirt: no more, If he deny, have him beaten to't, as he is That brings him the commodity. ”

“ FACE. No more, sir. Of gold, t'amalgame with some six of mercury.
MAM. Away, here's money. What will serve?
FACE. Ask him, sir.
MAM. How much?
SUB. Give him nine pound: -- you may give him ten.
SUR. Yes, twenty, and be cozen'd, do.
MAM. There 'tis. [GIVES FACE THE MONEY.]
SUB. This needs not; but that you will have it so, To see conclusions of all: for two Of our inferior works are at fixation, A third is in ascension. Go your ways. Have you set the oil of luna in kemia?
FACE. Yes, sir.
SUB. And the philosopher's vinegar? ”

“ SUB. No, sir, of red. F is come over the helm too, I thank my Maker, in S. Mary's bath, And shews lac virginis. Blessed be heaven! I sent you of his faeces there calcined: Out of that calx, I have won the salt of mercury.
MAM. By pouring on your rectified water?
SUB. Yes, and reverberating in Athanor. [RE-ENTER FACE.] How now! what colour says it?
FACE. The ground black, sir.
MAM. That's your crow's head?
SUR. Your cock's-comb's, is it not?
SUB. No, 'tis not perfect. Would it were the crow! That work wants something.
SUR [ASIDE] . O, I looked for this. The hay's a pitching. ”

“ FACE. Sir!
SUB. Take away the recipient, And rectify your menstrue from the phlegma. Then pour it on the Sol, in the cucurbite, And let them macerate together.
FACE. Yes, sir. And save the ground?
SUB. No: terra damnata Must not have entrance in the work. -- Who are you?
ANA. A faithful brother, if it please you.
SUB. What's that? A Lullianist? a Ripley? Filius artis? Can you sublime and dulcify? calcine? Know you the sapor pontic? sapor stiptic? Or what is homogene, or heterogene? ”

“ The few that would give out themselves to be Court and town-stallions, and, each-where, bely Ladies who are known most innocent for them; Those will I beg, to make me eunuchs of: And they shall fan me with ten estrich tails A-piece, made in a plume to gather wind. We will be brave, Puffe, now we have the med'cine. ”

“ ANA. Of what kind, sir?
SUB. Pewter and brass, andirons and kitchen-ware, Metals, that we must use our medicine on: Wherein the brethren may have a pennyworth For ready money.
ANA. Were the orphans' parents Sincere professors?
SUB. Why do you ask?
ANA. Because We then are to deal justly, and give, in truth, Their utmost value.
SUB. 'Slid, you'd cozen else, And if their parents were not of the faithful! -- I will not trust you, now I think on it, 'Till I have talked with your pastor. Have you brought money To buy more coals? ”

“ We'll e'en draw lots, and he that fails, shall have The more in goods, the other has in tail.
SUB. Rather the less: for she may be so light She may want grains.
FACE. Ay, or be such a burden, A man would scarce endure her for the whole. ”