Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 6.djvu/194

Instead of bills, with colstaves come; instead of spears, with spits;
Your slices serve for slicing swords, to save me and my wits:
A lady and her woman here, their huisher eke by side,
(But he stands mute,) have plotted how your Puppy to divide.

Enter dame Turfe, Joan, Joyce, Madge, &c.

 Dame T. How now, what noise is this with you, Ball Puppy?

 Pup. Oh dame, and fellows of the kitchen! arm,
Arm, for my safety; if you love your Ball:
Here is a strange thing call'd a lady, a mad-dame,
And a device of hers,^[1] yclept her woman,
Have plotted on me in the king's highway,
To steal me from myself, and cut me in halfs,
To make one valentine to serve them both;
This for my right-side, that my left-hand love.

 Dame T. So saucy, Puppy! to use no more reverence
Unto my lady and her velvet gown?

 Lady T. Turfe's wife, rebuke him not; your man doth please me
With his conceit: hold, there are ten old nobles,
To make thee merrier yet, half-valentine.

 Pup. I thank you, right side; could my left as much,
'Twould make me a man of mark,^[2] young Hannibal!

1. And a device of hers.] i. e. an animated puppet. Device (vice) was the name given to every piece of machinery moved by wheels or wires. See vol. iv. p. 41.
2. 'Twould make me a man of mark.] It would appear from this that the line above ("there are ten old nobles,") was