THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 75 



Banstead Down, Wiltshire, Bury, Norwich, "what you will". 29 

 His custom is to choose the particular kind of air desired, and then, 

 going into his chamber, to close the windows and doors, and draw 

 the blinds. He now opens some forty gallons of the chosen air and 

 snuffs it up eagerly with such exclamations as "0, this Bury air 

 is delicate! 'tis delicious! 0, very refreshing!" "There is great 

 advantage in thus taking the air for it tastes so much fresher from 

 being bottled, as Liquors do. For, let me tell you Gentlemen, Air 

 is but a thiner sort of Liquor". 



He also weighs the air carefully. From his thorough study he 

 can tell exactly the weight of a given amount from any district. 

 That around the "Picque of Teneriffe is lightest in weight; from 

 Sheerness and the Isle of Dogs comes the heaviest". 



"Longvil, To what end do you weigh this Air, Sir? 



Sir Nicholas, To what end should I? To know what it 

 weighs. 0, Knowledge is a fine thing!" 30 



Other experiments in Physics had been made. The virtuoso 

 produces his pneumatic engine, which, according to his own boast, 



he has used to ' ' eclipse the Light of rotton Wood and putrid 



Flesh, when it becomes lucid". " 'Tis the finest Light in the 

 World. But for all that I could eclipse the Leg of Pork in my 

 Receiver, by pumping out the Air; but immediately upon the Ap 

 plause of the Air let in again, it became lucid as before." 

 "Longvil, Is it so curious a Light? 



Sir Nicholas, I am now studying the Glow-worms; a fine 

 Study! Curious Animal, I think I shall preserve them 

 Light all the Year, and then I shall never use any other 

 Light in my Study but Glow-worms and concave Glasses. . . . 

 I myself have read a Geneva Bible by a Leg of Pork". 31 



He has also made experiments with the wonderful properties of 

 May-dew ; he is an adept in the rosicrucian mysteries ; he is a phy 

 sician who cures by general prescriptions. He delves into experi 

 mental science and pseudo-science alike and without discrimination. 

 It was evidently Shadwell's purpose to make the whole realm of 

 scientific investigation ridiculous. To this series of absurd ex- 



29 The Virtuoso, Act. V, sc. 1. 



80 Ibid. Act II, sc. 1. 



81 The Virtuoso, Act V, sc. 1. 



