THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 69 



ever, that had been alive for many years even at the time the 

 Royal Society was formed. It had straightway become a "hum- 

 our" and found itself represented in comedy as early as 1641, in 

 Shackerley IMarmion's The Antiquary}'^ 



Veterano, the Antiquary, does not indeed perform experiments ; 

 he knows nothing of such modern scientific apparatus as the tele- 

 scope. He embodies, however, the wide-spread interest in collect- 

 ing "rarities". As has been sliown, this was an age of historical 

 research; "antiques", ancient and modern, suddenly took on an 

 enhanced value. The wits were quick to see the possibilities for 

 comedy here; and, since the new philosophers aided and abetted 

 this search for curiosities, it will be necessary to present this 

 early antiquary and his successors somewhat in detail. Veterano 

 is thus characterized by his nephew, Lionel, who in true comic 

 fashion has designs on the old man's money, — "He is grown obso- 

 lete, and 'tis time he were out of date. They say he sits all day 

 in contemplation of a statue with ne'er a nose, and doats on decays 

 with greater love than the self-loved Narcissus did on his beauty ".^^ 

 Veterano is of course made the scapegoat in the play. Having 

 been tempted to drink too much, he lets himself be dressed as a 

 fool and thus brought before the Duke. In this maudlin condi- 

 tion he declares the breeches he wears once belonged to Pompey; 

 the hat on his head was the possession of Julius Caesar; the spec- 

 tacles astride his nose were worn by Hannibal when crossing the 

 Alps. When he becomes sober enough to realize the ridiculousness 

 of his garb, he is mollified only by the assurance that the fool's 

 coat "did once belong unto Pantabolus the Roman Jester, and 

 buffoon to Augustus Caesar". False antiques, — an old manu- 

 script found in a wall, a book of mathematics — are palmed off on 

 him at a handsome price. In his "sacred room" are found "a 

 portrait of the sibyls", Venus and Cupid by Appelles, Hercules, 

 Antaeus, Pallas, Jupiter, "a silver box that Nero kept his beard 

 in ' ', and an urn containing the ashes of the Emperors. The Duke, 

 conniving with the Antiquarian's nephew, declares the collection of 

 "rarities" is to be confiscated because their value is such that no 

 private citizen should be permitted to own them. Thereupon Vet- 



" Dramatists of the Restoration, vol. I, Shackerley Marmion. 

 »Act I, BC. 1. 



