n with envy, and the alderman's lady would instantly die of
that husky cough which has so long assailed her.

_Mayor_. That she would, for certain; and I could crush her proud
husband beneath my foot. But hark, my chick: it only rests with you to
bring all this about.

_Mayoress_. Who ever heard of wives making their husbands noblemen,
duck?

_Mayor_. Who knows, my child, how many have been made so? But be not
terrified; you have driven that cursed Faustus out of his wits. (_The
Mayoress blushed_; _he continued_) Only on his account will the envoy
create me a nobleman, and Faustus is to deliver to thee the patent of
nobility in private. You understand me, I perceive. Hem! What do you
think of the plan?

_Mayoress_. I was thinking, my treasure, that if these two gentlemen
were to change their minds, we should certainly lose the patent.

_Mayor_. Curse it! so we might. Let us be quick, my mouse; such
bargains are not met with every day.

The company had in the mean while dispersed themselves in the garden; and
his worship, getting behind Faustus, whispered softly in his ear that
"his wife would esteem it an honour to receive the patent of nobility
from his hand; and he had only to step up a back staircase, which he
would show him, to an apartment where he would find her. That as for
himself, he feared nothing from a man who had shown so much honour and
conscience." He led him thereupon to the back staircase. Faustus glided
up immediately, and entered a chamber, where he found the mayoress: he
flew to her, and created the mayor a knight of the Holy Roman Empire.
She then went and delivered to her spouse the letter of nobility; and
they determined between them that it should be laid upon the supper-table
in a covered golden dish, in order, by its unexpected appearance, to make
the blow more painful to the guests. The Devil, to whom the mayor
confided the plan, highly approved of it; but Faustus murmured in the ear
of Leviathan, "I command thee to play this rascal, who has prostituted
his wife for ambition's sake, a thorough knavish trick; and to revenge
me, at the same time, on all these sheep-headed magistrates, who so long
forced me to pay my court to them."

They sat down to supper, and the glasses went quickly round; when all at
once the Devil commanded the dish, which had so long excited the
Curiosity of the surrounders, to be uncovered; then, holding up the
letter of nobility, he delivered it t