ttle of beer [_Draws it out_]. Thus, alas, I make shift to
wear out this fasting; I drive away the time. But there go
searchers about to seek if any man breaks the king's command. O,
here they be; in with your victuals, Adam. [_Puts them back into
his slops. Enter two_ Searchers.]

_First Searcher._ How duly the men of Nineveh keep the
proclamation! how are they armed to repentance! We have searched
through the whole city, and have not as yet found one that breaks
the fast.

_Second Searcher._ The sign of the more grace.--But stay! here sits
one, methinks, at his prayers; let us see who it is.

_First S._ 'Tis Adam, the smith's man.--How now, Adam!

_Adam._ Trouble me not; 'Thou shalt take no manner of food, but
fast and pray.'

_First S._ How devoutly he sits at his orisons! But stay, methinks
I feel a smell of some meat or bread about him.

_Second S._ So thinks me too.--You, sirrah, what victuals have you
about you?

_Adam._ Victuals! O horrible blasphemy! Hinder me not of my prayer,
nor drive me not into a choler. Victuals! why, heardest thou not
the sentence, 'Thou shalt take no food, but fast and pray'?

_Second S._ Truth, so it should be; but methinks I smell meat about
thee.

_Adam._ About me, my friends! these words are actions in the case.
About me! No, no! hang those gluttons that cannot fast and pray.

_First S._ Well, for all your words, we must search you.

_Adam._ Search me! Take heed what you do: my hose are my castles;
'tis burglary if you break ope a slop; no officer must lift up an
iron hatch; take heed, my slops are iron. [_They search_ Adam.]

_Second S._ O villain!--See how he hath gotten victuals, bread,
beef, and beer, where the king commanded upon pain of death none
should eat for so many days!

_Orlando Furioso_, a dramatized version of an incident in Ariosto's
poem, need not delay us long. It is the story of Orlando's madness (due
to jealousy) and the sufferings of innocent, patient Angelica. In this
heroine we have the first of several pictures from the author's hand of
a gentle, constant, ill-used maiden, but she is very little seen. Most
of the play is taken up with warfare, secret enmities, and Orlando's
madness. The evil genius, Sacripant, may be the first, as Iago is the
greatest, of that school of villains whose treache