The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Religious Pilgrimage.
• ΙΧΘϒΟΦΑΓΙΑ.
• The Funeral.
• Echo.
• ΠΟΛϒΔΑΙΤΙΑ, Or, the Unequal Feast.
• Of Things and Words.
• Charon.
• The Assembly of Grammarians.
• ΑΓΑΜΟΣ ΓΑΜΟΣ, Or, the Unequal Marriage.
• The Imposture.
• Cyclops, Or the Gospel-carrier.
• ΑΠΡοΣΔΙοΝϒΣΑ the Impertinents, Or Crosspurposes.
• The False Knight: Or, ΙΠΠΕϒΣ ΑΝΙΠΠΟΣ·
• ΑΣΤΡΑΓΑΛΙΣΜΟΣ.
• ΓϒΝΑΙΚΟΣϒΝΕΔΡΙΟΝ. the Assembly Or Parliament of Women.
• Diluculum: Or, the Early Rising.
• ΝΗΦΑΛΙοΝ ΣϒΜΠοΣΙοΝ. the Sober Feast.
• The Notable Art.
• The Sermon, Or Merdardus.
• The Lover of Glory.
• Opulentia Sordida, Or the Wealthy Miser.
• The Seraphick Funeral.
• Amicitia, Or Friendship.
• Problema.
• The Epicurean.
• The Conflict Between Thalia and Barbarism.
• Des. Erasmus of Rotterdam to the Reader,: Concerning the Profitableness of Colloquies.
• Erasmus of Rotterdam, of the Method of Study, to Christianus of Lubeck.

The IMPOSTURE.

The Argument.

PHILIP and LIVINUS.

PH.

I wish you Health, Livinus.

Liv.

I will be well, if that will please you; but do you be upon your Guard, for I design to catch you, if you don’t watch me very narrowly.

Ph.

An open Enemy is not much to be feared. But come on, deceive me if you can.

Liv.

I have deceiv’d you already, and you have not perceiv’d it; but take Care of the second Time.

Ph.

I believe I have to do with a Master of Leger-de-main; I can’t find you have impos’d upon me at all.

Liv.

Well then, be very attentive this Time; except you have a Mind to be deceiv’d, as you have been twice already.

Ph.

I am prepar’d for you; begin.

Liv.

What you bid me do, is done already.

Ph.

What is acted, or what is done? I perceive nothing of Deceit.

Liv.

Well, tho’ I have given you Warning so many Times already, however mind this Time.

Ph.

This is a new Sort of Conjuration; you tell me you have impos’d upon me, and I perceive nothing of Art in all this, altho’ I watch very narrowly your Eyes, your Hands, and your Tongue. But come, t’other Touch; begin again.

I have begun again and again, over and over so many Times, and you can’t see the Trap that’s laid for you.

Ph.

Wherein do you lay a Trap for me?

Liv.

This Tongue, I say, of mine entraps you, and you neither perceive it with your Ears, nor see it with your Eyes. However, now let your Eyes and Ears be both attentive.

Ph.

I can’t be more attentive, if my Life lay at Stake; but however, try to trick me once more.

Liv.

Why, I have trick’d you again already, and you perceive nothing of the Artifice.

Ph.

You make me mad: Prithee tell me, what Kind of Hocus-pocus is this?

Liv.

Why all this While I have been speaking to you in Verse, and am at this Time.

Ph.

I thought of nothing less than of that.

Liv.

At first I answer’d you in two Trimeter Iambics; then in a Trochaic Tetrameter Catalectic; after that in nothing but Cretics; after that in a Phaolaecian Hendecasyllable; then again in mere Coriambics; then in plain Anapæstes; then again in three Sapphics; by-and-by in a Sotadic, and last of all in a Trochaic Tetrameter.

Ph.

Good God! I should have guess’d a hundred Things before I should have guess’d that. If I live, I’ll serve you the like Trick.

Liv.

Do, if you can.

Ph.

I have pay’d you in your own Coin twice, and you did not perceive the Trick.

Liv.

What, in this short Time?

Ph.

I threaten’d you in an Iambic Tetrameter Catalectic; after that I added five Cretics.

Liv.

Why then I find it is according to the old Proverb, Set a Thief to catch a Thief.

Ph.

Very true; but I pray this for both of us, that neither of us may have a more injurious Cheat put upon us.