PER: You make me wonder.

SIR P: Sir, upon my knowledge.
Nay, I've observed him, at your public ordinary,
Take his advertisement from a traveller
A conceal'd statesman, in a trencher of meat;
And instantly, before the meal was done,
Convey an answer in a tooth-pick.

PER: Strange!
How could this be, sir?

SIR P: Why, the meat was cut
So like his character, and so laid, as he
Must easily read the cipher.

PER: I have heard,
He could not read, sir.

SIR P: So 'twas given out,
In policy, by those that did employ him:
But he could read, and had your languages,
And to't, as sound a noddle--

PER: I have heard, sir,
That your baboons were spies, and that they were
A kind of subtle nation near to China:

SIR P: Ay, ay, your Mamuluchi. Faith, they had
Their hand in a French plot or two; but they