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hath great power,

Grimalkin prate.»>-At noon I drink for thirst, at night | Do I affect the favours of the court. for fellowship, but, above all, I love to usher in the I would be great, for greatness bashful morning under the auspices of a freshening And that's the fruit I reach at.stoup of liquor. (Sings) « Ale in a Saxon rumkin then Great spirits ask great play-room. Who could sit, makes valour burgeon in tall men.»-But, I crave par- With these prophetic swellings in my breast, don. I fear I keep that gentleman from serious That prick and goad me on, and never cease, thoughts. There be those that wait for me in the cellar. To the fortunes something tells me I was born to? Who, with such monitors within to stir him, Would sit him down, with lazy arms across, A unit, a thing without a name in the state, A something to be govern'd, not to govern, A fishing, hawking, hunting, country gentleman?

Who are they?

WOODVIL.

DRUNKEN MAN.

Gentlemen, my good friends, Cleveland, Delaval, and Truby. I know by this time they are all clamorous for [Exit, singing.

me.

WOODVIL.

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All hot, and young, court-seekers, like himself,
Most skilful to devour a patrimony;
And these have eat into my old estates,
And these have drain'd thy father's cellars dry:
But these so common faults of youth not named,
(Things which themselves outgrow, left to themselves),
I know no quality that stains his honor.

[Exit LovEL. My life upon his faith and noble mind,
Son John could never play thy father false.

Now universal England getteth drunk
For joy that Charles, her monarch, is restored:
And she, that sometime wore a saintly mask,
The stale-grown vizor from her face doth pluck,
And weareth now a suit of morris bells,

SIMON.

I never thought but nobly of my brother,
Touching his honor and fidelity.
Still I could wish him charier of his person,
And of his time more frugal, than to spend

With which she jingling goes through all her towns and In riotous living, graceless society,

villages.

The baffled factions in their houses sculk:
The common-wealthsman, and state machinist,
The cropt fanatic, and fifth-monarchy-man,
Who heareth of these visionaries now?

They and their dreams have ended. Fools do sing,
Where good men yield God thanks; but politic spirits,
Who live by observation, note these changes
Of the popular mind, and thereby serve their ends.
Then why not I? What's Charles to me, or Oliver,
But as my own advancement hangs on one of them?
I to myself am chief.--I know,

Some shallow mouths cry out, that I am smit
With the gauds and show of state, the point of place,
And trick of precedence, the ducks, and nods,
Which weak minds pay to rank. "T is not to sit
In place of worship at the royal masques,
Their pastimes, plays, and Whitehall banquetings,
For none of these,

Nor yet to be seen whispering with some great one,

And mirth unpalatable, hours better employ'd
(With those persuasive graces nature lent him)
In fervent pleadings for a father's life.

SIR WALTER.

I would not owe my life to a jealous court,
Whose shallow policy I know it is,
On some reluctant acts of prudent mercy
(Not voluntary, but extorted by the times,
In the first tremblings of new-fixed power,
And recollection smarting from old wounds),
On these to build a spurious popularity.
Unknowing what free grace or mercy mean,
They fear to punish, therefore do they pardon.
For this cause have I oft forbid my son,
By letters, overtures, open solicitings,
Or closet-tamperings, by gold or fee,
To beg or bargain with the court for my life.

SIMON.

And John has ta'en you, father, at your word,
True to the letter of his paternal charge!

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Only the dangerous errors, fond conceits,
Which make the business of that greater world,
Must have no place in ours:

As, namely, riches, honors, birth, place, courtesy,
Good fame and bad, rumours and popular noises,
Books, creeds, opinions, prejudices national,
Humours particular,

Soul-killing lies, and truths that work small good,
Feuds, factions, enmities, relationships,
Loves, hatreds, sympathies, antipathies,
And all the intricate stuff quarrels are made of.

(MARGARET enters in boy's apparel.)

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You, that are read

SIR WALTER.

So deeply in our story, what are you?

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Ye have handsome English faces, She fears to ask it,

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You to the sweet society of your equals,

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Not many; some few, as thus:-
To see the sun to bed, and to arise,

Like some hot amourist with glowing eyes,
Bursting the lazy bands of sleep that bound him,
With all his fires and travelling glories round him.
Sometimes the moon on soft night clouds to rest,
Like beauty nestling in a young man's breast,
And all the winking stars, her handmaids, keep
Admiring silence, while those lovers sleep.
Sometimes outstretcht, in very idleness,
Nought doing, saying little, thinking less,
To view the leaves, thin dancers upon air,

Where the world's fashion smiles on youth and beauty. Go eddying round; and small birds, how they fare,

MARGARET.

When mother Autumn fills their beaks with corn,

Where young men's flatteries cozen young maids' Filch'd from the careless Amalthea's horn;

beauty,

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And how the woods berries and worms provide
Without their pains, when earth has nought beside
To answer their small wants.

To view the graceful deer come tripping by,
Then stop, and gaze, then turn, they know not why,
Like bashful younkers in society.

To mark the structure of a plant or tree,

And all fair things of earth, how fair they be.

MARGARET (smiling).

And afterwards them paint in simile.

SIR WALTER.

Mistress Margaret will have need of some refreshment. Please you, we have some poor viands within.

MARGARET.

Indeed I stand in need of them.

SIR WALTER.

Under the shade of a thick-spreading tree,

Upon the grass, no better carpeting,
We'll eat our noon-tide meal; and, dinner done,
One of us shall repair to Nottingham,

To seek some safe night-lodging in the town,
Where you may sleep, while here with us you dwell,
By day, in the forest, expecting better times,
And gentler habitations, noble Margaret.

SIMON.

Allons, young Frenchman

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For more devotion, to be sure.—(To a servant). Sirrah, fetch the gilt goblets.

[The goblets are brought. They drink the king's health, kneeling. A shout of general approbation following the first appearance of the go

blets.

JOHN.

We have here the unchecked virtues of the grape. How the vapours curl upwards! It were a life of gods to dwell in such an element: to see, and hear, and talk brave things. Now fie upon these casual potations. That a man's most exalted reason should depend upon the ignoble fermenting of a fruit, which sparrows pluck at as well as we!

GRAY (aside to Lovel). Observe how he is ravished.

LOVEL.

Vanity and gay thoughts of wine do meet in him and engender madness.

[While the rest are engaged in a wild kind of talk, John advances to the front of the stage and soliloquizes.

JOHN.

My spirits turn to fire, they mount so fast.
My joys are turbulent, my hopes show like fruition.
These high and gusty relishes of life, sure,
Have no allayings of mortality in them.

I am too hot now and o'ercapable,

For the tedious processes, and creeping wisdom,

Of human acts, and enterprises of a man.

I want some seasonings of adversity,
Some strokes of the old mortifier Calamity,

To take these swellings down, divines call vanity.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Mr Woodvil, Mr Woodvil.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

Where is Woodvil?

GRAY.

What be they?

LOVEL.

The work of London artists, which our host has provided in honour of this day.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

'Sdeath, who would part with his wine for a rocket?

LOVEL.

Why truly, gentlemen, as our kind host has been at the pains to provide this spectacle, we can do no less than be present at it. It will not take up much time. Every man may return fresh and thirsting to his liquor.

THIRD GENTLEMAN.

There is reason in what he says.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

Charge on then, bottle in hand. There 's husbandry in that.

[They go out, singing. Only Lovel remains, who observes Woodvil.

JOHN (still talking to himself). This Lovel here's of a tough honesty, Would put the rack to the proof. He is not of that sort, Which haunt my house, snorting the liquors, And when their wisdoms are afloat with wine, Spend vows as fast as vapours, which go off Even with the fumes, their fathers. He is one, Whose sober morning actions

Shame not his o'ernight's promises;

Talks little, flatters less, and makes no promises;
Why this is he, whom the dark-wisdom'd fate
Might trust her counsels of predestination with,
And the world be no loser.

Why should I fear this man?

Where is the company gone?

LOVEL.

[Seeing LOVEL.

To see the fire-works, where you will be expected to follow. But I perceive you are better engaged.

JOHN.

I have been meditating this half-hour
On all the properties of a brave friendship,
The mysteries that are in it, the noble uses,
Its limits withal, and its nice boundaries.
Exempli gratia, how far a man

May lawfully forswear himself for his friend;
What quantity of lies, some of them brave ones,
He may lawfully incur in a friend's behalf;
What oaths, blood-crimes, hereditary quarrels,
Night brawls, fierce words, and duels in the morning,
He need not stick at, to maintain his friend's honor, or
his cause.

LOVEL.

Let him alone. I have seen him in these lunes before. I think many men would die for their friends. His abstractions must not taint the good mirth.

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