From this curst day I seek and sue no more: Sinews and swords, They're the true canvassers:-The time may come !— The neck of airless, pale imprisonment That bears its mark to the grave:-That dagger's plunged The act is the mind's suicide; for which There is no after-health-no hope-no pardon! My day is done. SECTION IX. SIR FRANCIS WRONGHEAD-MANLY .....C. Cibber. Manly. SIR FRANCIS, your servant. Man. I am come to see how the family goes on here. Sir F. Troth! all as busy as bees; I have been on the wing ever since eight o'clock this morning. Man. By your early hour, then, I suppose you have been making your court to some of the great men. Sir F. Why, faith! you have hit it, Sir -I was advised to lose no time: so I e'en went straight forward to one great man I had never seen in all my life before. Man. Right, that was doing business; but who had you got to introduce you? Sir F. man say Man. Why, nobody-1 remember I had heard a wise Sir F. Why, thus-Look ye-Please your lordship, says I, 1 am Sir Francis Wronghead, of Bumper-hall, and member of parliament for the borough of Guzzledown-Sir, your humble servant, says my lord; thof I have not the honour to know your person, I have heard you are a very honest gentleman, and I am glad your borough has made choice of so worthy a representative; and so, says he, Sir Francis, have you any service to command me? Naw, cousin, these last words, you may be sure gave me no small encouragement. And thof I know, Sir, you have no extraordinary opinion of my parts, yet I believe, you wont say I missed it naw! Man. Well, I hope I shall have no cause. Sir F. So, when I found him so courteous-My lord, says I, I did not think to ha' troubled your lordship with business upon my first visit: but, since your lordship is pleased not to stand upon ceremony,-why truly, says I, 1 think naw is as good as another time. Man. Right! there you pushed him home. Sir F. Ay, ay, I had a mind to let him see that I was none of your mealy-mouthed ones. Man. Very good. : Sir F. So, in short, my lord, says I, I have a good estate-but-a-it's a little awt at elbows and as I desire to serve my king as well as my country, I shall be very willing to accept of a place at court. Man. So this was making short work on't. Sir F. I'cod! I shot him flying, cousin some of your hawf-witted ones, naw, would ha' hummed and hawed, and dangled a month or two after him, before they durst open their mouths about a place, and, mayhap, not ha' got it at last neither. Man. Oh, I'm glad you're so sure on't— Sir F. You shall hear, cousin-Sir Francis, says my lord, pray what sort of a place may you ha' turned your thoughts upon? My lord, says I, beggars must not be choosers; but ony place, says I, about a thousand a-year, will be well enough to be doing with, till something better falls in-for I thowght it would not look well to stond haggling with him at first. Man. No, no, your business was to get footing any way. Sir F. Right! ay, there's it! ay, cousin, I see you know the world. Man. Yes, yes, one sees more of it but what said my lord to all this? every day-Well Sir F. Sir Francis, says he, I shall be glad to serve you any way that lies in my power; so he gave me a squeeze by the hand, as much as to say, give yourself no troubleI'll do your business; with that he turned himself abawt to somebody with a coloured ribbon across here, that looked in my thowghts, as if he came for a place too. Man. Ha! so, upon these hopes, you are to make your fortune! Sir F. Why, do you think there is any doubt of it, Sir? Man. Oh, no, I have not the least doubt about it-for just as you have done, I made my fortune ten years ago. Sir F. Why, I never knew you had a place, cousin. Man. Nor I neither, upon my faith, cousin. But you, perhaps, may have better fortune: for I suppose my lord has heard of what importance you were in the debate today-You have been since down at the house, I presume. Sir F. Oh, yes! I would not neglect the house for ever so much. Man. Well, and pray what have they done there? Sir F. Why, troth! I can't well tell you what they have done; but I can tell you what I did, and I think pretty well in the main, only I happened to make a little mistake at last, indeed. Man. How was that? Sir F. Why, they were all got there into a sort of puzzling debate about the good of the nation-and I were always for that, you know- -but, in short, the arguments were so long-winded o' both sides, that waunds! I did not well understand 'um hawsomever I was convinced, and so resolved to vote right, according to my conscience-so when they came to put the question, as they call it,-I don't know haw 'twas-but I doubt I cried ay! when I should ha' cried no! Man. How came that about? Sir F. Why, by a mistake, as I tell you-for there was a good-humoured sort of a gentleman, one Mr. Totherside, I think they call him, that sat next me, as soon as I had cried ay! gives me a hearty shake by the hand. Sir, says he, you are a man of honour, and a true Englishman; and I should be proud to be better acquainted with you-and so, with that he takes me by the sleeve, along with the crowd into the lobby-so I knew nowghtbut, odds-flesh; I was got o' the wrong side the post-for I were told, afterwards, I should have staid where I was. Man. And so, if you had not quite made your fortune before, you have clinched it now !- -Ah, thou head of the Wrongheads! [Aside. Sir F. Odso! here's my lady come home at last-I hope, cousin, you will be so kind as to take a family supper with us? Man. Another time, Sir Francis; but to-night I am engaged. SECTION X. ÆMILIUS-TITUS-VARUS.....John Home. Titus. Turn not away, Nor hold thy Titus of one look unworthy. [To his father. Emil. Art thou my Titus? Thou that fear'st to die, And comes a servile suppliant for life, With coward prayers to seduce the Consul? Titus. Wrong not thy son. Fast roll the numbered moments of my life, And I must hasten to redeem my fame. Emil. I fear, but know not what thy words portend. Titus. I have deceived the tyrant, and am come No messenger nor counsellor of shame. The cause of honour, of my father's honour, The cause of Rome against myself I plead, The tyrant and his menaced deaths we scorn, The cheerful victims of our sacred country. Emil. Hear this! O earth and heaven! my son, my pride! Come to thy father's arms; now, now I know My blood again. O bitter, pleasing hour! Now when I love thee best, and most admire. Titus. This to prevent I came; the force I feared And trembled lest the Consul might be won; But still falls farther from its former shore. Did I assume a dastard's vile disguise. Emil. And did I meet you with reproach and scorn! With scorn encounter my devoted son, Who came to strengthen and support his sire? Forgive me, last of the Emilian line! Pure and unstained the current of our blood Var. For if the Consul should the city yield, Inevitable death abides his son. Emil. Eternal gods! thy mystic words explain. Ne'er to survive the ignominious ransom. Restored to liberty, to death we fly, And perish mutual by each other's sword, |