ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

Und. Promp. [To the Orchestra.] Gentlemen, will you play a few bars of something, just to-

Puff. Ay, that's right; for as we have the scenes and dresses, egad, we'll go to't, as if it was the first night's performance ;but you need not mind stopping between the acts.-[Exit UNDER PROMPTER.-Orchestra play-then the bell rings.] So! stand clear, gentlemen. Now you know there will be a cry of Down! down!--Hats off!-Silence !-Then up curtain, and let us see what our painters have done for us.

SCENE II.-Tilbury Fort.

"Two SENTINELS discovered asleep."

Dang. Tilbury Fort!-very fine indeed!
Puff. Now, what do you think I open with?
Sneer. Faith, I can't guess-

[Curtain rises.

Puff. A clock.-Hark! [Clock strikes.] I open with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience: it also marks the time, which is four o'clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere.

Dang. But pray, are the sentinels to be asleep?

Puff. Fast as watchmen.

Sneer. Isn't that odd though at such an alarming crisis? Puff. To be sure it is,-but smaller things must give way to a striking scene at the opening; that's a rule. And the case is, that two great men are coming to this very spot to begin the piece now, it is not to be supposed they would open their lips, if these fellows were watching them; so, egad, I must either have sent them off their posts, or set them asleep.

Sneer. Oh, that accounts for it. But tell us, who are these coming?

Puff. These are they-Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Christopher Hatton. You'll know Sir Christopher by his turning out his toes-famous, you know, for his dancing. I like to preserve all the little traits of character.-Now attend.

"Enter SIR WALTER RALEIGH and SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON. "Sir Christ. True, gallant Raleigh !"

Dang. What, they had been talking before?

Puff. Oh yes; all the way as they came along.-[To the actors.] I beg pardon, gentlemen, but these are particular friends of mine, whose remarks may be of great service to us. -[To SNEER and DANGLE.] Don't mind interrupting them whenever anything strikes you.

"Sir Christ. True, gallant Raleigh!

But oh, thou champion of thy country's fame,
There is a question which I yet must ask :
A question which I never ask'd before—
What mean these mighty armaments?

This general muster ? and this throng of chiefs?

Sneer. Pray, Mr. Puff, how came Sir Christopher Hatton never to ask that question before?

Puff. What, before the play began?-how the plague could he? Dang. That's true, i'faith!

Puff. But you will hear what he thinks of the matter.

"Sir Christ. Alas! my noble friend, when I behold

Yon tented plains in martial symmetry

Array'd; when I count o'er yon glittering lines
Of crested warriors, where the proud steeds neigh,
And valour-breathing trumpet's shrill appeal,
Responsive vibrate on my listening ear;
When virgin majesty herself I view,
Like her protecting Pallas, veil'd in steel,
With graceful confidence exhort to arms!
When, briefly, all I hear or see bears stamp
Of martial vigilance and stern defence,
I cannot but surmise-forgive, my friend,
If the conjecture's rash-I cannot but

Surmise the state some danger apprehends !"

Sneer. A very cautious conjecture that.

Puff. Yes, that's his character; not to give an opinion but on secure grounds.-Now then.

"Sir Walt. O most accomplish'd Christopher!"

Puff. He calls him by his christian name, to show that they are on the most familiar terms.

"Sir Walt. O most accomplish'd Christopher! I find

Thy staunch sagacity still tracks the future,
In the fresh print of the o'ertaken past.'

Puff. Figurative!

"Sir Walt. Thy fears are just.

Sir Christ. But where? whence? when? and what

[ocr errors]

The danger is,―methinks I fain would learn.

Sir Walt. You know, my friend, scarce two revolving suns,
And three revolving moons, have closed their course
Since haughty Philip, in despite of peace,

Sir Christ.

Sir Walt.

Sir Christ.
Sir Wali.

With hostile hand hath struck at England's trade.
I know it well.

Philip, you know, is proud Iberia's king!
He is.

His subjects in base bigotry
And Catholic oppression held ;-while we,
You know, the Protestant persuasion hold.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Sir Christ.
Sir Walt.

Sir Christ.

Sir Walt.

You know, beside, his boasted armament,
The famed Armada, by the Pope baptized,
With purpose to invade these realms-

Our last advices so report.

While the Iberian admiral's chief hope,
His darling son—

Is sailed,

Ferolo Whiskerandos hight-
The same-by chance a prisoner hath been ta'en,
And in this fort of Tilbury-

Is now

Confined 'tis true, and oft from yon tall turret's top
I've mark'd the youthful Spaniard's haughty mien-
Unconquer'd, though in chains.
You also know”.

Dang. Mr. Puff, as he knows all this, why does Sir Walter go on telling him?

Puff. But the audience are not supposed to know anything of the matter, are they?

Sneer. True; but I think you manage ill for there certainly appears no reason why Sir Walter should be so communicative.

Puff. 'Fore Gad, now, that is one of the most ungrateful observations I ever heard !-for the less inducement he has to tell all this, the more, I think, you ought to be obliged to him; for I am sure you'd know nothing of the matter without it. Dang. That's very true, upon my word.

Puff. But you will find he was not going on.

"Sir Christ. Enough, enough-'tis plain-and I no more Am in amazement lost !"

Puff. Here, now you see, Sir Christopher did not in fact ask any one question for his own information.

Sneer. No, indeed: his has been a most disinterested curiosity!

Dang. Really, I find, we are very much obliged to them.

both.

Puff. To be sure you are.

Now then for the commander-inchief, the Earl of Leicester, who, you know, was no favourite but of the queen's.-We left off-in amazement lost!

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Am in amazement lost.

But, see where noble Leicester comes! supreme
In honours and command.

And yet, methinks,

At such a time, so perilous, so fear'd,

That staff might well become an abler grasp.

And so, by Heaven! think I; but soft, he's here !"

Puff. Ay, they envy him!

Sneer. But who are these with him?

Puff. Oh! very valiant knights: one is the governor of the fort, the other the master of the horse. And now, I think, you shall hear some better language: I was obliged to be plain and intelligible in the first scene, because there was so much matter of fact in it; but now, i'faith, you have trope, figure, and metaphor, as plenty as noun-substantives.

"Enter EARL of Leicester, GOVERNOR, MASTER OF THE HORSE, KNIGHTS, &c.

Leic

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

How's this, my friends! is't thus your new-fledged zeal

And plumèd valour moulds in roosted sloth?

Why dimly glimmers that heroic flame,

Whose reddening blaze, by patriot spirit fed,
Should be the beacon of a kindling realm ?
Can the quick current of a patriot heart
Thus stagnate in a cold and weedy converse,
Or freeze in tideless inactivity?

No! rather let the fountain of your valour
Spring through each stream of enterprise,
Each petty channel of conducive daring,
Till the full torrent of your foaming wrath
O'erwhelm the flats of sunk hostility!"

Puff. There it is-followed up!

'Sir Walt. No more !-the freshening breath of thy rebuke
Hath fill'd the swelling canvas of our souls!
And thus, though fate should cut the cable of
[All take hands.
Our topmost hopes, in friendship's closing line
We'll grapple with despair, and if we fall,
We'll fall in glory's wake!

There spoke old England's genius!

Leic.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Then, are we all resolved?

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Puff. O yes!-where they do agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful!

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Sneer. What the plague, is he going to pray?

Puff. Yes; hush-in great emergencies, there is nothing like a prayer.

"Leic.

. . O mighty Mars !"

Dang. But why should he pray to Mars?

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

"All.

...

[Kneels.

[Kneels.

[Kneels.

[Kneels.

[Kneels."

Puff. Now pray altogether.

Behold thy votaries submissive beg,

That thou wilt deign to grant them all they ask;
Assist them to accomplish all their ends,
And sanctify whatever means they use

To gain them!"

Sneer. A very orthodox quintetto !

Puff. Vastly well, gentlemen!—Is that well managed or not? Have you such a prayer as that on the stage?

Sneer. Not exactly.

Leic. [To PUFF.] But, sir, you haven't settled how we are to get off here.

Puff. You could not go off kneeling, could you?

Sir Walt. [To PUFF.] O no, sir; impossible!

Puff. It would have a good effect, i'faith, if you could exeunt praying!-Yes, and would vary the established mode of springing off with a glance at the pit.

Sneer. Oh, never mind, so as you get them off!--I'll answer for it, the audience won't care how.

Puff. Well, then, repeat the last line standing, and go off the old way.

"All.

And sanctify whatever means we use

[ocr errors]

To gain them.

Dang. Bravo! a fine exit.

Puff. Stay a moment!

[Exeunt.'

Sneer. Well, really, Mr. Puff

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Dang. Hey!-why, I thought those fellows had been asleep? Puff. Only a pretence; there's the art of it: they were spies of Lord Burleigh's.

Sneer. But isn't it odd they never were taken notice of, not even by the commander-in-chief?

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »