And this the burden of his song, I care for nobody, not I, If no one cares for me. House here, house! what, all gadding, all abroad; house, I say, hilli ho ho! J. Wood. [Without.] Here's a noise! here's a racket! William! Robert! Hodge! why does not somebody answer? Odds my life, I believe the fellows have lost their hearing! Enter JUSTICE WOODCOCK. Oh, Master Hawthorn! I guessed it was some such madcap-Are you there? Hawth. Am I here? Yes: and if you had been where I was three hours ago, you would find the good effects of it by this time: but you have the lazy got unwholesome London fashion, of lying a bed in a morning, and there's gout for you-Why, sir, I have not been in bed five minutes after sun-rise these thirty years, am generally up before it; and I never took a dose of physic but once in my life, and that was in compliment to a cousin of mine, an apothecary, that had just set up business. J. Wood. Well, but Master Hawthorn, let me tell you, you know nothing of the matter; for I say sleep is necessary for a man; ay, and I'll maintain it. Hawth. What, when I maintain the contrary ?— Look you, neighbour Woodcock, you are a rich man, a man of worship, a justice of peace, and all that; but learn to know the respect that is due to the sound from the infirm; and allow me that superiority a good constitution gives me over you-Health is the greatest of all possessions; and 'tis a maxim with me, that an hale cobler is a better man than a sick king. J Wood. Well, well, you are a sportsman. Hawth. And so would you too, if you would take my advice. A sportsman! why there is nothing like it: I would not exchange the satisfaction I feel while I am beating the lawns and thickets about my little farm, for all the entertainments and pageantry in Christendom. Hodge. Did your worship call, sir? J Wood. Call, sir! where have you and the rest of these rascals been? but I suppose I need not askYou must know there is a statute, a fair for hiring servants, held upon my green to-day; we have it usually at this season of the year, and it never fails to put all the folks hereabout out of their senses. Hodge. Lord, your honour, look out, and see what a nice show they make yonder; they had got pipers, and fiddlers, and were dancing as I came along, for dear life-I never saw such a mortal throng in our village in all my born days again. Hawth. Why I like this now, this is as it should be. J Wood. No, no, 'tis a very foolish piece of business; good for nothing but to promote idleness and the getting of bastards: but I shall take measures for preventing it another year, and I doubt whether I am not sufficiently authorized already; for by an act passed Anno undecimo Caroli primi, which impowers a justice of peace, who is lord of the manor Hawth. Come, come, never mind the act; let me tell you this is a very proper, a very useful meeting; I want a servant or two myself, I must go see what your market affords ;—and you shall go, and the girls, my little Lucy and the other young rogue, and we'll make a day on't as well as the rest. J. Wood. I wish, master Hawthorn, I could teach you to be a little more sedate: why won't you take pattern by me, and consider your dignity!--Odds heart, I don't wonder you are not a rich man; you laugh too much ever to be rich. Hawth. Right, neighbour Woodcock! health, goodhumour, and competence, is my motto: and if my executors have a mind, they are welcome to make it my epitaph. AIR X. The honest heart, whose thoughts are clear Nor court the harlot's smile. The greatness that would make us grave Is but an empty thing; What more than mirth would mortals have? The cheerful man's a king. [Exeunt. |