Part 65 (2/2)

HAX. Your commands, sir, shall be observed with all punctuality.

TIM. Do so, brave don, lest I call you to account, and return your wages with a bastinado. But withal tell that c.o.c.kspur, your magnificent Mecaenas, that he keep at home, and distemper not our stage with the fury of his visits, lest he be encountered by my little terriers, which will affright him more than all his Spanish gipsies.

HAX. Account me, invincible sir, your most serviceable slave upon all interests. Well, I have secured my crazy bulk as well from a basting as ever mortal did; and if ever I be put on such desperate adventures again, let this weak radish body of mine become stuck round with cloves, and be hung up for a gammon of Westphalia bacon to all uses and purposes.

[_Aside._

[_Exit._

TRIL. So, you have conjured down the spirit of one furious haxter!

SCENE IV.

_Enter_ BOY.

TIM. And just so must all our tavern tarmagons be used, or they'll trepan you, as they did that old scarified friar, whose bitter experiences furnished with ability enough to discover their carriage and his feverish distemper.

BOY. Sir, all our boxes are already stored and seated with the choicest and eminentest damosellas that all Seville can afford.

Besides, sir, all our galleries and ground-stands are long ago furnished. The groundlings within the yard grow infinitely unruly.

TIM. Go to, boy; this plebeian incivility must not precipitate the course of our action. How oft have they sounded?

BOY. They're upon the last sound; but our expectance of that great Count, whose desires are winged for us, foreflow our entry.

TIM. These comic presentments may properly resemble our comet apparitions, where their first darting begets impressions of an affectionate wonder or prophetic astonishment. The world, I must confess, is a ball racketed above the line and below into every hazard: but whimseys and careers challenge such influence over the judgment of our gallant refined wits; as their fancies must be humoured, and their humours tickled, or they leave our rooms discontented. So as the comedian's garden must find lettuce for all lips, or the disrelished poet must be untrussed, and paid home with a swingeing censure. This must be my fate; for I can expect no less from these satirical madams, whose ticklish resentment of their injured honour will make them kick before they be galled. But Timon is armed _cap-a-pie_ against all such feminine a.s.sailants. They shall find my scenes more modest than some of their actions have merited; and I must tell thee one thing by the way, my ingenious Trillo--that I never found more freedom in my sprightly genius, than in the very last night, when I set my period to this living fancy. But time and conveniences of the stage enjoin me to leave thee; make choice of thy place, and expect the sequel.

[Sidenote: _Extrema nocte nullam scaenis feliciorem reperi._--Afran.]

TRIL. May your acts live to a succeeding age, And the Ladies Alimony enrich your stage.

[_Exeunt._

_After the third sound_--

PROLOGUE.

_Madams, you're welcome; though our poet show A severe brow, it is not meant to you.

Your virtues, like your features, they are such, They neither can be priz'd nor prais'd too much: Lov'd and admir'd wheres'ever you are known, Scorning to mix Platonics with your own: Sit with a pleasing silence, and take view Of forms vermillion'd in another hue.

Who make free traffic of their nuptial bed, As if they had of fancy surfeited: Who come not here to hear our comic scenes, But to complete imaginary dreams With realler conceptions. If you mind them, Their new loves stand before, old loves behind them: And from that prospect this_ impresa _read, Rich pearls show best when they are set in lead.

Such be your blameless beauties, which comply With no complexion but a native dye, Apt for a spousal hug, and, like rich ore, Admit one choice impression and no more.

Those faces only merit our esteem, Seem what they be, and be the same they seem.

For they who beauty clothe with borrow'd airs, May well disclaim them, being none of theirs.

Here shall you see Nature adorn'd with skill, And if this do not please, sure, nothing will._

<script>