Part 31 (1/2)
_Mr. Gryll._ If you could so find them, they would be of little avail against the new irruption of Goths and Vandals, which must have been in the apprehension of Niebuhr. There are Vandals on northern thrones, anxious for nothing so much as to extinguish truth and liberty wherever they show themselves--Vandals in the bosom of society everywhere even amongst ourselves, in mult.i.tudes, with precisely the same aim, only more disguised by knaves, and less understood by dupes.
_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ And, you may add, Vandals dominating over society throughout half America, who deal with free speech and even the suspicion of free thought just as the Inquisition dealt with them, only subst.i.tuting Lynch law and the gallows for a different mockery of justice, ending in fire and f.a.ggot.
_Mr. Gryll._ I confine my view to Europe. I dread northern monarchy, and southern anarchy; and rabble brutality amongst ourselves, smothered and repressed for the present, but always ready to break out into inextinguishable flame, like hidden fire under treacherous ashes.{1}
1 ----incedis per ignes suppositos cineri doloso.
--Hor. Carm, 11. i.
_Mr. MacBorrowdale_. In the meantime, we are all pretty comfortable; and sufficient for the day is the evil thereof; which in our case, so far as I can see, happens to be precisely none.
_Miss Ilex._ Lord Curryfin seems to be of that opinion, for he has flitted away from the discussion, and is going down a country dance with _Miss Niphet._.
_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ He has chosen his time well. He takes care to be her last partner before supper, that he may hand her to the table. But do you observe how her tragic severity has pa.s.sed away? She was always pleasant to look on, but it was often like contemplating ideal beauty in an animated statue--Now she is the image of perfect happiness, and irradiates all around her.
_Miss Ilex._ How can it be otherwise? The present and the future are all brightness to her. She cannot but reflect their radiance.
Now came the supper, which, as all present had dined early, was unaffectedly welcomed and enjoyed. Lord Curryfin looked carefully to the comfort of his idol, but was unremitting in his attentions to her fair neighbours. After supper, dancing was resumed, with an apparent resolution in the greater portion of the company not to go home till morning. Mr. Gryll, Mr. MacBorrowdale, the Reverend Doctor Opimian, and two or three elders of the party, not having had their usual allowance of wine after their early dinner, remained at the supper table over a bowl of punch, which had been provided in ample quant.i.ty, and, in the intervals of dancing, circulated, amongst other refreshments, round the sides of the ballroom, where it was gratefully accepted by the gentlemen, and not absolutely disregarded even by the young ladies.
This may be conceded on occasion, without admitting Goldoni's facetious position, that a woman, masked and silent, may be known to be English by her acceptance of punch.{1}
1 Lord Runebif, in Venice, meets Rosaura, who is masked, before a _bottega di caffe_. She makes him a curtsey in the English fas.h.i.+on.
Milord. Madama, molto compita, volete caffe?
Rosaura. (Fa cenno di no. )
Milord. Cioccolata?
Rosaura. (Fa cenno di no. )
Milord. Volete ponce?
Rosaura. (Fa cenno di si. )
Milord. Oh! e Inglese.
La Vedova Scaltra, A. iii. S. 10.
He does not offer her tea, which, as a more English drink than either coffee or chocolate, might have entered into rivalry with punch: especially if, as Goldoni represented in another comedy, the English were in the habit of drinking it, not with milk, but with arrack. Lord Arthur calls on his friend Lord Bonfil in the middle of the day, and Lord Bonfil offers him tea, which is placed on the table with sugar and arrack. While they are drinking it, Lord Coubrech enters.
Bonfil. Favorite, bevete con noi.
Coubrech. Il te non si rifiuta.
Artur. E bevanda salutifera.
Bonfil. Volete rak?
Coubrech. SI, rak.