Part 11 (1/2)

AIR, ”Sure such a day.”--TOM THUMB.

LEAR.

Dance, Regan! dance, with Cordelia and Goneril - Down the middle, up again, poussette, and cross; Stop, Cordelia! do not tread upon her heel, Regan feeds on coltsfoot, and kicks like a horse.

See, she twists her mutton fists like Molyneux or Beelzebub, And t'other's clack, who pats her back, is louder far than h.e.l.l's hubbub.

They tweak my nose, and round it goes--I fear they'll break the ridge of it, Or leave it all just like Vauxhall, with only half the bridge of it.

{76}

OMNES.

Round let us bound, for this is Punch's holyday, Glory to Tomfoolery, huzza! huzza!

LADY MACBETH.

_I_ kill'd the king; my husband is a heavy dunce; He left the grooms unma.s.sacred, then ma.s.sacred the stud.

One loves long gloves; for mittens, like king's evidence, Let truth with the fingers out, and won't hide blood.

MACBETH.

When spoonys on two knees implore the aid of sorcery, To suit their wicked purposes they quickly put the laws awry; With Adam I in wife may vie, for none could tell the use of her, Except to cheapen golden pippins hawk'd about by Lucifer.

OMNES.

Round let us bound, for this is Punch's holyday, Glory to Tomfoolery, huzza! huzza!

OTh.e.l.lO.

Wife, come to life, forgive what your black lover did, Spit the feathers from your mouth, and munch roast beef; Iago he may go and be toss'd in the coverlet That smother'd you, because you p.a.w.n'd my handkerchief.

GEORGE BARNWELL.

Why, neger, so eager about your rib immaculate?

Milwood shows for hanging us they've got an ugly knack o' late; If on beauty 'stead of duty but one peeper bent he sees, Satan waits with Dolly baits to hook in us apprentices.

OMNES.

Round let us bound, for this is Punch's holyday, Glory to Tomfoolery, huzza! huzza!

HAMLET.

I'm Hamlet in camlet; my ap and peri-helia The moon can fix, which lunatics makes sharp or flat.

I stuck by ill luck, enamour'd of Ophelia, Old Polony like a sausage, and exclaim'd, ”Rat, rat!”

GHOST.

Let Gertrude sup the poison'd cup--no more I'll be an actor in Such sorry food, but drink home-brew'd of Whitbread's manufacturing.