Volume Iii Part 129 (1/2)

_Cler_. Stark drunk! Sirrah, if you trouble me at every Mistake of yours thus, you shall quit your Office.

_Off_. I beg your Pardon, Sir, I am a little in Drink I confess--a little blind and mad--Sir, --This must be the Devil, that's certain.

[_The_ Clerk _goes out_.

[Har. _puts up his Calash again, and pulls off his Frock and drives out_.

--Well, now to my thinking, 'tis as plain a Calash again as ever I saw in my Life, and yet I'm satisfy'd 'tis nothing but a Cart.

[_Ex_.

SCENE II. _Changes to the_ Doctor's _House. The Hall_.

_Enter_ Scaramouch _in a Chair, which is set down and open'd on all sides, and on the top represents an Apothecary's Shop, the Inside being painted with Shelves, and rows of Pots and Bottles_; Scaramouch _sitting in it dress'd in Black, with a short black Cloke, a Ruff, and little Hat_.

_Scar_. The Devil's in't, if either the Doctor, my Master, or _Mopsophil_, know me in this Disguise--And thus I may not only gain my Mistress, and out-wit _Harlequin_, but deliver the Ladies those Letters from their Lovers, which I took out of his Pocket this Morning; and who wou'd suspect an Apothecary for a Pimp?--Nor can the Jade _Mopsophil_, in Honour, refuse a Person of my Gravity, and so well set up.-- [_Pointing to his Shop_.

--Hum, the Doctor here first, this is not so well, but I'm prepar'd with Impudence for all Encounters.

_Enter the_ Doctor. Scaramouch _salutes him gravely_.

--Most Reverend Doctor _Baliardo_. [_Bows_.

_Doct_. Seignior-- [_Bows_.

_Scar_. I might through great Pusillanimity, blush to give you this Anxiety, did not I opine you were as gracious as communicative and eminent; and though you have no Cognisance of me, your humble Servant,--yet I have of you,--you being so gravely fam'd for your admirable Skill both in Galenical and Paracelsian _Phaenomena's_, and other approv'd Felicities in Vulnerary Emeticks, and purgative Experiences.

_Doct_. Seignior,--your Opinion honours me--rare Man this.

_Scar_. And though I am at present busied in writing--those few Observations I have acc.u.mulated in my Peregrinations, Sir; yet the Ambition I aspir'd to, of being an ocular and aurial Witness of your Singularity, made me trespa.s.s on your sublimer Affairs.

_Doct_. Seignior--

_Scar_.--Besides a violent Inclination, Sir, of being initiated into the Denomination of your learned Family, by the Conjugal Circ.u.mference of a Matrimonial Tye, with that singularly accomplish'd Person--Madam, the Governante of your Hostel--

_Doct_. Hum--A Sweet-heart for _Mopsophil_! [_Aside_.

_Scar_. And if I may obtain your Condescension to my Hymenaeal Propositions, I doubt not my Operation with the Fair One.

_Doct_. Seignior, she's much honour'd in the Overture, and my Abilities shall not be wanting to fix the Concord.--But have you been a Traveller, Sir?

_Scar_. Without Circ.u.mlocutions, Sir, I have seen all the Regions beneath the Sun and Moon.

_Doct_. Moon, Sir! You never travell'd thither, Sir?

_Scar_. Not in _Propria Persona, Seignior_, but by Speculation, I have, and made most considerable Remarks on that incomparable _Terra Firma_, of which I have the compleatest Map in Christendom--and which _Gonzales_ himself omitted in his _Cosmographia_ of the _Lunar Mundus_.

_Doct_. A Map of the _Lunar Mundus_, Sir! may I crave the Honour of seeing it?

_Scar_. You shall, Sir, together with a Map of _Terra Incognita_; a great Rarity, indeed, Sir.