XLVIII Puff at the rehearsal PUFF. The scene remains, does it? PUFF. You are to leave one chair, you know. But it is always awkward in a tragedy to have you fellows coming in in your playhouse liveries to remove things. I wish that could be managed better. So now for my mysterious yeoman. Enter a BEEFEATER. BEEFEATER. Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee. SNEER. Haven't I heard that line before? DANGLE. Yes, I think there is something like it in Othello. PUFF. Gad! now you put me in mind on 't, I believe there is; but that 's of no consequence— all that can be said is, that two people happened to hit on the same thought--and Shakespeare made use of it first, that's all. SNEER. Very true. PUFF. Now, sir, your soliloquy-but speak more to the pit, if you please—the soliloquy always to the pit-that's a rule. BEEF. Though hopeless love finds comfort in despair, It never can endure a rival's bliss! But soft-I am observed. (Exit BEEFEATER.) DANG. That's a very short soliloquy. PUFF. Yes, but it would have been a great deal longer if he had not been observed. SNEER. A most sentimental Beefeater, that, Mr. Puff. PUFF. Hark'ee, I would not have you be too sure that he is a Beefeater. SNEER. What, a hero in disguise? Here PUFF. No matter-I only give you a hint. But now for my principal character. he comes-Lord Burleigh in person! Pray, gentlemen, step this way-softly-I only hope the Lord High Treasurer is perfect-if he is but perfect! Enter BURLEIGH, goes slowly to a chair and sits. SNEER. Mr. Puff! PUFF. Hush! vastly well, sir! vastly well! a most interesting gravity! DANG. What, isn't he to speak at all? PUFF. Egad, I thought you'd ask me that— yes, it is a very likely thing that a minister in his situation, with the whole affairs of the nation on his head, should have time to talk !-but hush! or you '11 put him out. SNEER. Put him out! how the plague can that be, if he 's not going to say anything? PUFF. There's a reason! why his part is to think, and how the plague do you imagine he can think if you keep talking? DANG. That's very true, upon my word! BURLEIGH comes forward, shakes his head, and exit. SNEER. He is very perfect, indeed. Now pray, what did he mean by that? PUFF. You don't take it? SNEER. No; I don't, upon my soul. PUFF. Why, by that shake of the head, he gave you to understand that even though they had more justice in their cause and wisdom in their measures, yet, if there was not a greater spirit shown on the part of the people, the country would at last fall a sacrifice to the hostile ambition of the Spanish monarchy. SNEER. The devil!-did he mean all that by shaking his head? PUFF. Every word of it. If he shook his head as I taught him. 66 XLIX Mr. Crummles in a vein of tender "I'VE got another novelty, Johnson," said Mr. Crummles one morning in great glee. 66 What's that?" rejoined Nicholas. “The pony?" 66 No, no, we never come to the pony till everything else has failed," said Mr. Crummles. "I don't think we shall come to the pony at all, this season. No, no, not the pony." "A boy phenomenon, perhaps?" suggested Nicholas. |