_Nood_.--[1] Sure he was sent express From Heaven to be the pillar of our state.
Though small his body be, so very small A chairman"s leg is more than twice as large, Yet is his soul like any mountain big; And as a mountain once brought forth a mouse, [2] So doth this mouse contain a mighty mountain.
[Footnote 1: For Ulamar seems sent express from Heaven, To civilize this rugged Indian clime.--_Liberty a.s.serted_]
[Footnote 2: "Omne majus continet in se minus, sed minus non in se majus continere potest," says Scaliger in Thumbo. I suppose he would have cavilled at these beautiful lines in the Earl of Ess.e.x:
----Thy most inveterate soul, That looks through the foul prison of thy body.
And at those of Dryden:
The palace is without too well design"d; Conduct me in, for I will view thy mind.--_Aurengzebe_.
_Dood_. Mountain indeed! So terrible his name, [1]The giant nurses frighten children with it, And cry Tom Thumb is come, and if you are Naughty, will surely take the child away.
[Footnote 1: Mr Banks hath copied this almost verbatim:
It was enough to say, here"s Ess.e.x come, And nurses still"d their children with the fright.
--_Earl of Ess.e.x_.
_Nood_. But hark! [1]these trumpets speak the king"s approach.
[Footnote 1: The trumpet in a tragedy is generally as much as to say, Enter king, which makes Mr Banks, in one of his plays, call it the trumpet"s formal sound.]
_Dood_. He comes most luckily for my pet.i.tion.
[_Flourish_.
SCENE II.--KING, QUEEN, GRIZZLE, NOODLE, DOODLE, FOODLE.
_King_. [1] Let nothing but a face of joy appear; The man who frowns this day shall lose his head, That he may have no face to frown withal.
Smile Dollallolla--Ha! what wrinkled sorrow [2] Hangs, sits, lies, frowns upon thy knitted brow?
Whence flow those tears fast down thy blubber"d cheeks, Like a swoln gutter, gushing through the streets?
[Footnote 1: Phraortes, in the Captives, seems to have been acquainted with King Arthur:
Proclaim a festival for seven days" s.p.a.ce, Let the court shine in all its pomp and l.u.s.tre, Let all our streets resound with shouts of joy; Let musick"s care-dispelling voice be heard; The sumptuous banquet and the flowing goblet Shall warm the cheek and fill the heart with gladness.
Astarbe shall sit mistress of the feast.
[Footnote 2:
Repentance frowns on thy contracted brow.--_Sophonisba_.
Hung on his clouded brow, I mark"d despair.--_Ibid_.
--A sullen gloom Scowls on his brow.--_Busiris_.
_Queen_. [1]Excess of joy, my lord, I"ve heard folks say, Gives tears as certain as excess of grief.
[Footnote 1: Plato is of this opinion, and so is Mr Banks:
Behold these tears sprung from fresh pain and joy.
--_Earl of Ess.e.x_.
_King_. If it be so, let all men cry for joy, [1]Till my whole court be drowned with their tears; Nay, till they overflow my utmost land, And leave me nothing but the sea to rule.
[Footnote 1: These floods are very frequent in the tragick authors:
Near to some murmuring brook I"ll lay me down, Whose waters, if they should too shallow flow, My tears shall swell them up till I will drown.
--_Lee"s Sophonisba_.
Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate, That were the world on fire they might have drown"d The wrath of heaven, and quench"d the mighty ruin.
--_Mithridates_.
One author changes the waters of grief to those of joy:
----These tears, that sprung from tides of grief, Are now augmented to a flood of joy.--_Cyrus the Great_.
Another:
Turns all the streams of heat, and makes them flow In pity"s channel.--_Royal Villain_.
One drowns himself:
----Pity like a torrent pours me down, Now I am drowning all within a deluge.--_Anna Sullen_.
Cyrus drowns the whole world:
Our swelling grief Shall melt into a deluge, and the world Shall drown in tears.--_Cyrus the Great_.
_Dood_. My liege, I a pet.i.tion have here got.
_King_. Pet.i.tion me no pet.i.tions, sir, to-day: Let other hours be set apart for business.