酷兔英语

章节正文

BEN. Mess, that's true; marry! I had forgot. Dick's dead, as you

say. Well, and how? I have a many questions to ask you. Well, you
ben't married again, father, be you?

SIR SAMP. No; I intend you shall marry, Ben; I would not marry for
thy sake.

BEN. Nay, what does that signify? An' you marry again--why then,
I'll go to sea again, so there's one for t'other, an' that be all.

Pray don't let me be your hindrance--e'en marry a God's name, an the
wind sit that way. As for my part, mayhap I have no mind to marry.

FRAIL. That would be pity--such a handsome young gentleman.
BEN. Handsome! he, he, he! nay, forsooth, an you be for joking,

I'll joke with you, for I love my jest, an' the ship were sinking,
as we sayn at sea. But I'll tell you why I don't much stand towards

matrimony. I love to roam about from port to port, and from land to
land; I could never abide to be port-bound, as we call it. Now, a

man that is married has, as it were, d'ye see, his feet in the
bilboes, and mayhap mayn't get them out again when he would.

SIR SAMP. Ben's a wag.
BEN. A man that is married, d'ye see, is no more like another man

than a galley-slave is like one of us free sailors; he is chained to
an oar all his life, and mayhap forced to tug a leaky vessel into

the bargain.
SIR SAMP. A very wag--Ben's a very wag; only a little rough, he

wants a little polishing.
MRS FRAIL. Not at all; I like his humour mightily: it's plain and

honest--I should like such a humour in a husband extremely.
BEN. Say'n you so, forsooth? Marry, and I should like such a

handsome gentlewoman for a bed-fellow hugely. How say you,
mistress, would you like going to sea? Mess, you're a tight vessel,

an well rigged, an you were but as well manned.
MRS FRAIL. I should not doubt that if you were master of me.

BEN. But I'll tell you one thing, an you come to sea in a high
wind, or that lady--you may'nt carry so much sail o' your head--top

and top gallant, by the mess.
MRS FRAIL. No, why so?

BEN. Why, an you do, you may run the risk to be overset, and then
you'll carry your keels above water, he, he, he!

ANG. I swear, Mr Benjamin is the veriest wag in nature--an absolute
sea-wit.

SIR SAMP. Nay, Ben has parts, but as I told you before, they want a
little polishing. You must not take anything ill, madam.

BEN. No, I hope the gentlewoman is not angry; I mean all in good
part, for if I give a jest, I'll take a jest, and so forsooth you

may be as free with me.
ANG. I thank you, sir, I am not at all offended. But methinks, Sir

Sampson, you should leave him alone with his mistress. Mr Tattle,
we must not hinder lovers.

TATT. Well, Miss, I have your promise. [Aside to Miss.]
SIR SAMP. Body o' me, madam, you say true. Look you, Ben, this is

your mistress. Come, Miss, you must not be shame-faced; we'll leave
you together.

MISS. I can't abide to be left alone; mayn't my cousin stay with
me?

SIR SAMP. No, no. Come, let's away.
BEN. Look you, father, mayhap the young woman mayn't take a liking

to me.
SIR SAMP. I warrant thee, boy: come, come, we'll be gone; I'll

venture that.
SCENE VII.

BEN, and MISS PRUE.
BEN. Come mistress, will you please to sit down? for an you stand a

stern a that'n, we shall never grapple together. Come, I'll haul a
chair; there, an you please to sit, I'll sit by you.

MISS. You need not sit so near one, if you have anything to say, I
can hear you farther off, I an't deaf.

BEN. Why that's true, as you say, nor I an't dumb, I can be heard
as far as another,--I'll heave off, to please you. [Sits farther

off.] An we were a leagueasunder, I'd undertake to hold discourse
with you, an 'twere not a main high wind indeed, and full in my

teeth. Look you, forsooth, I am, as it were, bound for the land of
matrimony; 'tis a voyage, d'ye see, that was none of my seeking. I

was commanded by father, and if you like of it, mayhap I may steer
into your harbour. How say you, mistress? The short of the thing

is, that if you like me, and I like you, we may chance to swing in a
hammock together.

MISS. I don't know what to say to you, nor I don't care to speak
with you at all.

BEN. No? I'm sorry for that. But pray why are you so scornful?
MISS. As long as one must not speak one's mind, one had better not

speak at all, I think, and truly I won't tell a lie for the matter.
BEN. Nay, you say true in that, it's but a folly to lie: for to

speak one thing, and to think just the contrary way is, as it were,
to look one way, and to row another. Now, for my part, d'ye see,

I'm for carrying things above board, I'm not for keeping anything
under hatches,--so that if you ben't as willing as I, say so a God's

name: there's no harm done; mayhap you may be shame-faced; some
maidens thof they love a man well enough, yet they don't care to

tell'n so to's face. If that's the case, why, silence gives
consent.

MISS. But I'm sure it is not so, for I'll speak sooner than you
should believe that; and I'll speak truth, though one should always

tell a lie to a man; and I don't care, let my father do what he
will; I'm too big to be whipt, so I'll tell you plainly, I don't

like you, nor love you at all, nor never will, that's more: so
there's your answer for you; and don't trouble me no more, you ugly

thing.
BEN. Look you, young woman, you may learn to give good words,

however. I spoke you fair, d'ye see, and civil. As for your love
or your liking, I don't value it of a rope's end; and mayhap I like

you as little as you do me: what I said was in obedience to father.
Gad, I fear a whipping no more than you do. But I tell you one

thing, if you should give such language at sea, you'd have a cat o'
nine tails laid cross your shoulders. Flesh! who are you? You

heard t'other handsome young woman speak civilly to me of her own
accord. Whatever you think of yourself, gad, I don't think you are

any more to compare to her than a can of small-beer to a bowl of
punch.

MISS. Well, and there's a handsome gentleman, and a fine gentleman,
and a sweet gentleman, that was here that loves me, and I love him;

and if he sees you speak to me any more, he'll thrash your jacket
for you, he will, you great sea-calf.

BEN. What, do you mean that fair-weather spark that was here just
now? Will he thrash my jacket? Let'n,--let'n. But an he comes

near me, mayhap I may giv'n a salt eel for's supper, for all that.
What does father mean to leave me alone as soon as I come home with

such a dirty dowdy? Sea-calf? I an't calf enough to lick your
chalked face, you cheese-curd you: --marry thee? Oons, I'll marry a

Lapland witch as soon, and live upon selling contrary winds and
wrecked vessels.

MISS. I won't be called names, nor I won't be abused thus, so I
won't. If I were a man [cries]--you durst not talk at his rate.

No, you durst not, you stinking tar-barrel.
SCENE VIII.

[To them] MRS FORESIGHT and MRS FRAIL.
MRS FORE. They have quarrelled, just as we could wish.

BEN. Tar-barrel? Let your sweetheart there call me so, if he'll
take your part, your Tom Essence, and I'll say something to him;

gad, I'll lace his musk-doublet for him, I'll make him stink: he
shall smell more like a weasel than a civet-cat, afore I ha' done

with 'en.
MRS FORE. Bless me, what's the matter, Miss? What, does she cry?

Mr Benjamin, what have you done to her?
BEN. Let her cry: the more she cries the less she'll--she has been

gathering foul weather in her mouth, and now it rains out at her
eyes.

MRS FORE. Come, Miss, come along with me, and tell me, poor child.
MRS FRAIL. Lord, what shall we do? There's my brother Foresight

and Sir Sampson coming. Sister, do you take Miss down into the
parlour, and I'll carry Mr Benjamin into my chamber, for they must

not know that they are fallen out. Come, sir, will you venture
yourself with me? [Looking kindly on him.]

BEN. Venture, mess, and that I will, though 'twere to sea in a
storm.

SCENE IX.
SIR SAMPSON and FORESIGHT.

SIR SAMP. I left 'em together here; what, are they gone? Ben's a
brisk boy: he has got her into a corner; father's own son, faith,

he'll touzle her, and mouzle her. The rogue's sharp set, coming
from sea; if he should not stay for saving grace, old Foresight, but

fall to without the help of a parson, ha? Odd, if he should I could
not be angry with him; 'twould be but like me, a chip of the old

block. Ha! thou'rt melancholic, old Prognostication; as melancholic
as if thou hadst spilt the salt, or pared thy nails on a Sunday.

Come, cheer up, look about thee: look up, old stargazer. Now is he
poring upon the ground for a crooked pin, or an old horse-nail, with

the head towards him.
FORE. Sir Sampson, we'll have the wedding to-morrow morning.

SIR SAMP. With all my heart.
FORE. At ten a'clock, punctually at ten.

SIR SAMP. To a minute, to a second; thou shalt set thy watch, and
the bridegroom shall observe its motions; they shall be married to a

minute, go to bed to a minute; and when the alarm strikes, they
shall keep time like the figures of St. Dunstan's clock, and

consummatum est shall ring all over the parish.
SCENE X.

[To them] SCANDAL.
SCAN. Sir Sampson, sad news.

FORE. Bless us!
SIR SAMP. Why, what's the matter?

SCAN. Can't you guess at what ought to afflict you and him, and all
of us, more than anything else?

SIR SAMP. Body o' me, I don't know any universalgrievance, but a
new tax, or the loss of the Canary fleet. Unless popery should be

landed in the West, or the French fleet were at anchor at Blackwall.
SCAN. No. Undoubtedly, Mr Foresight knew all this, and might have

prevented it.
FORE. 'Tis no earthquake!

SCAN. No, not yet; nor whirlwind. But we don't know what it may
come to. But it has had a consequence already that touches us all.

SIR SAMP. Why, body o' me, out with't.
SCAN. Something has appeared to your son Valentine. He's gone to

bed upon't, and very ill. He speaks little, yet he says he has a
world to say. Asks for his father and the wise Foresight; talks of

Raymond Lully, and the ghost of Lilly. He has secrets to impart, I
suppose, to you two. I can get nothing out of him but sighs. He

desires he may see you in the morning, but would not be disturbed
to-night, because he has some business to do in a dream.

SIR SAMP. Hoity toity, what have I to do with his dreams or his
divination? Body o' me, this is a trick to defer signing the

conveyance. I warrant the devil will tell him in a dream that he
must not part with his estate. But I'll bring him a parson to tell

him that the devil's a liar: --or if that won't do, I'll bring a
lawyer that shall out-lie the devil. And so I'll try whether my

blackguard or his shall get the better of the day.
SCENE XI.

SCANDAL, FORESIGHT.
SCAN. Alas, Mr Foresight, I'm afraid all is not right. You are a

wise man, and a conscientious man, a searcher into obscurity and
futurity, and if you commit an error, it is with a great deal of

consideration, and discretion, and caution -
FORE. Ah, good Mr Scandal -



文章标签:名著  

章节正文