FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   604   605   606   607   608   609   610   611   612   613   614   615   616   617   618   619   620   621   622   623   624   625   626   627   628  
629   630   631   632   633   634   635   636   637   638   639   640   641   642   643   644   645   646   647   648   649   650   651   652   653   >>   >|  
n the pillory. MERRY and a crowd of lookers-on. KEMPTHORN (sings). The world is full of care, Much like unto a bubble; Women and care, and care and women, And women and care and trouble. Good Master Merry, may I say confound? MERRY. Ay, that you may. KEMPTHORN. Well, then, with your permission, Confound the Pillory! MERRY. That's the very thing The joiner said who made the Shrewsbury stocks. He said, Confound the stocks, because they put him Into his own. He was the first man in them. KEMPTHORN. For swearing, was it? MERRY. No, it was for charging; He charged the town too much; and so the town, To make things square, set him in his own stocks, And fined him five pounds sterling,--just enough To settle his own bill. KEMPTHORN. And served him right; But, Master Merry, is it not eight bells? MERRY. Not quite. KEMPTHORN. For, do you see? I'm getting tired Of being perched aloft here in this cro' nest Like the first mate of a whaler, or a Middy Mast-headed, looking out for land! Sail ho! Here comes a heavy-laden merchant-man With the lee clews eased off and running free Before the wind. A solid man of Boston. A comfortable man, with dividends, And the first salmon, and the first green peas. A gentleman passes. He does not even turn his head to look. He's gone without a word. Here comes another, A different kind of craft on a taut bow-line,-- Deacon Giles Firmin the apothecary, A pious and a ponderous citizen, Looking as rubicund and round and splendid As the great bottle in his own shop window! DEACON FIRMIN passes. And here's my host of the Three Mariners, My creditor and trusty taverner, My corporal in the Great Artillery! He's not a man to pass me without speaking. COLE looks away and passes. Don't yaw so; keep your luff, old hypocrite! Respectable, ah yes, respectable, You, with your seat in the new Meeting-house, Your cow-right on the Common! But who's this? I did not know the Mary Ann was in! And yet this is my old friend, Captain Goldsmith, As sure as I stand in the bilboes here. Why, Ralph, my boy! Enter RALPH GOLDSMITH. GOLDSMITH. Why, Simon, is it you? Set in the bilboes? KEMPTHORN. Chock-a-block, you see, And without chafing-gear. GOLDSMITH. And what's it for? KEMPTHORN. Ask that starbowline with the boat-hook
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   604   605   606   607   608   609   610   611   612   613   614   615   616   617   618   619   620   621   622   623   624   625   626   627   628  
629   630   631   632   633   634   635   636   637   638   639   640   641   642   643   644   645   646   647   648   649   650   651   652   653   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

KEMPTHORN

 

GOLDSMITH

 
stocks
 

passes

 

Master

 
Confound
 

bilboes

 

corporal

 
DEACON
 

FIRMIN


taverner

 

window

 

creditor

 

bottle

 
trusty
 

Mariners

 

ponderous

 

Deacon

 

Looking

 

rubicund


splendid

 

citizen

 

Firmin

 

apothecary

 

Goldsmith

 

Captain

 

friend

 

starbowline

 

chafing

 
Common

speaking

 

hypocrite

 

Respectable

 
Meeting
 
respectable
 
Artillery
 

swearing

 

charging

 
charged
 

Shrewsbury


pounds

 
sterling
 
things
 
square
 

joiner

 

bubble

 
pillory
 

lookers

 

trouble

 

permission