e
ebony trade were known as Admiral Guinea?
ARETHUSA. Captain John Gaunt is my father.
PEW (_dropping the blind man's whine_). Lord, think of that now! They
told me this was where he lived, and so it is. And here's old Pew, old
David Pew, as was the Admiral's own bo'sun, colloguing in his old
commander's parlour, with his old commander's gal (_seizes ARETHUSA_).
Ah, and a bouncer you are, and no mistake.
ARETHUSA. Let me go! how dare you?
PEW. Lord love you, don't you struggle, now, don't you. (_She escapes
into front R. corner, where he keeps her imprisoned._) Ah, well, we'll
get you again, my lovely woman. What a arm you've got--great god of
love--and a face like a peach! I'm a judge, I am. (_She tries to
escape; he stops her._) No, you don't; O, I can hear a flea jump! (But
it's here where I miss my deadlights. Poor old Pew; him as the ladies
always would have for their fancy man and take no denial; here you are
with your commander's daughter close aboard, and you can't so much as
guess the colour of her lovely eyes. [_Singing_]--
"Be they black like ebony,
Or be they blue like to the sky."
Black like the Admiral's? or blue like his poor dear wife's? Ah, I was
fond of that there woman, I was; the Admiral was jealous of me.)
Arethusa, my dear,--my heart, what a 'and and arm you _have_ got; I'll
dream o' that 'and and arm, I will!--but as I was a-saying, does the
Admiral ever in a manner of speaking refer to his old bo'sun David Pew?
him as he fell out with about the black woman at Lagos, and almost
slashed the shoulder off of him one morning before breakfast?
ARETHUSA. You leave this house.
PEW. Hey? (_he closes and seizes her again_). Don't you fight, my lovely
one: now don't make old blind Pew forget his manners before a female.
What! you will? Stop that, or I'll have the arm right out of your body.
(_He gives her arm a wrench._)
ARETHUSA. O! help, help!
PEW. Stash your patter, damn you. (_ARETHUSA gives in._) Ah, I thought
it: Pew's way, Pew's way. Now look you here, my lovely woman. If you
sling in another word that isn't in answer to my questions, I'll pull
your j'ints out one by one. Where's the Commander?
ARETHUSA. I have said: he is abroad.
PEW. When's he coming aboard again?
ARETHUSA. At any moment.
PEW. Does he keep his strength?
ARETHUSA. You'll see when he returns. (_He wrenches her arm again._) Ah!
PEW. Is he still on piety?
ARETHUSA. O, he is a Christian man!
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