Hurlothrumbo : $b or, The super-naturalJohnson, Samuel
General
Hurlothrumbo : $b or, The super-natural
Johnson, Samuel
English drama -- 18th century
_Enter_ Lomporhomock, _guarded_.
_Hurlo._ My Lord _Lomporhomock_, you’re welcome to your new Habitation.
_Lom._ ’Tis a cold Place.
_Hurlo._ Yes; you had us’d to stew your Lungs up in Claret all Night,
and the next Morning skim the Pot with a Pipe of Tobacco; but a little
cold Water must now suffice: I wish I had the scourging of thy _Dutch_
Buttocks.
_Lom._ Is there any Hopes of Liberty?
_Hurlo._ Nothing more sure than that; they’ll first make thee dance the
stripping Dance.
_Lom._ How is that?
_Hurlo._ They’ll first take this Stone Cloak off thy Shoulders; thy
Clothes off thy Back; then strip thy Body of thy Soul, and send it into
its own Country stark naked, and a good Journey to you.
_Lom._ Rather a good Dream.
_Hurlo._ This World is all a Dream, an Outside, a Dunghill pav’d with
Diamonds; but to you and your cursed Army nothing can compare,
Except I hunt the Woods, to find a Savage Boar:
No sooner he his Adversary sees,
But rouses up from Luxury and Ease;
His Heart and Eyes, was in Surprize, and both at Civil War,
And all his Passion backward flies, and flames into the Air,
Then from his Jaws did Foam descend, as tho’ he fear’d no Evil;
The Tail, the Tusks, the Bristles stood an end, as if he’d fight
the Devil;
But when with Spear, the Foe drew near, to shout for happy Day,
His Ears let fall, and drooping all, cry’d _Boh!_ and run away.
[_Exit_ Lomp.
_Enter_ Primo.
_Hurlo._ Honourable Sir, and greatest Comfort in Adversity, ’tis my
fervent Desire to know what Pleasure we shall enjoy in the _Elysian_;
for now all my Hopes are there.
_Primo._ Has your Pleasure been intellectual, in which the Body has no
share?
_Hurlo._ I have had very delightful Dreams, all Spirit and Love; but I
must needs say, the Body did share in the Pleasure, and Woman has been
all the Delight of my Life.
_Primo._ Look up, my Lord; you see yon Marble Sky, thro’ that is the Way
you are to pass; then you come to a Scarlet Flame, that Flame compounds
the Nature of Woman, and if that Part of Woman has dissolved thee here,
how shalt thou be able to march thro’ the fiery Element, on which a
Woman is made; no, it cannot be, you will descend, you’ll yearn to your
old Delights, and visit the Virgins in the Night.
_Hurlo._ That’s good.
_Primo._ Then will you haunt melancholy Tombs, and visit _Hurlothrumbo_
in his Solitude; invite him to a Banquet of Raptures: but alas, he’ll be
indispos’d, and so desire to be excus’d.
_Hurlo._ That’s blank; may I not fly amongst my old Friends, and noble
Officers? will they not honour me as a Person of Quality?
_Primo._ Every Man is honour’d according to his Colour and Brightness;
your common Souls are like dissolved Allum, pour’d in clear Water; these
are not able to converse with the Sublimes, nor Gloworm shine before the
Sun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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