John Cheap, the Chapman's Library. Vol. 1: Comic and Humorous: The Scottish Chap Literature of Last Century, ClassifiedGraham, Dougal
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John Cheap, the Chapman's Library. Vol. 1: Comic and Humorous: The Scottish Chap Literature of Last Century, Classified
Graham, Dougal
Chapbooks, Scottish; English literature -- 18th century; Graham, Dougal, 1724-1779; Popular literature -- Scotland
After paying our money at the door, never, while I live and
breathe, will I forget, what we saw and heard that night; it just
looks to me, by a’ the world, when I think on’t, like a fairy
dream. The place was crowded to the ee, Maister Glen and me having
nearly got our ribs dung in, before we fand a seat, and them behint
were obliged to mount the back benches to get a sight. Right to the
fore hand of us was a large green curtain, some five or six ells
wide, a guid deal the waur of the wear, having seen service through
two or three simmers, and just in the front of it were eight or ten
penny candles, stuck in a board fastened to the ground, to let us
see the players’ feet like, when they came on the stage, and even
before they came on the stage, for the curtain being scrimpit in
length, we saw legs and feet moving behind the scenes very neatly,
while twa blind fiddlers, they had brought with them, played the
bonniest ye ever heard. Odd, the very music was worth a sixpence of
itsell.
The place, as I said before, was choke full, just to excess, so
that ane could scarcely breathe. Indeed I never saw ony pairt
sae crowded, not even at a tent-preaching, when Mr Roarer was
giving his discourses on the building of Solomon’s Temple. We were
obligated to have the windows opened for a mouthful of fresh air,
the barn being as close as a baker’s oven, my neighbour and me
fanning our red faces with our hats to keep us cool, and, though
all were half stewed, we had the worst o’t, the toddy we had ta’en
having fomented the blood of our bodies into a perfect fever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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