Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718)Defoe, Daniel
History
Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718)
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories; Great Britain -- History, Military -- Fiction; Soldiers -- Fiction
Bailiff, but we have a Sport that comes very near it, which we entertain
the Country with twice a Year, _viz_. at _Easter_ and _Whitsunday_, and
the Parts are now fresh in the Actors Memory. This will do says the
_Provincial_, but see all Things are ready to give the Young Prince the
Diversion immediately after Supper, because he durst not sit up very
late. As for the Prologue, wherein you are to Address your selves to his
Highness, I will furnish you with the Method and Form in which it must
be spoke by the School-master of the Town. Now all this was carried on
in Privacy from us, tell we were call'd out one by one, all excepting
the Chagrin Gentleman, who lay dozing in an two arm'd Chair, to whom we
were instructed to pay a singular Respect to during Supper, to blind the
Matter. And now the whole Village was drawn about the Inn, to have a
Sight of the young Prince. After Supper all the Tables and Chairs were
remov'd; the Bailiff enters with his Staff, and according to Information
given him, Kneels down and pays his Respects to the suppos'd Prince;
After him comes in the Actors in their proper Dresses; and then the
School-master, who open'd the Farce with a Comical Address made by the
_Provincial_ Officer, which in every Line hinted at some Passage of the
Melancholy Gentleman's Life, but with such an Ambiguous turn, and yet
home to the Man, that it was an excellent Piece of Diversion, to observe
the variety of Motions in the Princes Countenance, who thought all to be
Witchcraft and Inchantment. The Force being over, and we left to our
selves, the _Provincial_ returning up Stairs from conducting his Troop
to the Door, Well, Gentlemen, says he, how do you relish your Diversion?
_Et vous Monsieur le Prince_, if this will not bring you to your self,
you shall be Dethron'd at _Lyons_, and put upon a Level with the rest of
the Company; for he that pretends to put on a starch'd reserv'd Air upon
a Journey, make himself a Prince by his Distance, and so must either
lose his Dignity by being good Humour'd, or pay the Reckoning like a
Prince, and that we have Decreed shall be your Choice the Remainder of
the Journey. The _Provincial_ gain'd his End, for either this comical
Accident was the Occasion, or the Term of the Gentleman's Melancholy was
expired; for afterwards he put on a gay Temper, and proved tollerable
Company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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