_Ep._ (_to Senecio_). ’Tis safe enough in our court, sir; if you sit from the walls. _Pro._ And fill for me, fair hostess. Wilt not thou come aboard my ship? _Ep._ Your ship, my lord? _Pro._ ’Tis against the rules of the service: but they provide not for these earthquakes. _Ep._ Ha! ha! you jest, my lord. _Pro._ We have no wars to occupy us: why should I not give shelter to the ladies, that fear to be ashore? _Ep._ That would not be me, my lord. We rode out worse shakings last year. 160 _Pro._ Come, I’ll have thee come. Should Cæsar hear of it, I can take care of myself. (_They talk._) (_Mariners to each other._) _FIRST MARINER._ He was a-acting of Niobby. _SECOND MARINER._ Niobe, who was Niobe? _THIRD MARINER._ A first-rate, went down with all hands off Andros, the year of Claudius’ death. _1st._ True, mate; that was our Niobby. But this was a Greek lady that lost all her children at a clap; bad luck with her name! _2nd._ The Emperor would have made to be her, as ’twere; was it? _1st._ ’Twas a tragedy, look: and that’s just where it is. Everybody is somebody else, and nothing’s as it should be. _2nd._ That’s right: he were dressed out like a woman. _1st._ Did ye not see him, nodding to the music, and throwing his hands about? then he gets red in the face, then he should stoop down to catch his breath, (_he acts_) then creening up again he should throw back his head, and ei! ei! (_Screams. All laugh loudly._) _Pro._ Hell and thunder! Silence there! _MARINERS_ (_to themselves_). Why, if we mayn’t laugh in the theater, nor out of it! _Pro._ (_to Officers_). Here’s a gentleman, who would go to sea to escape being shaken. Shall we take him a cruise? _FIRST OFFICER._ Frightened by the earthquake, sir? I do not blame you. _Se^{o.}_ When the gods shake your city, as a terrier does a rat. _1st Off._ But how should the sea cure you? ’Tis their common plaything. _Pro._ Indeed, sir, you would learn what heavings be. These land movements are nought. What would you say to thirty feet up and down three times a minute? with now your bows in the air and now your stern: pitched now forward, now backward, now rolled from side to side; thrust up to heaven till your brains are full of air, then sunk down till your belly squirms, inside out, outside in! 201 _Se^{o.}_ Maybe, sir: but the roof will not fall on your head: the waves do not crack your walls. Your ships being constructed mainly of wood ...