_Sev._ Ay, ay, I know thou art a town favourite--thy name is not spoken of but it raises mirth. Let us see, what parts have you acted? You have acted all manner of things as well as persons. You began, I think, a flower-pot, in _Dioclesian_[135]; then you have performed another ingenious part, been a chair, I think, at another opera; you have represented all the appetites--as I take it, you do hunger best, you are a fine fellow at a cold chicken--Then you have been all sorts of trades, but you shine most in the tailor in _Epsom Wells_[136], you beat your wife most successfully. _Dot._ It was thought I laid her on as well as another, for you may remember she was a bitter one, and she provoked me some six or seven drubs beyond what the poet writ for her. _Sev._ Well, look you, Will, I design greater things for you than any poet of them all; why, you shall act a ghost in the ensuing play. _Dot._ A ghost of me! No, it can never be. _Sev._ Yes, yes, you oaf, you shall be a country ghost. You shall come to the country gentleman who lay here last night in the figure of his deceased brother, a fat justice of the peace, who left all his money in his hands--and he cheats him. Why, I don't know but you may be the luckiest ghost that ever appeared. Who knows but the old rascal may repent and pay you? If he does I'm sure you'll take it. _Dot._ Nay, nay, there's no doubt of that. What has the poor money done? I will take it, as you say. _Sev._ Look you there: when you have done this part you are a most accomplished player, you have gone through all the degrees of action. You came out of the parsley-bed, as they say to the children; you have been everything---- _Dot._ A ghost! I shall never be sober enough. What if it be a country ghost--yet every man is serious after his death. I shall certainly laugh, and discover all. _Sev._ Well, bid him they call Dicky come to me. _Dot._ Dicky, Dicky, come to me; come, Dicky, come to Mr. Severn. I am not a ghost yet; you need not be afraid. _Enter_ SPIDER. _Sev._ Mr. Spider, I have a part for you; but I am afraid you have too good an air, too much dignity in your person, to do it well. _Spi._ Oh, I warrant you they never put me to act anything in tragedy, though my genius and temper is altogether for great and sublime things. _Sev._ No doubt on't, Mr. Spider, but you must be content at present to do me a courtesy, and still keep in comedy; for you are to be a tapster. _Spi._ What! when Mr. Dotterell (as I apprehend) is to be a ghost, am I to be but a tapster? _Sev._ Why, you are to be a tapster to the inn in which he is to be a ghost, so that he's in a manner in your keeping. All the ghosts in inns are kept there by the tapster or chamberlain; now you are to be both in this inn that I imagine.