Coolly, do you call it? Why, I vow, she was fire-hot angry: may be it
was because I buss'd her.
JESSAMY
No, no, Mr. Jonathan; there must be some other cause; I never yet knew
a lady angry at being kissed.
JONATHAN
Well, if it is not the young woman's bashfulness, I vow I can't
conceive why she shouldn't like me.
JESSAMY
May be it is because you have not the Graces, Mr. Jonathan.
JONATHAN
Grace! Why, does the young woman expect I must be converted before I
court her?
JESSAMY
I mean graces of person: for instance, my lord tells us that we must
cut off our nails even at top, in small segments of circles--though you
won't understand that; in the next place, you must regulate your laugh.
JONATHAN
Maple-log seize it! don't I laugh natural?
JESSAMY
That's the very fault, Mr. Jonathan. Besides, you absolutely misplace
it. I was told by a friend of mine that you laughed outright at the
play the other night, when you ought only to have tittered.
JONATHAN
Gor! I--what does one go to see fun for if they can't laugh?
JESSAMY You may laugh; but you must laugh by rule.
JONATHAN
Swamp it--laugh by rule! Well, I should like that tarnally.
JESSAMY
Why, you know, Mr. Jonathan, that to dance, a lady to play with her
fan, or a gentleman with his cane, and all other natural motions, are
regulated by art. My master has composed an immensely pretty gamut, by
which any lady or gentleman, with a few years' close application, may
learn to laugh as gracefully as if they were born and bred to it.
JONATHAN
Mercy on my soul! A gamut for laughing--just like fa, la, sol?
JEREMY
Yes. It comprises every possible display of jocularity, from an
affettuoso smile to a piano titter, or full chorus fortissimo ha, ha,
ha! My master employs his leisure hours in marking out the plays, like
a cathedral chanting-book, that the ignorant may know where to laugh;
and that pit, box, and gallery may keep time together, and not have a
snigger in one part of the house, a broad grin in the other, and a
d---d grum look in the third. How delightful to see the audience all
smile together, then look on their books, then twist their mouths into
an agreeable simper, then altogether shake the house with a general ha,
ha, ha! loud as a full chorus of Handel's at an Abbey commemoration.
JONATHAN
Ha, ha, ha! that's dang'd cute, I swear.
JESSAMY
The gentlemen, you see, will laugh the tenor; the ladies will play the
counter-tenor; the beaux will squeak the treble; and our jolly friends
in the gallery a thorough base, ho, ho, ho!
JONATHAN
Well, can't you let me see that gamut?
JESSAMY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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