Oh! yes, Mr. Jonathan; here it is. [Takes out a book.] Oh! no, this
is only a titter with its variations. Ah, here it is. [Takes out
another.] Now, you must know, Mr. Jonathan, this is a piece written by
Ben Johnson, which I have set to my master's gamut. The places where
you must smile, look grave, or laugh outright, are marked below the
line. Now look over me. "There was a certain man"--now you must smile.
JONATHAN
Well, read it again; I warrant I'll mind my eye.
JESSAMY
"There was a certain man, who had a sad scolding wife,"--now you must
laugh.
JONATHAN
Tarnation! That's no laughing matter though.
JESSAMY
"And she lay sick a-dying";--now you must titter.
JONATHAN
What, snigger when the good woman's a-dying! Gor, I--
JESSAMY
Yes, the notes say you must--"and she asked her husband leave to make a
will,"--now you must begin to look grave;--"and her husband said"--
JONATHAN
Ay, what did her husband say? Something dang'd cute, I reckon.
JESSAMY
"And her husband said, you have had your will all your life-time, and
would you have it after you are dead, too?"
JONATHAN
Ho, ho, ho! There the old man was even with her; he was up to the
notch--ha, ha, ha!
JESSAMY
But, Mr. Jonathan, you must not laugh so. Why you ought to have
tittered piano, and you have laughed fortissimo. Look here; you see
these marks, A, B, C, and so on; these are the references to the other
part of the book. Let us turn to it, and you will see the directions
how to manage the muscles. This [turns over] was note D you blundered
at.--You must purse the mouth into a smile, then titter, discovering
the lower part of the three front upper teeth.
JONATHAN
How? read it again.
JESSAMY
"There was a certain man"--very well!--"who had a sad scolding
wife,"--why don't you laugh?
JONATHAN
Now, that scolding wife sticks in my gizzard so pluckily that I can't
laugh for the blood and nowns of me. Let me look grave here, and I'll
laugh your belly full, where the old creature's a-dying.
JESSAMY
"And she asked her husband"--[Bell rings.] My master's bell! he's
returned, I fear.--Here, Mr. Jonathan, take this gamut; and I make no
doubt but with a few years' close application, you may be able to smile
gracefully." [Exeunt severally.
SCENE II.
CHARLOTTE'S Apartment.
Enter MANLY.
MANLY
WHAT, no one at home? How unfortunate to meet the only lady my heart
was ever moved by, to find her engaged to another, and confessing her
partiality for me! Yet engaged to a man who, by her intimation, and
his libertine conversation with me, I fear, does not merit her. Aye!
there's the sting; for, were I assured that Maria was happy, my heart
is not so selfish but that it would dilate in knowing it, even though
it were with another. But to know she is unhappy!--I must drive these
thoughts from me. Charlotte has some books; and this is what I believe
she calls her little library. [Enters a closet.
Enter DIMPLE leading LETITIA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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