_Fil_. Certain Fools _Galliard_ makes use of when he has a mind to laugh,
and whom I never thought worth a visit since I came to _Rome:_ and he’s
like to profit much by his Travels, who keeps company with all the
_English_, especially the Fops.
_Gal_. Faith, Sir, I came not abroad to return with the formality of a
Judge; and these are such antidotes against Melancholy as wou’d make thee
fond of fooling.--Our Knight’s Father is even the first Gentleman of his
House, a Fellow, who having the good fortune to be much a Fool and Knave,
had the attendant blessing of getting an Estate of some eight thousand a
year, with this Coxcomb to inherit it; who (to aggrandize the Name and
Family of the _Buffoons_) was made a Knight; but to refine throughout,
and make a compleat Fop, was sent abroad under the Government of one Mr.
_Tickletext_, his zealous Father’s Chaplain, as errant a blockhead as a
man wou’d wish to hear preach; the Father wisely foreseeing the eminent
danger that young Travellers are in of being perverted to Popery.
_Jul_. ‘Twas well considered.
_Gal_. But for the young Spark, there is no description can reach him;
’.is only to be done by himself; let it suffice, ‘tis a pert, saucy,
conceited Animal, whom you shall just now go see and admire, for he
lodges in the house with us.
_Jul_. With all my heart, I never long’d more for a new acquaintance.
_Fil_. And in all probability shall sooner desire to be rid on’t.--
_Allons_.
[_Exeunt_.
SCENE II. _Draws off to a room in_ Tickletext’s _lodging, and discovers
Mr_. Tickletext _a trimming, his Hair under a Cap, a Cloth before him:_
Petro _snaps his fingers, takes away the Bason, and goes to wiping his
face_.
Tickletext _and_ Petro.
_Pet_. Ah che Bella! Bella! I swear by these sparkling Eyes and these
soft plump dimpled Cheeks, there’s not a Signiora in all _Rome_, cou’d
she behold ‘em, were able to stand their Temptations; and for _La
Silvianetta_, my life on’t, she’s your own.
_Tick_. Teze, teze, speak softly; but, honest _Barberacho_, do I, do I
indeed look plump, and young, and fresh and--hah!
_Pet_. Ay, Sir, as the rosy Morn, young as old Time in his Infancy, and
plump as the pale-fac’d Moon.
_Tick_. He--Why, this Travelling must needs improve a Man--Why, how
admirably well-spoken your very Barbers are here--[_Aside_.]--But,
_Barberacho_, did the young Gentlewoman say she lik’d me? did she, Rogue?
did she?
_Pet_. A doated on you Signior, doated on you.
_Tick_. Why, and that’s strange now, in the Autumn of my Age too, when
Nature began to be impertinent, as a Man may say, that a young Lady
shou’d fall in love with me--[_Aside_.] Why, _Barberacho_, I do not
conceive any great matter of Sin only in visiting a Lady that loves a
man, hah.
_Pet_. Sin, Sir! ‘tis a frequent thing now-a-days in Persons of your
Complexion.
_Tick_. Especially here at _Rome_ too, where ‘tis no scandal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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