JOHN They cannot be introduced with propriety before midnight. Every man must commit his twenty bumpers first. We are not yet well roused. Frank Lovel, the glass stands with you. LOVEL Gentlemen, the Duke. (_Fills_.) ALL The Duke. (_They drink_.) GRAY Can any tell, why his Grace, being a Papist-- JOHN Pshaw! we will have no questions of state now. Is not this his Majesty's birth-day? GRAY What follows? JOHN That every man should sing, and be joyful, and ask no questions. SECOND GENTLEMAN Damn politics, they spoil drinking. THIRD GENTLEMAN For certain,'tis a blessed monarchy. SECOND GENTLEMAN The cursed fanatic days we have seen! The times have been when swearing was out of fashion. THIRD GENTLEMAN And drinking. FIRST GENTLEMAN And wenching. GRAY The cursed yeas and forsooths, which we have heard uttered, when a man could not rap out an innocent oath, but strait the air was thought to be infected. LOVEL 'Twas a pleasant trick of the saint, which that trim puritan _Swear-not-at-all Smooth-speech_ used, when his spouse chid him with an oath for committing with his servant-maid, to cause his house to be fumigated with burnt brandy, and ends of scripture, to disperse the devil's breath, as he termed it. ALL Ha! ha! ha! GRAY But 'twas pleasanter, when the other saint _Resist-the-devil- and-he-will-flee-from-thee Pure-man_ was overtaken in the act, to plead an illusio visûs, and maintain his sanctity upon a supposed power in the adversary to counterfeit the shapes of things. ALL Ha! ha! ha! JOHN Another round, and then let every man devise what trick he can in his fancy, for the better manifesting our loyalty this day. GRAY Shall we hang a puritan? JOHN No, that has been done already in Coleman-Street. SECOND GENTLEMAN Or fire a conventicle? JOHN That is stale too. THIRD GENTLEMAN Or burn the assembly's catechism? FOURTH GENTLEMAN Or drink the king's health, every man standing upon his head naked? JOHN (_to Lovel_) We have here some pleasant madness. THIRD GENTLEMAN Who shall pledge me in a pint bumper, while we drink to the king upon our knees? LOVEL Why on our knees, Cavalier? JOHN (_smiling_) For more devotion, to be sure. (_To a servant_.) Sirrah, fetch the gilt goblets. (_The goblets are brought. They drink the king's health, kneeling. A shout of general approbation following the first appearance of the goblets_.) JOHN We have here the unchecked virtues of the grape. How the vapours curl upwards! It were a life of gods to dwell in such an element: to see, and hear, and talk brave things. Now fie upon these casual potations. That a man's most exalted reason should depend upon the ignoble fermenting of a fruit, which sparrows pluck at as well as we! GRAY (_aside to Lovel_) Observe how he is ravished. LOVEL Vanity and gay thoughts of wine do meet in him and engender madness. (_While the rest are engaged in a wild kind of talk, John advances to the front of the stage and soliloquises_.)