The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. IIBrown, Thomas
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The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. II
Brown, Thomas
English wit and humor -- Early works to 1800; Erotic literature -- Early works to 1800; Latin literature -- Translations into English
It is impossible to suffer it any longer! what, my diviner airs made the
sordid entertainment of sordid footmen, scoundrel fellows, and I know
not what for ragamuffins! must those seraphic lays, that have so often
been the delight of muses, the joy of princes, the rapture of the fair
sex, the treasures of the judicious, must these be thrumm’d over to
blaspheming rascals, smoaking sots, noisy boobies, and such nefarious
mechanicks! oh, prophane!---- they shall have my sonatas, that they
shall with a horse-pox to them. Can’t their _Darby_ go down but with a
tune, nor their tobacco smoak, without the harmony of a _Cremona_
fiddle? if they can’t be merry without musick, provide them a good key,
and a pair of wrought tongs. One of their own jigs is diverting enough
for their heavy capacities; whence comes it that the sons of art, and
the brothers of rosin and cat-gut, can demean themselves so poorly to
play before them? since when have the daughters of _Helicon_ frequented
ale-houses? must the sacred streams of our _Aganiope_, pay homage to the
_Darwent_, and wash tankards and glasses? sure you think _Pegasus_ a
jade, and are looking out for a chap for him: who can come up to his
price there? his beauties are too sublime for the groom, and his master
had rather have a strong horse for his coach: none of them alas can tilt
the fiery courser. What a strange medley do you make! wit, musick,
noise, nonsense, smoak, spawl, _Darby_-ale, and brandy: nay your rage
and indiscretion goes farther yet; folly and madness seem to be
contagious, and you jar among yourselves? the brothers of symphony
quarrel, and turn the banquetting-house of the _Thessalian_ ladies into
a bear-garden, those active joints that so nicely touch’d my notes, are
now barbarously levell’d at each other’s eyes; the powerful off-spring
of my harmonious conceptions, is miserably torn to pieces betwixt them;
and what would have charm’d all mankind, is dishonourably employ’d to
the lighting of pipes and cleaning of tables. If you will set up for
celebrating the orgies of the juicy god, let your instruments be all
chosen accordingly, your airs correspondent to the audience; but make me
no more the contempt and derision of your debauch’d meetings: for the
commendation of fools is more wounding than the reprimands of the
ingenious. At best, it is prostituting me to bring them into my company.
If you put not some sudden order to these ignominious proceedings, I
will dispatch an imp to sowre your ale, consume your cordials, spill
your tobacco, break your glasses, and cut all your equipage of harmony
into ten thousand millions of bits; nay I will prosecute my revenge so
far, that even in the play-house your hand shall shake, your ear shall
judge wrong, your strings crack, and every disappointment that may
render you ridiculous, shall attend you in all publick meetings
where-ever you pretend to play. So be wise and be warn’d: play to lovers
and judges of musick, draw drink to sots and neighbours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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