_Mons._ I do tinke so. I did tinke to come and be divertisee myself this morning with the sight of his reception: but I did rancounter last night wit dam company dat keep me up so late, I could not rise in de morning, _malepeste de putains!_-- _Hip._ Indeed, we wanted you here mightily, cousin. _Mons._ To elpe you to laugh: for if I adde been here, I had made such recreation wit dat coxcomb Gerrard! _Hip._ Indeed, cousin, you need not have any subject property to make one laugh, you are so pleasant yourself; and when you are but alone, you would make one burst. _Mons._ Am I so happy, cousin, then, in the _bon_ quality of making people laugh? _Hip._ Mighty happy, cousin. _Mons. De grace?_ _Hip._ Indeed. _Mons._ Nay, _sans vanité_, I observe, wheresoe'er I come, I make everybody merry; _sans vanité_--da-- _Hip._ I do believe you do. _Mons._ Nay, as I marche in de street, I can make de dull apprenty laugh and sneer. _Hip._ This fool, I see, is as apt as an ill poet to mistake the contempt and scorn of people for applause and admiration. [_Aside._ _Mons._ Ah, cousin, you see what it is to have been in France! Before I went into France, I could get nobody to laugh at me, _ma foi!_ _Hip._ No? truly, cousin, I think you deserved it before; but you are improved, indeed, by going into France. _Mons._ Ay, ay, the French education make us _propre à tout_. Beside, cousin, you must know, to play the fool is the science in France, and I didde go to the Italian academy at Paris thrice a-week to learn to play de fool of Signior Scaramouche,[60] who is the most excellent personage in the world for dat noble science. Angel is a dam English fool to him. _Hip._ Methinks, now, Angel is a very good fool. _Mons._ Naugh, naugh, Nokes is a better fool; but indeed the Englis are not fit to be fools: here are ver few good fools. 'Tis true, you have many a young cavalier who go over into France to learn to be de buffoon; but for all dat, dey return but _mauvais_ buffoon, _jarni!_ _Hip._ I'm sure, cousin, you have lost no time there. _Mons._ Auh, _le brave_ Scaramouche! _Hip._ But is it a science in France, cousin? and is there an academy for fooling? sure none go to it but players. _Mons._ Dey are comedians dat are de _maîtres_; but all the _beau monde_ go to learn, as they do here of Angel and Nokes. For if you did go abroad into company, you would find the best almost of de nation conning in all places the lessons which dey have learned of the fools dere _maîtres_, Nokes and Angel. _Hip._ Indeed! _Mons._ Yes, yes, dey are de _gens de qualité_ that practise dat science most, and the most _ambitieux_; for fools and buffoons have been always most welcome to courts, and desired in all companies. Auh, to be de fool, de buffoon, is to be de great personage. _Hip._ Fools have fortune, they say, indeed. _Mons._ So say old Senèque. _Hip._ Well, cousin, not to make you proud, you are the greatest fool in England, I am sure.