Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Volume I Part 25

If thou would'st play, I'll kiss thee till I blush, Then hide that blush upon thy breast, If thou would'st sleep....

Shall rock thy aching head to rest.

"_Hunts._ My soul's wonder, I will never leave thee.

"(_The Dance.--Allemande by two Bears_.)

"_Enter_ PEVIDOR.

"_Pev._ So fond, so soon! I cannot bear to see it. What ho, within (_Devils enter._) secure him. (_Seize and bind the Huntsman._)"

The Duke or sovereign of the country, where these events are supposed to take place, arrives at the head of a military force, for the purpose of investing the haunted wood, and putting down, as he says, those "lawless renegades, who, in infernal masquerade, make a h.e.l.l around him." He is also desirous of consulting the holy hermit of the wood, and availing himself of his pious consolations and prayers--being haunted with remorse for having criminally gained possession of the crown by contriving the shipwreck of the rightful heir, and then banishing from the court his most virtuous counsellors. In addition to these causes of disquietude, he has lately lost, in a mysterious manner, his only son, who, he supposes, has fallen a victim to these Satanic outlaws, but who, on the contrary, it appears, has voluntarily become an a.s.sociate of their band, and is amusing himself, heedless of his n.o.ble father's sorrow, by making love, in the disguise of a dancing bear, to a young village coquette of the name of Mopsa. A short specimen of the manner in which this last farcical incident is managed, will show how wide even Sheridan was, at first, of that true vein of comedy, which, on searching deeper into the mine, he so soon afterwards found:--

"SCENE.--_The Inside of the Cottage_.--MOPSA, LUBIN _(her father), and_ COLIN _(her lover), discovered_.

"_Enter_ PEVIDOR, _leading the Bear, and singing._

"And he dances, dances, dances, And goes upright like a Christian swain, And he shows you pretty fancies, Nor ever tries to shake off his chain.

"_Lubin._ Servant, master. Now, Mopsa, you are happy--it is, indeed, a handsome creature. What country does your bear come from?

"_Pev._ Dis bear, please your worship, is of de race of dat bear of St. Anthony, who was the first convert he made in de woods. St. Anthony bade him never more meddle with man, and de bear observed de command to his dying day.

"_Lub._ Wonderful!

"_Pev._ Dis generation be all de same--all born widout toots.

"_Colin._ What, can't he bite? (_puts his finger to the Bear's mouth, who bites him_.) Oh Lord, no toots! why you ----

"_Pev._ Oh dat be only his gum. (_Mopsa laughs_.)

"_Col._ For shame, Mopsa--now, I say Maister Lubin, mustn't she give me a kiss to make it well?

"_Lub._ Ay, kiss her, kiss her, Colin.

"_Col._ Come, Miss. (_Mopsa runs to the Bear, who kisses her_.)"

The following scene of the Devils drinking in their subterraneous dwelling, though cleverly imagined, is such as, perhaps, no cookery of style could render palatable to an English audience.

"SCENE.--_The Devils' Cave_.

"_1st Dev._ Come, Urial, here's to our resurrection.

"_2d Dev._ It is a toast I'd scarcely pledge--by my life, I think we're happier here.

"_3d Dev._ Why, so think I--by Jove, I would despise the man, who could but wish to rise again to earth, unless we were to lord there.

What! sneaking pitiful in bondage, among vile money-sc.r.a.pers, treacherous friends, fawning flatterers--or, still worse, deceitful mistresses. Shall we who reign lords here, again lend ourselves to swell the train of tyranny and usurpation? By my old father's memory, I'd rather be the blindest mole that ever skulked in darkness, the lord of one poor hole, where he might say, 'I'm master here.'

"_2d Dev._ You are too hot--where shall concord be found, if even the devils disagree?--Come fill the gla.s.s, and add thy harmony--while we have wine to enlighten us, the sun be hanged! I never thought he gave so fine a light for my part--and then, there are such vile inconveniences-- high winds and storms, rains, &c.--oh hang it! living on the outside of the earth is like sleeping on deck, when one might, like us, have a snug berth in the cabin.

"_1st Dev._ True, true,--Helial, where is thy catch?

"In the earth's centre let me live, There, like a rabbit will I thrive, Nor care if fools should call my life infernal; While men on earth crawl lazily about, Like snails upon the surface of the nut, We are, like maggots, feasting in the kernel.

"_1st Dev._ Bravo, by this gla.s.s. Meli, what say you?

"_3d Dev._ Come, here's to my Mina--I used to toast her in the upper regions.

"_1st Dev._ Ay, we miss them here.

"_Glee._

"What's a woman good for?

Rat me, sir, if I know.

She's a savor to the gla.s.s, An excuse to make it pa.s.s.

"_1st Dev._ I fear we are like the wits above, who abuse women only because they can't get them,--and, after all, it must be owned they are a pretty kind of creatures.

"_All._ Yes, yes.

"_Catch._

"'Tis woman after all Is the blessing of this ball, 'Tis she keeps the balance of it even.

We are devils, it is true, But had we women too, Our Tartarus would turn to a Heaven!"

A scene in the Third Act, where these devils bring the prisoners whom they have captured to trial, is an overcharged imitation of the satire of Fielding, and must have been written, I think, after a perusal of that author's Satirical Romance, "A Journey from this World to the Next,"--the first half of which contains as much genuine humor and fancy as are to be found in any other production of the kind. The interrogatories of Minos in that work suggested, I suspect, the following scene:--

"_Enter a number of Devils.--Others bring in_ LUDOVICO.

"_1st Dev._ Just taken, in the wood, sir, with two more.

"_Chorus of Devils_.

"Welcome, welcome

"_Pev._ What art thou?

"_Ludov._ I went for a man in the other world.

"_Pev._ What sort of a man?

"_Ludov._ A soldier at your service.

"_Pev._ Wast thou in the battle of--?

"_Ludov._ Truly I was.