The Works of Henry Fielding Part 17

We've given strict orders not to have you stinted.

[Footnote 1: Lee hath improved this metaphor:

Dost thou not view joy peeping from my eyes, The cas.e.m.e.nts open'd wide to gaze on thee?

So Rome's glad citizens to windows rise, When they some young triumpher fain would see.

--_Gloriana_.

_Hunc_. Alas! my lord, I value not myself That once I eat two fowls and half a pig; [1]Small is that praise! but oh! a maid may want What she can neither eat nor drink.

[Footnote 1: Almahide hath the same contempt for these appet.i.tes:

To eat and drink can no perfection be.

--_Conquest of Granada_.

The earl of Ess.e.x is of a different opinion, and seems to place the chief happiness of a general therein:

Were but commanders half so well rewarded, Then they might eat.--_Banks's Earl of Ess.e.x_.

But, if we may believe one who knows more than either, the devil himself, we shall find eating to be an affair of more moment than is generally imagined:

G.o.ds are immortal only by their food.

--_Lucifer; in the State of Innocence_.

_King_. What's that?

_Hunc_. O[1] spare my blushes; but I mean a husband.

[Footnote 1: "This expression is enough of itself," says Mr D., "utterly to destroy the character of Huncamunca!" Yet we find a woman of no abandoned character in Dryden adventuring farther, and thus excusing herself:

To speak our wishes first, forbid it pride, Forbid it modesty; true, they forbid it, But Nature does not. When we are athirst, Or hungry, will imperious Nature stay, Nor eat, nor drink, before 'tis bid fall on?--_Cleomenes_.

Ca.s.sandra speaks before she is asked: Huncamunca afterwards.

Ca.s.sandra speaks her wishes to her lover: Huncamunca only to her father.

_King_. If that be all, I have provided one, A husband great in arms, whose warlike sword Streams with the yellow blood of slaughter'd giants, Whose name in Terra Incognita is known, Whose valour, wisdom, virtue make a noise Great as the kettle-drums of twenty armies.

_Hunc_. Whom does my royal father mean?

_King_. Tom Thumb.

_Hunc_. Is it possible?

_King_. Ha! the window-blinds are gone; [1]A country-dance of joy is in your face.

Your eyes spit fire, your cheeks grow red as beef.

[Footnote 1: Her eyes resistless magick bear; Angels, I see, and G.o.ds, are dancing there --_Lee's Sophonisba_.

_Hunc_. O, there's a magick-musick in that sound, Enough to turn me into beef indeed!

Yes, I will own, since licensed by your word, I'll own Tom Thumb the cause of all my grief.

For him I've sigh'd, I've wept, I've gnaw'd my sheets.

_King_. Oh! thou shalt gnaw thy tender sheets no more.

A husband thou shalt have to mumble now.

_Hunc_. Oh! happy sound! henceforth let no one tell That Huncamunca shall lead apes in h.e.l.l.

Oh! I am overjoy'd!

_King_. I see thou art.

[1] Joy lightens in thy eyes, and thunders from thy brows; Transports, like lightning, dart along thy soul, As small-shot through a hedge.

[Footnote 1: Mr Dennis, in that excellent tragedy called Liberty a.s.serted, which is thought to have given so great a stroke to the late French king, hath frequent imitations of this beautiful speech of king Arthur:

Conquest light'ning in his eyes, and thund'ring in his arm, Joy lighten'd in her eyes.

Joys like lightning dart along my soul.

_Hunc_. Oh! say not small.

_King_. This happy news shall on our tongue ride post, Ourself we bear the happy news to Thumb.

Yet think not, daughter, that your powerful charms Must still detain the hero from his arms; Various his duty, various his delight; Now in his turn to kiss, and now to fight, And now to kiss again. So, mighty[1] Jove, When with excessive thund'ring tired above, Comes down to earth, and takes a bit--and then Flies to his trade of thund'ring back again.

[Footnote 1: Jove, with excessive thund'ring tired above, Comes down for ease, enjoys a nymph, and then Mounts dreadful, and to thund'ring goes again.--_Gloriana_.

SCENE V.--GRIZZLE, HUNCAMUNCA.

[1]_Griz_. Oh! Huncamunca, Huncamunca, oh!

Thy pouting b.r.e.a.s.t.s, like kettle-drums of bra.s.s, Beat everlasting loud alarms of joy; As bright as bra.s.s they are, and oh, as hard.

Oh! Huncamunca, Huncamunca, oh!

[Footnote 1: This beautiful line, which ought, says Mr W----, to be written in gold, is imitated in the New Sophonisba:

Oh! Sophonisba; Sophonisba, oh!

Oh! Narva; Narva, oh!

The author of a song called Duke upon Duke hath improved it:

Alas! O Nick! O Nick, alas!

Where, by the help of a little false spelling, you have two meanings in the repeated words.