The Works of Henry Fielding Part 11

_Nood_.--[1] Sure he was sent express From Heaven to be the pillar of our state.

Though small his body be, so very small A chairman's leg is more than twice as large, Yet is his soul like any mountain big; And as a mountain once brought forth a mouse, [2] So doth this mouse contain a mighty mountain.

[Footnote 1: For Ulamar seems sent express from Heaven, To civilize this rugged Indian clime.--_Liberty a.s.serted_]

[Footnote 2: "Omne majus continet in se minus, sed minus non in se majus continere potest," says Scaliger in Thumbo. I suppose he would have cavilled at these beautiful lines in the Earl of Ess.e.x:

----Thy most inveterate soul, That looks through the foul prison of thy body.

And at those of Dryden:

The palace is without too well design'd; Conduct me in, for I will view thy mind.--_Aurengzebe_.

_Dood_. Mountain indeed! So terrible his name, [1]The giant nurses frighten children with it, And cry Tom Thumb is come, and if you are Naughty, will surely take the child away.

[Footnote 1: Mr Banks hath copied this almost verbatim:

It was enough to say, here's Ess.e.x come, And nurses still'd their children with the fright.

--_Earl of Ess.e.x_.

_Nood_. But hark! [1]these trumpets speak the king's approach.

[Footnote 1: The trumpet in a tragedy is generally as much as to say, Enter king, which makes Mr Banks, in one of his plays, call it the trumpet's formal sound.]

_Dood_. He comes most luckily for my pet.i.tion.

[_Flourish_.

SCENE II.--KING, QUEEN, GRIZZLE, NOODLE, DOODLE, FOODLE.

_King_. [1] Let nothing but a face of joy appear; The man who frowns this day shall lose his head, That he may have no face to frown withal.

Smile Dollallolla--Ha! what wrinkled sorrow [2] Hangs, sits, lies, frowns upon thy knitted brow?

Whence flow those tears fast down thy blubber'd cheeks, Like a swoln gutter, gus.h.i.+ng through the streets?

[Footnote 1: Phraortes, in the Captives, seems to have been acquainted with King Arthur:

Proclaim a festival for seven days' s.p.a.ce, Let the court s.h.i.+ne in all its pomp and l.u.s.tre, Let all our streets resound with shouts of joy; Let musick's care-dispelling voice be heard; The sumptuous banquet and the flowing goblet Shall warm the cheek and fill the heart with gladness.

Astarbe shall sit mistress of the feast.

[Footnote 2:

Repentance frowns on thy contracted brow.--_Sophonisba_.

Hung on his clouded brow, I mark'd despair.--_Ibid_.

--A sullen gloom Scowls on his brow.--_Busiris_.

_Queen_. [1]Excess of joy, my lord, I've heard folks say, Gives tears as certain as excess of grief.

[Footnote 1: Plato is of this opinion, and so is Mr Banks:

Behold these tears sprung from fresh pain and joy.

--_Earl of Ess.e.x_.

_King_. If it be so, let all men cry for joy, [1]Till my whole court be drowned with their tears; Nay, till they overflow my utmost land, And leave me nothing but the sea to rule.

[Footnote 1: These floods are very frequent in the tragick authors:

Near to some murmuring brook I'll lay me down, Whose waters, if they should too shallow flow, My tears shall swell them up till I will drown.

--_Lee's Sophonisba_.

Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate, That were the world on fire they might have drown'd The wrath of heaven, and quench'd the mighty ruin.

--_Mithridates_.

One author changes the waters of grief to those of joy:

----These tears, that sprung from tides of grief, Are now augmented to a flood of joy.--_Cyrus the Great_.

Another:

Turns all the streams of heat, and makes them flow In pity's channel.--_Royal Villain_.

One drowns himself:

----Pity like a torrent pours me down, Now I am drowning all within a deluge.--_Anna Sullen_.

Cyrus drowns the whole world:

Our swelling grief Shall melt into a deluge, and the world Shall drown in tears.--_Cyrus the Great_.

_Dood_. My liege, I a pet.i.tion have here got.

_King_. Pet.i.tion me no pet.i.tions, sir, to-day: Let other hours be set apart for business.