SIR AND. Faith, I'll home to-morrow, Sir Toby your niece will not be seen; or if she be, it's four to one she 'll none of me: the count himself here hard by woos her.

SIR TO. She 'll none o' the count: she'll not match above her degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit; I have heard her swear 't. Tut, there's a life in 't, man.

SIR AND. I'll stay a month longer. I am a fellow o' the strangest mind i' the world; I delight in masques and revels sometimes altogether.

SIR To. Art thou good at these kickshawses, knight?

SIR AND. As any man in Illyria, whatsoever he be, under the degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare with an old man.

SIR TO. What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight?

SIR AND. Faith, I can cut a caper.

SIR TO. And I can cut the mutton to 't.

SIR AND. And I think I have the back-trick simply as strong as any man in Illyria.

SIR TO. Wherefore are these things hid? wherefore have these gifts a curtain before 'em? are they like to take dust, like Mistress Mall's picture? why dost thou not go to church in a galliard and come home in a coranto? My very walk should be a jig; I would not so much as make water but in a sink-a-pace. What dost thou mean? Is it a world to hide virtues in? I did think, by the excellent constitution of thy leg, it was formed under the star of a galliard.

SIR AND. Ay, 'tis strong, and it does indifferent

well in a flame-coloured stock. Shall we set about some revels?

SIR TO. What shall we do else? were we not born under Taurus?

SIR AND. Taurus! That 's sides and heart.

SIR To. No, sir; it is legs and thighs. Let me see thee caper: ha! higher: ha, ha! excellent !

madam, haw has your ladyship been able to subsist thus long, under the fatigue of a country life?

AMANDA. My life has been very far from that, my lord, it has been a very quiet one.

LORD FOP. Why that's the fatigue I speak of,

madam :

For 'tis impossible to be quiet, without thinking : Now thinking is to me the greatest fatigue in the world.

AMAN. Does not your lordship love reading then? LORD FOP. Oh, passionately, madam.—But I never think of what I read.

BERINTHIA. Why, can your lordship read without thinking?

LORD FOP. O Lard-can your ladyship pray without devotion-madam ?

AMAN. Well, I must own I think books the best entertainment in the world.

LORD FOP. I am so much of your ladyship's mind, madam, that I have a private gallery, where I walk sometimes, is furnished with nothing but

books and looking-glasses. Madam, I have gilded them, and rang'd 'em, so prettily, before Gad, it is the most entertaining thing in the world to walk and look upon 'em.

AMAN. Nay, I love a neat library too; but 'tis, I think, the inside of a book shou'd recommend it

most to us.

LORD FOP. That, I must confess, I am not altogether so fand of. Far to my mind, the inside of a book, is to entertain one's self with the forc'd product of another man's brain. Naw I think a man of quality and breeding may be much diverted with the natural sprauts of his own. But to say the truth, madam, let a man love reading never so well, when once he comes to know this tawn, he finds so many better ways of passing away the fourand-twenty hours, that 'twere ten thousand pities he shou'd consume his time in that. Far example, madam, my life; my life, madam, is a perpetual stream of pleasure, that glides thro' such a variety of entertainments, I believe the wisest of our ancestors never had the least conception of

any

of

'em. I rise, madam, about ten o'clock. I don't rise sooner, because 'tis the worst thing in the world for the complection; nat that I pretend to be a beau; but a man must endeavour to look wholesome, lest he makes so nauseous a figure in the side-bax, the ladies shou'd be compell'd to turn their eyes upon the play. So at ten o'clock, I say, I rise. Naw, if I find it a good day, I resalve to take a turn in the park, and see the fine women; so huddle on my clothes, and get dress'd by one. If it be nasty weather, I take a turn in the chocolate-house;

where, as you walk, madam, you have the prettiest prospect in the world; you have looking-glasses all round you. But I 'm afraid I tire the company. BER. Not at all. Pray go on.

LORD FOP. Why then, ladies, from thence I go to dinner at Lacket's, and there you are so nicely and delicately serv'd, that, stap my vitals, they can compose you a dish, no bigger than a saucer, shall come to fifty shillings; between eating my dinner, and washing my mouth, ladies, I spend my time, till I go to the play; where, till nine o'clock, I entertain myself with looking upon the company; and usually dispose of one hour more in leading them aut. So there's twelve of the four-and

twenty pretty well over. The other twelve, madam, are disposed of in two articles: In the first four I toast myself drunk, and in t'other eight I sleep myself sober again. Thus, ladies, you see my life is an eternal raund of delights.

XIII

Beau Tibbs in bloom

OUR pursueriliarity of an old acquaintance.

UR pursuer soon came up, and joined us with

"My dear Drybone," cries he, shaking my friend's hand, “where have you been hiding this half a century? Positively I had fancied you were gone down to cultivate matrimony and your estate in the country." During the reply I had an opportunity of surveying the appearance of our new companion: his hat was pinched up with peculiar smartness; his looks were pale, thin, and sharp ;

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round his neck he wore a broad black ribbon, and in his bosom a buckle studded with glass: his coat was trimmed with tarnished twist; he wore by his side a sword with a black hilt; and his stockings of silk, though newly washed, were grown yellow by long service. I was so much engaged with the peculiarity of his dress that I attended only to the latter part of my friend's reply, in which he complimented Mr. Tibbs on the taste of his clothes, and the bloom in his countenance. "Psha, psha, Will!" cried the figure; no more of that if you love me; you know I hate flattery-on my soul I do; and yet, to be sure, an intimacy with the great will improve one's appearance, and a course of venison will fatten; and yet, faith, I despise the great as much as you do. But there are a great many damn'd honest fellows among them, and we must not quarrel with one half because the other wants weeding. If they were all such as my Lord Muddler, one of the most goodnatured creatures that ever squeezed a lemon, I should myself be among the number of their admirers. I was yesterday to dine at the Duchess of Piccadilly's; my lord was there. 'Ned,' says he to me, 'Ned,' says he, 'I will hold gold to silver I can tell where you were poaching last night.' 'Poaching, my lord?' says I; 'faith, you have missed already, for I stayed at home and let the girls poach for me. That's my way; I take a fine woman as some animals do their prey stand still and swoop; they fall into my mouth.'

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Ah, Tibbs, thou art an happy fellow,” cried my companion, with looks of infinite pity; "I hope

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