SCENE III.

TOM THUMB _to them, with_ OFFICERS, PRISONERS, _and_ ATTENDANTS.

_King._ Oh! welcome most, most welcome to my arms.[81] What gratitude can thank away the debt Your valour lays upon me?

_Queen._ Oh! ye gods![82] [_Aside._

_Thumb._ When I'm not thank'd at all, I'm thank'd enough.[83] I've done my duty, and I've done no more.

_Queen._ Was ever such a godlike creature seen? [_Aside._

_King._ Thy modesty's a candle[84] to thy merit, It shines itself, and shows thy merit too. But say, my boy, where didst thou leave the giants?

_Thumb._ My liege, without the castle gates they stand, The castle gates too low for their admittance.

_King._ What look they like?

_Thumb._ Like nothing but themselves.

_Queen._ And sure thou art like nothing but thyself.[85] [_Aside._

_King._ Enough! the vast idea fills my soul. I see them--yes, I see them now before me: The monstrous, ugly, barb'rous sons of clods. But ha! what form majestic strikes our eyes? So perfect, that it seems to have been drawn[86] By all the gods in council: so fair she is, That surely at her birth the council paused, And then at length cry'd out, This is a woman!

_Thumb._ Then were the gods mistaken--she is not A woman, but a giantess----whom we, With much ado, have made a shift to haul[87] Within the town: for she is by a foot[88] Shorter than all her subject giants were.

_Glum._ We yesterday were both a queen and wife, One hundred thousand giants own'd our sway. Twenty whereof were married to ourself.

_Queen._ Oh! happy state of giantism where husbands Like mushrooms grow, whilst hapless we are forced To be content, nay, happy thought, with one.

_Glum._ But then to lose them all in one black day, That the same sun which, rising, saw me wife To twenty giants, setting should behold Me widow'd of them all.----My worn-out heart,[89] That ship, leaks fast, and the great heavy lading, My soul, will quickly sink.

_Queen._ Madam, believe I view your sorrows with a woman's eye: But learn to bear them with what strength you may, To-morrow we will have our grenadiers Drawn out before you, and you then shall choose What husbands you think fit.

_Glum._ Madam, I am[90] Your most obedient and most humble servant.

_King._ Think, mighty princess, think this court your own, Nor think the landlord me, this house my inn; Call for whate'er you will, you'll nothing pay. I feel a sudden pain within my breast,[91] Nor know I whether it arise from love Or only the wind-cholic. Time must show. O Thumb! what do we to thy valour owe! Ask some reward, great as we can bestow.

_Thumb._ I ask not kingdoms, I can conquer those;[92] I ask not money, money I've enough; For what I've done, and what I mean to do, For giants slain, and giants yet unborn Which I will slay----if this be call'd a debt, Take my receipt in full: I ask but this,-- To sun myself in Huncamunca's eyes.[93]

_King._ Prodigious bold request.

_Queen._ Be still, my soul.[94] [_Aside._

_Thumb._ My heart is at the threshold of your mouth,[95] And waits its answer there.----Oh! do not frown. I've try'd to reason's tune to tune my soul, But love did overwind and crack the string. Though Jove in thunder had cry'd out, YOU SHAN'T, I should have loved her still----for oh, strange fate, Then when I loved her least I loved her most!

_King._ It is resolv'd--the princess is your own.

_Thumb._ Oh! happy, happy, happy, happy Thumb.[96]

_Queen._ Consider, sir; reward your soldier's merit, But give not Huncamunca to Tom Thumb.

_King._ Tom Thumb! Odzooks! my wide-extended realm Knows not a name so glorious as Tom Thumb. Let Macedonia Alexander boast, Let Rome her Cæsars and her Scipios show, Her Messieurs France, let Holland boast Mynheers, Ireland her O's, her Macs let Scotland boast, Let England boast no other than Tom Thumb.

_Queen._ Though greater yet his boasted merit was, He shall not have my daughter, that is pos'.

_King._ Ha! sayst thou, Dollallolla?

_Queen._ I say he shan't.

_King._ Then by our royal self we swear you lie.[97]

_Queen._ Who but a dog, who but a dog[98] Would use me as thou dost? Me, who have lain These twenty years so loving by thy side![99] But I will be revenged. I'll hang myself. Then tremble all who did this match persuade, For, riding on a cat, from high I'll fall,[100] And squirt down royal vengeance on you all.

_Food._ Her majesty the queen is in a passion.[101]

_King._ Be she, or be she not, I'll to the girl[102] And pave thy way, O Thumb. Now by ourself, We were indeed a pretty king of clouts To truckle to her will--for when by force Or art the wife her husband overreaches, Give him the petticoat, and her the breeches.

_Thumb._ Whisper, ye winds, that Huncamunca's mine![103] Echoes repeat, that Huncamunca's mine! The dreadful bus'ness of the war is o'er, And beauty, heav'nly beauty! crowns my toils! I've thrown the bloody garment now aside And hymeneal sweets invite my bride. So when some chimney-sweeper all the day Hath through dark paths pursued the sooty way, At night to wash his hands and face he flies, And in his t'other shirt with his Brickdusta lies.