ACT IV.

SCENE--_The Inn door--Diligence drawn up._ CASIMERE _appears superintending the package of his portmanteaus, and giving directions to the Porters._

_Enter_ BEEFINGTON _and_ PUDDINGFIELD.

_Pudd._ Well, Coachey, have you got two inside places?

_Coach._ Yes, your honour.

_Pudd._ [_seems to be struck with_ CASIMERE'S _appearance. He surveys him earnestly, without paying any attention to the coachman, then doubtingly pronounces_] Casimere!

_Cas._ [_turning round rapidly, recognises_ PUDDINGFIELD, _and embraces him_.] My Puddingfield!

_Pudd._ My Casimere!

_Cas._ What, Beefington too! [_discovering him_.] Then is my joy complete.

_Beef._ Our fellow-traveller, as it seems.

_Cas._ Yes, Beefington--but wherefore to Hamburgh?

_Beef._ Oh, Casimere[211]--to fly--to fly--to return--England--our country--Magna Charta--it is liberated--a new era--House of Commons--Crown and Anchor--Opposition----

_Cas._ What a contrast! you are flying to liberty and your home--I, driven from my home by tyranny--am exposed to domestic slavery in a foreign country.

_Beef._ How domestic slavery?

_Cas._ Too true--two wives [_slowly, and with a dejected air--then after a pause_]--you knew my Cecilia?

_Pudd._ Yes, five years ago.

_Cas._ Soon after that period I went upon a visit to a lady in Wetteravia--my Matilda was under her protection--alighting at a peasant's cabin, I saw her on a charitable visit, spreading bread-and-butter for the children, in a light-blue riding habit. The simplicity of her appearance--the fineness of the weather--all conspired to interest me--my heart moved to hers--as if by a magnetic sympathy--we wept, embraced, and went home together--she became the mother of my Pantalowsky. But five years of enjoyment have not stifled the reproaches of my conscience--her Rogero is languishing in captivity--if I could restore her to _him!_

_Beef._ Let us rescue him.

_Cas._ Will without power[212] is like children playing at soldiers.

_Beef._ Courage without power[213] is like a consumptive running footman.

_Cas._ Courage without power is a contradiction.[214] Ten brave men might set all Quedlinburgh at defiance.

_Beef._ Ten brave men--but where are they to be found?

_Cas._ I will tell you--marked you the waiter?

_Beef._ The waiter? [_Doubtingly._

_Cas._ [_in a confidential tone_.] No waiter, but a Knight Templar. Returning from the crusade, he found his Order dissolved, and his person proscribed. He dissembled his rank, and embraced the profession of a waiter. I have made sure of him already. There are, besides, an Austrian and a Prussian grenadier. I have made them abjure their national enmity, and they have sworn to fight henceforth in the cause of freedom. These, with Young Pottingen, the waiter, and ourselves, make seven--the troubadour, with his two attendant minstrels, will complete the ten.

_Beef._ Now then for the execution. [_With enthusiasm._

_Pudd._ Yes, my boys--for the execution. [_Clapping them on the back._

_Waiter._ But hist! we are observed.

_Trou._ Let us by a song conceal our purposes.

RECITATIVE ACCOMPANIED.[215]

_Cas._ Hist! hist! nor let the airs that blow From Night's cold lungs, our purpose know!

_Pudd._ Let Silence, mother of the dumb,

_Beef._ Press on each lip her palsied thumb!

_Wait._ Let privacy, allied to sin, That loves to haunt the tranquil inn--

_Gren._ } And Conscience start, when she shall view, _Trou._ } The mighty deed we mean to do!

GENERAL CHORUS--_Con spirito._

Then friendship swear, ye faithful bands, Swear to save a shackled hero! See where yon Abbey frowning stands! Rescue, rescue, brave Rogero!

_Cas._ Thrall'd in a Monkish tyrant's fetters, Shall great Rogero hopeless lie?

_Y. Pot._ In my pocket I have letters, Saying, "help me, or I die!"

_Allegro Allegretto._

_Cas. Beef. Pudd. Gren. Trou._ } Let us fly, let us fly, _Waiter, and Pot. with enthusiasm_ } Let us help, ere he die! [_Exeunt omnes, waving their hats._

SCENE.--_The Abbey gate, with ditches, drawbridges, and spikes. Time--about an hour before sunrise. The conspirators appear as if in ambuscade, whispering, and consulting together, in expectation of the signal for attack. The_ WAITER _is habited as a Knight Templar, in the dress of his Order, with the cross on his breast, and the scallop on his shoulder_; PUDDINGFIELD _and_ BEEFINGTON _armed with blunderbusses and pocket pistols; the Grenadiers in their proper uniforms. The Troubadour, with his attendant Minstrels, bring up the rear--martial music--the conspirators come forward, and present themselves before the gate of the Abbey.--Alarum--firing of pistols--the Convent appear in arms upon the walls--the drawbridge is let down--a body of choristers and lay-brothers attempt a sally, but are beaten back, and the verger killed. The besieged attempt to raise the drawbridge_--PUDDINGFIELD _and_ BEEFINGTON _press forward with alacrity, throw themselves upon the drawbridge, and by the exertion of their weight, preserve it in a state of depression--the other besiegers join them, and attempt to force the entrance, but without effect._ PUDDINGFIELD _makes the signal for the battering ram. Enter_ QUINTUS CURTIUS _and_ MARCUS CURIUS DENTATUS, _in their proper military habits, preceded by the Roman Eagle--the rest of their legion are employed in bringing forward a battering ram, which plays for a few minutes to slow time, till the entrance is forced. After a short resistance, the besiegers rush in with shouts of victory._

_Scene changes to the interior of the Abbey. The inhabitants of the Convent are seen flying in all directions._

_The_ COUNT OF WEIMAR _and_ PRIOR, _who had been feasting in the refectory, are brought in manacled. The_ COUNT _appears transported with rage, and gnaws his chains. The_ PRIOR _remains insensible, as if stupefied with grief._ BEEFINGTON _takes the keys of the dungeon, which are hanging at the_ PRIOR'S _girdle, and makes a sign for them both to be led away into confinement.--Exeunt_ PRIOR _and_ COUNT _properly guarded. The rest of the conspirators disperse in search of the dungeon where_ ROGERO _is confined._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 204: A See the "Robbers." a German tragedy, in which robbery is put in so fascinating a light, that the whole of a German University went upon the highway in consequence of it.]

[Footnote 205: See "Cabal and Love," a German tragedy, very severe against Prime Ministers and reigning Dukes of Brunswick. This admirable performance very judiciously reprobates the hire of German troops for the _American war_ in the reign of Queen Elizabeth--a practice which would undoubtedly have been highly discreditable to that wise and patriotic princess, not to say wholly unnecessary, there being no American war at that particular time.]

[Footnote 206: See the "Stranger; or, Reform'd Housekeeper," in which the former of these morals is beautifully illustrated; and "Stella," a genteel German comedy, which ends with placing a man _bodkin_ between _two wives_, like _Thames_ between his _two banks_, in the "Critic." Nothing can be more edifying than these two dramas. I am shocked to hear that there are some people who think them ridiculous.]

[Footnote 207: These are the warnings very properly given to readers, to beware how they judge of what they cannot understand. Thus, if the translation runs "lightning of my soul, fulguration of angels, sulphur of hell;" we should recollect that this is not coarse or strange in the German language, when applied by a lover to his mistress; but the English has nothing precisely parallel to the original Mulychause Archangelichen, which means rather "emanation of the archangelican nature"--or to Smellmynkern Vankelfer, which, if literally rendered, would signify "made of stuff of the same odour whereof the devil makes flambeaux." See Schüttenbrüch on the German Idiom.]

[Footnote 208: This is an excellent joke in German; the point and spirit of which is but ill-rendered in a translation. A Noddy, the reader will observe, has two significations--the one a "knave at all-fours;" the other a "fool or booby." See the translation by Mr. Render of "Count Benyowsky; or, the Conspiracy of Kamtschatka," a German tragi-comi-comi-tragedy: where the play opens with a scene of a game at chess (from which the whole of this scene is copied), and a joke of the same point and merriment about pawns--_i.e._, boors being _a match_ for kings.]

[Footnote 209: This word in the original is strictly "fellow-lodgers"--"co-occupants of the same room, in a house let out at a small rent by the week." There is no single word in English which expresses so complicated a relation, except, perhaps, the cant term of "chum," formerly in use at our universities.]

[Footnote 210: The balalaika is a Russian instrument, resembling the guitar.--See the play of "Count Benyowsky," rendered into English.]

[Footnote 211: See "Count Benyowsky; or, the Conspiracy of Kamschatka," where Crustiew, an old gentleman of much sagacity, talks the following nonsense:

_Crustiew_ [_with youthful energy and an air of secrecy and confidence_.] "To fly, to fly, to the Isles of Marian--the island of Tinian--a terrestrial paradise. Free--free--a mild climate--a new created sun--wholesome fruits--harmless inhabitants--and Liberty--tranquillity."]

[Footnote 212: See "Count Benyowsky." as before.]

[Footnote 213: See "Count Benyowsky."]

[Footnote 214: See "Count Benyowsky" again; from which play this and the preceding references are taken word for word. We acquit the Germans of such reprobate silly stuff. It must be the translator's.]

[Footnote 215: We believe this song to be copied, with a small variation in metre and meaning, from a song in "Count Benyowsky; or, the Conspiracy of Kamtschatka,"--where the conspirators join in a chorus, _for fear of being overheard_.]

BOMBASTES FURIOSO.

FIRST PERFORMED AT THE THEATRE ROYAL HAYMARKET, AUGUST 7, 1810.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

ARTAXOMINOUS, _King of Utopia._

FUSBOS, _Minister of State._

GENERAL BOMBASTES.

_Attendants or Courtiers._

_Army_--a long Drummer, a short Fifer, and two (sometimes three) Soldiers of different dimensions.

DISTAFFINA.