The Contrast [19]
Chase's, I shouldn't mind singing this all out before them-- you would be affronted if I was to sing that, though that's a lucky thought; if you should be affronted, I have something dang'd cute, which Jessamy told me to say to you.
JENNY
Is that all! I assure you I like it of all things.
JONATHAN
No, no; I can sing more; some other time, when you and I are better acquainted, I'll sing the whole of it--no, no--that's a fib--I can't sing but a hun- dred and ninety verses; our Tabitha at home can sing it all.--[Sings.]
Marblehead's a rocky place, And Cape-Cod is sandy; Charlestown is burnt down, Boston is the dandy. Yankee doodle, doodle do, etc.
I vow, my own town song has put me into such top- ping spirits that I believe I'll begin to do a little, as Jessamy says we must when we go a-courting.-- [Runs and kisses her.] Burning rivers! cooling flames! red-hot roses! pig-nuts! hasty-pudding and ambrosia!
JENNY
What means this freedom? you insulting wretch. [Strikes him.]
JONATHAN
Are you affronted?
JENNY
Affronted! with what looks shall I express my anger?
JONATHAN
Looks! why as to the matter of looks, you look as cross as a witch.
JENNY
Have you no feeling for the delicacy of my sex?
JONATHAN
Feeling! Gor, I--I feel the delicacy of your sex pretty smartly [rubbing his cheek], though, I vow, I thought when you city ladies courted and married, and all that, you put feeling out of the question. But I want to know whether you are really affronted, or only pretend to be so? 'Cause, if you are certainly right down affronted, I am at the end of my tether; Jessamy didn't tell me what to say to you.
JENNY
Pretend to be affronted!
JONATHAN
Aye, aye, if you only pretend, you shall hear how I'll go to work to make cherubim consequences. [Runs up to her.]
JENNY
Begone, you brute!
JONATHAN
That looks like mad; but I won't lose my speech. My dearest Jenny--your name is Jenny, I think?-- My dearest Jenny, though I have the highest esteem for the sweet favours you have just now granted me-- Gor, that's a fib, though; but Jessamy says it is not wicked to tell lies to the women. [Aside.] I say, though I have the highest esteem for the favours you have just now granted me, yet you will consider that, as soon as the dissolvable knot is tied, they will no longer be favours, but only matters of duty and mat- ters of course.
JENNY
Marry you! you audacious monster! get out of my sight, or, rather, let me fly from you. [Exit hastily.]
JONATHAN
Gor! she's gone off in a swinging passion, before I had time to think of consequences. If this is the way with your city ladies, give me the twenty acres of rock, the Bible, the cow, and Tabitha, and a little peaceable bundling.
SCENE II. The Mall.
Enter MANLY.
It must be so, Montague! and it is not all the tribe of Mandevilles that shall convince me that a nation, to become great, must first become dissipated. Lux- ury is surely the bane of a nation: Luxury! which enervates both soul and body, by opening a thousand new sources of enjoyment, opens, also, a thousand new sources of contention and want: Luxury! which ren- ders a people weak at home, and accessible to bribery, corruption, and force from abroad. When the Grecian states knew no other tools than the axe and the saw, the Grecians were a great, a free, and a happy people. The kings of Greece devoted their lives to the service of their country, and her senators knew no other superiority over their fellow-citizens than a glorious pre-eminence in danger and virtue. They exhibited to the world a noble spectacle,--a number of inde- pendent states united by a similarity of language, sentiment, manners, common interest, and common consent, in one grand mutual league of protection. And, thus united, long might they have continued the cherishers of arts and sciences, the protectors of the oppressed, the scourge of tyrants, and the safe asylum of liberty. But when foreign gold, and still more per- nicious foreign luxury, had
JENNY
Is that all! I assure you I like it of all things.
JONATHAN
No, no; I can sing more; some other time, when you and I are better acquainted, I'll sing the whole of it--no, no--that's a fib--I can't sing but a hun- dred and ninety verses; our Tabitha at home can sing it all.--[Sings.]
Marblehead's a rocky place, And Cape-Cod is sandy; Charlestown is burnt down, Boston is the dandy. Yankee doodle, doodle do, etc.
I vow, my own town song has put me into such top- ping spirits that I believe I'll begin to do a little, as Jessamy says we must when we go a-courting.-- [Runs and kisses her.] Burning rivers! cooling flames! red-hot roses! pig-nuts! hasty-pudding and ambrosia!
JENNY
What means this freedom? you insulting wretch. [Strikes him.]
JONATHAN
Are you affronted?
JENNY
Affronted! with what looks shall I express my anger?
JONATHAN
Looks! why as to the matter of looks, you look as cross as a witch.
JENNY
Have you no feeling for the delicacy of my sex?
JONATHAN
Feeling! Gor, I--I feel the delicacy of your sex pretty smartly [rubbing his cheek], though, I vow, I thought when you city ladies courted and married, and all that, you put feeling out of the question. But I want to know whether you are really affronted, or only pretend to be so? 'Cause, if you are certainly right down affronted, I am at the end of my tether; Jessamy didn't tell me what to say to you.
JENNY
Pretend to be affronted!
JONATHAN
Aye, aye, if you only pretend, you shall hear how I'll go to work to make cherubim consequences. [Runs up to her.]
JENNY
Begone, you brute!
JONATHAN
That looks like mad; but I won't lose my speech. My dearest Jenny--your name is Jenny, I think?-- My dearest Jenny, though I have the highest esteem for the sweet favours you have just now granted me-- Gor, that's a fib, though; but Jessamy says it is not wicked to tell lies to the women. [Aside.] I say, though I have the highest esteem for the favours you have just now granted me, yet you will consider that, as soon as the dissolvable knot is tied, they will no longer be favours, but only matters of duty and mat- ters of course.
JENNY
Marry you! you audacious monster! get out of my sight, or, rather, let me fly from you. [Exit hastily.]
JONATHAN
Gor! she's gone off in a swinging passion, before I had time to think of consequences. If this is the way with your city ladies, give me the twenty acres of rock, the Bible, the cow, and Tabitha, and a little peaceable bundling.
SCENE II. The Mall.
Enter MANLY.
It must be so, Montague! and it is not all the tribe of Mandevilles that shall convince me that a nation, to become great, must first become dissipated. Lux- ury is surely the bane of a nation: Luxury! which enervates both soul and body, by opening a thousand new sources of enjoyment, opens, also, a thousand new sources of contention and want: Luxury! which ren- ders a people weak at home, and accessible to bribery, corruption, and force from abroad. When the Grecian states knew no other tools than the axe and the saw, the Grecians were a great, a free, and a happy people. The kings of Greece devoted their lives to the service of their country, and her senators knew no other superiority over their fellow-citizens than a glorious pre-eminence in danger and virtue. They exhibited to the world a noble spectacle,--a number of inde- pendent states united by a similarity of language, sentiment, manners, common interest, and common consent, in one grand mutual league of protection. And, thus united, long might they have continued the cherishers of arts and sciences, the protectors of the oppressed, the scourge of tyrants, and the safe asylum of liberty. But when foreign gold, and still more per- nicious foreign luxury, had