The Love-Chase [21]
I must sit down again! There came just now A feeling like to swooning over me. I am sure before 'tis over I shall make A fool of myself! I vow I thought not half So much of my first wedding-day! I'll make An effort. Let me lean upon your arm, And give me yours, my dear. Amelia, mind Keep near me with the smelling-bottle.
Servant. [Entering.] Madam, The bridegroom's come.
[Goes out.]
W. Green. The brute has knocked me down! To bolt it out so! I had started less If he had fired a cannon at my ear. How shall I ever manage to hold up Till all is done! I'm tremor head to foot. You can excuse me, can't you?--Pity me! One may feel queer upon one's wedding-day.
[They go out.]
SCENE THE LAST.--A Drawing-room.
[Enter Servants, showing in SIR WILLIAM FONDLOVE, CONSTANCE, and MASTER WILDRAKE--Servants go out again.]
Sir Wil. [Aside to WILDRAKE.] Good Master Wildrake, look more cheerfully!--Come, You do not honour to my wedding-day. How brisk am I! My body moves on springs! My stature gives no inch I throw away; My supple joints play free and sportfully; I'm every atom what a man should be.
Wild. I pray you pardon me, Sir William!
Sir Wil. Smile, then, And talk and rally me! I did expect, Ere half an hour had passed, you would have put me A dozen times to the blush. Without such things, A bridegroom knows not his own wedding-day. I see! Her looks are glossary to thine, She flouts thee still, I marvel not at thee; There's thunder in that cloud! I would to-day It would disperse, and gather in the morning. I fear me much thou know'st not how to woo. I'll give thee a lesson. Ever there's a way, But knows one how to take it? Twenty men Have courted Widow Green. Who has her now? I sent to advertise her that to-day I meant to marry her. She wouldn't open My note. And gave I up? I took the way To make her love me! I did send, again To pray her leave my daughter should be bridemaid. That letter too came back? Did I give up? I took the way to make her love me! Yet, Again I sent to ask what church she chose To marry at; my note came back again; And did I yet give up? I took the way To make her love me! All the while I found She was preparing for the wedding. Take A hint from me! She comes! My fluttering heart Gives note the empress of its realms is near. Now, Master Wildrake, mark and learn from me How it behoves a bridegroom play his part.
[Enter WIDOW GREEN, supported by her Bridemaids, and followed by AMELIA.]
W. Green. I cannot raise my eyes--they cannot bear The beams of his, which, like the sun's, I feel Are on me, though I see them not enlightening The heaven of his young face; nor dare I scan The brightness of his form, which symmetry And youth and beauty in enriching vie. He kneels to me! Now grows my breathing thick, As though I did await a seraph's voice, Too rich for mortal ear.
Sir Wil. My gentle bride!
W. Green. Who's that! who speaks to me?
Sir Wil. These transports check. Lo, an example to mankind I set Of amorous emprise; and who should thrive In love, if not Love's soldier, who doth press The doubtful siege, and will not own repulse. Lo, here I tender thee my fealty, To live thy duteous slave. My queen thou art, In frowns or smiles, to give me life or death. Oh, deign look down upon me! In thy face Alone I look on day; it is my sun Most bright; the which denied, no sun doth rise. Shine out upon me, my divinity! My gentle Widow Green! My wife to be; My love, my life, my drooping, blushing bride!
W. Green. Sir William Fondlove, you're a fool!
Sir Wil. A fool!
W. Green. Why come you hither, sir, in trim like this? Or rather why at all?
Sir Wil. Why come I hither? To marry thee!
W. Green. The man will drive me mad! Sir William Fondlove, I'm but forty, sir, And you are sixty, seventy, if a day; At least you look it, sir. I marry you! When did a woman wed her grandfather?
Sir Wil. Her brain is turned!
W. Green. You're in your dotage, sir, And yet a boy in vanity! But know Yourself from me; you are old and ugly, sir.