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_ ACT III - SCENE IV
SCENE IV.--KING, QUEEN.
Queen.
What is the cause, my Arthur, that you steal
Thus silently from Dollallolla's breast?
Why dost thou leave me in the [1] dark alone,
When well thou know'st I am afraid of sprites?
[Footnote 1:
Cydaria is of the same fearful temper with Dollallolla.
I never durst in darkness be alone.
---Indian Emperor.]
King.
Oh, Dollallolla! do not blame my love!
I hop'd the fumes of last night's punch had laid
Thy lovely eyelids fast.--But, oh! I find
There is no power in drams to quiet wives;
Each morn, as the returning sun, they wake,
And shine upon their husbands.
Queen.
Think, oh think!
What a surprise it must be to the sun,
Rising, to find the vanish'd world away.
What less can be the wretched wife's surprise
When, stretching out her arms to fold thee fast,
She found her useless bolster in her arms.
[1] Think, think, on that.--Oh! think, think well on that.
I do remember also to have read
[2] In Dryden's Ovid's Metamorphoses,
That Jove in form inanimate did lie
With beauteous Danae: and, trust me, love,
[3] I fear'd the bolster might have been a Jove.
[Footnote 1:
Think well of this, think that, think every way.--Sophon.]
[Footnote 2:
These quotations are more usual in the comick than in the
tragick writers.]
[Footnote 3:
"This distress," says Mr D--, "I must allow to be
extremely beautiful, and tends to heighten the virtuous
character of Dollallolla, who is so exceeding delicate,
that she is in the highest apprehension from the
inanimate embrace of a bolster. An example worthy
of imitation for all our writers of tragedy."]
King.
Come to my arms, most virtuous of thy sex!
Oh, Dollallolla! were all wives like thee,
So many husbands never had worn horns.
Should Huncamunca of thy worth partake,
Tom Thumb indeed were blest.--Oh, fatal name,
For didst thou know one quarter what I know,
Then would'st thou know--Alas! what thou would'st
know!
Queen.
What can I gather hence? Why dost thou speak
Like men who carry rareeshows about?
"Now you shall see, gentlemen, what you shall see."
O, tell me more, or thou hast told too much. _
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