The Works of Henry Fielding, vol. 12

– Earl of Essex.

]

Nood. But hark! [1]these trumpets speak the king's approach.

[Footnote 1: The trumpet in a tragedy is generally as much as to say, Enter king, which makes Mr Banks, in one of his plays, call it the trumpet's formal sound.]

Dood. He comes most luckily for my petition.

[Flourish.

SCENE II. – KING, QUEEN, GRIZZLE, NOODLE, DOODLE, FOODLE

King. [1] Let nothing but a face of joy appear; The man who frowns this day shall lose his head, That he may have no face to frown withal. Smile Dollallolla – Ha! what wrinkled sorrow [2] Hangs, sits, lies, frowns upon thy knitted brow? Whence flow those tears fast down thy blubber'd cheeks, Like a swoln gutter, gushing through the streets?

[Footnote 1: Phraortes, in the Captives, seems to have been acquainted with King Arthur:

Proclaim a festival for seven days' space,
Let the court shine in all its pomp and lustre,
Let all our streets resound with shouts of joy;
Let musick's care-dispelling voice be heard;
The sumptuous banquet and the flowing goblet
Shall warm the cheek and fill the heart with gladness.
Astarbe shall sit mistress of the feast.

]

[Footnote 2:

Repentance frowns on thy contracted brow. —Sophonisba.
Hung on his clouded brow, I mark'd despair. —Ibid.
– A sullen gloom
Scowls on his brow. —Busiris.

]

Queen. [1]Excess of joy, my lord, I've heard folks say, Gives tears as certain as excess of grief.

[Footnote 1: Plato is of this opinion, and so is Mr Banks:

Behold these tears sprung from fresh pain and joy.
– Earl of Essex.

]

King. If it be so, let all men cry for joy, [1]Till my whole court be drowned with their tears; Nay, till they overflow my utmost land, And leave me nothing but the sea to rule.

[Footnote 1: These floods are very frequent in the tragick authors:

Near to some murmuring brook I'll lay me down,
Whose waters, if they should too shallow flow,
My tears shall swell them up till I will drown.
– Lee's Sophonisba.

Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate,
That were the world on fire they might have drown'd
The wrath of heaven, and quench'd the mighty ruin.
– Mithridates.

One author changes the waters of grief to those of joy:

– These tears, that sprung from tides of grief,
Are now augmented to a flood of joy. —Cyrus the Great.

Another:

Turns all the streams of heat, and makes them flow
In pity's channel. —Royal Villain.

One drowns himself:

– Pity like a torrent pours me down,
Now I am drowning all within a deluge. —Anna Sullen.

Cyrus drowns the whole world:

Our swelling grief
Shall melt into a deluge, and the world
Shall drown in tears. —Cyrus the Great.

]

Dood. My liege, I a petition have here got.

King. Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day:
Let other hours be set apart for business.
To-day it is our pleasure to be [1]drunk.
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.

[Footnote 1: An expression vastly beneath the dignity of tragedy, says

Mr D – s, yet we find the word he cavils at in the mouth of

Mithridates less properly used, and applied to a more terrible idea:

I would be drunk with death. —Mithridates.

The author of the New Sophonisba taketh hold of this monosyllable, and uses it pretty much to the same purpose: