For my own part, I profess myself one of these; and,
as the clown in Billy Shakespeare says of the courtier's oath, had
I sworn by the doctor's genius, that the pancakes were naught, they
might have been for all that very good, yet shouldn't I have been
forsworn. Let that be as it will, he retired from town in great
dudgeon, and set up his rest near a hill in Derbyshire, with two
tops, resembling Parnassus, and a well at the bottom, which he had
christened Hyp-o'-the-Green. Egad! if he stays in that habitation,
'tis my opinion he'll soon grow green with the hip indeed. He'll
be glad of an opportunity to return to the fleshpots of Egypt, and
pay his court to the slighted Queen Cleopatra. Ha! well remembered,
by this light! you shall know, my good sir, that this same Egyptian
princess has been courted by so many gallants of taste, that, as
I hope to live, I found myself in some sort of dilemma, because in
parting with her to one, I should have disobliged all his rivals.
Now a man would not choose to give offence to his friends, at
least I lay it down as a maxim to avoid the smallest appearance of
ingratitude.
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