Decanter

“ Defarge had but sprung over a railing and a table, and folded the miserable wretch in a deadly embrace—Madame Defarge had but followed and turned her hand in one of the ropes with which he was tied—The Vengeance and Jacques Three were not yet up with them, and the men at the windows had not yet swooped into the Hall, like birds of prey from their high perches—when the cry seemed to go up, all over the city, "Bring him out! ”

“ SCENE II.—Before Candido’s Shop. Enter Candido, and Lodovico disguised as a Prentice.
Lod. Come, come, come, what do ye lack, sir? what do ye lack, sir? what is’t ye lack, sir? Is not my worship well suited? did you ever see a gentleman better disguised?
Cand. Never, believe me, signor.
Lod. Yes, but when he has been drunk. There be prentices would make mad gallants, for they would spend all, and drink, and whore, and so forth; and I see we gallants could make mad prentices. How does thy wife like me? Nay, I must not be so saucy, then I spoil all: pray you how does my mistress like me? ”

“ Under men’s girdles; who least trusts is most wise:
Men’s oaths do cast a mist before our eyes.
My best of wit, be ready! Now I go,
By some device to greet Hippolito.
[Pg 150]
ACT THE FOURTH. SCENE I.—A Chamber in Hippolito’s House. Enter a Servant.
Ser. So, this is Monday morning, and now must I to my huswifery.— [Sets out a table, on which he places a skull, a picture of Infelice, a book, and a taper.] —Would I had been created a shoemaker, for all the gentle-craft are gentlemen every Monday by their copy, and scorn then to work one true stitch. ”

“ I had rather hang in a woman’s company, than in a man’s; because if we should go to hell together, I should scarce be letten in, [Pg 275] for all the devils are afraid to have any women come amongst them. As I am true thief, she neither consented to this felony, nor knew of it.
Duke. What fury prompts thee on to kill thy wife?
Mat. It is my humour, sir, ’tis a foolish bag-pipe that I make myself merry with: why should I eat hemp-seed at the hangman’s thirteen-pence halfpenny [312] ordinary, and have this whore laugh at me, as I swing, as I totter?
Duke. Is she a whore? ”

“ But as I turned the corner of the Square, the glare of a bright gas-lamp suggested the temptation of at least a look at my despatches; and what was my astonishment to find that on this note, which had been dropped by “accident” from the captain's pocket, the superscription was scarcely dry,—in the very act of catching, I had blotted the words! This, of course, was no affair of mine; but it evinced deception,—and deception at certain moments becomes a dangerous injury. There are times when the mind feels deceit to be an outrage. ”

“ Declan answered the king, saying to him:—"Such a matter as this—to raise one to life from death—belongs to Omnipotence alone—but I shall do whatever is in my power. I go where the bodies lie and pray to God for them and let Him do in their regard what seems best to Him." Next, Declan, with a multitude and his disciples together with the king's councillors, went to the place where the corpses of the young men lay. ”

“ CANDIDO: Pray wear a peaceful temper, be my wife –
That is, be patient; for a wife and husband
Share but one soul between them. This being known,
Why should not one soul then agree in one?
VIOLA: Hang your agreements! But if my beaker be gone –
Exit Viola.
Enter Castruccio, Fluello, Pioratto, and George.
CANDIDO: O, here they come.
GEORGE: The constable, sir, let ’em come along with me, because there should be no wondering. He stays at door.
CASTRUCCIO: Constable, Goodman Abram?
FLUELLO: Now, Signor Candido, ’sblood, why do you attach us?
CASTRUCCIO: ’Sheart! Attach us! ”

“ Nay (sayes he) into so lowe a miserie (if not contempt,) is the sacred Arte of Poesie falne, that tho a wryter (who is worthy to sit at the table of the Sunne,) wast his braines, to earne applause from the more worthie Spirits, yet when he has done his best, hee workes but like Ocnus, that makes ropes in hell; for as hee twists, an Asse stands by and bites them in sunder, and that Asse is no other than the Audience with hard hands. ”

“ O, with all our hearts, sir.
Cud. There’s my rival taken up for hangman’s meat; Tom told me he was about a piece of villany.—Mates and morris-men, you see here’s no longer piping, no longer dancing; this news of murder has slain the morris. You that go the footway, fare ye well; I am for a gallop.—Come, ningle. [Canters off with the Hobby-horse and the Dog.
Saw. [Strikes his fiddle, which sounds as before.] Ay? nay, an my fiddle be come to himself again, I care not. I think the devil has been abroad amongst us to-day; I’ll keep thee out of thy fit now, if I can. ”

“ You are faint of heart to-night, my dear!"
"Well, then," said Defarge, as if a thought were wrung out of his breast, "it is a long time."
"It is a long time," repeated his wife; "and when is it not a long time? Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule."
"It does not take a long time to strike a man with Lightning," said Defarge. ”

“ O I fear that deity
Hath stolen him hence!—that snudge, his destiny.
Andel. I fear he’s risen again; didst not thou meet him?
Shad. I, sir? do you think this white and red durst have kissed my sweet cheeks, if they had seen a ghost? But, master, if the Destinies, or Fortune, or the Fates, or the Fairies have stolen him, never indict them for the felony: for by this means the charges of a tomb is saved, and you being his heirs, may do as many rich executors do, put that money in your purses, and give out that he died a beggar.
Andel. Away, you rogue, my father die a beggar! ”

“ Whilst couples go to dancing: O coarse devil!
Thou art the bastard’s curse, thou brand’st his birth;
The lecher’s French disease: for thou dry-suck’st him;
The harlot’s poison, and thine own confusion.
[Pg 144]
Mis. F. Marry come up, with a pox, have you nobody to rail against, but your bawd now?
Bell. And you, knave pander, kinsman to a bawd.
Rog. You and I, madonna, are cousins.
Bell. Of the same blood and making, near allied;
Thou, that art slave to sixpence, base metalled villain!
Rog. Sixpence? nay, that’s not so: I never took under two shillings four-pence; I hope I know my fee. ”

“ Exeunt Castruccio, Pioratto, and Fluello with the beaker.
GEORGE: I told you before, mistress, they were all cheaters.
VIOLA: Why, fool; why, husband; why, madman! I hope you will not let ’em sneak away so, with a silver-and-gilt beaker, the best in the house, too. – Go, fellows, make hue and cry after them.
CANDIDO: Pray let your tongue lie still; all will be well. – Come hither, George. Hie to the constable, and in calm order wish him to attach them. Make no great stir, because they’re gentlemen ”

“ Geo. Troth, mistress, nothing: not so much as a bee, he did not hum: not so much as a bawd, he did not hem: not so much as a cuckold, he did not ha: neither hum, hem, nor ha; only stared me in the face, passed along, and made haste in, as if my looks had worked with him, to give him a stool.
Vio. Sure he’s vexed now, this trick has moved his spleen,
He’s angered now, because he uttered nothing:
And wordless wrath breaks out more violent,
May be he’ll strive for place, when he comes down,
But if thou lov’st me, George, afford him none. ”

“ PIORATTO: [Aside to Castruccio.] Hark in thine ear: th’ast lost a hundred ducats.
CASTRUCCIO: [Aside in reply] Well, well, I know’t. Is’t possible that homo
Should be nor man nor woman? Not once moved,
No, not at such an injury, not at all!
Sure he’s a pigeon, for he has no gall.
FLUELLO: [To Candido.] Come, come, you’re angry, though you smother it;
You’re vexed, i’faith – confess.
CANDIDO: Why, gentlemen,
Should you conceit me to be vexed or moved? ”

“ GEORGE: [Aside.] Ay, I’ll be sworn, for we have a curst mistress.
VIOLA: You mumble? Do you mumble? I would your master or I could be a notemore angry, for two patient folks in a house spoil all the servants that ever shall come under them.
FIRST PRENTICE: [Aside.] You patient! Ay, so is the devil when he is horn-mad.
[Enter Castruccio, Fluello, and Pioratto.]
GEORGE AND THE TWO PRENTICES: Gentlemen, what do you lack? What is’t you buy? See, fine hollands, fine cambrics, and fine lawns.
GEORGE: What is’t you lack?
SECOND PRENTICE: What is’t you buy? ”

“ Dekker's "Canting Rhymes" (plagiarised from Copland) and "The Beggar's Curse" thus apparently gave birth to the present verses and to those entitled "The Maunder's Wooing" that follow.
Stanza I, line i. Ben = Lat. bene = good. Mort = a woman, chaste or not. Line 3. Rome-cove = "a great rogue" (B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, 1690) , i.e., an organizer, or the actual perpetrator of a robbery: quire-cove = a subordinate thief—the money had passed from the actual thief to his confederate. ”

“ All our lives, we have seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children, poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst, sickness, misery, oppression and neglect of all kinds?”
“We have seen nothing else,” returned The Vengeance.
“We have borne this a long time,” said Madame Defarge, turning her eyes again upon Lucie. “Judge you! Is it likely that the trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now?”
She resumed her knitting and went out. The Vengeance followed. Defarge went last, and closed the door.
“Courage, my dear Lucie,” said Mr. Lorry, as he raised her. ”

“ Detricand lifted him up, and buttoning the shirt and straightening the coat again, he said:
“Now, you’re to go home and sleep the sleep of the unjust, and you’re to keep the sixth commandment, and you’re to tell no more lies. You’ve made a shameful mess of your son’s life, and you’re to die now as soon as you can without attracting notice. You’re to pray for an accident to take you out of the world: a wind to blow you over a cliff, a roof to fall on you, a boat to go down with you, a hole in the ground to swallow you up, a fever or a plague to end you in a day.” ”

“ The center of this plotting was Defarge, the keeper of the wine shop, who had cared for Doctor Manette when he had first been released from prison. Defarge and those he trusted met and planned often in the very room where Mr. Lorry and Lucie had found her father making shoes. They kept a record of all acts of cruelty toward the poor committed by the nobility, determining that, when they themselves should be strong enough, those thus guilty should be killed, their fine houses burned, and all their descendants put to death, so that not even their names should remain in France. ”

“ Stay, boy: hold, Shadow, here are ten for thee.
Shad. Ten, master? then defiance to fortune, and a fig for famine.
Fort. Now tell me, wags, hath my purse gold or no?
Andel. We the wags have gold, father; but I think there’s not one angel more wagging in this sacred temple. Why, this is rare: Shadow, five will serve thy turn, give me th’ other five.
Shad. Nay, soft, master, liberality died long ago. I see some rich beggars are never well, but when they be [Pg 311] craving: my ten ducats are like my ten fingers, they will not jeopard a joint for you. ”

“ The mender of roads was now coming to himself, and was mistrustful of having made a mistake in his late demonstrations; but no.
“You are the fellow we want,” said Defarge, in his ear; “you make these fools believe that it will last for ever. Then, they are the more insolent, and it is the nearer ended.”
“Hey!” cried the mender of roads, reflectively; “that's true.”
“These fools know nothing. While they despise your breath, and would stop it for ever and ever, in you or in a hundred like you rather than in one of their own horses or dogs, they only know what your breath tells them. ”

“ Decker half-hidden behind his post and recognized him as the man who was so fast growing into a drunkard, and as the man who had never been inside the church since he had been the pastor, he was sorry that his text and subject were what they were that evening. He told himself that it was very unfortunate. That if he had dreamed of such a thing as having that man for a listener, he would have told him the story of Jesus as simply and as earnestly as he could; and not have preached a sermon that would seem to the man as a fling at himself. ”

“ The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed then to fall, threatening and dark, on both the mother and the child.
"It is enough, my husband," said Madame Defarge. "I have seen them. We may go."
But, the suppressed manner had enough of menace in it—not visible and presented, but indistinct and withheld—to alarm Lucie into saying, as she laid her appealing hand on Madame Defarge's dress:
"You will be good to my poor husband. You will do him no harm. ”

“ Yes, my lord.
Car. All the city thinks he’s a whoremonger.
Ast. Yet I warrant he’ll swear no man marks him.
Ber. ’Tis like so, for when a man goes a wenching, it is as if he had a strong stinking breath, every one smells him out, yet he feels it not, though it be ranker than the sweat of sixteen bear warders.
Duke. I doubt then you have all those stinking breaths,
You might be all smelt out.
Car. Troth, my lord, I think we are all as you ha’ been in your youth when you went a-maying, we all love to hear the cuckoo sing upon other men’s trees.
Duke. It’s well; yet you confess. ”

“ Lust’s voyage hath, if not this course, this cross,
Buy ne’er so cheap, your ware comes home with loss.
What, shall I sound retreat? the battle’s done:
Let the world judge which of us two have won.
Hip. I!
Bell. You? nay then as cowards do in fight,
What by blows cannot, shall be saved by flight. [Exit.
Hip. Fly to earth’s fixèd centre: to the caves
[Pg 257] Of everlasting horror, I’ll pursue thee,
Though loaden with sins, even to hell’s brazen doors.
Thus wisest men turn fools, doting on whores. ”