Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/194

 178 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES gain gentlemen no mean respect ; and for which indeed they are more worthily noticed than for any skill they have in learning." As for the Cuban ebolition, or ebullition, we can but guess at its nature from its name ; and as for the euri- pus^ we can but conjecture with probability that as the Euripus was the ancient name of the strait be- tween Euboea and the continent, proverbial for its frequent flux and reflux, the term signified inhaling and exhaling smoke in swift succession. The bait of this keen and bright prospectus soon attracts its fish : — ^^ Sogliardo. Nay, good sir, house your head: do you profess these sleights in tobacco ? Shift, I do more than profess, sir, and, if you please to be a practitioner, I will undertake in one fortnight to bring you that you shall take it plausibly in any ordinary, theatre, or the Tilt- yard, if need be, in the most popular assembly that is. Puntarvolo [' a vain-glorious knight, over-englishing his travels ']. But you cannot bring him to the whiffe so soon ? Shift. Yes, as soon, sir ; he shall receive the first, second, and third whiffe, if it please him, and, upon the receipt, take his horse, drink his three cups of Canary, and, expose [exhale] one at Hounslow, a second at Stains, and a third at Bagshot." Fascinated by the which modest and veracious assurances, Sogliardo persuades him, nothing loth, to stay and dine, and even presses upon him, nothing loth, a poor French crown for the ordinary, saying : " If we can agree, we'll not part in haste." Doubt not that they agree, when Shift is above all determined not to disagree : will the angler willingly part in haste from his hooked fish ? The result is reported in Act iv., Sc. 4 : —