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 every one of which an Athenian would give an answer that would lay me prostrate in my own nothingness.

Well, sir, as to your metre and your mythology, they may e'en wait a wee. For your comedy, there is the Gentle Shepherd of the divine Allan Ramsay.

The Gentle Shepherd! It is just as much a comedy as the book of Job.

Well, sir, if none of us have written a comedy, I cannot see that it is any such great matter, any more than I can conjecture what business a man can have at this time of day with Jupiter's great grandfather.

The great business is, sir, that you call