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 not only to think they contain’d Wit and Humour, but Truth also”:—

“Queen Common-Sense. My Lord of Law, I sent for you this Morning;

I have a strange Petition given to me; Two Men, it seems, have lately been at Law For an Estate, which both of them have lost, And their Attorneys now divide between them. Law. Madam, these things will happen in the Law. Q. C. S. Will they, my Lord? then better we had none: But I have also heard a sweet Bird sing, That Men, unable to discharge their Debts At a short Warning, being sued for them, Have, with both Power and Will their Debts to pay Lain all their Lives in Prison for their Costs. Law. That may perhaps be some poor Person’s Case, Too mean to entertain your Royal Ear. Q. C. S. My Lord, while I am Queen I shall not think One Man too mean, or poor, to be redress’d; Moreover, Lord, I am inform’d your Laws Are grown so large, and daily yet encrease, That the great Age of old Methusalem Would scarce suffice to read your Statutes out.”

There is also much more than merely transitory satire in the speech of “Firebrand” to the Queen:—

“Firebrand. Ha! do you doubt it? nay, if you doubt that, I will prove nothing—But my zeal inspires me, And I will tell you, Madam, you yourself Are a most deadly Enemy to the Sun, And all his Priests have greatest Cause to wish You had been never born. Q. C. S. Ha! say’st thou, Priest? Then know I honour and adore the Sun! And when I see his Light, and feel his Warmth, I glow with naming Gratitude toward him; But know, I never will adore a Priest,