Page:Shakespeare of Stratford (1926) Yale.djvu/174

Shakespeare of Stratford to

In the play of Eastward Ho (1605) even the gravity of Chapman, the local realism of Jonson and Marston, succumb to the infection; and in the speeches of Captain Seagull this comedy of London manners grows iridescent with fanciful hyperboles of Virginian opportunity.

‘I tell thee,’ says Captain Seagull, as he basks in the admiration of his tavern companions, ‘gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us; and for as much red copper as I can bring, I’ll have thrice the weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping pans are pure gold; and all the chains with which they chain up their streets are massy gold; all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather ’em by the seashore, to hang on their children’s coats and stick in their caps, as commonly as our children wear saffron-gilt brooches and groats with holes in ’em.

Scapethrift. And is it a pleasant country withal?

Seagull. As ever the sun shined on; temperate and full of all sorts of excellent viands; wild boar is as common there as our tamest bacon is here, venison as mutton. And then you shall live freely there, without serjeants, or courtiers, or lawyers, or intelligencers.’

Such tavern talk has a veritable ring. The Boar’s Head in Eastcheap must have echoed with it; and one