Page:  of 594
 

Well. Do you love tobacco?

Rog. Surely I love it, but it loves not me;
Yet, with your reverence, I will be bold.

Wel. Pray, light it, sir. How do you like it?
[They smoke.

Rog. I promise you, it is notable stinging gear.
Indeed. It is wet, sir: Lord, how it brings down rheum!

Wel. Handle it again, sir; you have a warm text
of it.

Rog. Thanks ever premised for it. I promise you,
It is very powerful, and, by a trope, spiritual;

For certainly it moves in sundry places. 25

Wel. Ay, it does so, sir; and me, especially,
To ask, sir, why you wear a night-cap?

Rog. Assuredly I will speak the truth unto you.
You shall understand, sir, that my head is broken;

And by whom? even by that visible beast, 30

The butler,

Wel. The butler! Certainly
He had all his drink about him when he did it.
Strike one of your grave cassock! the offence, sir?

Rog. Reproving him at tray-trip, sir, for swearing.

You have the total, surely. 35

Wel. You toll'd him when his rage was set a-tilt,
And so he crack'd your canons: I hope he has

____________________
22 Handle it again] The practical sense of Welford's pun is that Roger
should work the tobacco between his fingers.
23 premised] Q1, and modem eds.: the rest promised.
30 visible beast] Obvious beast, with possible scriptural allusion to "the
mark of the beast" ( Dyce). Theobald printed, on Sympson's suggestion,
"risible" in the sense of "ridiculous."
31-79 The butler! Certainly . . . ne'er come in.] Theobald and all editors
before Dyce printed this as prose.
34 tray-trip] "There can," says Weber ( 1812), "be no doubt that it was
precisely the game still known on the continent as trit-trac, which does not
greatly differ from backgammon;" and he adds a note from Le Grand
Fabliaux to show its identity with the old game of tables, played with dice.
Nares' Glossary quotes from Machivell Dogg to show that success in it
depended on the throwing of treyes. Sir Toby mentions it, Twelfth Night,
II. v. 196.
36 toll'd . . . atilt] Q1, tould; QQ2, 3, F., Theo., Dyce, told: the rest
reproved. Wefford puns on the old M.E. sense of tollen, to draw, or pull;
the notion of sound, derived from its association with a bell-rope, being quite
secondary. The butler's rage, being already tilted like a cask, overflows
with a pull. Cf. Middleton Women beware Women, V. I, "Now comes
my part to tole him hither."

-382-

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: The Maid's Tragedy; Philaster; A King and No King; The Scornful Lady; The Custom of the Country. Contributors: Francis Beaumont - author, John Fletcher - author. Publisher: George Bell and Sons & A. H. Bullen. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1904. Page Number: 382.
    
This feature allows you to create and manage separate folders for your different research projects. To view markups for a different project, make that project your current project.
This feature allows you to save a link to the publication you are reading or view all the publications you have put on your bookshelf.
This feature allows you to save a link to the page you are reading, which you can later return to from Projects.
This feature allows you to highlight words or phrases on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to save a note you write on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to create a citation to the page you are reading that you can paste into your paper. Highlight a passage to include that passage as a quotation.
This feature allows you to save a reference to a publication you are reading for your bibliography or generate a bibliography you can paste into your paper.
This feature allows you to print the page you are reading, including your notes or highlights (IE users must have "print background colors and image" setting selected.)
This feature allows you to look up words in encyclopedia.
  About Questia Tools
Close Window  
Questia's powerful research tools allow you to highlight, take notes, bookmark and even create instant citations and bibliographies. To use these features and save hours of work, you must create a Questia account.
Need a Questia account?
Sign up for a FREE trial now. Save time, stress and hassle, and get better grades with trusted, online research.

» Click here for our free trial

Already have a Questia account? Login now!
Error
Working...
Printing Preferences
Format for black and white printer: On Off
Print highlights: On Off
Print notes: On Off
Choose one of the options for printing:
Print this page (No Charge)
Print pages to