Gaff. Gab. On high and low Tis, 'cause they fear Themselves t'appear The worst of humankind. The moon is rising, 'tis time to be going home. the Sexton fill up the grave. Let Tim. Let the grave remain uncover'd; I'll take care of that; for here I mean to tarry 'till the morning. Neighbours, I thank you all: Adieu.-I wish you well to your several homes.-Good night. Gaff. Gab. Stay here in the cold church-yard all night, with thy dead wife!Why, you are distracted, surely. G. Gab. If he been't, that were enough to make him so. Tim. Nay, never go about to persuade me, for here I will stay, come life, come death. Therefore, neighbours, all go home, and leave me to myself. AIR XI. ["Hey ho! who's above?"] Gaff. Gab. G. Busy. Hey ho! the man is mad! Troth, if he is not, he's as bad. Gaff. Gab. Thou'lt dye, e're morning, too I fear. G. Busy. Leave off thy fooling, and don't stay here. Tim. Gaff. Gab. G. Busy. } No, no. Why, why? Tim. I'd rather stay here with my Dolly, and dye. G. Gusy. This is the strangest vagary, to pretend to stay here with his wife, when she's dead! when there are so few men who care for their wives company, while they are alive! Tim. My resolution may seem stranger than it is; I will therefore tell you the reason of it. Some time ago, my wife was very sick (that cursed Geneva often made her so) then I fell sick with grief; but she soon recovering, I recover'd too. On this occasion, she told me, if I died first, that she should break her heart. Yet, she is dead, and I, hard-hearted and ungrateful wretch, am here alive to speak it. G. Busy. Poor heart! he weeps like any rainy day. But, good Timothy, go on with your tale. Tim. Let me but dry my eyes, and then I will. She said that she had heard of people that had been buried alive, and being troubled with fits, thought, perhaps, that might be her case. G. Cost. Ay, ay; we all know what sort of fits she was troubled withal -But, mum for that. [Aside. Tim. And desired me, if I out-lived her, to let her be buried in her best cloaths, and to watch the grave the first night all alone, nor to let the body be cover'd 'till the morning. I promised to grant her request, and now will keep my word. Nay, tho' the ghosts of all those whose bodies have been buried here, should rise to drive me hence, I would not leave the place 'till morning. G. Busy. O terrible! I shake like an old barn in a windy day, to hear him talk of it. AIR XII. [“Oh that I was, and I wish that I were.”] Or light reveal her to my eyes? Then Oh, that I were, and I wish that I were, G. Gab. This is downright madness. Gaff. Gab. And we shall be as mad as he, to let him have his will. Therefore, since persuasion won't do, force must. All. Ay, ay; let us carry him home by force, Gaff. Gab. Here, some of you help to hold him, while others fill up the grave. Tim. Hold, hold, neighbours, and hear me speak: If you fill up the grave, and force me hence before I have perform'd my promise, I will never eat, drink, or sleep more. Let. Oh dear! why that will be the death of him. Gaff. Gab. Nay then I'll have no hand in it. G. Cost. Nor I. G. Busy. Perhaps we may bring ourselves into trouble about it. G. Gab. I think we are in a worse quandary now than we were before. G. Cost. What must we do in this case? G. Busy. Pray you now hear me speak. G. Cost. Ay, ay, she's a notable woman and a midwife, and knows what's fit as well as any woman in the parish. tools by wife. G. Busy. I say it is dangerous playing with edged and we ought to do as we would be done and it is ill meddling between a man and his -And every honest man is as good as his -And the will of the dead ought to be perform'd.- -Therefore let us leave him to keep his promise to his wife. word. G. Cost. Ah, dear heart! there are not many like him. More is the pity. All. Good night, Timothy. you! Good night. Heaven preserve Let. O my dear father! my dear father! let me stay with you. Tim. Nobody shall stay with me. Lettice, be a good girl, and go home. [Kisses her. Plough. Come, you will let me lead you home, sure. Let. No sure, but I won't. I'll have nothing to say to you, nor shall you have any thing to do with My Father won't make me marry you, for he always us'd to say that it was pity a good-natured girl should be forced. me. AIR XIII. ["The Bells shall ring.”] Gaf. Gab. The fair and young, who sigh alone, Were husbands all so constant grown, G. Busy. Priss, Ciss, Sue, Marg'ry and Nan, Cho. With us shall come, to cheer the man, The bells must ring, And the clerk must sing, And the good old wives must wind us. You and I, And all must die, And leave this world behind us. TIMOTHY remains. [Exeunt. Tim. Now from the fields the labourers homeward go; each one to kiss his wife, with sweet coutent. A good warm supper, and a loving spouse, make his house blest as mine, while Dolly lived. My house is now like the forsaken barn, where the blind howlet perches all the day. -The open air, cold ground, on which I sit, with none to talk to but the speechless dead, is all my comfort now. I hate my own warm thatch, flock-bed and neighbour's chat, since Dolly, the flower of all my joys, is gone.Oh, how wretched is the state of man! AIR XIV. ["The State of Man."] Expos'd to great and numerous woes: And with his strength his sorrow grows. Then he ends with grief who with pain begun. Dol. Oh! Tim. Mercy on me! Sure I heard something. haps I may hear it againall. [Groans in the Grave. -what noise was that! -per -I think I did -All is still-It was only my fancy.I'll return to my post.--[Dolly upright in the Grave.] O dear, O dear! what can be the meaning of this! why do you frighten a body so? -Was I not a good husband to you while living, and am I not-performing my promise to you now you are dead?Why do'nt you lie still in your grave! you'd have? -What is't Dol. Hickup-Not a drop more, if you love me. Tim. It moves come of me? -and talks!- -What will be Dol. I'm very cold. this is a church-yard.came I here? -Where am I?--Sure -This is a grave too.— -How Tim. O dear, O dear! Dol. Who's that!Timothy!--Come, help me out. Tim. No, I thank you, you are dead, and a grave is the fittest place for you. How came I dead? Dol. I don't believe that.Tim. Why you died with drinking, and was buried to-night. Dol. I don't know any thing of the matter; but, if I was dead, I am alive again. |