CHAPTER II. FORD. I make bold to press with so little preparation upon you. FALS.-You're welcome: what's your will? give us leave, drawer. FORD-Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent much; my name is Brook. FALS.-Good Master Brook, I desire more acquaintance of you. FORD.-Good Sir John, I sue for yours: not to charge you; for I must let you understand that I think myself in a better plight for a lender than you are; the which hath something emboldened me to this unseasoned intrusion; for they say that if money go before, all ways do lie open. THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. THE company assembled in the public reception room of the Red Lion, consisted, at this moment, of three persons, who were undoubtedly, as the landlady asserted, "good, staunch, and respectable, sort of folks." It was the habit of these said persons to meet each other every evening, sickness and casualties excepted, for the express purpose of indulging themselves with a discourse upon the politics of the day, as well as upon those topics immediately connected with the economy of the village.The conversation was always prolonged to that duration of time as might justify the drinking of three large mugs of the landlord's windy cider. The subject for discussion was generally drawn from the leading article of the old Times newspaper, read out in audible tones by one of the company, after which argument and disputation ensued, conducted on each side with much more zeal than sense; consequently, following the dicta of the oracle they confided in, our politicians contrived to arrive at one main point-i. e. that the ministry invariably erred: Before, however, that we proceed to name the topic under present consideration, we shall endeavour to furnish some account of the characters and occupations of our three self-constituted judges of state affairs. The first of these was a Mr. Jonas Digaway, the clerk and sexton of the parish: He had the chạracter of being a very pious and sagacious man he was thought to see deeper into the affairs of the earth than most men his look was extremely serious, and his nose, for the hue that overspread it, might rival the deepest tint of the ruby. A tobacco pipe placed in his mouth, made him appear so intellectually profound, that any painter in search of a subject for the head of Contemplative Wisdom, would. have instantly seized the likeness of our sexton. He had black bushy eyebrows, and his person was tall and meagre. The second person of our trio was the owner or proprietor of the village store-house, where above a hundred articles of various kinds could be purchased, sparing people the inconvenience of running to as many places in search of the same number of wares,Mr. Ounce, being the name he inherited from his sire, sold tea, coffee, snuff, Burgess's fish-sauce, millstones, Daffy's elixir, shot, powder, tonic pills, Staffordshire, Birmingham, and Manchester, wares; concluding his long bill of contents with a N. B. importing that he also sold patent horse medicines. In addition to all this, he was postmaster of the village, selling pens, ink, and paper; and he moreover entertained some thoughts of opening a circulating library, having, to commence it with, a wellthumbed copy of that inestimable work, "Life in London." The third member of this small coterie, was a certain Giles Ballard, whose figure and manners, added to the honest expression of his countenance, typified the all-but lost character of an English farmer of the olden school. He rented a large portion of land in the neighbourhood, the lease of which had been held by his fore fathers for years long past. This farmer acquired considerable influence over the minds of the villagers, by the honesty and kindness of his disposition; while his proneness to jocularity made him a desirable companion at every meeting among friends. -The subject of their evening's debate, consisted of one that has tormented the brains of the wisest men, and which induced the appearance of numberless publications respecting the means best adapted to its complaint-we allude to the cry of "agricultural distress." Mr. Dighad already opened the case, with a long argument upon its evils, and waited for a reply to his opinion, indicated by his taking an enormous draught of cider. Mr. Ounce therefore prepared to speak next, having secured two or three good whiffs of tobacco smoke in ad away vance. "Without undertaking to prove," said VOL. 1. B |