PURGANAX.

Done what?

MAMMON.

Disinherited

My eldest son Chrysaor, because he

Attended public meetings, and would always
Stand prating there of commerce, public faith,
Economy, and unadulterate coin,

And other topics, ultra-radical;

And have entailed my estate, called the Fool's
Paradise,

And funds, in fairy-money, bonds, and bills,
Upon my accomplished daughter Banknotina,
And married her to the Gallows.*

PURGANAX.

A good match!

MAMMON.

A high connection, Purganax. The bridegroom
Is of a very ancient family

Of Hounslow Heath, Tyburn, and the New Drop
And has great influence in both Houses. O,
He makes the fondest husband; nay too fond:
New-married people should not kiss in public;
But the poor souls love one another so!
And then my little grandchildren, the Gibbets,
Promising children as you ever saw,—

* "If one should marry a gallows, and beget young gibbets I never saw one so prone."-CYMBELINE.

The young playing at hanging, the elder learning
How to hold radicals. They are well taught too,
For every Gibbet says its catechism,

And reads a select chapter in the Bible
Before it goes to play.

[A most tremendous humming is heard.

PURGANAX.

Ha! what do I hear?

Enter GADFLY.

MAMMON.

Your Gadfly, as it seems, is tired of gadding.

GADFLY.

Hum, hum, hum !

[scalps

From the lakes of the Alps, and the cold gray Of the mountains, I come!

Hum, hum, hum!

From Morocco and Fez, and the high palaces
Of golden Byzantium;

From the temples divine of old Palestine,

VOL. III.

From Athens and Rome,

With a ha! and a hum!

I come, I come!

All inn-doors and windows

Were open to me!
I saw all that sin does,
Which lamps hardly see

2

That burn in the night by the curtained bedThe impudent lamps! for they blushed not red. Dinging and singing,

From slumber I rung her,

Loud as the clank of an ironmonger!
Hum, hum, hum!

Far, far, far,

With the trump of my lips, and the sting at my hips I drove her-afar!

Far, far, far,

From city to city, abandoned of pity,

A ship without needle or star.

Homeless she past, like a cloud on the blast,
Seeking peace, finding war;

She is here in her car,

From afar, and afar.
Hum, hum!

I have stung her and wrung her!

The venom is working;

And if you had hung her

With canting and quirking,

She could not be deader than she will be soon.
I have driven her close to you, under the moon.
Night and day, hum, hum, ha!

I have hummed her and drummed her

From place to place, till at last I have dumbed her Hum, hum, hum!

LEECII.

I will suck

Blood or muck!

The disease of the state is a plethory,

Who so fit to reduce it as I?

RAT.

I'll slily seize and

Let blood from her weasand,— Creeping through crevice, and chink, and cranny, With my snaky tail, and my sides so scranny.

PURGANAX.

Aroint ye, thou unprofitable worm! [To the LEEOH. And thou, dull beetle, get thee back to hell,

[To the GADFLT.

To sting the ghosts of Babylonian kings,

And the ox-headed Io.

SWINE (within.)

Ugh, ugh, ugh!

Hail, Iona the divine!

We will be no longer swine,

But bulls with horns and dewlaps.

RAT.

For,

You know, my lord, the Minotaur

PURGANAX (fiercely.)

Be silent! Get to hell! or I will call

The cat out of the kitchen. Well, Lord Mammon,

This is a pretty business!

[Exit the RAT

MAMMON.

I will go

And spell some scheme to make it ugly then.

Enter SWELLfoot.

[Exit

She is returned!

SWELLFOOT.

Taurina is in Thebes

When Swellfoot wishes that she were in hell!
O Hymen! clothed in yellow jealousy,
And waving o'er the couch of wedded kings
The torch of Discord with its fiery hair;
This is thy work, thou patron saint of queens!
Swellfoot is wived! though parted by the sea,
The very name of wife had conjugal rights;
Her cursed image ate, drank, slept with me,
And in the arms of Adiposa oft

Her memory has received a husband's

[A loud tumult, and cries of" Iona for ever!-No Swellfoot'

SWELLFOOT.

How the swine cry Iona Taurina !

I suffer the real presence. Purganax,
Off with her head!

A jury of the pigs.

Hark!

PURGANAX.

But I must first impanel