 | The Tragedy of Tragedies ; Or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great |  |
SCENE IX.
Tom Thumb, Huncamunca, Parson.Parson.
Happy's the Wooing, that's not long adoing;
For if I guess aright, Tom Thumb this Night
Shall give a Being to a New Tom Thumb.
Thumb.
It shall be my Endeavour so to do.
Hunc.
Oh! fie upon you, Sir, you make me blush.
35
It is the Virgin's Sign, and suits you well:
I know not where, nor how, now what I am,
I'm so transported, I have lost my self.
36
Forbid it, all ye Stars, for you're so small,
That were you lost, you'd find your self no more.
So the unhappy Sempstress once, they say,
Her Needle in a Pottle, lost, of Hay;
In vain she look'd, and look'd, and made her Moan,
For ah, the Needle was for ever gone.
Parson.
Long may they live, and love, and propagate,
Till the whole Land be peopled with Tom Thumbs.
So when the Cheshire Cheese a Maggot breeds,
Another and another still succeeds.
By thousands, and ten thousands they increase,
Till one continued Maggot fills the rotten Cheese.
Nor know I whether.
What am I, who or where,
Busiris. I was I know not what, and am I know not how.
Gloriana.
What am I, who or where,
Busiris. I was I know not what, and am I know not how.
Gloriana.
To understand sufficiently the Beauty of this Passage, it will be necessary that we comprehend every Man to contain two Selfs. I shall not attempt to prove this from Philosophy, which the Poets make so plainly evident.
One runs away from the other;
Let me demand your Majesty?Why fly you from your self.
Duke of Guise.
In a 2d. One Self is a Guardian to the other;
Leave me the Care of me.Conquest of Granada.
Again,
My self am to my self less near.Ibid.
In the same, the first Self is proud of the second;
I my self am proud of me.State of Innocence.
In a 3d. Distrustful of him;
Fain I would tell, but whisper it in mine Ear,That none besides might hear, nay not my self.
Earl of Essex
In a 4th. Honours him;
I honour Rome,But honour too my self.
Sophonisba.
In a 5th. At Variance with him;
Leave me not thus at Variance with my self.Busiris.
Again, in a 6th.
I find my self divided from my self.Medea. She seemed the sad Effigies of her self.
Banks. Assist me, Zulema, if thou would'st be
The Friend thou seemest, assist me against me.
Albion Queens.
From all which it appears, that there are two Selfs; and therefore Tom Thumb's losing himself is no such Solecism as it hath been represented by Men, rather ambitious of Criticizing, than qualify'd to Criticize.
| The Tragedy of Tragedies ; Or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great | |