6. CHAPTER VI.
From which it may be inferred that the best things are liable to
be misunderstood and misinterpreted
A violent uproar now arose in the entry, where my landlady was
well cuffing her maid both with her fist and tongue. She had indeed
missed the wench from her employment, and, after a little search,
had found her on the puppet-show stage in company with the Merry
Andrew, and in a situation not very proper to be described.
Though Grace (for that was her name) had forfeited all title to
modesty; yet had she not impudence enough to deny a fact in which
she was actually surprized; she, therefore, took another turn, and
attempted to mitigate the offence. "Why do you beat me in this manner,
mistress?" cries the wench. "If you don't like my doings, you may turn
me away. If I am a w-e" (for the other had liberally bestowed that
appellation on her), "my betters are so as well as I. What was the
fine lady in the puppet show just now? I suppose she did not lie all
night out from her husband for nothing."
The landlady now burst into the kitchen, and fell foul on both her
husband and the poor puppet-mover. "Here, husband," says she, "you see
the consequence of harbouring these people in your house. If one
doth draw a little drink the more for them, one is hardly made
amends for the litter they make; and then to have one's house made a
bawdy-house of by such lousy vermin. In short, I desire you would be
gone to-morrow morning; for I will tolerate no more such doings. It is
only the way to teach our servants idleness and nonsense; for to be
sure nothing better can be learned by such idle shows as these. I
remember when puppet-shows were made of good scripture stories, as
Jephthah's Rash Vow, and such good things, and when wicked people were
carried away by the devil. There was some sense in those matters;
but as the parson told us last Sunday, nobody believes in the devil
now-adays; and here you bring about a parcel of puppets drest up
like lords and ladies, only to turn the heads of poor country wenches;
and when their heads are once turned topsy-turvy, no wonder everything
else is so."
Virgil, I think, tells us, that when the mob are assembled in a
riotous and tumultuous manner, and all sorts of missile weapons fly
about, if a man of gravity and authority appears amongst them, the
tumult is presently appeased, and the mob, which when collected into
one body, may be well compared to an ass, erect their long ears at the
grave man's discourse.
On the contrary, when a set of grave men and philosophers are
disputing; when wisdom herself may in a manner be considered as
present, and administering arguments to the disputants; should a
tumult arise among the mob, or should one scold, who is herself
equal in noise to a mighty mob, appear among the said philosophers;
their disputes cease in a moment, wisdom no longer performs her
ministerial office, and the attention of every one is immediately
attracted by the scold alone.
Thus the uproar aforesaid, and the arrival of the landlady, silenced
the master of the puppet-show, and put a speedy and final end to
that grave and solemn harangue, of which we have given the reader a
sufficient taste already. Nothing indeed could have happened so very
inopportune as this accident; the most wanton malice of fortune
could not have contrived such another stratagem to confound the poor
fellow, while he was so triumphantly descanting on the good morals
inculcated by his exhibitions. His mouth was now as effectually stopt,
as that of quack must be, if, in the midst of a declamation on the
great virtues of his pills and powders, the corpse of one of his
martyrs should be brought forth, and deposited before the stage, as
a testimony of his skill.
Instead, therefore, of answering my landlady, the puppet-show man
ran out to punish his Merry Andrew; and now the moon beginning to
put forth her silver light, as the poets call it (though she looked at
that time more like a piece of copper), Jones called for his
reckoning, and ordered Partridge, whom my landlady had just awaked
from a profound nap, to prepare for his journey; but Partridge, having
lately carried two points, as my reader hath seen before, was
emboldened to attempt a third, which was to prevail with Jones to take
up a lodging that evening in the house where he then was. He
introduced this with an affected surprize at the intention which Mr.
Jones declared of removing; and, after urging many excellent arguments
against it, he at last insisted strongly that it could be to no manner
of purpose whatever; for that, unless Jones knew which way the lady
was gone, every step he took might very possibly lead him the
farther from her; "for you find, sir," said he, "by all the people
in the house, that she is not gone this way. How much better,
therefore, would it be to stay till the morning, when we may expect to
meet with somebody to inquire of?"
This last argument had indeed some effect on Jones, and while he was
weighing it, the landlord threw all the rhetoric of which he was
master into the same scale. "Sure, sir," said he, "your servant
gives you most excellent advice; for who would travel by night at this
time of the year?" He then began in the usual stile to trumpet forth
the excellent accommodation which his house afforded; and my
landlady likewise opened on the occasion-- But, not to detain the
reader with what is common to every host and hostess, it is sufficient
to tell him Jones was at last prevailed on to stay and refresh himself
with a few hours' rest, which indeed he very much wanted; for he had
hardly shut his eyes since he had left the inn where the accident of
the broken head had happened.
As soon as Jones had taken a resolution to proceed no farther that
night, he presently retired to rest, with his two bedfellows, the
pocket-book and the muff; but Partridge, who at several times had
refreshed himself with several naps, was more inclined to eating
than to sleeping, and more to drinking than to either.
And now the storm which Grace had raised being at an end, and my
landlady being again reconciled to the puppet-man, who on his side
forgave the indecent reflections which the good woman in her passion
had cast on his performances, a face of perfect peace and tranquillity
reigned in the kitchen; where sat assembled round the fire, the
landlord and landlady of the house, the master of the puppet-show, the
attorney's clerk, the exciseman, and the ingenious Mr. Partridge; in
which company past the agreeable conversation which will be found in
the next chapter.