has got at your secret,
you hav'n't blabbed it yourself, have you? ha! ha! ha! I could find in
my heart--Jack, what would you give me if I should relieve you--

MR. H.
No power of man can relieve me (_sighs_) but it must lie at the root,
gnawing at the root--here it will lie.

BELVIL
No power of man? not a common man, I grant you; for instance, a
subject--it's out of the power of any subject.

MR. H.
Gnawing at the root--there it will lie.

BELVIL
Such a thing has been known as a name to be changed; but not by a
subject--(_shews a Gazette_).

MR. H.
Gnawing at the root (_suddenly snatches the paper out of Belvil's
hand_); ha! pish! nonsense! give it me--what! (_reads_) promotions,
bankrupts--a great many bankrupts this week--there it will lie (_lays it
down, takes it up again, and reads_) "The King has been graciously
pleased"--gnawing at the root--"graciously pleased to grant unto John
Hogsflesh"--the devil--"Hogsflesh, Esq., of Sty Hall, in the county of
Hants, his royal licence and authority"--O Lord! O Lord!--"that he and
his issue"--me and my issue--"may take and use the surname and arms of
Bacon"--Bacon, the surname and arms of Bacon--"in pursuance of an
injunction contained in the last will and testament of Nicholas Bacon,
Esq. his late uncle, as well as out of grateful respect to his
memory:"--grateful respect! poor old soul----here's more--"and that
such arms may be first duly exemplified"--they shall, I will take care
of that--"according to the laws of arms, and recorded in the Herald's
Office."

BELVIL
Come, Madam, give me leave to put my own interpretation upon your
silence, and to plead for my friend, that now that only obstacle which
seemed to stand in your way of your union is removed, you will suffer
me to complete the happiness which my news seems to have brought him, by
introducing him with a new claim to your favour, by the name of Mr.
Bacon.

(_Takes their hands and joins them, which Melesinda seems to give
consent to with a smile_.)

MR. H.
Generous Melesinda!--my dear friend--"he and his issue," me and my
issue--O Lord!--

BELVIL
I wish you joy, Jack, with all my heart.

MR. H.
Bacon, Bacon, Bacon--how odd it sounds. I could never be tired of
hearing it. There was Lord Chancellor Bacon. Methinks I have some of the
Verulam blood in me already--methinks I could look through Nature--there
was Friar Bacon, a conjurer--I feel as if I could conjure too--

_Enter a Servant_.

SERV