days we have seen! The times have been
when swearing was out of fashion.

3_rd Gent_. And drinking.

1_st Gent_. And wenching.

_Gray_. The cursed yeas and forsooths, which we have heard uttered,
when a man could not rap out an innocent oath, but straight the air
was thought to be infected.

_Lovel_. 'Twas a pleasant trick of the saint, which that trim puritan
_Swear-not-at-all Smooth-speech_ used, when his spouse chid him with
an oath for committing with his servant-maid, to cause his house to
be fumigated with burnt brandy, and ends of scripture, to disperse
the devil's breath, as he termed it.

_All_. Ha! ha! ha!

_Gray_. But 'twas pleasanter, when the other saint
_Resist-the-devil-and-he-will-flee-from-thee Pureman_ was overtaken
in the act, to plead an illusio visus, and maintain his sanctity upon
a supposed power in the adversary to counterfeit the shapes of
things.

_All_. Ha! ha! ha!

_John_. Another round, and then let every man devise what trick he
can in his fancy, for the better manifesting our loyalty this day.

_Gray_. Shall we hang a puritan?

_John_. No, that has been done already in Coleman Street.

2_nd Gent_. Or fire a conventicle?

_John_. That is stale too.

3_rd Gent_. Or burn the Assembly's catechism?

4_th Gent_. Or drink the king's health, every man standing upon his
head naked?

_John (to Lovel)_. We have here some pleasant madness.

3_rd Gent_. Who shall pledge me in a pint bumper, while we drink to
the king upon our knees?

_Lovel_. Why on our knees, Cavalier?

_John_ (_smiling_). For more devotion, to be sure. (_To a servant_.)
Sirrah, fetch the gilt goblets.

[_The goblets are brought. They drink the King's health, kneeling.
A shout of general approbation following the first appearance
of the goblets._

_John_. We have here the unchecked virtues of the grape. How the
vapors curl upwards! It were a life of gods to dwell in such an
element: to see, and hear, and talk brave things. Now fie upon these
casual potations. That a man's most exalted reason should depend upon
the ignoble fermenting of a fruit, which sparrows pluck at as well as
we.

_Gray_ (_aside to Lovel_). Observe how he is ravished.

_Lovel_. Vanity and gay thoughts of wine do meet in him and engender
madness.

[_While the rest are engaged in a wild kind of talk_, JOHN _advances
to the front of the stage, and soliloquizes_.

_John_. My spirits turn to fire, they mount