Page:CromwellHugo.djvu/339

Gramadoch.'Mongst all the actors in this play grotesque
Which is the maddest? Let's award the prize.
Trick.Murray, who, crushing Cromwell with his scorn,
Turns in a pirouette from Noll to Charles,
And for his banner takes a weather-cock.
Giraff.The palm is Richard's, son of Belial,
Dying for Rochester through filial love.
Trick.If Cromwell had slain Richard in his rage,
It had been well.
Giraff. It had been well. Ay, but the play is done.
Trick.'Tis pity!
Gramadoch. 'Tis pity! So to Richard you award
The prize fool's bauble, and the laurel wreath
Of our profession?
Elespuru. Of our profession? I do much prefer
Good Doctor Jenkins' learned simplicity..
Trick.And Ormond giving Cromwell moral lessons!
Is 't not diverting? I would rather choose
To teach a lawyer justice, or to comb
A polar bear, or milk a pantheress,
Or sweep Vesuvius's red-hot crater.
Giraff.And the vile Jew, who in this moral drama
Is not the least important character!
That rabbi-spy, magician-usurer,
Who, gloating o'er his caroluses' charms,
Comes with his lantern to consult the stars.
Elespuru.Amphibious beast, a stranger to both camps,
That Jew came hither even as the bat
That flies amid the darkness of a tomb.
Giraff.Herein the simile is the more apt,
That Noll will have him nailed upon a cross
Before some portal, like a monstrous fan.