Kings & rulers > Kenilworth > Volume 1

KENILWORTH. ^
which it ia in vain to say, begone, and let me be
merry.”
“By my sooth,” answered Giles Gosling, “if
such troublesome thoughts haunt your mind, and
will not get them gone for plain English, we will
have one of Father Bacon’s pupils from Oxford,
to conjure them away with logic and with He¬
brew—Or, what say you to laying them in a glo¬
rious red sea of claret, my noble guest? Come,
sir, excuse my freedom. I am an old host, and
must have my talk. This peevish humour of
melancholy sits ill upon you—it suits not with a
sleek boot, a hat of a trim block, a fresh cloak,
and a full purse—A pize on it, send it off to those
who have their legs swathed with a hay-wisp,
their heads thatched with a feltbonnet, their jer¬
kin as thin as a cobweb, and their pouch without
ever a cross to keep the fiend Melancholy from
dancing in it. Cheer up, sir! or by this good li¬
quor we will banish thee from the joys of blithe¬
some company, into the mists of melancholy and
the land of little-ease. Here be a set of good fel¬
lows willing to be merry; do not scowl on them
like the devil looking over Lincoln.”
“ You say well, my worthy host,” said the
guest, with a melancholy smile, which, melan¬
choly as it was, gave a very pleasant expression
to his countenance—“You say well, my jovial
friend ; and they that are moody like myself,
should not disturb the mirth of those who are
happy—I will drink a round with your ghests
with all my heart, rather than be termed a mar-
feast.”
So saying, he arose and joined the company,
which, encouraged by the precept and example
of Michael Lambourne, and consisting chiefly
of persons much disposed to profit by the oppor¬
tunity of a merry meal at the expense of their