'
Furthermore, let me warn thee against the same on account of the
vast charges thou must stand at. We Englishmen cannot find it in
our hearts to murder a man without much difficulty, hesitation, and
delay. We have little or no invention for pains and penalties; it
is only our acutest lawyers who have wit enough to frame them.
Therefore it behooveth your tragedy-man to provide a rich assortment
of them, in order to strike the auditor with awe and wonder. And a
tragedy-man, in our country, who cannot afford a fair dozen of
stabbed males, and a trifle under that mark of poisoned females, and
chains enow to moor a whole navy in dock, is but a scurvy fellow at
the best. Thou wilt find trouble in purveying these necessaries;
and then must come the gim-cracks for the second course,--gods,
goddesses, fates, furies, battles, marriages, music, and the
maypole. Hast thou within thee wherewithal?"
"Sir!" replied Billy, with great modesty, "I am most grateful for
these ripe fruits of your experience. To admit delightful visions
into my own twilight chamber is not dangerous nor forbidden.
Believe me, sir, he who indulges in them will abstain from injuring
his neighbour; he will see no glory in peril, and no delight in
strife.
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