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under-clerks--all that was in bad taste. Zounds! who says it wasn't? It
was a senseless and fragmentary and topsy-turvy harangue; but here and
there came out facts which were true. It is no small thing to speak even
as he did, seeing it is not his trade. I should like to see you do it.
Yes, you! What he said about the lepers at Burton Lazars is an
undeniable fact. Besides, he is not the first man who has talked
nonsense. In fine, my lords, I do not like to see many set upon one.
Such is my humour; and I ask your lordships' permission to take offence.
You have displeased me; I am angry. I am grateful to God for having
drawn up from the depth of his low existence this peer of England, and
for having given back his inheritance to the heir; and, without heeding
whether it will or will not affect my own affairs, I consider it a
beautiful sight to see an insect transformed into an eagle, and
Gwynplaine into Lord Clancharlie. My lords, I forbid you holding any
opinion but mine. I regret that Lord Lewis Duras should not be here. I
should like to insult him. My lords, it is Fermain Clancharlie who has
been the peer, and you who have been the mountebanks. As to his laugh,
it is not his fault. You have laughed at that laugh; men should not
laugh at misfortune. If you think that people cannot laugh at you as
well, you are very much mistaken. You are ugly. You are badly dressed.
My Lord Haversham, I saw your mistress the other day; she is hideous--a
duchess, but a monkey. Gentlemen who laugh, I repeat that I should like
to hear you try to say four words running! Many men jabber; very few
speak. You imagine you know something, because you have kept idle terms
at Oxford or Cambridge, and because, before being peers of England on
the benches of Westminster, you have been asses on the benches at
Gonville and Caius. Here I am; and I choose to stare you in the face.
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