The Man of the World (1792) by Charles Macklin
page 55 of 112 (49%)
page 55 of 112 (49%)
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vanity of human nature:--now, sir, do you understand this doctrine?
_Eger_. Perfectly well, sir. _Sir Per_. Ay, but was it not right? was it not ingenious, and weel hit off? _Eger_. Certainly, sir: extremely well. _Sir Per_. My next bow, sir, was till your ain mother, whom I ran away with fra the boarding school; by the interest of whose family I got a guid smart place in the Treasury:--and, sir, my vary next step was intill Parliament; the which I entered with as ardent and as determined an ambition as ever agitated the heart of Cæsar himself. Sir, I bowed, and watched, and hearkened, and ran about, backwards and forwards; and attended, and dangled upon the then great man, till I got intill the vary bowels of his confidence,--and then, sir, I wriggled, and wrought, and wriggled, till I wriggled myself among the very thick of them: hah! I got my snack of the clothing, the foraging, the contracts, the lottery tickets--and aw the political bonusses;--till at length, sir, I became a much wealthier man than one half of the golden calves I had been so long a bowing to: [_He rises, and_ Eger. _rises too._]--and was nai that bowing to some purpose? _Eger_. It was indeed, sir. _Sir Per_. But are you convinced of the guid effects, and of the utility of bowing? _Eger_. Thoroughly, sir. |
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