Majesty: tell these fellows to unstrap me. You know you really
owe me an apology.

CATHERINE. You think you can escape by appealing, like Prince
Patiomkin, to my sense of humor?

EDSTASTON. Sense of humor! Ho! Ha, ha! I like that. Would anybody
with a sense of humor make a guy of a man like this, and then
expect him to take it seriously? I say: do tell them to loosen
these straps.

CATHERINE [seating herself]. Why should I, pray?

EDSTASTON. Why! Why! Why, because they're hurting me.

CATHERINE. People sometimes learn through suffering. Manners, for
instance.

EDSTASTON. Oh, well, of course, if you're an ill-natured woman,
hurting me on purpose, I have nothing more to say.

CATHERINE. A monarch, sir, has sometimes to employ a necessary,
and salutary severity--

EDSTASTON [Interrupting her petulantly]. Quack! quack! quack!

CATHERINE. Donnerwetter!

EDSTASTON [continuing recklessly]. This isn't severity: it's
tomfoolery. And if you think it's reforming my character or