324 Sir John de Bull [SEPT. 



weighed matters more properly ; for, as our author justly observes, 

 " what is principle, compared with 



tf A place, good wages, and a well-filled platter ? 

 Nothing, Bob thought, and so he chose the latter." 



The other two characters have, in truth, no character at all ; and for 

 this very reason, we suppose, they were chosen by the worthy Dogberry, 

 who followed the example of his great prototype when selecting " the 

 most desartless man to be constable." 



" Fi-fum, from Aberdeen" but we will not describe him, lest a noble 

 countryman of his should imagine that we meant to insinuate a tie of 

 ancestry between the two whereas nothing can be further from our 

 intention. Massa Mungo was an elephant-drivei in India, but dis- 

 charged for puppyism and incapacity. How he came into the knight's 

 service, we are not told most likely, smuggled. He was a buck, it 

 seems, and possessed some personal charms ; for our author sums up 

 his character in the following two lines, which we must quote merely to 

 notice a false quantity which the rhyme has led him into : 



<c ' Oh, quanta species,' (sententia Phoedrum, 

 Pro hac vides,) ' sed non habet cerebrum.' " 



The second syllable in " cerebrum" is short. 



But we must hasten to the conclusion of this eventful history, and we 

 cannot but admire the talent with which this part of it is written. By 

 the folly and knavery of his servants, by his strange temper being 

 humoured, his feelings led astray, and his capacity for being gulled 

 (which was immense) being worked upon, he is reduced to a situation 

 only inferior in wretchedness to that of the (C Malade Imaginaire" of the 

 French comedian. " His skin, like a lady's loose gown, hangs about 

 him," his arm of strength is paralyzed, and his blustering voice becomes 

 a pitiful whine, like that of a sick child. At length, the majestic figure 

 is laid up, like the huge hulk of an East Indiaman, whilst Dogberry and 

 Bob, like two nightmares, sit upon his lower extremities, and a multi- 

 tude of old women flutter and mumble around him, "frighting his ear 

 with bombast," and drenching his stomach with slops and miserable 

 small beer. His neighbours too (" this was the unkindest cut of all") 

 his neighbours insult him in his calamities, trample his fences, poach 

 upon his manors, and his remonstrances are unheeded ; for a rumour 

 has gone abroad " Sir John can't fight." Time was, when a word 

 from the knight was omnipotent because his blow was sure to follow. 

 Now, ( ' he must not use threatening language ; because he would, per- 

 haps, be obliged to go to war to maintain it."* He must be gentle as 

 a ladybird, use drawing-room phrases, and mince in his gait like a 

 court-beau in pea-green taffeta. He must simper out, " Sir John can't 

 fight, therefore he hopes/' &c. The duties of forbearance are preached 

 in his ear, as those which alone suit his reduced condition; and his 

 eager exclamation " Let me beat the rascal !" is answered by an omin- 



* We have to acknowledge an obligation to Sir Robert Peel for this little piece of 

 reasoning, which we have quoted literally from a late speech of his on the subject of our 

 foieign policy. Souls of Pitt, Castlereagh, and Canning, how very far were ye above the 

 thought, much less the utterance, of such a thought as this ! If any earthly voice may 

 break the sleep of the dead, Sir Robert's speech on that occasion might awake you to look 

 down upon the infamy of England horresco referens! ! 



