CHAPTER IV. "He still resolv'd to mend the matter, Hudibras. It would have been a terrible curb to the dashing spirit of our hero, if the sumptuary laws of the Corinthians had been in force within the Manor of Freeland,by which every man was restricted, under a very severe penalty, from expending more in one year than the amount of his yearly income. Happily, among the few articles of liberty, which the Freelanders still retained, was that of running out as fast as they pleased, without any other restriction than that of running into jail at the mercy of their creditors; and even this restriction was confined to the plebeians. They are, however, so fond of this liberty of ruining themselves ad libitum, that, of all common proverbs, not one is so common among them as that of eating the calf in the cow's belly. Farmer Gildrig, the careful father of our hero, had purchased, with the accumulation of the revenues of Master Frederic's bishopric, during his minority, a fine estate called Brambleville Royal, in some part of Yorkshire, worth 100,000 livres. Frederic now made an excursion, accompanied by his elder brother, the Squire, to view this new acquisition, and to receive the homage of the tenants. We hear of nothing remarkable during this excursion-no act of benevolence worthy of the brothers, and of our recording;-no, the whole of the occurrences may be summed up in these words: The, little folks stared at the great folks like fools ; and the great folks laughed at the little folks, like fools.-But this behaviour is so common on similar excursions, that the remark is almost beneath the dignity of our pen! Fine weather cannot last always; calms are only the prognostics of storms; and a great fortune in the hands of a fool is a great misfortune. Master Frederic espied a box containing some little cubes of bone, and he no sooner grasped it in his hand, than his elbow began to shake like a fiddler's; he moreover took a racket and ball in his hand, and immediately fell a capering and knocking the ball about like one mad. These sudden motions seemed to have given a concussion to the furniture of his upper story; he would bet large sums on the most ridiculous undertakings, and there are always cool ones enough ready to take advantage of the first maniac fit. The consequence was that the fine estate of Brambleville Royal was soon sold to pay debts of dis-honour! What! not stop yet? No, by all the powers of stupidity! The bishopric quickly followed, and was bought in by his father. This was, perhaps, the only good bargain that Frederic ever clenched in his life, as the bishopric was, soon after invaded, and swallowed up by a foreign enemy; but there was no loss to the family, as the Freelanders paid for all. He pulled up now, surely?-No-played upon tick-bond upon bond-thousand added to thousand: "So have I seen a king on chess, Dorset. RABELAIS, fountain of wit! how nearly to the extravagant behaviour of our hero comes that of thy Panurge, after Pantagruel had bestowed upon him the government of Salmygondin in Dipsodie. The quotation is apt, and here it is: "Now his worship, the new laird, husbanded his estate so providently well and prudently, that in less than fourteen days he wasted and dilapidated all the certain and uncertain revenue of his lairdship for three whole years: yet did he not properly dilapidate, as you might say, in founding of monasteries, building of churches, erecting of colleges, setting up of hospitals, or casting his bacon flitches to the dogs; but spent it in a thousand little banquets, and jolly collations, keeping open house for all comers and goers; yea, to all good fellows, young girls, and pretty wenches; felling timber, burning the great logs for the sale of the ashes, borrowing money before hand, buying dear, selling cheap, and eating his corn, as it were, whilst it was but grass.'* Panurge, however, was only a base-born wight, and could not disgrace himself by his company; but who, amongst us, that had peeped within the gloomy walls of a tennis-court, and observed a number of votaries or mad worshippers of the goddess of fortune, many of their faces branded with suspicion, craft, dissimulation, and infamy, whilst those of others, seemingly of a superior class, bespeak them the dupes of their own credulity;-who could have entertained a thought of beholding, amidst such a gang, Colonel Frederic, the third great * Panurge had not then visited the island of sharping or gaming, or Rabelais would not have passed over a vice by which a dexterous hand will dilapidate in one night more than Panurge was fourteen days in wasting. |