Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
JONATHAN
Ha, ha, ha! that’s dang’d cute, I swear.
JESSAMY
The gentlemen, you see, will laugh the tenor; the ladies will play the counter-tenor;
the beaux will squeak the treble; and our jolly friends in the gallery a thorough
base, ho, ho, ho!
JONATHAN
Well, can’t you let me see that gamut?
JESSAMY
Oh! yes, Mr. Jonathan; here it is. [Takes out a book.] Oh! no, this is only a titter
with its variations. Ah, here it is. [Takes out another.] Now, you must know, Mr.
Jonathan, this is a piece written by Ben Johnson, which I have set to my master’s
gamut. The places where you must smile, look grave, or laugh outright, are marked
below the line. Now look over me. “There was a certain man”—now you must smile.
JONATHAN
Well, read it again; I warrant I’ll mind my eye.
JESSAMY
“There was a certain man, who had a sad scolding wife,”—now you must laugh.
JONATHAN
Tarnation! That’s no laughing matter though.
JESSAMY
“And she lay sick a-dying”;—now you must titter.
JONATHAN
What, snigger when the good woman’s a-dying! Gor, I—
JESSAMY
Yes, the notes say you must—”and she asked her husband leave to make a will,”—
now you must begin to look grave;—”and her husband said”—
JONATHAN
Ay, what did her husband say? Something dang’d cute, I reckon.
JESSAMY
“And her husband said, you have had your will all your life-time, and would you
have it after you are dead, too?”
Page | 635