Text 21

COLUMN (cont.):

Thus sitting at the table wide, the Mayor & Aldermen 
Were fit to give law to the city; each eat as much as ten. 
The hungry poor enter'd the hall, to eat good beef & ale. 
Good English hospitality, O then it did not fail!

SCOPPRELL:

Good English hospitality, O, Oh . . .

GIMBLET:

[enters GASS] Come Flammable, and let's enjoy ourselves. Bring the puppets.

GASS:

Hey, hey, you -- should -- why -- yea. How can you be so foolish? Ha! Ha! She calls the experiments puppets! [goes into a bag and takes out a microscope, a magic lantern, slides, a corded bottle connected to an air pump and balloon on GITTIPIN'S table] Here, ladies and gentlemen, I'll show you a louse, or a flea, or a butterfly, or a Beatle, or a cockroach, the blade bone of a tiny back. No, no. Here's a bottle of wind that I took up in the John, and -- Oh, dear, oh dear, water's got onto the slides! Look here Gimblet! Lend me your handkerchief, Tilly Lally. 

[TILLY LALLY and COLUMN pump through the bottle and enlarge the balloon, which takes off around the room; GASS turns hysterical, breaking glasses and upsetting the table]