Text 5

SUCTION:

The trumpeter shat in his hat . . . TRA LA!

SIPSOP:

. . . And clapt it on his head. TRA LA!!

GIMBLET:

Ha, Ha, Ha.

QUID:

[scornfully] I'll begin again.

Little Phebus came strutting in
With his fat belly & his round chin,
What is it you would please to have?
Ho! Ho!
I won't let it go at only so & so.

[GIMBLET thinks they mean her; TILLY LALLY laughs]

ARADOBO:

[to QUID] Who was Phebus, sir?

OBTUSE ANGLE:

He was the God of physic, painting, perspective, geometry, geography, astronomy, cookery, chemistry, mechanics, tactics, pathology, phraseology, theology, mythology, astrology, osteology, somatology -- in short, every art and science adorned him as beads around his neck.

ARADOBO:

Did he understand engraving?

OBTUSE ANGLE:

Indeed he did.

ARADOBO:

Well, he was as great as Chatterton.

TILLY LALLY:

[to OBTUSE ANGLE] Who was as great as Chatterton?

OBTUSE ANGLE:

Hey! How should I know? Who was it, Aradobo?

ARADOBO:

Why sir, the gentleman that the song was about.