Four Early Pamphlets eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 164 pages of information about Four Early Pamphlets.

Four Early Pamphlets eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 164 pages of information about Four Early Pamphlets.
that the form is more essential and indispensable, than the substance.  Suppose then, my lord, you were, by one of those sly opportunities, which you know so well how to command, to take off the key in wax, and get a picklock key made exactly upon the model of it.  The end, my lord, take my word for it, would abundantly sanctify the apparent sordidness of the means.  In this situation I cannot help picturing to myself the surprise and the joy, that would be in a moment lighted up in the countenance of your friend.  Your rencounter would be as unexpected and fortunate as that of Lady Randolph and her son, when she fears every moment to have him murdered by Glenalvon.  You would fly into each others arms, and almost smother one another in your mutual embrace.

But another thing that is abundantly worthy of your lordship’s attention, is the subject of disguises and dark lanthorns.  Harley, afterwards earl of Oxford, was in the practice, if I remember right, for it is some time since I read Dr. Swift’s political pamphlets, of crossing the park in a horseman’s coat.  But this is too shallow and thin a disguise.  A mask, on the other hand, might perhaps be too particular.  Though indeed at midnight, which is the only time that I would recommend to your lordship in which to approach within a hundred yards of the palace, it might probably pass without much observation.  A slouched hat, and a bob wig, your lordship may at any time venture upon.  But there is nothing that is of so much importance in this affair as variety.  I would sometimes put on the turban of a Turk, and sometimes the half breeches of a Highlander.  I would sometimes wear the lawn sleeves of a bishop, and sometimes the tye-wig of a barrister.  A leathern apron and a trowel might upon occasion be of sovereign efficacy.  The long beard and neglected dress of a Shylock should be admitted into the list.  I would also occasionally lay aside the small clothes, and assume the dress of a woman.  I would often trip it along with the appearance and gesture of a spruce milliner; and I would often stalk with the solemn air and sweeping train of a duchess.  But of all the infinite shapes of human dress, I must confess that, my favourite is the kind of doublet that prince Harry wore when he assaulted Falstaff.  The nearer it approaches to the guise of a common carman the better, and his long whip ought to be inseparable.  If you could add to it the sooty appearance of a coal-heaver, or a chimney-sweep, it would sit, upon this more precious than velvet garb, like spangles and lace.  I need not add, that to a mind of elegance and sensibility, the emblematical allusion which this dress would carry to the secrecy and impenetrableness of the person that wears it, must be the source of a delightful and exquisite sensation.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Four Early Pamphlets from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.