Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/239

BEN JONSON 223 Mistress Win, or Win-the- fight, Littlewit was equally anxious to go, but feared that her mother would never consent to " such a profane motion." Then did this unscrupulous husband suggest unto his wife, who was in an interesting condition, that she should suddenly fall into a violent longing for roast pig, one of the standard delicacies of the Fair ; and he even went to the enormity of saying : " Win, long to eat of a pig, sweet Win, in the Fair, do you see, in the heart of the Fair, not at Pyecorner ! " With admirable wifely submission, all unconscious of evil, this sweet Griselda, this long-suffering Win-the-fight, did then and there commence to long so terribly for roast pig, and for pig, too, in the very heart of the fair ; that her pious mother was constrained to consult her confessor, whether in such a critical case it would not be lawful to sanction a venture even among the tents of the wicked in the Fair. Littlewit found Zeal-of the-land Busy zealously and busily and profitably employed : " fast by the teeth in the cold turkey-pie in the cup- board, with a great white loaf on his left hand, and a glass of malmsey on his right." The saint, after arguing with fine subtlety the subtle point of casuistry, graciously sanctioned the expedition, and agreed to take part in it himself. And this is the way in which he came to commune for a time with that sinner Knockem : — " Knock. Sir, I will take your counsel, and cut my hair, and leave vapours ; I see that tobacco, and bottle-ale, and pig, and Whit a Captain, with a finely forcible appellative in the ' Dramatis Personce ' ], and very Ursla herself is all vanity. Busy. Only pig was not comprehended in my admonition, the rest were : for long hair, it is an ensign of pride, a banner ; and the world is full of these banners, very foil of banners. And