for a reason she knows. Item. 500l. to Mrs. Alice for a reason she knows. Item. 500l. to Mrs. Elinor for a reason she knows, and so to all the rest. Item. To my nurses I leave each of them 20l. a year apiece for their lives, besides their arrears due to them for nursing. These sums of money and legacies I leave to be raised and paid out of my manor of Constantinople, in which the Great Turk is now tenant for life." [Laughs aside.] If they should hear how their legacies are to be paid, how they'd fall a-drumming on his coffin!
There is more of this; but it is time to turn to that incident from which the play derived its popularity, its satire on a recent event at the Duke's Theatre.
"The Rivals," a play altered by Davenant from "The Two Noble Kinsmen" of Beaumont and Fletcher, or rather of Fletcher alone, was brought upon the stage about 1664, but would not appear to have met with any great success till 1667, when the part of Celania was represented by little Miss Davis, who danced a jig in the play and then sang a song in it, both of which found their way direct to the heart of the merry monarch. The jig was probably some fresh French importation, or nothing more than a rustic measure, with a few foreign innovations. The song has reached us, and has much ballad beauty to recommend it.
My lodging it is on the cold ground,
And very hard is my fare,
But that which troubles me most is
The unkindness of my dear.
