An excerpt of Captain
Bellamy's Speech to Captain Beer:
“D--n my B---d, says he,
I am sorry they won't let you have your Sloop again, for I scorn to do any one
a Mischief, when it is not for my Advantage; damn the Sloop, we must sink her,
and she might be of Use to you. Tho', damn ye, you are a sneaking Puppy, and so
are all those who will submit to be governed by Laws which rich Men have made
for their own Security, for the cowardly Whelps have not the Courage otherwise
to defend what they get by their Knavery; but damn ye altogether: Damn them for
a Pack of crafty Rascals, and you, who serve them, for a Parcel of hen-hearted
Numskuls.
“They villify us, the
Scoundrels do, when there is only this Difference, they rob the Poor under the
Cover of Law, forsooth, and we plunder the Rich under the Protection of our own
Courage; had you not better make One of us than sneak after the A---s of those
Villains for Employment?”
Captain Beer told him,
that his Conscience would not allow him to break thro' the Laws of God and Man.
“You are a devilish Conscience
Rascal, d--n ye,” reply'd Bellamy, “I am a free Prince, and I have as much
Authority to make War on the Whole World, as he who has a hundred Sails of
Ships at Sea, and an Army of 100,000 Men in the Field; and this my conscience
tells me; but there is no arguing with such sniveling Puppies who allow
Superiors to kick them about Deck at Pleasure; and pin their Faith upon a Pimp
of a Parson; a Squab, who neither practices nor believes what he puts upon the
chuckle-headed Fools he preaches to.---“
Some of the speeches attributed
to Captain Bellamy show evidence of having been borrowed from other literary
sources; especially the Jacobite playwright Thomas Otway.
This account of Bellamy appeared
in a subsequent volume added to the highly-successful original edition of The
General History and some of its content may reflect the author’s desire to
“pad” the new volume.
For example:
.jpg)
DEFOE:
I am a free Prince, and I have
as much Authority to make War on the Whole World, as he who has a hundred
Sails of Ships at Sea, and an Army of 100,000 Men in the Field; and this my
conscience tells me; but there is no arguing with such sniveling Puppies who
allow Superiors to kick them about Deck at Pleasure; and pin their Faith upon
a Pimp of a Parson; a Squab, who neither practices nor believes what he puts
upon the chuckle-headed Fools he preaches to.---
|
OTWAY:
Conscience! a trick of State,
found out by those that wanted power to support their Laws; a bug-bear name
to startle fools; but we that know the weakness of the fallacie, know better
how to use what nature gave. That
Soul’s no Soul which to it self’s a slave.
Who any thing for Conscience sake deny, do nothing else but give
themselves the lye [”Alcibiades” Otway 1968 1:129-130]
|
DEFOE:
...you are a sneaking Puppy,
and so are all those who will submit to be governed by Laws which rich Men
have made for their own Security, for the cowardly Whelps have not the
Courage otherwise to defend what they get by their Knavery; but damn ye
altogether: Damn them for a Pack of crafty Rascals, and you, who serve them,
for a Parcel of hen-hearted Numskuls.
They villify us, the Scoundrels do, when there is only this
Difference, they rob the Poor under the Cover of Law, forsooth, and we
plunder the Rich under the Protection of our own Courage...
 |
OTWAY
Yes [I am] a most notorious
Villain; To see the suffering’s of my fellow Creatures, and own my self a
Man: To see our Senators cheat the deluded people with a shew of Liberty,
which yet they ne’r must taste of; They say, by them our hands are free from
Fetters, yet whom they please they lay in basest bonds; Bring whom they
please to Infamy and Sorrow;...that make us slaves and tell us ‘tis our
Charter...Where all agree to spoil the Publick Good, and Villains fatten with
the brave man’s Labours...We have neither safety, Unity, nor Peace, for the
foundation’s lost of Common Good; Justice is lame as well as blind amongst
us; The Laws (corrupted to their ends that make ‘em) serve but for
Instruments of some new Tyranny, that every day starts up to enslave us
deeper: [”Venice Preserv’d, or A Plot Discover’d” Otway 1968:208-210]
Otway, Thomas
1968 The Works of Thomas Otway:
Plays, Poems and Love-Letters (J.C. Ghosh, editor). Clarendon Press reprint of 1932 edition.
Oxford.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment