* Consent to the Bill against Occasional Conformity.
JACK.—How d'ye mean, make as if I hanged myself?
HAB.—Nay, you must really hang yourself up in a true genuine rope, that there may appear no trick in it, and leave the rest to your friends.
JACK.—Truly this is a matter of some concern, and my friends, I hope, won't take it ill if I inquire a little into the means by which they intend to deliver me. A rope and a noose are no jesting matters!
HAB.—Why so mistrustful? hast thou ever found us false to thee? I tell thee there is one ready to cut thee down.
JACK.—May I presume to ask who it is that is entrusted with so important an office?
HAB.—Is there no end of thy hows and thy whys? That's a secret.
JACK.—A secret, perhaps, that I may be safely trusted with, for I am not like to tell it again. I tell you plainly it is no strange thing for a man before he hangs himself up to inquire who is to cut him down.
HAB.—Thou suspicious creature! if thou must needs know it, I tell thee it is Sir Roger;* he has been in tears ever since thy misfortune. Don Diego and we have laid it so that he is to be in the next room, and before the rope is well about thy neck, rest satisfied he will break in and cut thee down. Fear not, old boy; we'll do it, I'll warrant thee.
* It was given out that the Earl of Oxford would oppose the
occasional Bill, and so lose his credit with the Tories; and
the Dissenters did believe he would not suffer it to pass.