Plot. I don't insist upon trifles. Strike it out.
Clink. Strike it out! consider what you do. In this they strike at the very foundation of the drama. Don't almost all the persons of your second act start out of stones that Deucalion and Pyrrha threw behind them? This cavil is levell'd at the whole system of the reparation of human race.
1st Play. Then the shower is absurd.
Clink. Why should not this gentleman rain, as well as other authors snow and thunder?—— —— [reads.] Enter Deucalion in a sort of waterman's habit, leading his wife Pyrrha to a boat—Her first distress is about her going back to fetch a casket of jewels. Mind, how he imitates your great authors. The first speech has all the fire of Lee.
Tho' heav'n wrings all the sponges of the sky,
And pours down clouds, at once each cloud a sea.
Not the spring tides——
Sir Trem. There were no spring tides in the Mediteranean, and consequently Deucalion could not make that simile.
Clink. A man of Deucalion's quality might have travelled beyond the Mediteranean, and so your objection is answered. Observe, Sir Tremendous, the tenderness of Otway, in this answer of Pyrrha.
————— Why do the stays
Taper my waist, but for thy circling arms?
Sir Trem. Ah! Anachronisms! Stays are a modern habit, and the whole scene is monstrous, and against the rules of tragedy.
Plot. I submit Sir,—out with it.