Pro. Hell and thunder! Silence there!
MARINERS (to themselves).
Why, if we mayn’t laugh in the theater, nor out of it!
Pro. (to Officers). Here’s a gentleman, who would go to sea to escape being shaken. Shall we take him a cruise?
FIRST OFFICER.
Frightened by the earthquake, sir? I do not blame you.
Seo. When the gods shake your city, as a terrier does a rat.
1st Off. But how should the sea cure you? ’Tis their common plaything.
Pro. Indeed, sir, you would learn what heavings be. These land movements are nought. What would you say to thirty feet up and down three times a minute? with now your bows in the air and now your stern: pitched now forward, now backward, now rolled from side to side; thrust up to heaven till your brains are full of air, then sunk down till your belly squirms, inside out, outside in! 201
Seo. Maybe, sir: but the roof will not fall on your head: the waves do not crack your walls. Your ships being constructed mainly of wood . . .