Enter Northlake and Catharine.
Northlake.
Good friends, and Mayor Whetstone, welcome all!
It is a happy and auspicious time.
This day the turn of Fortune’s fickle wheel
Hath brought a double gift of joy to me.
This is my wife, from whom I was estranged,—
My Catharine, light of my youthful life,—
Now reunited by a tenderer tie
Than held our earlier years of wedded love.
And this same day, by sudden rise of stocks
On the Exchange, my fortune and my niece’s
Have been restored to us. Swiftly hath flown
The time since when, upon a troublous day,
Yon Merchant Prince and I together planned
Without her leave, as men too oft have done,
To violate a gentle maiden’s heart.
But she by maiden wit and nimble mirth
Hath warded off and foiled our ruder blows;
For Nature gives to helpless maids such powers
To guard their hearts as are undreamt of men.
Let us be glad that naught but harmless mirth
Hath been the kind result of deeper plans.
For, friends, good mirth is better than fine gold;
’Tis Heaven’s mercy shown to weary man,
And falls upon the heart of melancholy
As fall refreshing dews on earth at eve.
And as in sparkling drops of crystal dew
Night-clouded Earth doth clasp the light of stars,
So doth the heart of melancholy catch,
In sparkling laughter, the light of merry hearts.
Whetstone.
Major, now for my revenge! Send for my housekeeper, my castle-keeper. Order Susan. I’ll celebrate my nuptials on this sea-girt strand.
Bluegrass.
Shall I order the nuptial plumage?
Whetstone.
For both. At once.
Enter Punch with garments on each arm.