“As soon as I have received the money, I will marry Grace Towers; but, as she has been cross and coy, I will use her as a servant. Every morning she shall get me a mug of strong beer, with a toast, nutmeg, and sugar in it; then I will sleep till ten, after which I will have a large sack posset. My dinner shall be on table by one, and never without a good pudding. I will have a stock of wine and brandy laid in. About five in the afternoon I will have tarts and jellies, and a gallon bowl of punch; at ten, a hot supper of two dishes. If I am in a good-humour, and Grace behaves herself, she shall sit down with me. To bed about twelve.”[452]
Fielding’s Farce.
In 1731, Henry Fielding wrote a farce for Drury-lane Theatre, called “The Lottery,” to which, in 1732, he added a new scene. This pleasant representation of characters usually influenced to speculate in such schemes, was acted with considerable success, especially about the time when the lottery was drawn at Guildhall, and may well be conceived as calculated to abate the popular furor. It opens with a lottery-office keeper—
Mr. Stocks, alone.
AIR.
A Lottery is a Taxation,
Upon all the Fools in Creation;
And, Heaven be prais’d,
It is easily rais’d,
Credulity’s always in Fashion:
For Folly’s a Fund
Will never lose Ground,
While Fools are so rife in the Nation.
[Knocking without.
Enter 1 Buyer.
1 Buy. Is not this a House where People buy Lottery Tickets?