THE DYNASTS ACT
PRINCE REGENT
That's mighty fortunate! Had it been true, I should have been abused by all the world— The Queen the keenest of the chorus too— Though I have been postponing this pledged feast Through days and weeks, in hopes the King wouM
mend,
Till expectation fusted with delay. But give a dog a bad name—or a Prince ! So, then, it is this new-come King of Rome Who has passed or ever the world has welcomed
him! . . .
Call him a king—that pompous upstart's son— Beside us scions of the ancient lines !
DUKE OF BEDFORD
I think that rumour untrue also, sir. I heard it as I drove up from Woburn this evening, and it was contradicted then.
PRINCE REGENT
Drove up this evening, did ye, Duke ? Why did you cut it so close ?
DUKE OF BEDFORD
Well, it so happened that my sheep-shearing dinner was fixed for this very day, and I couldn't put it^off-So I dined with them there at one o'clock, discussed the sheep, rushed off, drove the two-and-forty miles, jumped into my clothes at my house here, and reached your Royal Highnesses door in no very bad time.
PRINCE REGENT
Capital, capital. But, 'pon my soul, 'twas a close shav&!
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