The appropriate explanations mentioned in the title are given in various songs which the various characters sing after describing themselves, or after dialogues with each other. The announcement that the whole exposition, etc., will be after the rule of the four elements, is rather startling; the dialogue, however, between Captain Riches and Captain Poverty shows that Tom was equal to his subject, and promised nothing that he could not perform.
ENTER CAPTAIN POVERTY
O Riches, thy figure is charming and bright, And to speak in thy praise all the world doth delight, But I'm a poor fellow all tatter'd and torn, Whom all the world treateth with insult and scorn.
RICHES
However mistaken the judgment may be Of the world which is never from ignorance free, The parts we must play, which to us are assign'd, According as God has enlightened our mind.
Of elements four did our Master create The earth and all in it with skill the most great;Need I the world's four materials declare -Are they not water, fire, earth, and air?
Too wise was the mighty Creator to frame A world from one element, water or flame;The one is full moist and the other full hot, And a world made of either were useless, I wot.
And if it had all of mere earth been compos'd And no water nor fire been within it enclos'd, It could ne'er have produc'd for a huge multitude Of all kinds of living things suitable food.
And if God what was wanted had not fully known, But created the world of these three things alone, How would any creature the heaven beneath, Without the blest air have been able to breathe?
Thus all things created, the God of all grace, Of four prime materials, each good in its place.
The work of His hands, when completed, He view'd, And saw and pronounc'd that 'twas seemly and good.
POVERTY
In the marvellous things, which to me thou hast told The wisdom of God I most clearly behold, And did He not also make man of the same Materials He us'd when the world He did frame?
RICHES
Creation is all, as the sages agree, Of the elements four in man's body that be;Water's the blood, and fire is the nature, Which prompts generation in every creature.
The earth is the flesh which with beauty is rife The air is the breath, without which is no life;So man must be always accounted the same As the substances four which exist in his frame.
And as in their creation distinction there's none 'Twixt man and the world, so the Infinite One Unto man a clear wisdom did bounteously give The nature of everything to perceive.
POVERTY
But one thing to me passing strange doth appear Since the wisdom of man is so bright and so clear How comes there such jarring and warring to be In the world betwixt Riches and Poverty?
RICHES
That point we'll discuss without passion or fear With the aim of instructing the listeners here;And haply some few who instruction require May profit derive like the bee from the briar.
Man as thou knowest, in his generation Is a type of the world and of all the creation;Difference there's none in the manner of birth 'Twixt the lowliest hinds and the lords of the earth.
The world which the same thing as man we account In one place is sea, in another is mount;A part of it rock, and a part of it dale -God's wisdom has made every place to avail.
There exist precious treasures of every kind Profoundly in earth's quiet bosom enshrin'd;There's searching about them, and ever has been, And by some they are found, and by some never seen.
With wonderful wisdom the Lord God on high Has contriv'd the two lights which exist in the sky;The sun's hot as fire, and its ray bright as gold, But the moon's ever pale, and by nature is cold.
The sun, which resembles a huge world of fire, Would burn up full quickly creation entire Save the moon with its temp'rament cool did assuage Of its brighter companion the fury and rage.
Now I beg you the sun and the moon to behold, The one that's so bright and the other so cold.
And say if two things in creation there be Better emblems of Riches and Poverty.
POVERTY
In manner most brief, yet convincing and clear, You have told the whole truth to my wond'ring ear, And I see that 'twas God, who in all things is fair, Has assign'd us the forms, in this world which we bear.
In the sight of the world doth the wealthy man seem Like the sun which doth warm everything with its beam;Whilst the poor needy wight with his pitiable case Resembles the moon which doth chill with its face.
RICHES
You know that full oft, in their course as they run, An eclipse cometh over the moon or the sun;Certain hills of the earth with their summits of pride The face of the one from the other do hide.
The sun doth uplift his magnificent head, And illumines the moon, which were otherwise dead, Even as Wealth from its station on high, Giveth work and provision to Poverty.
POVERTY
I know, and the thought mighty sorrow instils, The sins of the world are the terrible hills An eclipse which do cause, or a dread obscuration, To one or another in every vocation.
RICHES
It is true that God gives unto each from his birth Some task to perform while he wends upon earth, But He gives correspondent wisdom and force To the weight of the task, and the length of the course.
[Exit.
POVERTY
I hope there are some, who 'twixt me and the youth Have heard this discourse, whose sole aim is the truth, Will see and acknowledge, as homeward they plod, Each thing is arrang'd by the wisdom of God.
There can be no doubt that Tom was a poet, or he could never have treated the hackneyed subjects of Riches and Poverty in a manner so original and at the same time so masterly as he has done in the interlude above analyzed: I cannot, however, help thinking that he was greater as a man than a poet, and that his fame depends more on the cleverness, courage and energy, which it is evident by his biography that he possessed, than on his interludes. A time will come when his interludes will cease to be read, but his making ink out of elderberries, his battle with the "cruel fighter," his teaching his horses to turn the crane, and his getting the ship to the water, will be talked of in Wales till the peak of Snowdon shall fall down.
