O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig
pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the
ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of
nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise: I could have such a
fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you,
avoid it."
When I was a very young boy I saw a fist-fight which impressed me as
powerfully as any lesson I ever learned at school. An overtall and
powerful man, about forty years old, had become angry at a
medium-sized but very compact man of about the same age. As his
passion increased his violence grew, until finally he was shouting his
denunciations. The little man stood quietly alert.
Finally, with a great volume of sound, the big man rushed upon the
little one with arms swinging in the air, and I looked with interest
and curiosity to see the smaller man either run or be demolished. He
did neither. His fists were raised quickly but intensely before him,
and when the big man was almost upon him, it seemed to me that his
right hand did not shoot out farther than ten or twelve inches; but it
did shoot out, and the result was as if the big man had been shot,
sure enough.
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