ment, and swears they understand trade better than any nation under the sun. Sack. The third is an old beau, that has May in his fancy and dress, but December in his face and his heels he admires all the new fashions, and those must be French; loves operas, balls, masquerades, and is always the most tawdry of the whole company on a birth-day. Col. These are pretty opposite to one another, truly; and the fourth, what is he, landlord? Sack. A very rigid quaker, whose quarter began this day.I saw Mrs. Lovely go in, not above two hours ago,-Sir Philip set her down. What think you now, colonel, is not the poor lady to be pitied? Col. Ay, and rescu'd too, landlord. Free. In my opinion that's impossible. Col. There is nothing impossible to a lover. What would not a man attempt for a fine woman and thirty thousand pounds? Besides, my honour is at stake; I promised to deliver her, and she bid me win her and wear her. Sack. That's fair, faith. Free. If it depended upon knight-errantry, I should not doubt your setting free the damsel; but to have avarice, impertinence, hypocrisy, and pride, at once to deal with, requires more cunning than generally attends a man of honour. Col. My fancy tells me I shall come off with glory. 1 I am resolved to try, however.-Do you know all the guardians, Mr. Sackbut? Sack. Very well, sir; they all use my house. Col. And will you assist me, if occasion requires? Sack. In every thing I can, colonel. Free. I'll answer for him; and whatever I can serve you in, you may depend on. I know Mr. Periwinkle and Mr. Tradelove; the latter has a very great opinion of my interest abroad.—I happen'd to have a letter from a correspondent two hours before the news arrived of the French king's death: I communicated it to him: upon which he bought all the stock he could, and what with that, and some wagers he laid, he told me he had got to the tune of five hundred pounds; so that I am much in his good graces. Col. I don't know but you may be of service to me, Freeman. Free. If I can, command me, colonel. Col. Isn't it possible to find a suit of clothes ready made at some of these sale-shops fit to rig out a beau, think you, Mr. Sackbut ? Sack. O hang 'em-No, colonel, they keep nothing ready made that a gentleman would be seen in: but I can fit you with a suit of clothes, if you'd make a figure.-Velvet and gold brocade―They were pawn'd to me by a French Count, who had been stript at play, and wanted money to carry him home; he promised to send for them, but I have not heard any thing of him. Free. He has not fed upon frogs long enough yet to recover his loss; ha, hal Col. Ha, ha! Well, the clothes will do Mr. Sackbut, tho' we must have three or four fellows in tawdry liveries: they can be procur'd, I hope. Free. Egad! I have a brother come from the WestIndies that can match you; and, for expedition-sake, you shall have his servants: there's a black, a tawney-moor, and a Frenchman; they don't speak one word of English, so can make no mistake. Col. Excellent!-Egad! I shall look like an Indian prince. First, I'll attack my beau guardian; where lives he? Sack. Faith, somewhere about St. James's; tho' to say in what street I cannot; but any chairman will tell you where Sir Philip Modelove lives. Free. Oh you'll find him in the Park at eleven every day; at least, I never pass thro' at that hour without seeing him there.-But what do you intend ? Col. To address him in his own way, and find what he designs to do with the lady. Free. And what then? Col. Nay, that I cann't tell; but I shall take my measures accordingly. Sack. Well, 'tis a mad undertaking in my mind: but here's to your success, colonel. [Drinks. Col. 'Tis something out of the way, I confess; but fortune may chance to smile, and I succeed.—Come, landlord, let me see those clothes. Freeman, I shall expect you'll leave word with Mr. Sackbut where one " may find you upon occasion; and send me my Indian equipage immediately, d'ye hear? Free. Immediately. Col. Bold was the man who ventur'd first to sea, The path of love's a dark and dang’rous way, [Exit [Exit. SCENE II. PRIM's House. Enter Mrs. LOVELY and her Maid BETTY. Betty. Bless me, madam! Why do you fret and tease yourself so? This is giving them the advantage with a witness. Mrs. Lov. Must I be condemned all my life to the preposterous humours of other people, and pointed at by every boy in town?-Oh! I could tear my flesh, and curse the hour I was born-Isn't it monstrously ridiculous, that they should desire to impose their Quaking dress upon me at these years? When I was a child, no matter what they made me wear, but now Betty. I would resolve against it, madam; I'd see "em hang'd before I'd put on the pinch'd cap again. Mrs. Lov. Then I must never expect one moment's ease: she has rung such a peal in my ears already, that I sha'n't have the right use of them this month. What can I do? Betty. What can you not do, if you will but give your mind to it? Marry, madam. Mrs. Lov. What! and have my fortune go to build churches and hospitals ? Betty. Why, let it go.-If the colonel loves you, as he pretends, he'll marry you without a fortune, madam; and I assure you a colonel's lady is no despicable thing; a colonel's post will maintain you like a gentlewoman, madam. Mrs. Lov. So you would advise me to give up my own fortune, and throw myself upon the colonel's. Betty. I would advise you to make yourself easy, madam. Mrs. Lov. That's not the way, I'm sure. No, no, girl, there are certain ingredients to be mingled with matrimony, without which I may as well change for the worse as the better. When the woman has fortune enough to make the man happy, if he has either honour or good manners, he'll make her easy. Love makes but a slovenly figure in a house, where poverty keeps the door. Betty. And so you resolve to die a maid, do you, madam? Mrs. Lov. Or have it in my power to make the man I love master of my fortune. Bitty. Then you don't like the colonel so well as I thought you did, madam, or you would not take such 2 resolution. |