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British Dramatists from Dryden to Sheridan

By: George Henry Nettleton; Arthur Eillicot Case | Book details

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Page 180
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it not been for some powerful considerations which

will be removed tomorrow morning, I had 385
made her pluck off this mask and show the passion that lies panting under.

Enter a Footman.

MED. Here comes a man from Bellair with news of your last adventure.

DOR. I am glad he sent him; I long to 390
know the consequence of our parting.

FOOTM. Sir, my master desires you to come to my Lady Townley's presently1 and bring Mr. Medley with you. My Lady Woodvill and her

daughter are there. 395

MED. Then all's well, Dorimant.

FOOTM. They have sent for the fiddles and mean to dance. He bid me tell you, sir, the old lady does not know you, and would have you own yourself to

be Mr. Courtage. They are all prepared to 400
receive you by that name.

DOR. That foppish admirer of quality, who flatters the very meat at honorable tables and never offers love to a woman below a lady-grandmother.

MED. You know the character you are to 405
act, I see.

DOR. This is Harriet's contrivance -- wild, witty, lovesome, beautiful, and young! -- Come along,

MED. This new woman would well supply 410
the loss of Loveit.

DOR. That business must not end so; before tomorrow sun is set I will revenge and clear it.

And you and Loveit, to her cost, shall find,

I fathom all the depths of womankind. Exeunt. 415


ACT IV

[SCENE I]

[LADY TOWNLEY's drawing-room.]

The scene opens with the fiddles playing a country dance. Enter DORIMANT and LADY WOODVILLL, YOUNG, BELLAIR and MRS. HARRIET, OLD BELLAIR and EMILIA, MR. MEDLEYand LADY TOWNLEY, as having just ended the dance.

O. BELL. So, so, so! -- a smart bout, a very smart bout, a dod!

L. TOWN. How do you like Emilia's dancing, brother?

O. BELL. Not at all -- not at all! 5

L. TOWN. You speak not what you think, I am sure.

O. BELL. No matter for that; go, bid her dance no more. It don't become her -- it don't become her. Tell her I say so. (Aside.) A dod, I love 10 her!

DOR. (to LADY WOODVILL). All people mingle nowadays, madam. And in public places women of quality have the least respect showed 'em.

L. WOOD. I protest you say the truth, Mr. 15
Courtage.

DOR. Forms and ceremonies, the only things that uphold quality and greatness, are now shamefully laid aside and neglected.

L. WOOD. Well, this is not the women's age, 20
let 'em think what they will. Lewdness is the business now; love was the business in my time.

DOR. The women, indeed, are little beholding to the young men of this age; they're generally only

dull admirers of themselves, and make their 25
court to nothing but their periwigs and their cravats, and would be more concerned for the disordering of 'em, though on a good occasion, than a young maid would be for the tumbling of her head or handkercher.

L. WOOD. I protest you hit 'em. 30

DOR. They are very assiduous to show themselves at court, well dressed, to the women of quality, but their business is with the stale mistresses of the town, who are prepared to receive their lazy addresses by

industrious old lovers who have cast 'em off and 35
made 'em easy.

HAR. [to MEDLEY]. He fits my mother's humor so well, a little more and she'll dance a kissing dance with him anon.

MED. Dutifully observed, madam. 40

DOR. [to LADY WOODVILL]. They pretend to be great critics in beauty. By their talk you would think they liked no face, and yet [they] can dote on an ill one if it belong to a laundress or a tailor's

daughter. They cry, 'A woman's past her 45
prime at twenty, decayed at four-and-twenty, old and unsufferable at thirty.'

L. WOOD. Unsufferable at thirty! That they are in the wrong, Mr. Courtage, at five-and-thirty, there

are living proofs enough to convince 'em. 50

DOR. Ay, madam. There's Mrs. Setlooks, Mrs. Droplip, and my Lady Lowd; show me among all our opening buds a face that promises so much beauty as the remains of theirs.

L. WOOD. The depraved appetite of this 55
vicious age tastes nothing but green fruit, and loathes it when 'tis kindly2 ripened.

DOR. Else so many deserving women, madam, would not be so untimely neglected.

L. WOOD. I protest, Mr. Courtage, a dozen 60
such good men as you would be enough to atone for that wicked Dorimant and all the under3 debauchees of the town. (HARRIET, EMILIA, YOUNG BELLAIR, MEDLEY, [and] LADY TOWNLEY break out into a
laughter.) -- What's the matter there? 65

MED. A pleasant mistake, madam, that a lady has made, occasions a little laughter.

____________________
1
Immediately.
2
Naturally.
3
Lesser.

-180-

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