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pick up some odious man of quality yet, and only take poor Heartfree for a gallant."* These young ladies are clever, and in all cases apt to follow good instruction. Listen to Miss Prue: "Look you here, madam, then, what Mr. Tattle has given me.-Look you here, cousin, here's a snuff-box: nay, there's snuff in't; here, will you have any?-Oh, good! how sweet it s-Mr. Tattle is all over sweet; his peruke is sweet, and his gloves are sweet, and his handkerchief is sweet, pure sweet, sweeter than roses.-Smell him, mother, madam, I mean.-He gave me this ring for a kiss.... Smell, cousin; he says, he'll give me something that will make my smocks smell this way. Is not it pure?-It's better than lavender, mun.- I'm resolved I won't let nurse put any more lavender among my smocks-ha, cousin?" It is the silly chatter of a young magpie, who flies for the first time. Tattle, alone with her, tells her he is going

to make love :

"Miss Prue. Well; and how will you make love to me? come, I long to have you begin. Must I make love too? you must tell me how. Tattle. You must let me speak, miss, you must not speak first; I must ask you questions, and you must answer.

Miss P. What, is it like the catechism?come, then, ask me.

T. D'ye think you can love me?
Miss P. Yes.

T. Pooh! pox! you must not say yes already; I shan't care a farthing for you then in a twinkling.

Miss P. What must I say then?

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Miss P. Pish!

T. That's right-again, my charmer! (Kisse again.)

Miss P. O fy! nay, now I can't abide you. T. Admirable! that was as well as if you had been born and bred in Covent Garden."

She makes such rapid progress, tha And mark, what is bred in the bone we must stop the quotation forthwith will come out in the flesh. All these charming characters soon employ the the dolt of a sailor, wants to make love language of kitchen-maids. When Ben, to Miss Prue, she sends him off with a of cries and coarse expressions, calls flea in his ear, raves, lets loose a string him a "great sea-calf." "What does father mean," he says, "to leave me alone, as soon as I come home, with such a dirty dowdy? Sea-calf!

I

an't calf enough to lick your chalked face, you cheese-curd, you." Moved by these amenities, she breaks out into a rage, weeps, calls him a "stinking tar-barrell." People come and put a stop to this first essay at gallantry. She fires up, declares she will marry Tattle, or the butler, if she cannot get a better man. Her father says, "Hussy, you shall have a rod." She answers, "A fiddle of a rod! I'll have a husband: and if you won't get me one, I'll get one for myself. I'll marry our Robin the butler." Here are petty I and prancing mares if you like; but

T. Why, you must say no, or you believe not, or you can't tell.

Miss P. Why, must I tell a lie then? T. Yes, if you'd be well-bred ;-all well-bred persons lie.-Besides, you are a woman, you must never speak what you think: your words must contradict your thoughts; but your actions may contradict your words. So, when ask you, if you can love me, you must say no, but you must love me too. If I tell you you are handsome, you must deny it, and say I flatter you. But you must think yourself more charming than I speak you: and like me, for the beauty which I say you have, as much as if I had it myself. If I ask you to kiss me, you must be angry, but you must not refuse me.... Miss P. O Lord, I swear this is pure!-I like it better than our old-fashioned country way of speaking one's mind;-and must not you lie too?

T. Hum!-Yes; but you must believe I speak truth.

* Vanbrugh's Provok a Wife, v. 2. + Congreve's Love for love, ii. 10.

* Ibid. ii. 11.

+"Miss Prue. Well, and there's a handsome gentleman, and a fine gentleman, and a sweet gentleman, that was here, that loves me, and I love him; and if he sees you speak to me any more, he'll thrash your jacket for you, he will; you great sea-calf.

Ben. What do you mean that fair-weather spark that was here just now? Will he thrash my jacket? Let'n, let'n, let'n-but an he comes near me, mayhap I may give him a salt-eel for's supper, for all that. What does father mean, to leave me alone, as soon as I come home, with such a dirty dowdy? Sea-calf! I an't call enough to lick your chalked face, you cheese curd you."-Ibid. iii. 7 Ibid. v. 6.

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me, how can you talk of heaven! and have se much wickedness in your heart? May be you don't think it a sin.-They say some of you gentlemen don't think it a sin.-May be it is no sinto them that don't think it so; indeed, if I did not think it a sin-but still my honour, if it were no sin-But then, to marry my daughter, for never consent to that; as sure as can be I'l the conveniency of frequent opportunities, I'll break the match.

decidedly, in these authors' hands, the atural man becomes nothing but a waif from the stable or the kennel. Will you be better pleased by the educated man? The worldly life which they depict is a regular carnival, and the heads of their heroines are full of wild imaginations and unchecked gossip. You may see in Congreve how they chatter, with what a flow of words Lady P. Nay, nay, rise up; come, you shall and affectations, with what a shrill see my good nature. I know love is powerful, ni modulated voice, with what ges- and nobody can help his passion: 'tis not your ares, what twisting of arms and neck, fault; nor I swear it is not mine. How can I what looks raised to heaven, what gen-help it if you are made a captive? I swear it help it, if I have charms? and how can you teel airs, what grimaces. Lady Wish-is pity it should be a fault. But my honour,— fort speaks:

"But art thou sure Sir Rowland will not fail to come? or will he not fail when he does come? Will he be importunate, Foible, and push? For if he should not be importunate, I shall never break decorums:-I shall die with confusion, if I am forced to advance.-Oh no, I can never advance! I shall swoon, if he should expect advances. No, I hope Sir Rowland is better bred than to put a lady to the necessity of breaking her forms. I won't be too coy neither -I won't give him despair-but a little disdain is not amiss; a little scorn is alluring.

Foible. A little scorn Decomes your ladyship. Lady Wishfort. Yes, but tenderness becomes m. best-a sort of dyingness-you see that picture has a sort of a-ha, Foible! a swimmingness in the eye-yes, I'll look somy niece affects it; but she wants features. Is Sir Rowland handsome? Let my toilet be removed-I'll dress above. I'll receive Sir Row land here. is he handsome? Don't answer I won't know: I'll be surprised, I'll be taken by surprise.* . . . And how do I look, Foible?

me

. Most killing well, madam.

ady W. Well, and how shall I receive him? in what figure shall I give his heart the arst impression? Shall I sit?-no, I won't sit-I'll walk-ay, I'll walk from the door upon his entrance; and then turn full upon him-no, that will be too sudaen. I'll lie-ay, I'll lie down-i' receive him in my little dressing room; there's a couch-yes, yes, I'll give the arst impression on a couch. I won't lie neither; but loll and lean upon one elbow: with one foot a little dangling off, jogging in a thought ful way-yes-and then as soon as he appears, sta. t, ay, start, and be surprised, and rise to teet him in a pretty disorder." t

These hesitations of a finished coque te become still more vehement at the critical moment. Lady Plyant thinks herself beloved by Mellefont, who does not love her at all, and tries in vain to undeceive her.

"Mellefont. For heaven's sake, madam. Lady Plyant. O, name it no more!-Bless

* Congreve, The Way of the World, iii. 5. ↑ Ibid, iv.

Mel. Death and amazement.-Madam, upor my knees.

well, but your honour too-but the sin !-well, coming, I dare not stay. Well, you must conbut the necessity-O Lord, here is somebody sider of your crime; and strive as much as can be against it,-strive, be sure-but don't be melancholic, don't despair.-But never think that I'll grant you anything; O Lord, no.But be sure you lay aside all thoughts of the marriage: for though I know you don't love Cynthia, only as a blind to your passion for me, yet it will make me jealous.-O Lord, what did I say? jealous! no, no; I can't be jealous, for I must not love you-therefore don't hope,but don't despair neither.-O, they're coming! I must fly."*

She escapes and we will not follow her.

This giddiness, this volubility, this pretty corruption, these reckless and affected airs, are collected in the most brilliant, the most worldly portrait of the stage we are discussing, that of Mrs. Millamant, “ 'a fine lady," as the Dramatis Personæ say.

She enters,

"with her fan spread and her streamers
out," dragging a train of furbelows and
ribbons, passing through a crowd of
laced and bedizened fops, in splendid
perukes, who flutter about her path,
haughty and wanton, witty and scorn-
ful, toying with gallantries, petulant,
with a horror of every grave word and
all nobility of action, falling in only
with change and pleasure. She laughs
at the sermons of Mirabell, her suitor:
"Sententious Mirabell !-Prithee don't
look with that violent and inflexible
wise face, like Solomon at the dividing
of the child in an old tapestry-hang-
ing.‡ . . . Ha! ha! ha!-pardon me,
dear creature, though I grant you 'tis
a little barbarous, ha ha! ha!"§

She breaks out into laughter, then
Congreve, The Double-dealer, ii. 5.
† Congreve, The Way of the World.
Ibid. ii. 6
& 7bid. iii. 25.

gets into a rage, then banters, then | I have only presented their most amia sings, then makes faces, and changes ble aspects. Deeper down it is all at every motion while we look at her. It is a regular whirlpool; all turns round in her brain as in a clock when the mainspring is broken. Nothing can be prettier than her fashion of entering on matrimony:

"Millamant. Ah! I'll never marry unless I am first made sure of my will and pleasure!... My dear liberty, shall I leave thee? my faithful solitude, my darling contemplation, must I bid you then adieu? Ay-h-adieu-my morning thoughts, agreeable wakings, indolent slumbers, all ye douceurs ye sommeils du matin adieu? -I can't do it; 'tis more than impossible-pos itively, Mirabell, I'll lie a-bed in a morning as long as I please.

gloomy, bitter, above all, pernicious. It represents a household as a prison, marriage as a warfare, woman as a rebel, adultery as the result looked for, irregularity as a right, extravagance as pleasure. A woman of fashion goes to bed is the morning, rises at mid-day, curses her husband, listens to obsceni. ties, frequents balls, haunts the plays, ruins reputations, turns her home into a gambling-house, borrows money, al lures men, associates her honor and fortune with debts and assignations. "We are as wicked (as men)," says Lady Brute, "but our vices lie another way. Men have more courage than we, so they commit more bold impu dent sins. They quarrel, fight, swear, drink, blaspheme, and the like; where as we being cowards, only backbite, Mill. Ay, as wife, spouse, my dear, joy, tell lies, cheat at cards, and so forth." † jewel, love, sweet heart, and the rest of that An admirable resumé, in which the nauseous cant, in which men and their wives are so fulsomely familiar-I shall never bear gentlemen are included and the ladies that-good Mirabell, don't let us be familiar or too! The world has done nothing but fond, nor kiss before folks, like my Lady Fad- provide them with correct phrases and ler, and Sir Francis.... Let us never visit together, nor go to a play together; but let us be elegant dresses. In Congreve especial very strange and well-bred: let us be as strangely they talk in the best style; above al: as if we had been married a great while; and as well bred as if we were not married at

Mirabell. Then I'll get ap in a morning as early as I please.

Mill. Ah! idle creature, get up when you will -and d'ye hear, I won't be called names after I'm married; positively I won't be called

names.

Mir. Names !

all. ...

Mir. Shall I kiss your hand upon the contract? *

Mill. Fainall, what shall I do? shall I have him? I think I must have him.

Fainall. Ay, ay, take him. What should you do?

Mill. Well then-I'll take my death I'm in a horrid fright-Fainall, I shall never say itwell-I think-I'll endure you.

Fain. Fy! fy! have him, have him, and tell him so in plain terms: for I am sure you have a mind to him.

Mill. Are you? I think I have-and the horrid man looks as if he thought so too-well, you ridiculous thing you, I'll have you-I won't be kissed, nor I won't be thanked here kiss my hand though. So, hold your tongue now, don't say a word." ↑

The agreement is complete. I should like to see one more article to it a divorce "a menså et thoro:" this would be the genuine marriage of the worldlings, that is a decent divorce. And I am sure that in two years Mirabell and Millamant will come to this. Hither tends the whole of this theatre; for, with regard to the women, but particularly with regard to the married women, Congreve, The Way of the World, iv. 5. + Ibid. 6.

they know how to hand ladies about and entertain them with news; they are expert in the fence of retorts and replies; they are never out of counte

"Amanda. How did you live together? Berinthia. Like man and wife, asunder.-He loved the country, I the town. He hawks and hounds, I coaches and equipage. He eating and drinking, I carding and playing. He the sound of a horn, I the squeak of a fiddle. We were dull company at table, worse a-bed. Whenever we met, we gave one another the spleen; and never agreed but once, which was about lying alone."--Vanbrugh, Relapse, Act iii. ad fin.

Compare Vanbrugh, A Journey to London. Rarely has the repulsiveness and corruption of the brutish or worldly nature been more vividly displayed. Little Betty and her brother, Squire Humphry, deserve hanging.

Again. "Mrs. Foresight. Do you think any woman honest? Scandal. Yes, severa! ery honest; they'll cheat a little at cards, sometimes; but that's nothing. Mrs. F. Pshaw! but virtuous, I mean. S. Yes, faith;

believe some women are virtuous too; but 'tis as I believe some men are valiant, through fear. For why should a man court danger or a woman shun pleasure?"-Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 14. Com↑ Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, v. 3. moiselle, the French chambermaid. They rep pare also in this piece the character of Made

resent French v.ce as even more shameless than English vice.

66

nance, find means to make the most | is this argument! How can a mar ticklish notions understood; they dis- better console a woman whom he cuss very well, speak excellently, make has plunged into bitter unhappiness! their bow still better; but to sum up, What a touching logic in the insinua they are blackguards, systematical epi- tion which follows: "If the familiari cureans, professed seducers. They set ties of our loves had produced that forth immorality in maxims, and rea- consequence of which you were appre son out their vice. "Give me," says hensive, where could you have fixed a one, a man that keeps his five senses father's name with credit, but on a keen and bright as his sword, that has husband?" He continues his reason 'em always drawn out in their just or- ing in an excellent style; listen to the der and strength, with his reason, as dilemma of a man of feeling: "A bet commander at the head of 'em, that ter man ought not to have been sacri detaches 'em by turns upon whatever ficed to the occasion; a worse had not party of pleasure agreeably offers, and answered to the purpose. When you commands 'em to retreat upon the are weary of him, you know your remeleast appearance of disadvantage or dy."* Thus are a woman's feelings danger.... I love a fine house, but to be considered, especially a woman let another keep it; and just so I love whom we have loved. To cap all, this a fine woman.' "'* One deliberately se- delicate conversation is meant to force duces his friend's wife; another under the poor deserted Mrs. Fainall into a a false name gets possession of his low intrigue which shall obtain fo: brother's intended. A third hires Mirabell a pretty wife and a good dowry. false witnesses to secure a dowry. I Certainly this gentleman knows the must ask the reader to consult for him- world; no one could better employ self the fine stratagems of Worthy, former mistress. Such are the cultiMirabell, and others. They are cold-vated characters of this theatre, as disblooded rascals who forge, commit adultery, swindle, as if they had done nothing else all their lives. They are represented here as men of fashion; they are theatrical lovers, heroes, and as such they manage to get hold of anting sensualists, with rules for their imheiress. We must go to Mirabell for morality, reducing feeling to self-interan example of this medley of corrup- est, honor to decorum, happiness to tion and elegance. Mrs. Fainall, his pleasure. former mistress, married by him to a common friend, a miserable wretch, complains to him of this hateful marriage. He appeases her, gives her advice, shows her the precise mode, the true expedient for setting things on a comfortable footing. "You should have just so much disgust for your husband, as may be sufficient to make you relish your lover." She cries in despair, "Why did you make me marry this man?" He smiles calmly, Why do we daily commit disagreeable and dangerous actions? to save-in short, all the happy circunstances that idol, reputation." How tender

*Farquhar's The Beaux Stratagem, i. 1 ; and in the same piece here is the catechism of love: "What are the objects of that passion? -youth, beauty, and clean linen." And from the Mock Astrologer of Dryden: "As I am a gentleman, a man about town, one that wears good cloths, eats, drinks, and wenches sufficiently."

honest as the uncultivated ones: having transformed their evil instincts into systematic vices, lust into debauchery, brutality into cynicism, perversity into depravity, deliberate egotists, calcula

The English Restoration altogether was one of those great crises which, while warping the development of a society and a literature, show the inward spirit which they modify, but which contradicts them. Society did not lack_vigor, nor literature talent; men of the world were polished, writers inventive. There was a court, drawing-rooms, conversation, worldly life, a taste for letters, the example of France, peace, leisure, the influence of the sciences, of politics, of 'heology,

which can elevate the mind and civilize manners. There was the vigorous satire of Wycherley, the sparkling dialogue and delicate raillery of Congreve, the frank nature and animation of Van brugh, the manifold invention of Far quhar, in short, all the resources which * Congreve, The Way of the World, ii. 4.

X.

might nourish the comic element, and | ishes, marriage is more respected, the offer a genuine theatre to the best con- heroines go no further than to the structions of human intelligence. Noth- verge of adultery; the roisterers are ing came to a head; all was abortive. pulled up at the critical moment; one Their age left nothing behind but the of them suddenly declares himself memory of corruption; their comedy purified, and speaks in verse, the betremains a repertory of viciousness; ter to mark his enthusiasm; another society had only a solid elegance, litera- praises marriage; † some aspire in the ture a frigid wit. Their manners are fifth act to an orderly life. We shall gross and trivial; their ideas are futile soon see Steele writing a moral treatise or incomplete. Through disgust and called The Christian Hero. Hencereaction, a revolution was at hand in forth comedy declines and literar literary feeling and moral habits, as well talent flows into another channel. Esas in general beliefs and political institu- say, novel, pamphlet, dissertation, take tions. Man was to change altogether, the place of the drama; and the Eng and to turn completely round at once. lish classical spirit, abandoning the The same repugnance and the same kinds of writing which are foreign to experience were to detach him from its nature, enters upon the great works every aspect of his old condition. The which are destined to immortalize it Englishman discovered that he was and give it expression. not monarchical, Papistical, nor skeptical, but liberal, Protestant, and a believer. He came to understand that he was not a roisterer nor a worldling, cline of dramatic invention, and in the Nevertheless, in this continuous debut reflective and introspective. He possesses a current of animal life too shoots strike out at distant intervals great change of literary vitality, some violent to suffer him without danger to towards comedy; for mankind always abandon himself to enjoyment; he needs a barrier of moral reasoning to is always a place of entertainment. The seeks for entertainment, and the theatre repress his outbreaks. There is in him a current of attention and will too tree once planted grows, feebly no strong to suffer himself to rest content doubt, with long intervals of almost towith trifles; he needs some weighty tal dryness and almost constant barrenand serviceable labor on which to ex-ness, yet subject to imperfect renewals pend his power. He needs a barrier and an employment. He needs a constitution and a religion which shall restrain him by duties which must be performed, and which shall occupy him by rights which must be defend ed. He is content only in a serious and orderly life; there he finds the natural groove and the necessary outlet for his faculties and his passions. From this time he enters upon it, and this theatre itself exhibits the impress of it. It undoes and transforms itself.

of life, to transitory partial blossomings, sometimes to an inferior fruitage bursting forth from the lowest branches. Even when the great subjects are worn out, there is still room here and there for a happy idea. Let a wit, clever and experienced, take it in hand, he will catch up a few oddities on his way, he will introduce on the scene some will come in crowds, and ask no better vice or fault of his time; the public than to recognize itself and laugh. There was one of these successes when Collier threw discredit upon it; Addi- Gay, in the Beggars Opera, brought son condemned it. National sentiment out the rascaldom of the great world awoke on the stage; French manners are jeered at; the prologues celebrate the defeats of Louis XIV.; the license, elegance, religion of his court, are presented under a ridiculous or odious light.* Immorality gradually dimin

The part of Chaplain Foigard in Farquhar's Beaux Stratagem; of Mademoiselle, and generally of all the French people.

and avenged the public on Walpole

*The part of_Amanda in Vanbrugh's Relapse; of Mrs. Sullen; the conversion of two roisterers, in the Beaux Stratagem.

"Though marriage be a lottery in which there are a wondrous many blanks, yet there is one inestimable lot, in which the only heaven

upon earth is written."

"To be capable of loving one, doubtless, is better than to possess a thousand.”—VAN

BRUGH.

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