Stale. Hufht! dear Clever, I wou'd n't have Friendly hear you for all the World.

Clev. Oh no Danger.

Stale. Not but that mine was a meer MisfortuneThe Irish Fright at that fame Revolution put me inte Fits, and frighted my poor Hair grey all o' the fudden. Befides, Mariana here knows my Relations, we are all grey Ten Years-fooner than other People. I come of a grey Family; don't I, my Dear? but then I wou'd n't have Mr. Friendly for many Reafons think me in Years, I know he defigns having an Heir to his Family,

:

nd• Mar. But dear Madam, why do you put your felf in pain for his hearing us? I thought he had left the Company by your Order.

Stale. How left! whom, Child? What, is Mr. Friendly gone!

Clev. Gone' Didn't you fee him? I'll fwear I thought you had put him upon that pleasant piece of Gallantry. Stale. Gallantry! oh perfidious! can it be poffible! dear Clever explain your felf, or I'll vow you'll put me into the Hifteriques.

Clev. Nay indeed I thought it look'd a little odd for Mr. Friendly to abandon a Lady in your Ladyfhip's Circumftances, for a couple of the trapifheft Creatures I ever faw in Masks, fo miferably rigg'd, with dy'd Linings and tatter'd Furbelows.

Stale. The little nafty inconfiderable Huffys! but, dear Child, tell me, did he feem fond?

Mar. Very good! now for my share of the Lie, [Afide. Exceffively loving; nay, they were but too well acquainted, that's certain I heard 'em call him by his Name Are not you a dear Dog, fays one of 'em; What, my little Jenny, quo' he! and immediately whipp'd one Arm about one, and t'other about t'other, and away they fcuttled together fo familiarly I warrant you. Stale. Which way are they gone?

Mar. That way, Madam: but it may be nothing but an innocent Frolick.

Stale

Stale. A Frolick, my Dear? Ah the Devil take fuch Frolicks, I fay. You don't know what a Concern I am in; he has put me off, with a Pretence of his catching Misfortunes (as he calls 'em) by thefe common Sluts, thefe Twenty times already; and if he should catch another Misfortune we cannot be marry'd till he's well again, and that will be a Month, or Three Weaks at least; befides, Surgeons are fo unskilful, and fuch Knaves, and I am fo fearful of thofe Matters my felf. Dear, my Dears, forgive me.

Well

[Exit Lady Stale. Mar. Oh by all means, my Dear. Ha, ha, ha! What a terrible Fright my dear Friend was in, under the Apprehenfion of a Difappointment.

Clev. I muft own I have ill Nature enough to rejoice exceedingly at her Ladyship's Vexation; fhe has been a ftanding Incumbrance upon poor Friendly's Pleafures for thefe Two Years, fhe has watch'd him with as much Jealoufic and Perverseness as a barren Wife.

Clev. And has been as uneafie to him as a barren

Wife's Mother, and as provoking every way But let her be forgotten, as fhe ought to be, and think of your own Matters----- I have just now left your Uncle. Mar. Very much in Love, I hope.

Cler. That is, just as much a Fool as you found him. Clev. To a Tittle; he's ftark mad; Love and Peking, that is, your Ladyfhip and the Emperor of China, have turn'd his Brains He has made a Chinese Song upon you and I left him finging it to an Oriental Kettle-Drum, as he calls it. Next to the great Cham and Mariana, I believe I have an Intereft in him.

Mar. I fuppofe you have been promifing largely in my Name, what I am never to perform.

Clev. Nay that depends upon you; a little Love, Child, that's all.

Mar. Well, he fhall have all I can spare.

Clev. And I dare fwear that's more than enough for his Oriental Occafions.

Cler

Cler. But I fuppofe you dealt with him as in the way - what Return for all this?

of Trade

Clev. The Return an old Man usually makes.
Mar. Ay marry, and what's that?

Clev. To do all he can for you

more.

Cler. Very fair, I think.

Mar. I'll put him to it, I promife you.

and no

Clev. I told him you had refolv'd upon parting with fome of your Fortune to a poor Relation of yours, and that you requir'd him to join with you in that Settlement as a Mark of his Love, without further Enquiry, and then you would be his as far as poffible.

Cler. Well, and what Answer to that?

Clev. Oh he was all Rapture! confented to it, and fwore immediately by half a Dozen Chinese Saints, with devilish hard Names, that he wifh'd he could make your Relation Viceroy of Eastern Tartary.

Mar. Oh my Relation thall thank him; I wish he may be as fond of him when they come to be better acquainted.

Cler. That I doubt of.

Clev. He expects you immediately'; as we go I'll inftru&t Mr. Clerimont how to dispose of himself. Are your Deeds ready?

Cler. Have you

done as you were order'd in that matter, Mr. Scribblefcrabble?

Scrib. Yes, Sir, the Deeds are ready.

Clev. The Deeds are ready!

[Sighing.

What doleful Voice

is that? Can that be Mr. Scribbleferabble! Is it poffible, the gay, the witty, the gallant Mr. Scribblefcrabble? Scrib Ah good lack! my De-De-Doll's falle

haps you

don't know that.

per

Clev. Falfe! is that all? A Trifle be falfe again, be as falfe to her as fhe can be to you for the Life of her Give her as good as the brings.

Mar. Nay, I told him 'twas below the Character of a fine Gentleman, and a Man of the Town, as he is, to

difcompofe his Noble Soul for any thing a Wife can do or fay.

Cler. No, no, he has forgot it, or will do it in a very little while longer. Indifference is the Word, and Madam Scribblefcrabble may difpofe of her Perfon as fhethinks fit.

Scrib. Nay, I hadn't fo much cared for it, had n't it been for that Son of a Whore, that Be-Be-Barnaby Bandileer.

Clev. Care for it!

Nay, "if you once come to care for your Wife, farewell Gallantry, why you'll be Company for no Body but Haberdashers, Tinmen, Trunk-makers, and fuch comical kind of People.

Scrib. Nay, I always had a Spirit above these pe-pe. paultry Matters too----- I de-de-don't know how I came to mary the Jade, unless it were for Form fake, or out of Cu-Cu-Custom, as they fay.

Mar. No!. And tho' you fancy you are vex'd at her now, I fancy 'tis only for Form's fake, and out of Cuftom, as you fay Come, come along with us, and think of the Hundred Guineas you're to get of Mr. Friendly, why 'twill buy you Claret and Mirth & nough to make you actually believe you are a Widower. [Exeunt,

S

ASON G.

I.

ILLY Swain, give o'er thy wooing,
Sighing, gazing, kiffing, cooing,

All is very foolish doing.

II.

All that follows after Kiffes,
The very beft, the Blifs of Bliffes,
Is as dull a Foy as this is.

III. Prove

III.

Prove the Nymph, and taste her Treasure,
Tell me then, when full of Pleasure,
What dull thing thou can't discover,
Duller than a happy Lover.

Silly, filly Swain give over, ¿c.

ACT III. SCENE I.

SCENE, Sir Timothy Tallapoy's House.

Enter Angelica, Mariana, and Mrs. Clever.

Ang now one of the rangest Old Gentlemen that ever you faw with your Eyes? Oh gemini! I wou'dn't marry fuch a ftrange fort of an Old Fellow for all the World.

Clev. No, nor fhe neither, Child, notwithstanding all the violent Proteftations of good Will fhe made him but

now.

Mar. I fwear I think there is fomething very agreeable and entertaining in Sir Timothy's Humour.

Clev. Nay, indeed all the Ill that you can fay of him is, that he's an old Man, and for my part I think all Old Men are alike.

Ang. Oh dear, in what, Madam?!

Clev. In being good for nothing, Madam.

Ang. Oh dear! I don't think fo. I fancy I could like fome fort of Old Men ftrangely, they're fo civil and

C

com