r Bril. [Reading.] 'I long have loved you, adored. Could I but flatter myself— OVEMORE walks about uneasy; SIR BRILLIANT follows him.

r Bash. There, Mr. Lovemore, the basest hery!

r Bril. [Reads.]' Could I but flatter myself the least kind return.'

ce. Confusion! let me seize the letter out of and. [Snatches it from him. r Bash. An unparalleled breach of friendMr. Lovemore.

ove. All a forgery, Sir; all a forgery. Er Bash. That I deny it is the very identietter my lady threw away with such indignaShe tore it in two, and I have pieced it to

er.

ore. A mere contrivance to varnish his guilt. ir Bril. Ha, ha! my dear Lovemore, we know another. Have not you been at the same work the widow Bellmour?

ove. The widow Bellmour!-If I spoke to it was to serve you, Sir.

ir Bril. Are you sure of that? ore. Po! I wont stay a moment longer among I'll go into another room to avoid ye all. w little or nothing of the widow Bellmour, Sir. [Opens the door.

Enter MRS. BELLMOUR.

Il and destruction !—what fiend is conjured up e? Zoons! let me make my escape out of the [Runs to the opposite door. Mrs. Love. I'll secure this pass; you must not my dear.

se.

Love. 'Sdeath, Madam, give me way.
Mrs. Love. Nay, don't be in such a hurry, I
nt to introduce an acquaintance of mine to you.
Love. I desire, Madam-

Mrs. Bell. My Lord, my Lord Etheridge: I heartily glad to see your lordship. [Taking d of him.

ly to you.

Mrs. Love. Do, my dear, let me introduce this [Turning him to her. Love. Here's the devil and all to do. [Aside. Mrs. Bell. My lord, this is the most fortunate

Love. Confusion! let me get rid of these two furies. [Breaks away from them. Sir Bash. He has been tampering with her too, has he?

Mrs. Bell. [Follows him.] My Lord, I say, my Lord Etheridge, wont your Lordship know me. Love. This is the most damnable accident.

[Aside. Mrs. Bell. I hope your Lordship has not forgot your appointment at my house this evening. Love. I deserve all this.

[Aside.

Mrs. Bell. Pray, my Lord, what have I done, that you treat me with this coldness? Come, come, you shall have a wife: I will take compassion on you.

Lore. Damnation! I can't stand it. [Aside. Sir Bash. Murder will out: murder will out. Mrs. Bell. Come, cheer up, my Lord: what the deuce, your dress is altered! what's become of the star and ribbon? And so the gay, the florid, the magnifique Lord Etheridge dwindles down into plain Mr. Lovemore, the married man! Mr. Lovemore, your most obedient, very humble servant, Sir.

Love. I can't bear to feel myself in so ridiculous a circumstance. [Aside. Sir Bash. He has been passing himself for a lord, has he?

Mrs. Bell. I beg my compliments to your friend, Mrs. Loveit I am much obliged to you both for your very honourable designs.

[Courtesying to him.

Love. I was never so ashamed in all my life! Sir Bril. So, so, so, all his pains were to hide the star from me. This discovery is a perfect cordial to my dejected spirits.

Mrs. Bell. Mrs. Lovemore, I cannot sufficiently acknowledge the providence that directed you to pay me a visit, though I was wholly unknown to you; and I shall henceforth consider you as my deliverer.

Love. So, it was she that fainted away in the closet, and be damned to her jealousy. [Aside.

Sir Bril. By all that's whimsical, an odd sort of an adventure this! My Lord, [Advances to him.] my Lord, my Lord Etheridge, as the man says in the play, 'Your Lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.'

Love. Now he comes upon me.-Oh, I'm in a fine situation. [Aside. Sir Bril. My Lord, I hope that ugly pain in your Lordship's side is abated.

Love. Absurd and ridiculous. [Aside. Sir Bril. There is nothing forming there, 1 hope, my Lord.

Love. I shall come to an explanation with you. Sir Bril. The tennis-ball from Lord Racket's unlucky left hand.

Love. No more at present, Sir Brilliant, I leave you now to yourselves, and-[Goes to the door in the back scene.]—'sdeath, another fiend! I am beset by them.

Enter LADY CONSTANT. No way to escape?

[Attempts both stage doors, and is prevented. Lady Cons. Mr. Lovemore, it is the luckiest thing in the world that you are come home.

Love. Ay, it is all over-all must come to light. Lady Cons. I have lost every rubber, quite broke; four by honours against me every time. Do, Mr. Lovemore, lend me another hundred.

Lady Cons. Mrs. Lovemore, let me tell you, you are married to the falsest man: he has deceived me strangely.

Mrs. Love. I begin to feel for him, and to pity his uneasiness.

Mrs. Bell. Never talk of pity; let him be probed to the quick.

Sir Bash. The case is pretty plain, I think now, Sir Brilliant.

Sir Bril. Pretty plain, upon my soul! Ha, ha! Love. I'll turn the tables upon Sir Bashful, for all this-[Takes SIR BASHFUL's letter out of his pocket.]-where's the mighty harm now in this letter?

Sir Bash. Where's the harm? Love. [Reads.] 'I cannot, my dearest life, any longer behold

Sir Bash. Shame and confusion! I am undone. [Aside.

Love. Hear this, Sir Bashful.-' The manifold Derations, of which, through a false prejudice, am myself the occasion.'

[Aside.

I

Lady Cons. What is all this? Sir Bash. I am a lost man. Love. Mind, Sir Bashful.-' I am therefore resolved, after many conflicts with myself, to throw off the mask, and frankly own a passion, which the fear of falling into ridicule has, in appearance, suppressed."

Sir Bash. 'Sdeath! I'll hear no more of it. [Snatches at the letter. Love. No, Sir; I resign it here, where it was directed; and with it, these notes which Sir Bashful gave me for your use.

Lady Cons. It is his hand, sure enough. Love. Yes, Madam, and those are his sentiments, which he explained to me more at large. Lady Cons. [Reads.]—' Accept the presents which I myself have sent you; money, attendance, equipage, and every thing else you shall command; and, in return, I shall only entreat you to conceal from the world that you have raised a flame in this heart, which will ever show me, 'Your admirer,

And your truly affectionate husband,
BASHFUL CONSTANT.'

All. Ha, ha! Sir Bril. So, so, so! he has been in love with his wife all this time, has he? Sir Bashful, will you go and see the new comedy with me? Sir Bash. I shall blush through the world all the rest of my life. [Aside. Sir Bril. Lovemore, don't you think it a base thing to invade the happiness of a friend? or to do him a clandestine wrong? or to injure him with the woman he loves?

Love. To cut the matter short with you, Sir, we have been traitors to each other; a couple of unprincipled, unreflecting profligates.

Sir Bril. Profligates!

Love. Ay, both; we are pretty fellows indeed! Mrs. Bell. I am glad to find you are awakened to a sense of your error.

Love. I am, Madam, and am frank enough to own it. I am above attempting to disguise my feelings, when I am conscious they are on the side of truth and honour. With the sincerest remorse, I ask your pardon.-I should ask pardon of my Lady Constant too, but the fact is, Sir Bashful threw the whole affair in my way; and, when a

Sir Bash. Sir Bashful, Sir Bashful! thou art ruined. [Aside Mrs. Bell. Well, Sir, upon certain terms, I don't know but I may sign and seal your pardo.. Love. Terms!- what terms?

Mrs. Bell. That you make due expiation of your guilt to that lady.

[Pointing to MRS. LOVEMORE. Love. That lady, Ma'am !-That lady has no reason to complain.

Mrs. Love. No reason to complain, Mr. Lovemore ?

Love. No, Madam, none; for whatever may have been my imprudences, they have had their source in your conduct.

Mrs. Love. In my conduct, Sir?

Love. In your conduct.-Í here declare before this company, and I am above misrepresenting the matter; I here declare, that no man in England could be better inclined to doraestic happiness, if you, Madam, on your part, had been willing to make home agreeable.

Mrs. Love. There, I confess, he touches me.

[Aside.

Love. You could take pains enough before marriage you could put forth all your charms; practise all your arts, and make your features please by rule; for ever changing, running an eternal round of variety; and all this to win my affections; but when you had won them, you did not think them worth your keeping: never dressed, pensive, silent, melancholy; and the only entertainment in my house was the dear pleasure of a dull conjugal tete-a-tete; and all this insipidity, because you think the sole merit of a wife consists in her virtue; a fine way of amusing a husband, truly!

Sir Bril. Upon my soul, and so it is

[Laughing. Mrs. Love. Sir, I must own there is too much truth in what you say. This lady has opened my eyes, and convinced me there was a mistake in my former conduct.

Love. Come, come, you need say no more.-I forgive you; I forgive.

Mrs. Love. Forgive! I like that air of confidence, when you know that, on my side, it is, at worst, an error in judgment; whereas, on yours

Mrs. Bell. Po! po! never stand disputing: you know each other's faults and virtues: you have nothing to do but mend the former, and enjoy the latter. There, there, kiss and be friends. There, Mrs. Lovemore, take your reclaimed libertine to your arms.

Love. 'Tis in your power, Madam, to make a reclaimed libertine of me indeed.

Mrs. Love. From this moment it shall be our mutual study to please each other.

Love. A match with all my heart. I shall hersafter be ashamed only of my follies, but never be ashamed of owning that I sincerely love you. Sir Bash. Sha'n't you be ashamed? Love. Never, Sir.

Sir Bash. And will you keep me in countenance?

Love. I will.

Sir Bash. Give me your hand. I now forgive

u all. My Lady Constant, I own the letter, I n the sentiments of it; [Embraces her.] and m this moment I take you to my heart.-Lovere, zookers! you have made a man of me. Sir illiant, come; produce the buckles.

Lady Cons. If you hold in this humour, Sir ashful, our quarrels are at an end. Sir Bril. And now, I suppose, I must make stitution here

[Gives LADY CONSTANT the buckles. Sir Bash. Ay, ay, make restitution. Lovemore! s is the consequence of his having some toleraphrase, and a person, Mr. Lovemore! ha ha!Sir Bril. Why, I own the laugh is against me. ith all my heart; I am glad to see my friends ppy at last. Lovemore, may I presume to hope pardon at that lady's hands?

[Points to MRS. LOVEMORE. Love. My dear confederate in vice, your pardon granted. Two sad libertines we have been. But me, give us your hand; we have used each other arvily; for the future we will endeavour to atone the errors of our past misconduct.

Sir Bril. Agreed; we will henceforward beve like men, who have not forgot the obligations ruth and honour.

Love. And now I congratulate the whole commy, that this business has had so happy a tenncy to convince each of us of our folly. Mrs. Bell. Pray, Sir, don't draw me into a share your folly.

Love. Come, come, my dear Ma'am, you are not without your share of it. This will teach you, for the future, to be content with one lover at a time, without listening to a fellow you know nothing of, because he assumes a title, and spreads a fair report of himself.

Mrs. Bell. The reproof is just, I grant it.

Love. Come, let us join the company cheerfully, keep our own secrets, and not make ourselves the town-talk.

Sir Bash. Ay, ay; let us keep the secret. Love. What, returning to your fears again! you will put me out of countenance, Sir Bashful. Sir Bash. I have done.

Love. When your conduct is fair and upright, never be afraid of ridicule. Real honour and generous affection may bid defiance to all the small wits in the kingdom. In my opinion, were the business of this day to go abroad into the world, it might prove a very useful lesson: the men would see how their passions may carry them into the danger of wounding the bosom of a friend; and the ladies would learn that, after the marriage rites are performed, they ought not to suffer their powers of pleasing to languish away, but should still remember to sacrifice to the Graces.

To win a man, when all your pains succeed, The WAY TO KEEP HIM is a task indeed.

[Exeunt omnes.

25*