Lady P. Nay, nay, rise up; come, you shall see
my good-nature. I know love is powerful, and no-
body can help his passion: 'tis not your fault, nor I
swear it is not mine.How can I help it if I have
charms? And how can you help it if you are made a
captive? I swear it is pity it should be a fault-but
my honour-well, but your honour too— -but the
sin!————well, but the necessity—O lord, here's
somebody coming, I dare not stay.-
-Well, you

must consider 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 any thing;-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 for
your passion to me, yet it will make me jealous-
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.

[Exit.

Mel. [After a pause.] So, then, spite of my care and foresight I am caught, caught in my security.Yet this was but a shallow artifice, " unworthy of "my Machiavelian aunt." There must be more behind, this is but the first flash, the priming of her engine; destruction follows hard, if not most presently = prevented.

Enter MASKWELL.

Maskwell, welcome; thy presence is a view of land,

appearing to my shipwrecked hopes; the witch has raised the storm, and her ministers have done their work; you see the vessels are parted.

Mask. I know it; I met Sir Paul towing away Cynthia. Come, trouble not your head, I'll join you together ere to-morrow morning, or drown between you and the attempt.

Mel. There's comfort in a hand stretched out to one that's sinking, though never so far off.

Mask. No sinking, nor no danger-Come, cheer up; why, you don't know that while I plead for you, your aunt has given me a retaining fee ;—— -nay, I am your greatest enemy, and she does but journey-work under me.

Mel. Ha!-how's this?

Mask. What do ye think of my being employed in the execution of all her plots ?-Ha, ha, ha! by Heaven, 't is true; I have undertaken to break the match; I have undertaken to make your uncle disinherit you, to get you turned out of doors, and to

ha, ha, ha! I can't tell you for laughing—Oh, she has opened her heart to me—I am to turn you a grazing, and to-ha, ha, ha! marry Cynthia myself; there's a plot for you.

Mel. Ha!-I see, I see my rising sun! light breaks through clouds upon me, and I shall live in dayO, my Maskwell, how shall I thank or praise thee; thou hast outwitted woman.- -But tell me, how couldst thou thus get into her confidence ?-Ha!how? But was it her contrivance to persuade my Lady Plyant into this extravagant belief?

Mask. It was, and to tell you the truth I encou raged it for your diversion; tho' it makes you a little uneasy for the present, yet the reflection of it must needs be entertaining-I warrant she was very violent at first.

Mel. Ha, ha, ha, ay, a very fury; but I was most afraid of her violence at last-If you had not come as you did, I don't know what she might have attempted.

Mask. Ha, ha, ha, I know her temper.-Well, you must know then, that all my contrivances were but bubbles; 'till at last I pretended to have been long secretly in love with Cynthia; that did my business; that convinced your aunt I might be trusted; since it was as much my interest as her's to break the match: then, she thought my jealousy might qualify me to assist her in her revenge. And, in short, in that belief told rae the secrets of her heart. At length, we made this agreement, if I accomplish her designs (as I told you before) she has engaged to put Cynthia with all her fortune into my power.

Mel. She is most gracious in her favour.- -Well, and dear Jack, how hast thou contrived?

Mask. I would not have you stay to hear it now, for I don't know but she may come this way; I am to meet her anon; after that, I'll tell you the whole matter; be here in this gallery an hour hence, by that time I imagine our consultation may be over.

[Exit.

Mel. I will; 'till then success attend thee.
Mask. 'Till then success will attend me; for when

I meet you I meet the only obstacle to my fortune. Cynthia, let thy beauty gild my crimes; and whatsoever I commit of treachery or deceit shall be imputed to me as a merit.-Treachery, what treachery? Love cancels all the bonds of friendship, and sets men right upon their first foundations. Duty to kings, piety to parents, gratitude to benefactors, and fidelity to friends, are different and particular ties; but the name of rival cuts them all asunder, and is a general acquittance-Rival is equal, and love, like death, an universal leveller of mankind. Ha! But is there no such a thing as honesty? Yes, and whosoever has it about him, bears an enemy in his breast: for your honest man, as I take it, is that nice, scrupulous, conscientious person who will cheat nobody but himself; such another coxcomb as your wise man, who is too hard for all the world, and will be made a fool of by nobody but himself. Ha, ha, ha; well, for wisdom and honesty, give me cunning and hypocrisy; Oh, 'tis such a pleasure to angle for fair-faced fools?—— Then that hungry gudgeon Credulity will bite at any thing-Why, let me see, I have the same face, the same words and accents when I speak what I do think, and when I speak what I do not think-the very same -and dear dissimulation is the only art not to be known from nature.

Why will mankind be fools, and be deceiv'd?
And why are friends' and lovers' oaths believ'd?
When each who searches strictly his own mind,
May so much fraud and power of baseness find.

[Exit.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Enter Lord TOUCHWOOD, and Lady TOUCHWOOD.

Lady Touch-wood.

My Lord, can you blame my brother Plyant, if he refuse his daughter upon this provocation? The contract is void by this unheard of impiety.

Ld. T. I don't believe it true; he has better principles-pho, 't is nonsense. Come, come, I know my Lady Plyant has a large eye, and would centre every thing in her own circle; 't is not the first time she has mistaken respect for love, and made Sir Paul jealous of the civility of an undesigning person, the better to bespeak his security in her unfeigned plea

sures.

L. T. You censure hardly, my lord; my sister's honour is very well known.

Ld. T. Yes, I believe I know some that have been familiarly acquainted with it. This is a little trick wrought by some pitiful contriver, envious of my nephew's merit.

I.. T. Nay, my lord, it may be so, and I hope it will be found so: but that will require some time; for in such a case as this, demonstration is necessary.

Ld. T. There should have been demonstration of the contrary too before it had been believed

L. T. So I suppose there was.