1 believe you must have seen him when we lived in town. -Never. Mifs HARDCASTLE. Mifs NEVILLE. He's a very fingular character, I affure you. Among women of reputation and virtue, he is the modefteft man alive; but his acquaintance give him a very different character among creatures of another ftamp: you understand me. Mifs HARDCASTLE. An odd character, indeed. I fhall never be able to manage him. What fhall I do? Pihaw, think no more of him, but truft to occurrences for fuccefs. But how goes on your own affair, my dear? has my mother been courting you for my brother Tony, as ufual? Mifs NEVILLE. I have just come from one of our agreeable têtea-têtes. She has been faying a hundred tender things, and fetting off her pretty monster as the very pink of perfection. Mifs HARDCASTLE. And her partiality is fuch, that she actually thinks him fo. A fortune like yours is no fmall temptation. Befides, as fhe has the fole management of it, I'm not furprized to fee her unwilling to let it go out of the family. VÓL. II. L Mifs 1 Mifs NEVILLE. A fortune like mine, which chiefly confifts in jewels, is no fuch mighty temptation. But at any rate if my dear Haftings be but conftant, I make no doubt to be too hard for her at last. However, I let her fuppofe that I am in love with her fon, and she never once dreams that my affections are fixed upon another. Mifs HARDCASTLE. My good brother holds out ftoutly. I could almoft love him for hating you fo. Mifs NEVILLE. It is a good-natured creature at bottom, and I'm fure would wish to fee me married to any body but himself. But my aunt's bell rings for our afternoon's walk round the improvements. Allons! Courage is neceffary as our affairs are critical. Mifs HARDCASTLE. "Would it were bed time and all were well." [Exeunt. SCENE, an Ale-houfe Room. Several fhabby fellows, with punch and tobacco. TONY at the Head of the Table, a little higher than the rest: a mallet in his hand. OMNES. Hurrea hurrea! hurrea! bravo! FIRST FELLOW. Now, gentlemen, filence for a fong. The 'fquire is going to knock himself down for a song. OMNES. OMNES. Aye, a fong, a fong! TONY. Then I'll fing you, gentlemen, a fong I made upon this ale-house, the Three Pigeons. SONG. Let school-mafters puzzle their brain, Gives genus a better difcerning. Let them brag of their heathenish gods, Their Lethes, their Styxes, and Stygians; Their qui's; and their quæ's, and their quod's, They're all but a parcel of pigeons. Toroddle, toroddle, toroll. When methodist preachers come down, They always preach beft with a skinful. I'll leave it to all men of fenfe, But you my good friend are the pigeon. Toroddle, torodd'e, toroll. Then come put the jorum about, And let us be merry and clever, Our hearts and our liquors are flout, Let fome cry up woodcock or hare, Your buftards, your ducks, and your widgeons; But of all the birds in the air, Here's a health to the three jolly pigeons. Bravo, bravo! Toroddle, toroddle, toroll. OMNES. FIRST FELLOW. The 'fquire has got fpunk in him. SECOND FELLOW. I loves to hear him fing, bekeays he never gives us nothing that's low. THIRD FELLOW. O damn any thing that's low, I cannot bear it. FOURTH FELLOW. The genteel thing is the genteel thing at any If fo be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly. time. THIRD FELLOW. I like the maxum of it, mafter Muggins. What, though I am obligated to dance a bear, a man may be a gentleman for all that. May this be my poifon if my bear ever dances but to the very genteeleft of "Water Parted," or "the minuet in Ari tunes. "adne." SECOND FELLOW. What a pity it is the 'fquire is not come to his own. It would be well for all the publicans within ten miles round of him. TONY. TONY. Ecod, and fo it would, mafter Slang. I'd then fhew what it was to keep choice of company. SECOND FELLOW. To be O he takes after his own father for that. fure old 'fquire Lumpkin was the fineft gentleman I ever fet my eyes on. For winding the ftraight horn, or beating a thicket for a hare, or a wench, he never had his fellow. It was a saying in the place, that he kept the beft horfes, dogs, and girls in the whole county. TONY. Ecod, and when I'm of age, I'll be no baftard, I promife you. I have been thinking of Bett Bouncer and the miller's grey mare to begin with. But, come, my boys, drink about and be merry, for you pay no reckoning. Well, Stingo, what's the matter? Enter LANDLORD. LANDLORD. There be two gentlemen in a poft-chaife at the door. They have loft their way upo' the foreft; and they are talking fomething about Mr. Hardcastle. TONY. As fure as can be, one of them must be the gentleman that's coming down to court my fifter. Do they feem to be Londoners ? |