PROLOGUE.

WRITTEN BY MR. GARRICK.

SPOKEN BY MR. KING.

A School for Scandal! tell me, I beseech you,
Needs there a fchool—this modifh art to teach you?
No need of leffons now-the knowing think
We might as well be taught to eat and drink.
Caus'd by a dearth of Scandal, should the vapours
Diftrefs our fair ones-let them read the papers;
Their powerful mixtures fuch diforders hit,
Crave what they will, there's quantum fufficit.
"Lord!" cries my Lady Wormwood, (who loves
tattle,

And puts much falt and pepper in her prattle)
Juft ris'n at noon, all night at cards when threshing
Strong tea and fcandal-blefs me, how refreshing!
Give me the papers, Lifp-how bold and free! (fips).
"Laft night Lord L. (fips) was caught with Lady

D."

For aching heads, what charming falvolatile!--(fips) If Mrs. B. will fill continue flirting,

"We hope fhe'll draw or we'll undraw the curtain.” Fine fatire, poz-in public all abuse it ;

But, by ourselves-(fips) our praise we can't refuse it.
Now, Lifp, read you-there at that dafb and far-
Yes, Ma'am" A certain Lord had beft beware,
"Who lives not twenty miles from Grosvenor-square :

THE

SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

ACT I SCENE I

Lady SNEERWELL's house.

Lady SNEERWELL and SNAKE difcovered at a tea

table.

Lady Sneerwell.

THE HE paragraphs, you fay, Mr. Snake, were all inferted.

Snake. They were, Madam; and as I copied them myself in a feigned hand, there can be no fufpicion from whence they came.

L. Sneer. Did you circulate the report of Lady Brittle's intrigue with Captain Boastall?

Snake. That's in as fine a train as your Ladyfhip could wish. In the common course of things,

I think it must reach Mrs. Clacket's ears within

twenty-four hours, and then the bufinefs, you know, is as good as done.

L. Sneer. Why yes, Mrs. Clacket has talents, and a great deal of industry.

Snake. True, Madam, and has been tolerably fuccessful in her days; to my knowledge the has been the cause of fix matches being broken off, and three fons difinherited; of four forced elopements, as many clofe confinements, nine feparate maintenances, and two divorces ;-nay, I have more than once traced her caufing a tête-a-tête in the Town and Country Magazine, when the parties never faw one another before in the whole courfe of their lives. L. Sneer. Why yes, fhe has genius, but her manner is too grofs.

Snake. True, Madam; fhe has a fine tongue, and a bold invention; but then, her colouring is too dark, and the outlines rather too extravagant ; fhe wants that delicacy of hint, and mellowness of fneer, which diftinguishes your ladyship's scandal. L. Sneer. You are partial, Snake.

Snake. Not in the leaft; every body will allow that Lady Sneerwell can do more with a word or look, than many others with the moft laboured detail, even though they accidentally happen to have a little truth on their fide to fupport it.

1. Sneer. Yes, my dear Snake, and I'll not deny the pleasure I feel at the fuccefs of my fchemes; (both rifes) wounded myfelf, in the early part of my life, by the envenomed tongue of flander, I confefs nothing can give me greater fatisfaction,

than reducing others to the level of my own injured reputation.

Snake. True, Madam; but there is one affair, in which you have lately employed me, wherein, I confefs, I am at a lofs to guefs at your motives.

L. Sneer. I prefume you mean with regard to my friend Sir Peter Teazle, and his family.

Snake. I do here are two young men, to whom Sir Peter has acted as guardian fince their father's death-the eldeft poffeffing the most amiable character, and univerfally well fpoken of; the youngeft the most diffipated, wild, extravagant young fellow in the world-the former an avowed admirer of your ladyfhip, and apparently your favourite; the latter attached to Maria, Sir Peter's ward, and confeffedly admired by her: Now, on the face of thefe circumstances, it is utterly unaccountable to me, why you, the widow of a city knight, with a large fortune, fhould not immediately clofe with the paffion of a man of fuch character and expectation as Mr. Surface; and more fo, why you are fo un commonly earnest to deftroy the mutual attachment fubfifting between his brother Charles and Maria.

L. Sneer. Then at once, to unravel this myf tery, I muft inform you, that love has no fhare whatever in the intercourfe between Mr. Surface

L. Sneer. No! his real views are to Maria, or her fortune, while in his brother he finds a favoured rival; he is therefore obliged to mask his real intentions, and profit by my affiftance.