but it is natural to suppose that merit which has made an impression on one's own heart may be powerful over that of another. Leontine. Don't, my life's treasure, don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter. At worst, you know, if Miss Richland should consent, or my father refuse his pardon, it can but end in a trip to Scotland; and Enter Croaker. 1 Croaker. Where have you been, boy? I have been seeking you. My friend Honeywood here has been saying such comfortable things. Ah, he's an example indeed! Where is he? I left him here. Leontine. Sir, I believe you may see him, and hear him too, in the next room; he 's preparing to go out with the ladies. Croaker. Good gracious, can I believe my eyes or my ears! I'm struck dumb with his vivacity, and stunned with the loudness of his laugh. Was there ever such a transformation! (A laugh behind the scenes; Croaker mimics it.) Ha! ha! ha! there it goes; a plague take their balderdash! Yet I could expect nothing less, when my precious wife was of the party. On my conscience, I believe she could spread an horselaugh through the pews of a tabernacle." Leontine. Since you find so many objections to a 1 trip to Scotland: The belief that Scotland was a Gretna Green for thwarted lovers often appears. "I'd crawl to Scotland on my hands and knees; nay I'd live there all my days, so I could bilk this elder brother with Miss Fairfax." The Choleric Man, Act III, Scene 2. Goldsmith wrote an essay on Scotch Marriages (1772). 2 the pews of a tabernacle: Whitefield's famous meetinghouse in Tottenham Court Road. See Goldsmith's An Essay on the Theatre: "as gloomy as at the Tabernacle." wife, sir, how can you be so earnest in recommending one to me? Croaker. I have told you, and tell you again, boy, that Miss Richland's fortune must not go out of the family; one may find comfort in the money, whatever one does in the wife. Leontine. But, sir, though, in obedience to your desire, I am ready to marry her, it may be possible she has no inclination to me. Croaker. I'll tell you once for all how it stands. A good part of Miss Richland's large fortune consists in a claim upon Government, which my good friend, Mr. Lofty,' assures me the Treasury will allow. One-half of this she is to forfeit, by her father's will, in case she refuses to marry you. So, if she rejects you, we seize half her fortune; if she accepts you, we seize the whole, and a fine girl into the bargain. Leontine. But, sir, if you will but listen to reason Croaker. Come, then, produce your reasons. I tell you, I'm fixed, determined; so now produce your reasons. When I'm determined, I always listen to reason because it can then do no harm. Leontine. You have alleged that a mutual choice was the first requisite in matrimonial happiness. Croaker. Well, and you have both of you a mutual choice. She has her choice to marry you, or lose half her fortune; and you have your choice-to marry her, or pack out of doors without any fortune at all. Leontine. An only son, sir, might expect more indulgence. 1 Mr. Lofty: As first written, Lofty's name was "Le Bronze." Note a possible play on this name in Act II, Scene 1 (page 34), when Lofty says, "Oh, there, indeed, I'm in bronze." Croaker. An only father, sir, might expect more obedience; besides, has not your sister here, that never disobliged me in her life, as good a right as you? He's a sad dog, Livy, my dear, and would take all from you. But he shan't, I tell you he shan't, for you shall have your share. Olivia. Dear sir, I wish you'd be convinced that I can never be happy in any addition to my fortune which is taken from his. Croaker. Well, well, it's a good child, so say no more; but come with me, and we shall see something that will give us a great deal of pleasure, I promise you: old Ruggins, the curry-comb maker, lying in state.1 I'm told he makes a very handsome corpse, and becomes his coffin prodigiously. He was an intimate friend of mine, and these are friendly things we ought to do for each other. [Exeunt. 1 lying in state: The funeral customs of the eighteenth century had often been ridiculed. Steele's Funeral, or Grief à la Mode, remained popular on the stage throughout the century. When Hopkins dies a thousand lights attend POPE, Moral Essays, 3d Epistle. See Walpole's Letters for November 1, 1760, and March 27, 1764, and Goldsmith's The Citizen of the World, Letters xii and cvi. ACT THE SECOND Scene, CROAKER'S HOUSE. Miss Richland, Garnet. Miss Richland. Olivia not his sister? Olivia not Leontine's sister? You amaze me! Garnet. No more his sister than I am; I had it all from his own servant; I can get anything from that quarter. Miss Richland. But how? Tell me again, Garnet. Garnet. Why, madam, as I told you before, instead of going to Lyons to bring home his sister, who has been there with her aunt these ten years, he never went further than Paris; there he saw and fell in love with this young lady-by the bye, of a prodigious family. Miss Richland. And brought her home to my guardian as his daughter? Garnet. Yes, and his daughter she will be. If he don't consent to their marriage, they talk of trying what a Scotch parson can do. Miss Richland. Well, I own they have deceived me And so demurely as Olivia carried it too! Would you believe it, Garnet, I told her all my secrets; and yet the sly cheat concealed all this from me? Garnet. And, upon my word, madam, I don't much blame her; she was loath to trust one with her secrets that was so very bad at keeping her own. Miss Richland. But, to add to their deceit, the young gentleman, it seems, pretends to make me serious proposals. My guardian and he are to be here presently, to open the affair in form. You know I am to lose half my fortune if I refuse him. Garnet. Yet, what can you do? For being, as you are, in love with Mr. Honeywood, madam Miss Richland. How! idiot, what do you mean? In love with Mr. Honeywood! Is this to provoke me? Garnet. That is, madam, in friendship with him; I meant nothing more than friendship, as I hope to be married; nothing more. Miss Richland. Well, no more of this. As to my guardian and his son, they shall find me prepared to receive them; I'm resolved to accept their proposal with seeming pleasure, to mortify them by compliance, and so throw the refusal at last upon them. Garnet. Delicious! and that will secure your whole fortune to yourself. Well, who could have thought so innocent a face could cover so much cuteness! Miss Richland. Why, girl, I only oppose my prudence to their cunning,1 and practise a lesson they have taught me against themselves. Garnet. Then you're likely not long to want employment, for here they come, and in close conference. Enter Croaker and Leontine. Leontine. Excuse me, sir, if I seem to hesitate upon the point of putting to the lady so important a question. 1 oppose my prudence to their cunning: Goldsmith had evidently been reading The Merchant of Venice when writing the second act of this play. Compare with the above, "I do oppose my patience to his fury " (Act IV, Sc. 1). Note also the similarity between Miss Richland's next words and Shylock's, “The villainy you teach me I will execute" (Act III, Sc. 1), and the resemblance between the succeeding comedy of Croaker and his son Leontine and the comic appeals of Old Gobbo and his son Launcelot before Bassanio (Act II, Sc. 2). |