_I'm thinking, now good husbands are so few, To get one for my friend what I must do. ~Camillo~ ventur'd hard; yet at the worst, She stole love's honey-moon, and try'd her lover first. Many poor damsels, if they dar'd to tell, Have done as much, but have not 'scap'd so well. 'Tis well the scene's in ~Spain~; thus, in the dark, I should be loth to trust a ~London~ spark. Some accident might for a private reason, Silence a female, all this acting-season. Hard fate of women: any one wou'd vex, To think what odds, you men have, of our sex. Restraint and custom share our inclination, You men can try, and run o'er half the nation. We dare not, even to avoid reproach, When you're at ~White~'s, peep out of hackney-coach; Nor with a friend at night, our fame regarding, With glass drawn up, drive 'bout ~Covent-Garden~. If poor town-ladies steal in here, you rail, Tho' like chaste nuns their modest looks they veil; With this decorum, they can hardly gain To be thought virtuous, e'en in ~Drury-Lane~. Tho' this you'll not allow, yet sure you may A plot to snap you, in an honest way. In love affairs, one scarce would spare a brother: } All cheat; and married folks may keep a pother, } But look as if they cheated one another. } You may pretend, our sex dissembles most; But of your truth none have much cause to boast: You promise bravely; but for all your storming, We find you're not so valiant at performing. Then sure ~Camillo~'s conduct you'll approve: Wou'd you not do as much for one you love? Wedlock's but a blind bargain at the best, You venture more sometimes, to be not half so blest. All, soon or late, that dangerous venture make, And some of you may make a worse mistake._ [Illustration] THE COUNTRY HOUSE. A FARCE. [Illustration] Dramatis Personæ. MEN. _Mr._ Barnard. _Mr._ Griffard, _Brother to Mr._ Barnard. Erastus, _in love with_ Mariamne. Dorant, _Son to Mr._ Barnard. _Monsieur le Marquis_. _Baron_ de Messy. Janno, _Cousin to Mr._ Barnard. Colin, _Servant to Mr._ Barnard. Charly, _a little Boy_. _Servant to_ Erastus. _Three gentlemen, friends to_ Dorant. _A cook, other servants, &c._ WOMEN. _Mrs._ Barnard. Mariamne, _her daughter_. Mawkin, _sister to_ Janno. Lisetta, _servant to_ Mariamne. The +SCENE+ is laid in _Normandy_ in _France_. THE COUNTRY HOUSE. +ACT+ I. +SCENE+ I. _Enter ~Erastus~ and his man, with ~Lisetta~, ~Mariamne~'s maid._ _Lis._ Once more I tell ye, Sir, if you have any consideration in the world for her, you must be gone this minute. _Er._ My dear _Lisetta_, let me but speak to her, let me but see her only.