Richard Steele: Edited, with an Introduction and Notes by G. A. AitkenSteele, Richard, Sir
General
Richard Steele: Edited, with an Introduction and Notes by G. A. Aitken
Steele, Richard, Sir
English drama (Comedy); Steele, Richard, Sir, 1672-1729
_Fain._ Ah! my dear, how could you leave your poor Lucy, and run into
France to see sights, and show your gallantry with a wife? Was not that
unnatural?
_Cler. Sen._ She brought me a noble fortune, and I thought she had a
right to share it; therefore carried her to see the world, forsooth,
and make the tour of France and Italy, where she learned to lose her
money gracefully, to admire every vanity in our sex, and contemn every
virtue in her own, which, with ten thousand other perfections, are the
ordinary improvements of a travelled lady. Now I can neither mortify
her vanity, that I may live at ease with her, or quite discard her,
till I have catched her a little enlarging her innocent freedoms, as
she calls 'em. For this end I am content to be a French husband, though
now and then with the secret pangs of an Italian one; and therefore,
sir, or madam, you are thus equipped to attend and accost her ladyship.
It concerns you to be diligent. If we wholly part--I need say no more.
If we do not--I'll see thee well provided for.
_Fain._ I'll do all I can, I warrant you, but you are not to expect
I'll go much among the men.
_Cler. Sen._ No, no; you must not go near men; you are only (when
my wife goes to a play) to sit in a side box with pretty fellows. I
don't design you to personate a real man, you are only to be a pretty
gentleman; not to be of any use or consequence in the world, as to
yourself, but merely as a property to others; such as you see now and
then have a life in the entail of a great estate, that seem to have
come into the world only to be tags in the pedigree of a wealthy house.
You must have seen many of that species.
_Fain._ I apprehend you; such as stand in assemblies, with an indolent
softness and contempt of all around them; who make a figure in public
and are scorned in private; I have seen such a one with a pocket glass
to see his own face, and an effective perspective to know others.
[_Imitates each._
_Cler. Sen._ Ay, ay, that's my man--thou dear rogue.
_Fain._ Let me alone; I'll lay my life I'll horn you--that is, I'll
make it appear I might if I could.
_Cler. Sen._ Ay, that will please me quite as well.
_Fain._ To show you the progress I have made, I last night won of her
five hundred pounds, which I have brought you safe. [_Giving him bills._
_Cler. Sen._ Oh the damned vice! That women can imagine all household
care, regard to posterity, and fear of poverty, must be sacrificed to
a game at cards! Suppose she had not had it to pay, and you had been
capable of finding your account another way?
_Fain._ That's but a suppose--
_Cler. Sen._ I say, she must have complied with everything you asked.
_Fain._ But she knows you never limit her expenses.--I'll gain him from
her for ever if I can. [_Aside._
_Cler. Sen._ With this you have repaid me two thousand pounds, and if
you did not refund thus honestly, I could not have supplied her. We
must have parted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account