The Lame Lover: A Comedy in Three Acts — John Shaqi
The Lame Lover: A Comedy in Three ActsFoote, Samuel
General
The Lame Lover: A Comedy in Three Acts
Foote, Samuel
Comedy plays; English drama -- 18th century
O yes, Sir, I am no stranger to that nobleman's attributes; but then,
Sir, please to consider, his power as a peer he gives up to a proxy;
the direction of his estate, to a rapacious, artful attorney: and as to
his skill in the elegant arts, I presume you confine them to painting
and music, he is directed in the first by Mynheer Van Eisel, a Dutch
dauber; and in the last is but the echo of Signora Florenza, his
lordship's mistress and an opera singer.
SERJEANT.
Mercy upon us! at what a rate the jade runs!
CHARLOT.
In short, Sir, I define every individual who, ceasing to act for
himself, becomes the tool, the mere engine of another man's will, to be
nothing more than a cypher.
SERJEANT.
At this rate the jade will half unpeople the world: but what is all
this to Sir Luke? to him, not one of your cases apply.
CHARLOT.
Every one--Sir Luke has not a first principle in his whole composition;
not only his pleasures, but even his passions are prompted by others;
and he is as much directed to the objects of his love and his hatred,
as in his eating, drinking, and dressing. Nay, though he is active,
and eternally busy, yet his own private affairs are neglected; and
he would not scruple to break an appointment that was to determine a
considerable part of his property, in order to exchange a couple of
hounds for a lord, or to buy a pad-nag for a lady. In a word--but he's
at hand, and will explain himself best; I hear his stump on the stairs.
SERJEANT.
I hope you will preserve a little decency before your lover at least.
CHARLOT.
Lover! ha, ha, ha!
_Enter Sir_ LUKE LIMP.
Sir LUKE.
Mr. Serjeant, your slave--Ah! are you there my little--O Lord! Miss,
let me tell you something for fear of forgetting--Do you know that you
are new christen'd, and have had me for a gossip?
CHARLOT.
Christen'd! I don't understand you.
Sir LUKE.
Then lend me your ear--Why last night, as Colonel Kill'em, Sir William
Weezy, Lord Frederick Foretop, and I were carelessly sliding the
Ranelagh round, picking our teeth, after a damn'd muzzy dinner at
Boodle's, who should trip by but an abbess, well known about town, with
a smart little nun in her suite. Says Weezy (who, between ourselves,
is as husky as hell) Who is that? odds flesh, she's a delicate wench!
Zounds! cried Lord Frederick, where can Weezy have been, not to have
seen the Harietta before? for you must know Frederick is a bit of
Macaroni, and adores the soft Italian termination in _a_.
CHARLOT.
He does?
Sir LUKE.
Yes, a delitanti all over.--Before? replied Weezy; crush me if ever I
saw any thing half so handsome before!--No! replied I in an instant;
Colonel, what will Weezy say when he sees the Charlotta?--Hey! you
little----
CHARLOT.
Meaning me, I presume.
Sir LUKE.
Without doubt; and you have been toasted by that name ever since.
SERJEANT.
What a vast fund of spirits he has!
Sir LUKE.
And why not, my old splitter of causes?
SERJEANT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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