Sir _Pat._ Oh blest Deliverance!--what a profane Wretch is here, and
what a leud World we live in--Oh _London_, _London_, how thou aboundest
in Iniquity! thy young Men are debauch’d, thy Virgins defloured, and thy
Matrons all turn’d Bauds! My Lady _Fancy_, this is not Company for you,
I take it, let us fly from this vexation of Spirit, on the never-failing
Wings of Discretion.--
[Going to lead Lady _Fancy_ off,--the Lady _Knowell_ speaking to
_Isabella_ all this while.
L. _Kno._ How! marry thee to such a Fop, say’st thou? Oh egregious!--as
thou lovest _Lodwick_, let him not know his Name, it will be dangerous,
let me alone to evade it.
_Isab._ I know his fiery Temper too well to trust him with the secret.
L. _Kno._ Hark ye, Sir, and do you intend to do this horrible thing?--
Sir _Pat._ What thing, my Lady _Knowell_?
L. _Kno._ Why, to marry your Daughter, Sir.
Sir _Pat._ Yes, Madam.
L. _Kno._ To a beastly Town Fool? _Monstrum horrendum!_
Sir _Pat._ To any Fool, except a Fool of your Race, of your
Generation.--
L. _Kno._ How! a Fool of my Race, my Generation! I know thou meanest my
Son, thou contumelious Knight, who, let me tell thee, shall marry thy
Daughter _invito te_, that is, (to inform thy obtuse Understanding) in
spite of thee; yes, shall marry her, though she inherits nothing but thy
dull Enthusiasms, which had she been legitimate she had been possest
with.
Sir _Pat._ Oh abominable! you had best say she is none of my Daughter,
and that I was a Cuckold.--
L. _Kno._ If I should, Sir, it would not amount to _Scandalum Magnatum_:
I’ll tell thee more, thy whole Pedigree,--and yet for all this,
_Lodwick_ shall marry your Daughter, and yet I’ll have none of your
Nephew.
Sir _Pat._ Shall he so, my Lady _Knowell_? I shall go near to out-trick
your Ladyship, for all your politick Learning. ‘Tis past the Canonical
Hour, as they call it, or I wou’d marry my Daughter instantly; I profess
we ne’er had good days since these Canonical Fopperies came up again,
mere Popish Tricks to give our Children time for Disobedience,--the next
Justice wou’d ha’ serv’d turn, and have done the Business at any Hour:
but Patience is a Virtue--_Roger_, go after Mr. _Fainlove_, and tell him
I wou’d speak with him instantly.
[Exit _Roger_.
L. _Kno._ Come, come, Ladies, we lose fleeting time, upon my Honour, we
do; for, Madam, as I said, I have brought the Fiddles, and design to
sacrifice the intire Evening to your Ladyship’s Diversion.
Sir _Cred._ Incomparable Lady, that was well thought on; Zoz, I long to
be jigging.
Sir _Pat._ Fiddles, good Lord! why, what am I come to?--Madam, I take
it, Sir _Patient Fancy’s_ Lady is not a proper Person to make one at
immodest Revellings, and profane Masqueradings.
L. _Fan._ Why; ah, ‘tis very true, Sir, but we ought not to offend a
Brother that is weak, and consequently, a Sister.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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