The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Busie BodyThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: The Busie BodyAuthor: Susanna CentlivreCommentator: Jess ByrdRelease date: September 24, 2005 [eBook #16740]Most recently updated: December 12, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSIE BODY ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: The Busie BodyAuthor: Susanna CentlivreCommentator: Jess ByrdRelease date: September 24, 2005 [eBook #16740]Most recently updated: December 12, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Title: The Busie Body
Author: Susanna CentlivreCommentator: Jess Byrd
Author: Susanna Centlivre
Commentator: Jess Byrd
Release date: September 24, 2005 [eBook #16740]Most recently updated: December 12, 2020
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BUSIE BODY ***
Transcriber's Note:In addition to the ordinary page numbers, the printed text labeled the recto (odd) pages of the first two leaves of each 8-page signature. These will appear in the right margin as A, A2...A few typographical errors have been corrected. They are shown in the text withpopups.
GENERAL EDITORSH. Richard Archer, Clark Memorial LibraryRichard C. Boys, University of MichiganEdward Niles Hooker, University of California, Los AngelesH. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los AngelesASSISTANT EDITORW. Earl Britton, University of MichiganADVISORY EDITORSEmmett L. Avery, State College of WashingtonBenjamin Boyce, University of NebraskaLouis I. Bredvold, University of MichiganCleanth Brooks, Yale UniversityJames L. Clifford, Columbia UniversityArthur Friedman, University of ChicagoSamuel H. Monk, University of MinnesotaErnest Mossner, University of TexasJames Sutherland, Queen Mary College, London
Introduction
The Busie BodyDedicatory EpistlePrologueEpilogue
Dramatis Personae
ACT IThe Park
ACT IISir Francis Gripe's houseSir Jealous Traffick's HouseCharles's lodging
ACT IIIoutside Sir Jealous Traffick's housethe StreetSir Francis Gripe's housea Tavern
ACT IVoutside Sir Jealous Traffick's HouseIsabinda's Chambera Garden GateSir Jealous Traffick's house
ACT VSir Francis Gripe's housethe Street before Sir Jealous's Doorinside Sir Jealous Traffick's house
List of ARS titles
INTRODUCTION
Susanna Centlivre (1667?-1723) inThe Busie Body(1709) contributed to the stage one of the most successful comedies of intrigue of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This play, written when there was a decided trend in England toward sentimental drama, shows Mrs. Centlivre a strong supporter of laughing comedy. She had turned for a time to sentimental comedy and with one of her three sentimental plays,The Gamester(1704), had achieved a great success. But her true bent seems to have been toward realistic comedies, chiefly of intrigue: of her nineteen plays written from 1700 to 1723, ten are realistic comedies. Three of these proved very popular in her time and enjoyed a long stage history:The Busie Body(1709);The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret(1714); andA Bold Stroke for a Wife(1717).The Busie Bodybest illustrates Mrs. Centlivre's preference for laughing comedy with an improved moral tone. The characters and the plot are amusing but inoffensive, and, compared to those of Restoration drama, satisfy the desire of the growing eighteenth-century middle-class audience for respectability on the stage.
The theory of comedy on whichThe Busie Bodyrests is a traditional one, but Mrs. Centlivre's simple pronouncements on the virtues of realistic over sentimental comedy are interesting because of the controversy on this subject among critics and writers at this time. In the preface to her first play,The Perjur'd Husband(1700), she takes issue with Jeremy Collier on the charge of immorality in realistic plays. The stage, she believes, should present characters as they are;it isunreasonable to expect a "Person, whose inclinations are always forming Projects to the Dishonor of her Husband, should deliver her Commands to her Confident in the Words of a Psalm." In a letter written in 1700 she says: "I think the main design of Comedy is to make us laugh." (Abel Boyer,Letters of Wit, Politicks, and Morality, London, 1701, p. 362). But, she adds, since Collier has taught religion to the "Rhiming Trade, the Comick Muse inTragick Posture sat" until she discovered Farquhar, whose language is amusing but decorous and whose plots are virtuous. This insistence on decorum and virtue indicates a concession to Collier and to the public. Thus in the preface toLove's Contrivance(1703), she reiterates her belief that comedy should amuse but adds that she strove for a "modest stile" which might not "disoblige the nicest ear." This modest style, not practiced in early plays, is achieved admirably inThe Busie Body. Yet, as she says in the epilogue, she has not followed the critics who balk the pleasure of the audience to refine their taste; her play will with "good humour, pleasure crown the Night." In dialogue, in plot, and particularly in the character of the amusing but inoffensive Marplot, she fulfills her simple theory of comedy designed not for reform but for laughter.
Mrs. Centlivre followed the practices of her contemporaries in borrowing the plot forThe Busie Body. The three sources for the play are:The Devil Is an Ass(1616) by Jonson;L'Etourdi(1658) by Molière; andSir Martin Mar-all or The Feigned Innocence(1667) by Dryden. FromThe Devil Is an Ass, Mrs. Centlivre borrowed minor details and two episodes, one of them the amusing dumb scene. This scene, though a close imitation, seems more amusing inThe Busie Bodythan in Jonson's play, perhaps because the characters, especially Sir Francis Gripe and Miranda, are more credible and more fully portrayed. From the second source forThe Busie Body, Molière'sL'Etourdi, I believe Mrs. Centlivre borrowed the framework for her parallel plots, the theme of Marplot's blundering, and the name and general character of Marplot. But she has improved what she borrowed. She places in Molière's framework more credible women characters than his, especially in the charming Miranda and the crafty Patch; she constructs a more skillful intrigue plot for the stage than his subplot and emphasizes Spanish customs in the lively Charles-Isabinda-Traffick plot. Mrs. Centlivre concentrates on Marplot's blundering, whereas Molière concentrates on the servant Mascarille's schemes. Marplot's funniest blunder, in the "monkey" scene, is entirely original as far as I know (IV, iv). But her greatest change is in the character of Marplot, who inher hands becomes not so much stupid as human and irresistibly ludicrous. Mrs. Centlivre's style is of course inferior to that of Molière. In the preface toLove's Contrivance(1703), in speaking of borrowings from Molière, she said that borrowers "must take care to touch the Colors with an English Pencil, and form the Piece according to our Manners." Of course her touching the "Colors with an English Pencil" meant changing the style of Molière to suit the less delicate taste of the middle-class English audience.
A third source forThe Busie Bodyis Dryden'sSir Martin Mar-all(1667). Since Dryden followed Molière with considerable exactness, it would be difficult to prove beyond doubt that Mrs. Centlivre borrowed from Molière rather than from Dryden. Yet I believe, after a careful analysis of the plays, that she borrowed from Molière. She made ofThe Busie Bodya comedy of intrigue based on the theme and plot used by both Molière and Dryden, but she omitted the scandalous Restoration third plot which Dryden had added to Molière. Her characters are English in speech and action, but they lack the coarseness apparent in Dryden'sSir Martin Mar-all. Though it is impossible to prove the exact sources of Mrs. Centlivre's borrowings, there is no doubt that she has improved what she borrowed.
Whatever the truth may be about Mrs. Centlivre's use of her sources, her play remained in the repertory of acting plays long afterL'EtourdiandSir Martin Mar-allhad disappeared.The Busie Bodyopened at the Drury Lane Theater on May 12, 1709. Steele, who listed the play inThe Tatlerfor May 14, 1709, does not mention the length of the run. Thomas Whincop says that the play ran thirteen nights (Scanderbeg, London, 1747, p. 190), but Genest says the play had an opening run of seven nights (Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830, II, 419). The play remained popular throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Genest lists it as being presented in twenty-three seasons from 1709 to 1800. It was certainly presented much more frequently than this record shows, for Dougald MacMillan inThe Drury Lane Calendarlists fifty-threeperformances from 1747-1776, whereas Genest records two performances in this period. The greatest number of performances in any season was fourteen in 1758-59, the year David Garrick appeared in the play. From the records availableThe Busie Bodyseems to have reached its greatest popularity in England in the middle and late eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century. William Hazlitt, in the "Prefatory Remarks" to the Oxberry acting edition of 1819, saysThe Busie Bodyhas been acted a "thousand times in town and country, giving delight to the old, the young, and the middle-aged."
The Busie Bodyenjoyed a similar place of importance in the stage history of America but achieved its greatest popularity, in New York at least, in the nineteenth century. First performed in Williamsburg on September 10, 1736, the play was presented fifteen times in New York in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century forty-five performances were given in New York in sixteen seasons from 1803 to 1885 (George Odell,Annals of the New York Stage).The Busie Bodyis frequently cited withThe RivalsandThe School for Scandalfor opening seasons and for long runs by great actors.
The text here reproduced is from a copy of the first edition now in the library of the University of Michigan.
Jess ByrdSalem College
COMEDY.
Quem tulit ad scenam ventoso Gloria curru,Exanimat lentus Spectator, sedulus inflat.Sic Leve, sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarumSubruit aut reficit—
Horat. Epist. Lib. II. Ep. 1.
May it please Your Lordship,
AS it's an Establish'd Custom in these latter Ages, for all Writers, particularly the Poetical, to shelter their Productions under the Protection of the most Distinguish'd, whose Approbation produces a kind of Inspiration, much superior to that which theHeathenishPoets pretended to derive from their FictitiousApollo: So it was my Ambition to Address one of my weak Performances to Your Lordship, who, by Universal Consent, are justly allow'd to be the best Judge of all kinds of Writing.
I was indeed at first deterr'd from my Design, by a Thought that it might be accounted unpardonable Rudeness to obtrude a Trifle of this Nature to a Person, whose sublime Wisdom moderates that Council, which at this Critical Juncture, over-rules the Fate of allEurope. But then I was encourag'd by Reflecting, thatLeliusandScipio, the two greatest Men in their Time, among theRomans, both for Political and Military Virtues, in the height of their important Affairs, thought the Perusal and Improving ofTerence's Comedies the noblest way of Unbinding their Minds. I own I were guilty of the highest Vanity, should I presume to put my Composures in Parallel with those of that CelebratedDramatist. But then again, I hope that Your Lordship's native Goodness and Generosity, in Condescension to the Taste of the Best and Fairest part of the Town, who have been pleas'd to be diverted by the followingScenes, will excuse and overlook such Faults as your nicer Judgment might discern.
And here, my Lord, the Occasion seems fair for me to engage in a Panegyrick upon those Natural and Acquired Abilities, which so brightly Adorn your Person: But I shall resist that Temptation, being conscious of the Inequality of a Female Pen to so Masculine an Attempt; and having no other Ambition, than to Subscribe my self,
THO' modern Prophets were expos'd of late,The Author cou'd not Prophesie his Fate;If with such Scenes an Audience had been Fir'd,The Poet must have really been Inspir'd.But these, alas! are Melancholy DaysFor Modern Prophets, and for Modern Plays.Yet since Prophetick Lyes please Fools o'Fashion,And Women are so fond of Agitation;To Men of Sense, I'll Prophesie anew,And tell you wond'rous things, that will prove true:
Undaunted Collonels will to Camps repair,Assur'd, there'll be no Skirmishes this Year;
On our own Terms will flow the wish'd-for Peace,All Wars, except 'twixt Man and Wife, will cease.The Grand Monarch may wish his Son a Throne,But hardly will advance to lose his own.This Season most things bear a smiling Face;But Play'rs in Summer have a dismal Case,Since your Appearance only is our Act of Grace.Court Ladies will to Country Seats be gone,My Lord can't all the Year live Great in Town,Where wantingOpera's,Basset, and aPlay,They'll Sigh and stitch a Gown, to pass the time away.Gay City-Wives atTunbridgewill appear,Whose Husbands long have laboured for an Heir;Where many a Courtier may their Wants relieve,But by the Waters only they Conceive.TheFleet-streetSempstress—Toast ofTempleSparks,That runs Spruce Neckcloths for Attorney's Clerks;AtCupid'sGardenswill her Hours regale,Sing fairDorinda, and drink Bottl'd Ale.At all Assemblies, Rakes are up and down,And Gamesters, where they think they are not known.
Shou'd I denounce our Author's fate to Day,To cry down Prophecies, you'd damn the Play:Yet Whims like these have sometimes made you Laugh;'Tis Tattling all, likeIsaac Bickerstaff.
Since War, and Places claim the Bards that write,Be kind, and bear a Woman's Treat to-Night;Let your Indulgence all her Fears allay,And none but Woman-Haters damn this Play.
IN me you see oneBusie-Bodymore;Tho' you may have enough of one before.With Epilogues, theBusie-Body's Way,We strive to help; but sometimes mar a Play.At this mad Sessions, half condemn'd e'er try'd,Some, in three Days, have been turn'd off, and dy'd,In spight of Parties, their Attempts are vain,For like false Prophets, they ne'er rise again.Too late, when cast, your Favour one beseeches,And Epilogues prove Execution Speeches.Yet sure I spy noBusie-Bodieshere;And one may pass, since they do ev'ry where.Sowr Criticks, Time and Breath, and Censures waste,And baulk your Pleasure to refine your Taste.One busie Don ill-tim'd high Tenets Preaches,Another yearly shows himself in Speeches.Some snivling Cits, wou'd have a Peace for spight,To starve those Warriours who so bravely fight.Still of a Foe upon his Knees affraid;Whose well-hang'd Troops want Money, Heart, and Bread.Old Beaux, who none not ev'n themselves can please,Are busie still; for nothing—but to teizeThe Young, so busie to engage a Heart,The Mischief done, are busie most to part.Ungrateful Wretches, who still cross ones Will,When they more kindly might be busie still!One to a Husband, who ne'er dreamt of Horns,Shows how dear Spouse, with Friend his Brows adorns.Th' Officious Tell-tale Fool, (he shou'd repent it.)Parts three kind Souls that liv'd at Peace contented,Some with Law Quirks setHousesby the Ears;With Physick one what he wou'd heal impairs.Like that dark Mob'd up Fry, that neighb'ring Curse,Who to remove Love's Pain, bestow a worse.Since then this meddling Tribe infest the Age,Bear one a while, expos'd upon the Stage.Let none butBusie-Bodiesvent their Spight!And with good Humour, Pleasure crown the Night!
ACT I. SCENEThe Park.
SirGeorge AirymeetingCharles.
Cha.HA! SirGeorge Airy!A Birding thus early, what forbidden Game rouz'd you so soon? For no lawful Occasion cou'd invite a Person of your Figure abroad at such unfashionable Hours.
SirGeo.There are some Men,Charles, whom Fortune has left free from Inquietudes, who are diligently Studious to find out Ways and Means to make themselves uneasie.
Cha.Is it possible that any thing in Nature can ruffle the Temper of a Man, whom the four Seasons of the Year compliment with as many Thousand Pounds, nay! and a Father at Rest with his Ancestors.
SirGeo.Why there 'tis now! a Man that wants Money thinks none can be unhappy that has it; but my Affairs are in such a whimsical Posture, that it will require a Calculation of my Nativity to find if my Gold will relieve me or not.
Cha.Ha, ha, ha, never consult the Stars about that; Gold has a Power beyond them; Gold unlocks the Midnight Councils; Gold out-does the Wind, becalms the Ship, or fills her Sails; Gold is omnipotent below; it makes whole Armies fight, or fly; It buys even Souls, and bribes the Wretches tobetray their Country: Then what can thy Business be, that Gold won't serve thee in?
SirGeo.Why, I'm in Love.
Cha.In Love— Ha, ha, ha, ha; In Love, Ha, ha, ha, with what, prithee, aCherubin!
SirGeo.No, with a Woman.
Cha.A Woman, Good, Ha, ha, ha, and Gold not help thee?
SirGeo.But suppose I'm in Love with two—
Cha.Ay, if thou'rt in Love with two hundred, Gold will fetch 'em, I warrant thee, Boy. But who are they? who are they? come.
SirGeo.One is a Lady, whose Face I never saw, but Witty as an Angel; the other Beautiful asVenus—
Cha.And a Fool—
SirGeo.For ought I know, for I never spoke to her, but you can inform me; I am charm'd by the Wit of One, and dye for the Beauty of the Other?
Cha.And pray, which are you in Quest of now?
SirGeo.I prefer the Sensual Pleasure, I'm for her I've seen, who is thy Father's WardMiranda.
Cha.Nay then, I pity you; for the Jew my Father will no more part with her, and 30000 Pound, than he wou'd with a Guinea to keep me from starving.
SirGeo.Now you see Gold can't do every thing,Charles.
Cha.Yes, for 'tis her Gold that bars my Father's Gate against you.
SirGeo.Why, if he is this avaricious Wretch, how cam'st thou by such a Liberal Education?
Cha.Not a Souse out of his Pocket, I assure you; I had an Uncle who defray'd that Charge, but for some litte Wildnesses of Youth, tho' he made me his Heir, left Dad my Guardian till I came to Years of Discretion, which I presume the old Gentleman will never think I am; and now he has got the Estate into his Clutches, it does me no more good, than if it lay inPrester John's Dominions.
SirGeo.What can'st thou find no Stratagem to redeem it?
Cha.I have made many Essays to no purpose; tho' Want, the Mistress of Invention, still tempts me on, yet still the old Fox is too cunning for me— I am upon my last Project, which if it fails, then for my last Refuge, a Brown Musquet.
SirGeo.What is't, can I assist thee?
Cha.Not yet, when you can, I have Confidence enough in you to ask it.
SirGeo.I am always ready, but what do's he intend to do withMiranda?Is she to be sold in private? or will he put her up by way of Auction, at who bids most? If so, Egad, I'm for him: my Gold, as you say, shall be subservient to my Pleasure.
Cha.To deal ingeniously with you, SirGeorge, I know very little of Her, or Home; for since my Uncle's Death, and my Return from Travel, I have never been well with my Father; he thinks my Expences too great, and I his Allowance too little; he never sees me, but he quarrels; and to avoid that, I shun his House as much as possible. The Report is, he intends to marry her himself.
SirGeo.Can she consent to it?
Cha.Yes faith, so they say; but I tell you, I am wholly ignorant of the matter.Mirandaand I are like two violent Members of a contrary Party, I can scarce allow her Beauty, tho' all the World do's; nor she me Civility, for that Contempt, I fancy she plays the Mother-in-law already, and sets the old Gentleman on to do mischief.
SirGeo.Then I've your free Consent to get her.
Cha.Ay and my helping-hand, if occasion be.
SirGeo.Pugh, yonder's a Fool coming this way, let's avoid him.
Cha.WhatMarplot, no no, he's my Instrument; there's a thousand Conveniences in him, he'll lend me his Money when he has any, run of my Errands and be proud on't; in short, he'll Pimp for me, Lye for me, Drink for me, do any thing but Fight for me, and that I trust to my own Arm for.
SirGeo.Nay then he's to be endur'd; I never knew his Qualifications before.
EnterMarplotwith a Patch cross his Face.
Marpl.DearCharles, your's,— Ha! SirGeorge Airy, the Man in the World, I have an Ambition to be known to(aside.)Give me thy Hand, dear Boy—
Cha.A good Assurance! But heark ye, how came your Beautiful Countenance clouded in the wrong place?
Marpl.I must confess 'tis a littleMal-a-propos, but no matter for that; a Word with you,Charles; Prithee, introduce me to SirGeorge— he is a Man of Wit, and I'd give ten Guinea's to—
Cha.When you have 'em, you mean.
Marpl.Ay, when I have 'em; pugh, pox, you cut the Thread of my Discourse— I wou'd give ten Guinea's, I say, to be rank'd in his Acquaintance: Well, 'tis a vast Addition to a Man's Fortune, according to the Rout of the World, to be seen in the Company of Leading Men; for then we are all thought to be Politicians, or Whigs, or Jacks, or High-Flyers, or Low-Flyers, or Levellers—and so forth; for you must know, we all herd in Parties now.
Cha.Then a Fool for Diversion is out of Fashion, I find.
Marpl.Yes, without it be a mimicking Fool, and they are Darlings every where; but prithee introduce me.
Cha.Well, on Condition you'll give us a true Account how you came by that Mourning Nose, I will.
Marpl.I'll do it.
Cha.SirGeorge, here's a Gentleman has a passionate Desire to kiss your Hand.
SirGeo.Oh, I honour Men of the Sword, and I presume this Gentleman is lately come fromSpainorPortugal—by his Scars.
Marpl.No really, SirGeorge, mine sprung from civil Fury, happening last Night into the Groom-Porters—I had a strong Inclination to go ten Guineas with a sort of a, sort of a—kind of a Milk Sop, as I thought: A Pox of the Dice he flung out, and my Pockets being empty asCharlesknows they sometimes are, he prov'd a surlyNorth-Britain, and broke my Face for my Deficiency.
SirGeo.Ha! ha! and did not you draw?
Marpl.Draw, Sir, why, I did but lay my Hand upon my Sword to make a swift Retreat, and he roar'd out. Now the Deel a Ma sol, Sir, gin ye touch yer Steel, Ise whip mine through yer Wem.
SirGeo.Ha, ha, ha,
Cha.Ha, ha, ha, ha, fase was the Word, so you walk'd off, I suppose.
Marp.Yes, for I avoid fighting, purely to be serviceable to my Friends you know—
SirGeo.Your Friends are much oblig'd to you, Sir, I hope you'll rank me in that Number.
Marpl.SirGeorge, a Bow from the side Box, or to be seen in your Chariot, binds me ever yours.
SirGeo.Trifles, you may command 'em when you please.
Cha.Provided he may command you—
Marpl.Me! why I live for no other purpose— SirGeorge, I have the Honour to be carest by most of the reigning Toasts of the Town, I'll tell 'em you are the finest Gentleman—
SirGeo.No, no, prithee let me alone to tell the Ladies—my Parts—can you convey a Letter upon Occasion, or deliver a Message with an Air of Business, Ha!
Marpl.With the Assurance of a Page and the Gravity of a Statesman.
SirGeo.You knowMiranda!
Marpl.What, my SisterWard?Why, her Guardian is mine, we are Fellow Sufferers: Ah! he is a covetous, cheating, sanctify'd Curmudgeon; that SirFrancis Gripeis a damn'd old—
Char.I suppose, Friend, you forget that he is my Father—
Marpl.I ask your Pardon,Charles, but it is for your sake I hate him. Well, I say, the World is mistaken in him, his Out-side Piety, makes him every Man's Executor, and his Inside Cunning, makes him every Heir's Jaylor. Egad,Charles, I'm half persuaded that thou'rt someWardtoo, and never ofhis getting: For thou art as honest a Debauchee as ever Cuckolded Man of Quality.
SirGeo.A pleasant Fellow.
Cha.The Dog is Diverting sometimes, or there wou'd be no enduring his Impertinence: He is pressing to be employ'd and willing to execute, but some ill Fate generally attends all he undertakes, and he oftner spoils an Intreague than helps it—
Marpl.If I miscarry 'tis none of my Fault, I follow my Instructions.
Cha.Yes, witness the Merchant's Wife.
Marpl.Pish, Pox, that was an Accident.
SirGeo.What was it, prithee?
Ch.Why, you must know, I had lent a certain Merchant my hunting Horses, and was to have met his Wife in his Absence: Sending him along with my Groom to make the Complement, and to deliver a Letter to the Lady at the same time; what does he do, but gives the Husband the Letter, and offers her the Horses.
Marpl.I remember you was even with me, for you deny'd the Letter to be yours, and swore I had a design upon her, which my Bones paid for.
Cha.Come, SirGeorge, let's walk round, if you are not ingag'd, for I have sent my Man upon a little earnest Business, and have order'd him to bring me the Answer into the Park.
Marpl.Business, and I not know it, Egad I'll watch him.
SirGeo.I must beg your Pardon,Charles, I am to meet your Father here.
Ch.My Father!
SirGeo.Aye! and about the oddest Bargain perhaps you ever heard off; but I'll not impart till I know the Success.
Marpl.What can his Business be with SirFrancis?Now wou'd I give all the World to know it; why the Devil should not one know every Man's Concern.
(Aside.
Cha.Prosperity to't whate'er it be, I have private Affairs too; over a Bottle we'll compare Notes.
Marpl. Charlesknows I love a Glass as well as any Man, I'll make one; shall it be to Night?AdI long to know their Secrets.
(Aside.
EnterWhisper.
Whis.Sir, Sir, MisPatchsays,Isabinda's Spanish Father has quite spoil'd the Plot, and she can't meet you in the Park, but he infallibly will go out this Afternoon, she says; but I must step again to know the Hour.
Marpl.What didWhispersay now? I shall go stark Mad, if I'm not let into this Secret.
(Aside.
Cha.Curst Misfortune, come along with me, my Heart feels Pleasure at her Name. SirGeorge, yours; we'll meet at the old place the usual Hour.
SirGeo.Agreed; I think I see SirFrancisyonder.
(Exit.
Cha. Marplot, you must excuse me, I am engag'd.
(Exit.
Marpl.Engag'd, Egad I'll engage my Life, I'll know what your Engagement is.
(Exit.
Miran.(Coming out of a Chair.)Let the Chair wait: My Servant, That dog'd SirGeorgesaid he was in the Park.
EnterPatch.
Ha! MisPatchalone, did not you tell me you had contriv'd a way to bringIsabindato the Park?
Patch.Oh, Madam, your Ladiship can't imagine what a wretched Disappointment we have met with: Just as I had fetch'd a Suit of my Cloaths for a Disguise: comes my old Master into his Closet, which is right against her Chamber Door; this struck us into a terrible Fright— At length I put on a Grave Face, and ask'd him if he was at leisure for his Chocolate, in hopes to draw him out of his Hole; but he snap'd my Nose off, No, I shall be busie here this two Hours; at which my poor Mistress seeing no way of Escape, order'd me to wait on your Ladiship with the sad Relation.
Miran.UnhappyIsabinda!Was ever any thing so unaccountable as the Humour of SirJealousieTraffick.
Patch.Oh, Madam, it's his living so long inSpain, he vows he'll spend half his Estate, but he'll be a Parliament-Man, on purpose to bring in a Bill for Women to wear Veils, and the other odiousSpanishCustoms— He swears it is the height of Impudence to have a Woman seen Bare-fac'd even at Church, and scarce believes there's a true begotten Child in the City.
Miran.Ha, ha, ha, how the old Fool torments himself! Suppose he could introduce his rigid Rules—does he think we cou'd not match them in Contrivance? No, no; Let the Tyrant Man make what Laws he will, if there's a Woman under the Government, I warrant she finds a way to break 'em: Is his Mind set upon theSpaniardfor his Son-in-law still?
Patch.Ay, and he expects him by the next Fleet, which drives his Daughter to Melancholy and Despair: But, Madam, I find you retain the same gay, cheerful Spirit you had, when I waited on your Ladiship.— My Lady is mighty good-humour'd too, and I have found a way to make SirJealousiebelieve I am wholly in his Interest, when my real Design is to serve her; he makes me her Jaylor, and I set her at Liberty.
Miran.I know thy Prolifick Brain wou'd be of singular Service to her, or I had not parted with thee to her Father.
Patch.But, Madam, the Report is that you are going to marry your Guardian.
Miran.It is necessary such a Report shou'd be,Patch.
Patch.But is it true, Madam?
Miran.That's not absolutely necessary.
Patch.I thought it was only the old Strain, coaxing him still for your own, and railing at all the young Fellows about Town; in my Mind now, you are as ill plagu'd with your Guardian, Madam, as my Lady is with her Father.
Miran.No, I have Liberty, Wench, that she wants; what would she give now to be in thisdissabileein the—open Air, nay more, in pursuit of the young Fellow she likes; for that's my Case, I assure thee.
Patch.As for that, Madam, she's even with you; for tho'she can't come abroad, we have a way to bring him home in spight of oldArgus.
Miran.NowPatch, your Opinion of my Choice, for here he comes— Ha! my Guardian with him; what can be the meaning of this? I'm sure SirFranciscan't know me in this Dress— Let's observe 'em.