Why, sirrah, you're an
anchorite!
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
]
Sir LUCIUS
Ha! my little ambassadress--upon my conscience, I have been looking for
you; I have been on the South Parade this half hour.
LUCY
[Speaking simply. ] O gemini! and I have been waiting for your worship
here on the North.
Sir LUCIUS
Faith! --may be that was the reason we did not meet; and it is very
comical too, how you could go out and I not see you--for I was only
taking a nap at the Parade Coffee-house, and I chose the window on
purpose that I might not miss you.
LUCY
My stars! Now I'd wager a sixpence I went by while you were asleep.
Sir LUCIUS
Sure enough it must have been so--and I never dreamt it was so late,
till I waked. Well, but my little girl, have you got nothing for me?
LUCY
Yes, but I have--I've got a letter for you in my pocket.
Sir LUCIUS
O faith! I guessed you weren't come empty-handed--Well--let me see what
the dear creature says.
LUCY
There, Sir Lucius. [Gives him a letter. ]
Sir LUCIUS
[Reads. ] _Sir--there is often a sudden incentive impulse in love, that
has a greater induction than years of domestic combination: such was
the commotion I felt at the first superfluous view of Sir Lucius
O'Trigger. _--Very pretty, upon my word. --_Female punctuation forbids me
to say more, yet let me add, that it will give me joy infallible to
find Sir Lucius worthy the last criterion of my affections. Delia. _
Upon my conscience! Lucy, your lady is a great mistress of language.
Faith, she's quite the queen of the dictionary! --for the devil a word
dare refuse coming at her call--though one would think it was quite out
of hearing.
LUCY
Ay, sir, a lady of her experience----
Sir LUCIUS
Experience! what, at seventeen?
LUCY
O true, sir--but then she reads so--my stars! how she will read off
hand!
Sir LUCIUS
Faith, she must be very deep read to write this way--though she is
rather an arbitrary writer too--for here are a great many poor words
pressed into the service of this note, that would get their _habeas
corpus_ from any court in Christendom.
LUCY
Ah! Sir Lucius, if you were to hear how she talks of you!
Sir LUCIUS
Oh, tell her I'll make her the best husband in the world, and Lady
O'Trigger into the bargain! --But we must get the old gentlewoman's
consent--and do every thing fairly.
LUCY
Nay, Sir Lucius, I thought you wa'n't rich enough to be so nice!
Sir LUCIUS
Upon my word, young woman, you have hit it:--I am so poor, that I can't
afford to do a dirty action. --If I did not want money, I'd steal your
mistress and her fortune with a great deal of pleasure. --However, my
pretty girl, [Gives her money] here's a little something to buy you a
ribbon; and meet me in the evening, and I'll give you an answer to
this. So, hussy, take a kiss beforehand to put you in mind. [Kisses
her. ]
LUCY
O Lud! Sir Lucius--I never seed such a gemman! My lady won't like you
if you're so impudent.
Sir LUCIUS
Faith she will, Lucy! --That same--pho! what's the name of
it? --modesty--is a quality in a lover more praised by the women than
liked; so, if your mistress asks you whether Sir Lucius ever gave you a
kiss, tell her fifty--my dear.
LUCY
What, would you have me tell her a lie?
Sir LUCIUS
Ah, then, you baggage! I'll make it a truth presently.
LUCY
For shame now! here is some one coming.
Sir LUCIUS
Oh, faith, I'll quiet your conscience! [Exit, humming a tune. ]
[Enter FAG. ]
FAG
So, so, ma'am! I humbly beg pardon.
LUCY
O Lud! now, Mr. Fag--you flurry one so.
FAG
Come, come, Lucy, here's no one by--so a little less simplicity, with a
grain or two more sincerity, if you please. --You play false with us,
madam. --I saw you give the baronet a letter. --My master shall know
this--and if he don't call him out, I will.
LUCY
Ha! ha! ha! you gentlemen's gentlemen are so hasty. --That letter was
from Mrs. Malaprop, simpleton. --She is taken with Sir Lucius's address.
FAG
How! what tastes some people have! --Why, I suppose I have walked by her
window a hundred times. --But what says our young lady? any message to
my master?
LUCY
Sad news. Mr. Fag. --A worse rival than Acres! Sir Anthony Absolute has
proposed his son.
FAG
What, Captain Absolute?
LUCY
Even so--I overheard it all.
FAG
Ha! ha! ha! very good, faith. Good-bye, Lucy, I must away with this
news.
LUCY
Well, you may laugh--but it is true, I assure you. --[Going. ] But, Mr.
Fag, tell your master not to be cast down by this.
FAG
Oh, he'll be so disconsolate!
LUCY
And charge him not to think of quarrelling with young Absolute.
FAG
Never fear! never fear!
LUCY
Be sure--bid him keep up his spirits.
FAG
We will--we will.
[Exeunt severally. ]
* * * * * * * * * * *
ACT III
* * * * * * *
Scene I--The North Parade.
[Enter CAPTAIN ABSOLUTE. ]
ABSOLUTE
'Tis just as Fag told me, indeed. Whimsical enough, faith! My father
wants to force me to marry the very girl I am plotting to run away
with! He must not know of my connection with her yet awhile. He has too
summary a method of proceeding in these matters. However, I'll read my
recantation instantly. My conversion is something sudden, indeed--but I
can assure him it is very sincere. So, so--here he comes. He looks
plaguy gruff. [Steps aside. ]
[Enter Sir ANTHONY ABSOLUTE. ]
Sir ANTHONY
No--I'll die sooner than forgive him. Die, did I say? I'll live these
fifty years to plague him. At our last meeting, his impudence had
almost put me out of temper. An obstinate, passionate, self-willed boy!
Who can he take after? This is my return for getting him before all his
brothers and sisters! --for putting him, at twelve years old, into a
marching regiment, and allowing him fifty pounds a year, besides his
pay, ever since! But I have done with him; he's anybody's son for me. I
never will see him more, never--never--never.
ABSOLUTE
[Aside, coming forward. ] Now for a penitential face.
Sir ANTHONY
Fellow, get out of my way!
ABSOLUTE
Sir, you see a penitent before you.
Sir ANTHONY
I see an impudent scoundrel before me.
ABSOLUTE
A sincere penitent. I am come, sir, to acknowledge my error, and to
submit entirely to your will.
Sir ANTHONY
What's that?
ABSOLUTE
I have been revolving, and reflecting, and considering on your past
goodness, and kindness, and condescension to me.
Sir ANTHONY
Well, sir?
ABSOLUTE
I have been likewise weighing and balancing what you were pleased to
mention concerning duty, and obedience, and authority.
Sir ANTHONY
Well, puppy?
ABSOLUTE
Why then, sir, the result of my reflections is--a resolution to
sacrifice every inclination of my own to your satisfaction.
Sir ANTHONY
Why now you talk sense--absolute sense--I never heard anything more
sensible in my life. Confound you! you shall be Jack again.
ABSOLUTE
I am happy in the appellation.
Sir ANTHONY
Why then, Jack, my dear Jack, I will now inform you who the lady really
is. Nothing but your passion and violence, you silly fellow, prevented
my telling you at first. Prepare, Jack, for wonder and rapture--prepare.
What think you of Miss Lydia Languish?
ABSOLUTE
Languish! What, the Languishes of Worcestershire?
Sir ANTHONY
Worcestershire! no. Did you never meet Mrs. Malaprop and her niece,
Miss Languish, who came into our country just before you were last
ordered to your regiment?
ABSOLUTE
Malaprop! Languish! I don't remember ever to have heard the names
before. Yet, stay--I think I do recollect something. Languish!
Languish! She squints, don't she? A little red-haired girl?
Sir ANTHONY
Squints! A red-haired girl! Zounds! no.
ABSOLUTE
Then I must have forgot; it can't be the same person.
Sir ANTHONY
Jack! Jack! what think you of blooming, love-breathing seventeen?
ABSOLUTE
As to that, sir, I am quite indifferent. If I can please you in the
matter, 'tis all I desire.
Sir ANTHONY
Nay, but Jack, such eyes! such eyes! so innocently wild! so bashfully
irresolute! not a glance but speaks and kindles some thought of love!
Then, Jack, her cheeks! her cheeks, Jack! so deeply blushing at the
insinuations of her tell-tale eyes! Then, Jack, her lips! O, Jack, lips
smiling at their own discretion; and if not smiling, more sweetly
pouting; more lovely in sullenness!
ABSOLUTE
[Aside. ] That's she, indeed. Well done, old gentleman.
Sir ANTHONY
Then, Jack, her neck! O Jack! Jack!
ABSOLUTE
And which is to be mine, sir, the niece, or the aunt?
Sir ANTHONY
Why, you unfeeling, insensible puppy, I despise you! When I was of your
age, such a description would have made me fly like a rocket! The aunt
indeed! Odds life! when I ran away with your mother, I would not have
touched anything old or ugly to gain an empire.
ABSOLUTE
Not to please your father, sir?
Sir ANTHONY
To please my father! zounds! not to please--Oh, my father--odd
so! --yes--yes; if my father indeed had desired--that's quite another
matter. Though he wa'n't the indulgent father that I am, Jack.
ABSOLUTE
I dare say not, sir.
Sir ANTHONY
But, Jack, you are not sorry to find your mistress is so beautiful?
ABSOLUTE
Sir, I repeat it--if I please you in this affair, 'tis all I desire.
Not that I think a woman the worse for being handsome; but, sir, if you
please to recollect, you before hinted something about a hump or two,
one eye, and a few more graces of that kind--now, without being very
nice, I own I should rather choose a wife of mine to have the usual
number of limbs, and a limited quantity of back: and though one eye may
be very agreeable, yet as the prejudice has always run in favour of
two, I would not wish to affect a singularity in that article.
Sir ANTHONY
What a phlegmatic sot it is!
Why, sirrah, you're an anchorite! --a vile,
insensible stock. You a soldier! --you're a walking block, fit only to
dust the company's regimentals on! Odds life! I have a great mind to
marry the girl myself!
ABSOLUTE
I am entirely at your disposal, sir: if you should think of addressing
Miss Languish yourself, I suppose you would have me marry the aunt; or
if you should change your mind, and take the old lady--'tis the same to
me--I'll marry the niece.
Sir ANTHONY
Upon my word, Jack, thou'rt either a very great hypocrite, or--but,
come, I know your indifference on such a subject must be all a lie--I'm
sure it must--come, now--damn your demure face! --come, confess
Jack--you have been lying, ha'n't you? You have been playing the
hypocrite, hey! --I'll never forgive you, if you ha'n't been lying and
playing the hypocrite.
ABSOLUTE
I'm sorry, sir, that the respect and duty which I bear to you should be
so mistaken.
Sir ANTHONY
Hang your respect and duty! But come along with me, I'll write a note
to Mrs. Malaprop, and you shall visit the lady directly. Her eyes shall
be the Promethean torch to you--come along, I'll never forgive you, if
you don't come back stark mad with rapture and impatience--if you
don't, egad, I will marry the girl myself!
[Exeunt. ]
* * * * * * *
Scene II--JULIA's Dressing-room.
[FAULKLAND discovered alone. ]
FAULKLAND
They told me Julia would return directly; I wonder she is not yet come!
How mean does this captious, unsatisfied temper of mine appear to my
cooler judgment! Yet I know not that I indulge it in any other point:
but on this one subject, and to this one subject, whom I think I love
beyond my life, I am ever ungenerously fretful and madly capricious! I
am conscious of it--yet I cannot correct myself! What tender honest joy
sparkled in her eyes when we met! how delicate was the warmth of her
expression! I was ashamed to appear less happy--though I had come
resolved to wear a face of coolness and upbraiding. Sir Anthony's
presence prevented my proposed expostulations: yet I must be satisfied
that she has not been so very happy in my absence. She is coming!
Yes! --I know the nimbleness of her tread, when she thinks her impatient
Faulkland counts the moments of her stay.
[Enter JULIA. ]
JULIA
I had not hoped to see you again so soon.
FAULKLAND
Could I, Julia, be contented with my first welcome--restrained as we
were by the presence of a third person?
JULIA
O Faulkland, when your kindness can make me thus happy, let me not
think that I discovered something of coldness in your first salutation.
FAULKLAND
'Twas but your fancy, Julia. I was rejoiced to see you--to see you in
such health. Sure I had no cause for coldness?
JULIA
Nay, then, I see you have taken something ill. You must not conceal
from me what it is.
FAULKLAND
Well, then--shall I own to you that my joy at hearing of your health
and arrival here, by your neighbour Acres, was somewhat damped by his
dwelling much on the high spirits you had enjoyed in Devonshire--on
your mirth--your singing--dancing, and I know not what! For such is my
temper, Julia, that I should regard every mirthful moment in your
absence as a treason to constancy. The mutual tear that steals down the
cheek of parting lovers is a compact, that no smile shall live there
till they meet again.
JULIA
Must I never cease to tax my Faulkland with this teasing minute
caprice? Can the idle reports of a silly boor weigh in your breast
against my tried affections?
FAULKLAND
They have no weight with me, Julia: No, no--I am happy if you have been
so--yet only say, that you did not sing with mirth--say that you
thought of Faulkland in the dance.
JULIA
I never can be happy in your absence. If I wear a countenance of
content, it is to show that my mind holds no doubt of my Faulkland's
truth. If I seemed sad, it were to make malice triumph; and say, that I
had fixed my heart on one, who left me to lament his roving, and my own
credulity. Believe me, Faulkland, I mean not to upbraid you, when I
say, that I have often dressed sorrow in smiles, lest my friends should
guess whose unkindness had caused my tears.
FAULKLAND
You were ever all goodness to me. Oh, I am a brute, when I but admit a
doubt of your true constancy!
JULIA
If ever without such cause from you, as I will not suppose possible,
you find my affections veering but a point, may I become a proverbial
scoff for levity and base ingratitude.
FAULKLAND
Ah! Julia, that last word is grating to me. I would I had no title to
your gratitude! Search your heart, Julia; perhaps what you have
mistaken for love, is but the warm effusion of a too thankful heart.
JULIA
For what quality must I love you?
FAULKLAND
For no quality! To regard me for any quality of mind or understanding,
were only to esteem me. And for person--I have often wished myself
deformed, to be convinced that I owed no obligation there for any part
of your affection.
JULIA
Where nature has bestowed a show of nice attention in the features of a
man, he should laugh at it as misplaced. I have seen men, who in this
vain article, perhaps, might rank above you; but my heart has never
asked my eyes if it were so or not.
FAULKLAND
Now this is not well from you, Julia--I despise person in a man--yet if
you loved me as I wish, though I were an AEthiop, you'd think none so
fair.
JULIA
I see you are determined to be unkind! The contract which my poor
father bound us in gives you more than a lover's privilege.
FAULKLAND
Again, Julia, you raise ideas that feed and justify my doubts. I would
not have been more free--no--I am proud of my restraint.
Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has
fettered your inclinations, which else had made a worthier choice. How
shall I be sure, had you remained unbound in thought and promise, that
I should still have been the object of your persevering love?
JULIA
Then try me now. Let us be free as strangers as to what is past: my
heart will not feel more liberty!
FAULKLAND
There now! so hasty, Julia! so anxious to be free! If your love for me
were fixed and ardent, you would not lose your hold, even though I
wished it!
JULIA
Oh! you torture me to the heart! I cannot bear it.
FAULKLAND
I do not mean to distress you. If I loved you less I should never give
you an uneasy moment. But hear me. All my fretful doubts arise from
this. Women are not used to weigh and separate the motives of their
affections: the cold dictates of prudence, gratitude, or filial duty,
may sometimes be mistaken for the pleadings of the heart. I would not
boast--yet let me say, that I have neither age, person, nor character,
to found dislike on; my fortune such as few ladies could be charged
with indiscretion in the match. O Julia! when love receives such
countenance from prudence, nice minds will be suspicious of its birth.
JULIA
I know not whither your insinuations would tend:--but as they seem
pressing to insult me, I will spare you the regret of having done
so. --I have given you no cause for this! [Exit in tears. ]
FAULKLAND
In tears! Stay, Julia: stay but for a moment. --The door is
fastened! --Julia! --my soul--but for one moment! --I hear her
sobbing! --'Sdeath! what a brute am I to use her thus! Yet
stay! --Ay--she is coming now:--how little resolution there is in a
woman! --how a few soft words can turn them! --No, faith! --she is not
coming either. --Why, Julia--my love--say but that you forgive me--come
but to tell me that--now this is being too resentful. Stay! she is
coming too--I thought she would--no steadiness in anything: her going
away must have been a mere trick then--she shan't see that I was hurt
by it. --I'll affect indifference--[Hums a tune; then listens. ]
No--zounds! she's not coming! --nor don't intend it, I suppose. --This is
not steadiness, but obstinacy! Yet I deserve it. --What, after so long
an absence to quarrel with her tenderness! --'twas barbarous and
unmanly! --I should be ashamed to see her now. --I'll wait till her just
resentment is abated--and when I distress her so again, may I lose her
for ever! and be linked instead to some antique virago, whose gnawing
passions, and long hoarded spleen, shall make me curse my folly half
the day and all the night. [Exit. ]
* * * * * * *
Scene III--Mrs. MALAPROP's Lodgings.
[Mrs. MALAPROP, with a letter in her hand, and CAPTAIN ABSOLUTE. ]
Mrs. MALAPROP
Your being Sir Anthony's son, captain, would itself be a sufficient
accommodation; but from the ingenuity of your appearance, I am
convinced you deserve the character here given of you.
ABSOLUTE
Permit me to say, madam, that as I never yet have had the pleasure of
seeing Miss Languish, my principal inducement in this affair at present
is the honour of being allied to Mrs. Malaprop; of whose intellectual
accomplishments, elegant manners, and unaffected learning, no tongue is
silent.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Sir, you do me infinite honour! I beg, captain, you'll be
seated. --[They sit. ] Ah! few gentlemen, now-a-days, know how to value
the ineffectual qualities in a woman! few think how a little knowledge
becomes a gentlewoman! --Men have no sense now but for the worthless
flower of beauty!
ABSOLUTE
It is but too true, indeed, ma'am;--yet I fear our ladies should share
the blame--they think our admiration of beauty so great, that knowledge
in them would be superfluous. Thus, like garden-trees, they seldom show
fruit, till time has robbed them of the more specious blossom. --Few,
like Mrs. Malaprop and the orange-tree, are rich in both at once!
Mrs. MALAPROP
Sir, you overpower me with good-breeding. --He is the very pine-apple of
politeness! --You are not ignorant, captain, that this giddy girl has
somehow contrived to fix her affections on a beggarly, strolling,
eaves-dropping ensign, whom none of us have seen, and nobody knows
anything of.
ABSOLUTE
Oh, I have heard the silly affair before. --I'm not at all prejudiced
against her on that account.
Mrs. MALAPROP
You are very good and very considerate, captain. I am sure I have done
everything in my power since I exploded the affair; long ago I laid my
positive conjunctions on her, never to think on the fellow again;--I
have since laid Sir Anthony's preposition before her; but, I am sorry
to say, she seems resolved to decline every particle that I enjoin her.
ABSOLUTE
It must be very distressing, indeed, ma'am.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree. --I thought she had
persisted from corresponding with him; but, behold, this very day, I
have interceded another letter from the fellow; I believe I have it in
my pocket.
ABSOLUTE
[Aside. ] Oh, the devil! my last note.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Ay, here it is.
ABSOLUTE
[Aside. ] Ay, my note indeed! O the little traitress Lucy.
Mrs. MALAPROP
There, perhaps you may know the writing. [Gives him the letter. ]
ABSOLUTE
I think I have seen the hand before--yes, I certainly must have seen
this hand before----
Mrs. MALAPROP
Nay, but read it, captain.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _My soul's idol, my adored Lydia! _--Very tender, indeed!
Mrs. MALAPROP
Tender! ay, and profane too, o' my conscience.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _I am excessively alarmed at the intelligence you send me, the
more so as my new rival_----
Mrs. MALAPROP
That's you, sir.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _Has universally the character of being an accomplished
gentleman and a man of honour. _--Well, that's handsome enough.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Oh, the fellow has some design in writing so.
ABSOLUTE
That he had, I'll answer for him, ma'am.
Mrs. MALAPROP
But go on, sir--you'll see presently.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _As for the old weather-beaten she-dragon who guards you_--Who
can he mean by that?
Mrs. MALAPROP
Me, sir! --me! --he means me! --There--what do you think now? --but go on a
little further.
ABSOLUTE
Impudent scoundrel! --[Reads. ] _it shall go hard but I will elude her
vigilance, as I am told that the same ridiculous vanity, which makes
her dress up her coarse features, and deck her dull chat with hard
words which she don't understand_----
Mrs. MALAPROP
There, sir, an attack upon my language! what do you think of that? --an
aspersion upon my parts of speech! was ever such a brute! Sure, if I
reprehend any thing in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue,
and a nice derangement of epitaphs!
ABSOLUTE
He deserves to be hanged and quartered! let me see--[Reads. ] _same
ridiculous vanity_----
Mrs. MALAPROP
You need not read it again, sir.
Sir LUCIUS
Ha! my little ambassadress--upon my conscience, I have been looking for
you; I have been on the South Parade this half hour.
LUCY
[Speaking simply. ] O gemini! and I have been waiting for your worship
here on the North.
Sir LUCIUS
Faith! --may be that was the reason we did not meet; and it is very
comical too, how you could go out and I not see you--for I was only
taking a nap at the Parade Coffee-house, and I chose the window on
purpose that I might not miss you.
LUCY
My stars! Now I'd wager a sixpence I went by while you were asleep.
Sir LUCIUS
Sure enough it must have been so--and I never dreamt it was so late,
till I waked. Well, but my little girl, have you got nothing for me?
LUCY
Yes, but I have--I've got a letter for you in my pocket.
Sir LUCIUS
O faith! I guessed you weren't come empty-handed--Well--let me see what
the dear creature says.
LUCY
There, Sir Lucius. [Gives him a letter. ]
Sir LUCIUS
[Reads. ] _Sir--there is often a sudden incentive impulse in love, that
has a greater induction than years of domestic combination: such was
the commotion I felt at the first superfluous view of Sir Lucius
O'Trigger. _--Very pretty, upon my word. --_Female punctuation forbids me
to say more, yet let me add, that it will give me joy infallible to
find Sir Lucius worthy the last criterion of my affections. Delia. _
Upon my conscience! Lucy, your lady is a great mistress of language.
Faith, she's quite the queen of the dictionary! --for the devil a word
dare refuse coming at her call--though one would think it was quite out
of hearing.
LUCY
Ay, sir, a lady of her experience----
Sir LUCIUS
Experience! what, at seventeen?
LUCY
O true, sir--but then she reads so--my stars! how she will read off
hand!
Sir LUCIUS
Faith, she must be very deep read to write this way--though she is
rather an arbitrary writer too--for here are a great many poor words
pressed into the service of this note, that would get their _habeas
corpus_ from any court in Christendom.
LUCY
Ah! Sir Lucius, if you were to hear how she talks of you!
Sir LUCIUS
Oh, tell her I'll make her the best husband in the world, and Lady
O'Trigger into the bargain! --But we must get the old gentlewoman's
consent--and do every thing fairly.
LUCY
Nay, Sir Lucius, I thought you wa'n't rich enough to be so nice!
Sir LUCIUS
Upon my word, young woman, you have hit it:--I am so poor, that I can't
afford to do a dirty action. --If I did not want money, I'd steal your
mistress and her fortune with a great deal of pleasure. --However, my
pretty girl, [Gives her money] here's a little something to buy you a
ribbon; and meet me in the evening, and I'll give you an answer to
this. So, hussy, take a kiss beforehand to put you in mind. [Kisses
her. ]
LUCY
O Lud! Sir Lucius--I never seed such a gemman! My lady won't like you
if you're so impudent.
Sir LUCIUS
Faith she will, Lucy! --That same--pho! what's the name of
it? --modesty--is a quality in a lover more praised by the women than
liked; so, if your mistress asks you whether Sir Lucius ever gave you a
kiss, tell her fifty--my dear.
LUCY
What, would you have me tell her a lie?
Sir LUCIUS
Ah, then, you baggage! I'll make it a truth presently.
LUCY
For shame now! here is some one coming.
Sir LUCIUS
Oh, faith, I'll quiet your conscience! [Exit, humming a tune. ]
[Enter FAG. ]
FAG
So, so, ma'am! I humbly beg pardon.
LUCY
O Lud! now, Mr. Fag--you flurry one so.
FAG
Come, come, Lucy, here's no one by--so a little less simplicity, with a
grain or two more sincerity, if you please. --You play false with us,
madam. --I saw you give the baronet a letter. --My master shall know
this--and if he don't call him out, I will.
LUCY
Ha! ha! ha! you gentlemen's gentlemen are so hasty. --That letter was
from Mrs. Malaprop, simpleton. --She is taken with Sir Lucius's address.
FAG
How! what tastes some people have! --Why, I suppose I have walked by her
window a hundred times. --But what says our young lady? any message to
my master?
LUCY
Sad news. Mr. Fag. --A worse rival than Acres! Sir Anthony Absolute has
proposed his son.
FAG
What, Captain Absolute?
LUCY
Even so--I overheard it all.
FAG
Ha! ha! ha! very good, faith. Good-bye, Lucy, I must away with this
news.
LUCY
Well, you may laugh--but it is true, I assure you. --[Going. ] But, Mr.
Fag, tell your master not to be cast down by this.
FAG
Oh, he'll be so disconsolate!
LUCY
And charge him not to think of quarrelling with young Absolute.
FAG
Never fear! never fear!
LUCY
Be sure--bid him keep up his spirits.
FAG
We will--we will.
[Exeunt severally. ]
* * * * * * * * * * *
ACT III
* * * * * * *
Scene I--The North Parade.
[Enter CAPTAIN ABSOLUTE. ]
ABSOLUTE
'Tis just as Fag told me, indeed. Whimsical enough, faith! My father
wants to force me to marry the very girl I am plotting to run away
with! He must not know of my connection with her yet awhile. He has too
summary a method of proceeding in these matters. However, I'll read my
recantation instantly. My conversion is something sudden, indeed--but I
can assure him it is very sincere. So, so--here he comes. He looks
plaguy gruff. [Steps aside. ]
[Enter Sir ANTHONY ABSOLUTE. ]
Sir ANTHONY
No--I'll die sooner than forgive him. Die, did I say? I'll live these
fifty years to plague him. At our last meeting, his impudence had
almost put me out of temper. An obstinate, passionate, self-willed boy!
Who can he take after? This is my return for getting him before all his
brothers and sisters! --for putting him, at twelve years old, into a
marching regiment, and allowing him fifty pounds a year, besides his
pay, ever since! But I have done with him; he's anybody's son for me. I
never will see him more, never--never--never.
ABSOLUTE
[Aside, coming forward. ] Now for a penitential face.
Sir ANTHONY
Fellow, get out of my way!
ABSOLUTE
Sir, you see a penitent before you.
Sir ANTHONY
I see an impudent scoundrel before me.
ABSOLUTE
A sincere penitent. I am come, sir, to acknowledge my error, and to
submit entirely to your will.
Sir ANTHONY
What's that?
ABSOLUTE
I have been revolving, and reflecting, and considering on your past
goodness, and kindness, and condescension to me.
Sir ANTHONY
Well, sir?
ABSOLUTE
I have been likewise weighing and balancing what you were pleased to
mention concerning duty, and obedience, and authority.
Sir ANTHONY
Well, puppy?
ABSOLUTE
Why then, sir, the result of my reflections is--a resolution to
sacrifice every inclination of my own to your satisfaction.
Sir ANTHONY
Why now you talk sense--absolute sense--I never heard anything more
sensible in my life. Confound you! you shall be Jack again.
ABSOLUTE
I am happy in the appellation.
Sir ANTHONY
Why then, Jack, my dear Jack, I will now inform you who the lady really
is. Nothing but your passion and violence, you silly fellow, prevented
my telling you at first. Prepare, Jack, for wonder and rapture--prepare.
What think you of Miss Lydia Languish?
ABSOLUTE
Languish! What, the Languishes of Worcestershire?
Sir ANTHONY
Worcestershire! no. Did you never meet Mrs. Malaprop and her niece,
Miss Languish, who came into our country just before you were last
ordered to your regiment?
ABSOLUTE
Malaprop! Languish! I don't remember ever to have heard the names
before. Yet, stay--I think I do recollect something. Languish!
Languish! She squints, don't she? A little red-haired girl?
Sir ANTHONY
Squints! A red-haired girl! Zounds! no.
ABSOLUTE
Then I must have forgot; it can't be the same person.
Sir ANTHONY
Jack! Jack! what think you of blooming, love-breathing seventeen?
ABSOLUTE
As to that, sir, I am quite indifferent. If I can please you in the
matter, 'tis all I desire.
Sir ANTHONY
Nay, but Jack, such eyes! such eyes! so innocently wild! so bashfully
irresolute! not a glance but speaks and kindles some thought of love!
Then, Jack, her cheeks! her cheeks, Jack! so deeply blushing at the
insinuations of her tell-tale eyes! Then, Jack, her lips! O, Jack, lips
smiling at their own discretion; and if not smiling, more sweetly
pouting; more lovely in sullenness!
ABSOLUTE
[Aside. ] That's she, indeed. Well done, old gentleman.
Sir ANTHONY
Then, Jack, her neck! O Jack! Jack!
ABSOLUTE
And which is to be mine, sir, the niece, or the aunt?
Sir ANTHONY
Why, you unfeeling, insensible puppy, I despise you! When I was of your
age, such a description would have made me fly like a rocket! The aunt
indeed! Odds life! when I ran away with your mother, I would not have
touched anything old or ugly to gain an empire.
ABSOLUTE
Not to please your father, sir?
Sir ANTHONY
To please my father! zounds! not to please--Oh, my father--odd
so! --yes--yes; if my father indeed had desired--that's quite another
matter. Though he wa'n't the indulgent father that I am, Jack.
ABSOLUTE
I dare say not, sir.
Sir ANTHONY
But, Jack, you are not sorry to find your mistress is so beautiful?
ABSOLUTE
Sir, I repeat it--if I please you in this affair, 'tis all I desire.
Not that I think a woman the worse for being handsome; but, sir, if you
please to recollect, you before hinted something about a hump or two,
one eye, and a few more graces of that kind--now, without being very
nice, I own I should rather choose a wife of mine to have the usual
number of limbs, and a limited quantity of back: and though one eye may
be very agreeable, yet as the prejudice has always run in favour of
two, I would not wish to affect a singularity in that article.
Sir ANTHONY
What a phlegmatic sot it is!
Why, sirrah, you're an anchorite! --a vile,
insensible stock. You a soldier! --you're a walking block, fit only to
dust the company's regimentals on! Odds life! I have a great mind to
marry the girl myself!
ABSOLUTE
I am entirely at your disposal, sir: if you should think of addressing
Miss Languish yourself, I suppose you would have me marry the aunt; or
if you should change your mind, and take the old lady--'tis the same to
me--I'll marry the niece.
Sir ANTHONY
Upon my word, Jack, thou'rt either a very great hypocrite, or--but,
come, I know your indifference on such a subject must be all a lie--I'm
sure it must--come, now--damn your demure face! --come, confess
Jack--you have been lying, ha'n't you? You have been playing the
hypocrite, hey! --I'll never forgive you, if you ha'n't been lying and
playing the hypocrite.
ABSOLUTE
I'm sorry, sir, that the respect and duty which I bear to you should be
so mistaken.
Sir ANTHONY
Hang your respect and duty! But come along with me, I'll write a note
to Mrs. Malaprop, and you shall visit the lady directly. Her eyes shall
be the Promethean torch to you--come along, I'll never forgive you, if
you don't come back stark mad with rapture and impatience--if you
don't, egad, I will marry the girl myself!
[Exeunt. ]
* * * * * * *
Scene II--JULIA's Dressing-room.
[FAULKLAND discovered alone. ]
FAULKLAND
They told me Julia would return directly; I wonder she is not yet come!
How mean does this captious, unsatisfied temper of mine appear to my
cooler judgment! Yet I know not that I indulge it in any other point:
but on this one subject, and to this one subject, whom I think I love
beyond my life, I am ever ungenerously fretful and madly capricious! I
am conscious of it--yet I cannot correct myself! What tender honest joy
sparkled in her eyes when we met! how delicate was the warmth of her
expression! I was ashamed to appear less happy--though I had come
resolved to wear a face of coolness and upbraiding. Sir Anthony's
presence prevented my proposed expostulations: yet I must be satisfied
that she has not been so very happy in my absence. She is coming!
Yes! --I know the nimbleness of her tread, when she thinks her impatient
Faulkland counts the moments of her stay.
[Enter JULIA. ]
JULIA
I had not hoped to see you again so soon.
FAULKLAND
Could I, Julia, be contented with my first welcome--restrained as we
were by the presence of a third person?
JULIA
O Faulkland, when your kindness can make me thus happy, let me not
think that I discovered something of coldness in your first salutation.
FAULKLAND
'Twas but your fancy, Julia. I was rejoiced to see you--to see you in
such health. Sure I had no cause for coldness?
JULIA
Nay, then, I see you have taken something ill. You must not conceal
from me what it is.
FAULKLAND
Well, then--shall I own to you that my joy at hearing of your health
and arrival here, by your neighbour Acres, was somewhat damped by his
dwelling much on the high spirits you had enjoyed in Devonshire--on
your mirth--your singing--dancing, and I know not what! For such is my
temper, Julia, that I should regard every mirthful moment in your
absence as a treason to constancy. The mutual tear that steals down the
cheek of parting lovers is a compact, that no smile shall live there
till they meet again.
JULIA
Must I never cease to tax my Faulkland with this teasing minute
caprice? Can the idle reports of a silly boor weigh in your breast
against my tried affections?
FAULKLAND
They have no weight with me, Julia: No, no--I am happy if you have been
so--yet only say, that you did not sing with mirth--say that you
thought of Faulkland in the dance.
JULIA
I never can be happy in your absence. If I wear a countenance of
content, it is to show that my mind holds no doubt of my Faulkland's
truth. If I seemed sad, it were to make malice triumph; and say, that I
had fixed my heart on one, who left me to lament his roving, and my own
credulity. Believe me, Faulkland, I mean not to upbraid you, when I
say, that I have often dressed sorrow in smiles, lest my friends should
guess whose unkindness had caused my tears.
FAULKLAND
You were ever all goodness to me. Oh, I am a brute, when I but admit a
doubt of your true constancy!
JULIA
If ever without such cause from you, as I will not suppose possible,
you find my affections veering but a point, may I become a proverbial
scoff for levity and base ingratitude.
FAULKLAND
Ah! Julia, that last word is grating to me. I would I had no title to
your gratitude! Search your heart, Julia; perhaps what you have
mistaken for love, is but the warm effusion of a too thankful heart.
JULIA
For what quality must I love you?
FAULKLAND
For no quality! To regard me for any quality of mind or understanding,
were only to esteem me. And for person--I have often wished myself
deformed, to be convinced that I owed no obligation there for any part
of your affection.
JULIA
Where nature has bestowed a show of nice attention in the features of a
man, he should laugh at it as misplaced. I have seen men, who in this
vain article, perhaps, might rank above you; but my heart has never
asked my eyes if it were so or not.
FAULKLAND
Now this is not well from you, Julia--I despise person in a man--yet if
you loved me as I wish, though I were an AEthiop, you'd think none so
fair.
JULIA
I see you are determined to be unkind! The contract which my poor
father bound us in gives you more than a lover's privilege.
FAULKLAND
Again, Julia, you raise ideas that feed and justify my doubts. I would
not have been more free--no--I am proud of my restraint.
Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has
fettered your inclinations, which else had made a worthier choice. How
shall I be sure, had you remained unbound in thought and promise, that
I should still have been the object of your persevering love?
JULIA
Then try me now. Let us be free as strangers as to what is past: my
heart will not feel more liberty!
FAULKLAND
There now! so hasty, Julia! so anxious to be free! If your love for me
were fixed and ardent, you would not lose your hold, even though I
wished it!
JULIA
Oh! you torture me to the heart! I cannot bear it.
FAULKLAND
I do not mean to distress you. If I loved you less I should never give
you an uneasy moment. But hear me. All my fretful doubts arise from
this. Women are not used to weigh and separate the motives of their
affections: the cold dictates of prudence, gratitude, or filial duty,
may sometimes be mistaken for the pleadings of the heart. I would not
boast--yet let me say, that I have neither age, person, nor character,
to found dislike on; my fortune such as few ladies could be charged
with indiscretion in the match. O Julia! when love receives such
countenance from prudence, nice minds will be suspicious of its birth.
JULIA
I know not whither your insinuations would tend:--but as they seem
pressing to insult me, I will spare you the regret of having done
so. --I have given you no cause for this! [Exit in tears. ]
FAULKLAND
In tears! Stay, Julia: stay but for a moment. --The door is
fastened! --Julia! --my soul--but for one moment! --I hear her
sobbing! --'Sdeath! what a brute am I to use her thus! Yet
stay! --Ay--she is coming now:--how little resolution there is in a
woman! --how a few soft words can turn them! --No, faith! --she is not
coming either. --Why, Julia--my love--say but that you forgive me--come
but to tell me that--now this is being too resentful. Stay! she is
coming too--I thought she would--no steadiness in anything: her going
away must have been a mere trick then--she shan't see that I was hurt
by it. --I'll affect indifference--[Hums a tune; then listens. ]
No--zounds! she's not coming! --nor don't intend it, I suppose. --This is
not steadiness, but obstinacy! Yet I deserve it. --What, after so long
an absence to quarrel with her tenderness! --'twas barbarous and
unmanly! --I should be ashamed to see her now. --I'll wait till her just
resentment is abated--and when I distress her so again, may I lose her
for ever! and be linked instead to some antique virago, whose gnawing
passions, and long hoarded spleen, shall make me curse my folly half
the day and all the night. [Exit. ]
* * * * * * *
Scene III--Mrs. MALAPROP's Lodgings.
[Mrs. MALAPROP, with a letter in her hand, and CAPTAIN ABSOLUTE. ]
Mrs. MALAPROP
Your being Sir Anthony's son, captain, would itself be a sufficient
accommodation; but from the ingenuity of your appearance, I am
convinced you deserve the character here given of you.
ABSOLUTE
Permit me to say, madam, that as I never yet have had the pleasure of
seeing Miss Languish, my principal inducement in this affair at present
is the honour of being allied to Mrs. Malaprop; of whose intellectual
accomplishments, elegant manners, and unaffected learning, no tongue is
silent.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Sir, you do me infinite honour! I beg, captain, you'll be
seated. --[They sit. ] Ah! few gentlemen, now-a-days, know how to value
the ineffectual qualities in a woman! few think how a little knowledge
becomes a gentlewoman! --Men have no sense now but for the worthless
flower of beauty!
ABSOLUTE
It is but too true, indeed, ma'am;--yet I fear our ladies should share
the blame--they think our admiration of beauty so great, that knowledge
in them would be superfluous. Thus, like garden-trees, they seldom show
fruit, till time has robbed them of the more specious blossom. --Few,
like Mrs. Malaprop and the orange-tree, are rich in both at once!
Mrs. MALAPROP
Sir, you overpower me with good-breeding. --He is the very pine-apple of
politeness! --You are not ignorant, captain, that this giddy girl has
somehow contrived to fix her affections on a beggarly, strolling,
eaves-dropping ensign, whom none of us have seen, and nobody knows
anything of.
ABSOLUTE
Oh, I have heard the silly affair before. --I'm not at all prejudiced
against her on that account.
Mrs. MALAPROP
You are very good and very considerate, captain. I am sure I have done
everything in my power since I exploded the affair; long ago I laid my
positive conjunctions on her, never to think on the fellow again;--I
have since laid Sir Anthony's preposition before her; but, I am sorry
to say, she seems resolved to decline every particle that I enjoin her.
ABSOLUTE
It must be very distressing, indeed, ma'am.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree. --I thought she had
persisted from corresponding with him; but, behold, this very day, I
have interceded another letter from the fellow; I believe I have it in
my pocket.
ABSOLUTE
[Aside. ] Oh, the devil! my last note.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Ay, here it is.
ABSOLUTE
[Aside. ] Ay, my note indeed! O the little traitress Lucy.
Mrs. MALAPROP
There, perhaps you may know the writing. [Gives him the letter. ]
ABSOLUTE
I think I have seen the hand before--yes, I certainly must have seen
this hand before----
Mrs. MALAPROP
Nay, but read it, captain.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _My soul's idol, my adored Lydia! _--Very tender, indeed!
Mrs. MALAPROP
Tender! ay, and profane too, o' my conscience.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _I am excessively alarmed at the intelligence you send me, the
more so as my new rival_----
Mrs. MALAPROP
That's you, sir.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _Has universally the character of being an accomplished
gentleman and a man of honour. _--Well, that's handsome enough.
Mrs. MALAPROP
Oh, the fellow has some design in writing so.
ABSOLUTE
That he had, I'll answer for him, ma'am.
Mrs. MALAPROP
But go on, sir--you'll see presently.
ABSOLUTE
[Reads. ] _As for the old weather-beaten she-dragon who guards you_--Who
can he mean by that?
Mrs. MALAPROP
Me, sir! --me! --he means me! --There--what do you think now? --but go on a
little further.
ABSOLUTE
Impudent scoundrel! --[Reads. ] _it shall go hard but I will elude her
vigilance, as I am told that the same ridiculous vanity, which makes
her dress up her coarse features, and deck her dull chat with hard
words which she don't understand_----
Mrs. MALAPROP
There, sir, an attack upon my language! what do you think of that? --an
aspersion upon my parts of speech! was ever such a brute! Sure, if I
reprehend any thing in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue,
and a nice derangement of epitaphs!
ABSOLUTE
He deserves to be hanged and quartered! let me see--[Reads. ] _same
ridiculous vanity_----
Mrs. MALAPROP
You need not read it again, sir.
