THE

DISCOVERY.

ACT I.

Scene I.-A Library.

LORD MEDWAY reading at a table.-Enter LADY MEDWAY.

Lord M. How's this, madam? pursue me into my study? my sanctuary? I thought this place, at least, was to be considered by your ladyship as inviolable.

Lady M. I hope I don't interrupt you, my dear.

Lord M. I should be glad, Lady Medway, that we remember'd our respective bounds; I never intrude at your tea-table or toilet; and I desire my hours of retirement may be held as sacred by you.

Lady M. I beg your pardon, my lord; but indeed you have made me so exceedingly unhappy, by this sudden resolution you have taken, in regard to marrying your daughter, that I can find rest no where.

Lord M. Madam, I did not expect this idle opposition from you, especially when you know my motives to this marriage.

Lady M. My lord, you have not yet explained them to me; I can only guess at large.

Lord M. You know I am harrassed with debts; and I now tell you, I don't know where to raise five hundred pounds more, if it would save me from perdition; and pray, let me ask your ladyship, do you know any

oné besides Sir Anthony Branville, who will take your daughter without a fortune? For I neither am, nor probably ever shall be, able to give her one.

Lady M. But Louisa is very young, my lord; why need we be so precipitate? Besides, if this match between Mrs. Knightly and your son should take place, it will then be in your power to provide for your daughter.

Lord M. Right woman! a hint is but just started, and you pursue, run it down, and seize it at once. I have not yet proposed the thing to my son. Perhaps he may not like the lady when I do; and I presume you will think his inclinations as proper to be consulted as those of the young lady his sister.

Lady M. Certainly, my lord.

Lord M. Oh, no doubt on't; love-matches against the world! And so I suppose, you, out of your maternal fondness, would recommend it to me to let miss please herself in the choice of a husband, as her mamma did before her.

Lady M. That reproach from you, my lord, is not kind-but I do not desire you to let her please herself in choosing one she likes, only do not force her to take one she hates.

Lord M. Has she told you that she hates Sir Anthony?

Lady M. Not in express words; but the repugnance she shows

Lord M. Perhaps she loves some.one else?

Lady M. To tell you the truth, my lord, I believe she does.

Lord M. And pray, who may be the happy man? Lady M. Young Branville, Sir Anthony's nephew, who is now on his travels, and is expected every day home.

Lord M. A forward little gipsy.Lookye, ma dam, I cannot give her a shilling; Sir Anthony is ready

to take her as she is; and if they should have a family, is able to provide liberally for them all. On the contrary, if she follows her own soft inclinations, in marrying Mr. Branville, I suppose, in three or four years, I should have the pleasure of seeing myself a grand papa to two or three pretty little beggars, who, between their mother's vanity, and their father's poverty, may happen to continue so all their lives.

Lady M. But, my lord, as Sir Anthony has sent his nephew abroad at his own expense, it looks as if he meant to do something handsome for him; besides, he is his uncle's heir, in case he should die without children by marriage.

Lord M. And so you think you can keep him in a state of celibacy, by refusing him your daughterOh fie, Lady Medway, I never heard you argue so weakly. Sir Anthony is not yet past the prime of life; besides, he has owned to me that it was his being discarded by Mrs. Knightly, which made him resolve at once, in a sort of pique, to marry the first girl that fell in his way; birth and reputation being all the fortune he desired with her. A man thus circumstanced is very little likely to continue a bachelor-No, no; I'll take him in the humour, and secure him while may.

I

Lady M. Before it be too late, my lord, let me once more beseech you to reflect on the misery of a married life, where on either side love or esteem is wanting. Have we not a glaring instance of this in the house with us, in Sir Harry Flutter and his wife? Are they not as wretched a pair as ever met in wedlock, perpetually quarrelling! I own, I almost repent my invitation to them, and wish them fairly back again in the country.

Lord M. That must not be. [Aside.]— -You have made a very unlucky choice in your example, maʼam ; a foolish boy and a giddy girl, that know not either

VOL. IV.

of them what they would be at. He married the wife his mother chose for him, to get rid of his tutor; and she took the husband her wise father provided for her, to escape from a boarding-school. What can be expected from two such simpletons? He, proud of the authority of a husband, exercises it from the same principle, and with pretty much the same capacity, that children show with regard to poor little animals that are in their power, in teasing and controlling them; and this he thinks makes him look manly.

Lady M. So I imagine, for I have heard him say, does no more than other husbands.

he

Lord M. She, on the other hand, fancies the prerogatives of a wife consist in contradicting and opposing him; and this, I presume, she thinks is doing like other wives; but, my life for it, when they know a little more of the world, they will be very happy.

Lady M. Never in each other, I am afraid, my lord. Lord M. But, pr'ythee, let us have done with the subject at once. One circumstance more, however, I shall acquaint you with:-If the marriage between Medway and this lady should be accomplished, I have other purposes to appropriate her fortune to, than buying a husband for your daughter-But this is only in speculation-the thing may never happen-for nothing but the last extremity should compel me to urge my son against his inclination. In regard to Louisa, in two words, I will be obeyed: do me the favour to tell her as much. I shall see her presently, and expect such an answer from her, as her duty shall dictate.

Lady M. My lord, it is an unpleasing task you have assigned me, but I will obey you. [Exit.

Lord M. [Looking after her.] That you have always done, so much praise I will allow you-but I am out of humour with every thing. If this boy should dislike the match, I am undone at once; and I fear, from

some hints I have lately received, I shall find an obstacle in the way which will not easily be removed. —A thousand vexations crowd upon me together.'Tis a pretty time for a man to think of intriguing! and yet the blooming beauty of that little madcap, with all her childishness about her, has caught such hold on me, that I must have her-Oh, with what alacrity now could I pursue the chase, if my thoughts were a little more disengaged!-She has been complaining to my wife of her husband's ill usage of her; and he, I suppose, will come to me presently, to take a lesson, as he calls it, to enable him to use her worse-he sha'n't want my assistance-and here he comes to receive it.

Scene II.

Enter SIR HARRY FLUTTER.

Sir H. Flut. Oh, my dear lord!

Lord M. Why you seem out of breath, Sir Harry; what is the matter?

Sir H. Flut. Upon my soul, my lord, I have been so stunn'd this morning with the din of conjugal interrogatories, that I am quite bated—do let me lounge a little on this couch of yours.

Lord M. What, I suppose you were playing the rogue last night.

Sir H. Flut. No, faith, only at the tavern. I was at home before three o'clock, and yet my wife was such an unreasonable little devil, as to ask me forty questions about my staying out so late.

Lord M. It's the way of them all -But I hope you are too well acquainted with your own prerogative, to give her any satisfaction on those accounts.

Sir H. Flut. Satisfaction! oh, catch me at that, and sacrifice me-no, no- -But pray now, my lord, how