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steps into your place, and delivers down a posterity of young flail-drivers known by the name of Heartwell

Heart. Fie, Modely! no more of this. You know her virtue is unsullied as her beauty; besides, her education has been above these clods.

Mode. Her education has been among them. But why should you marry her? Shew her some gold, man; promise her mountains, bargain for her, purchase her, run away with her, keep her two or three years, breed out of her-Why should you buy the whole piece, when you may have a suit for a sample? Wear her a little, and then

Heart. Sir, I bore your base reflections with temper, while I believed your meaning was friendly; but now I find you indulge your ill-nature at the expence of a virtuous woman

Mode. Oh, oh! you are grave-that is, you are growing mad indeed, and begin to rattle your matrimonial chain.

Heart. I am talking of religion to a heretic, of morals to a libertine.

Mode. Well, well, then it shall have its toy. Did it cry for a wife? It shall be tied to it, if nothing else will do; like an idiot with a horn book at his girdle. It shall have a gingerbread wife too, but without any gilding.

Heart. Pr'ythee, George, don't make me angry with thee in earnest.

Mode. What is the matter with the man? Art thou

mad? Thou art as uneasy as if thou wert already mar. ried, and had found the corn in the field, when you did not know the grain was sowed.

Heart. Why, then, to confess the honest truth, I am married.

Mode. Married! When?

Heart. Just now.

Mode. To whom?

Heart. To Flora.

Mode. Very good! And so you come to know, it seems, whether you shall give bond for the debt, when there's an execution upon the goods.

Heart. Well, George, but now you know my case, tell me, as a friend, only your opinion of what I have

done.

Mode. Done! Pox, you have done a very silly thing; sold yourself for a waxen baby, a painted moppet, a gay, prating, party-coloured paraquito, which little master will play with till he is sick of it, and then in a gloomy mood be ready to twist its neck off. Ha, ha! a very pretty fellow, to make a vow to be always in the same mind. Oons! you look as if you walked upon your head, with your brains in your breeches.

Heart. Thou art so loose, thy imagination wonders what virtue is. There is no talking with thee. Come, go with me to Sir John's to supper, and be as much a wag there as you please.

Mode. No, I have other game in view-Farewell -Yonder she starts. Ay, there's a mademoiselle

I'll have cheaper; she is not wicked enough yet to ask such an unconscionable price as matrimony. [Exeunt.

MODELY re-enters with AURA.

Aura. Oh, lud! you have brought all the blood in my body into my face.

Mode. Colour is the life of beauty. Can you be angry with me for making you more handsome ? I swear I will be ever faithful. Come, you little dear rogue; you shall trust me.

Aura. Never, never. Oh, lud! don't ask me. My heart beats as if it would break a way thro' my breast.

Mode. What, won't you trust me with a kiss?

Aura. That's a trifle. [Kissing her.] You're impudent.

Mode. You're idle.

Aura. I swear I'll cry out.

Mode. You'll expose yourself.

Aura. Lud, Sir! what do you mean?

Mode. To wrestle for a fall only. There's a couch in the next room will tell no tales. This way, my dear--- [Struggling.] Nay, now you are a little fool. Aura. [Getting one hand loose, strikes him.] I'll tear your eyes out.

"Mode. I shall find the way blindfold, thou dear, "dear, ill-natured devil---She is confounded strong, [Pulling her.

"Aura." Help, help, for Heaven's sake! murder, murder.

Enter FREEHOLD, and two Threshers, who run up to MODELY, disarm and seize him.

Free. Ah, ware haunches, ware haunches !--There---So, so; the hunt is safe. [Exit Aura.] What vicious cur is this, poaching by himself? What, my good friend, Mr. Modely? Why, thou art a very impudent fellow. What canst thou say for thyself now, ha?

Mode. Say! why, I say your kinswoman here was very uncivil, and all that.

Free. You would have been too civil, and all that. Come, bring him along; he shall have a fair race for it. Our moat, Sir, is somewhat wide, but not very clear; now, if you can out-run, and out-swim Towser, I believe you'll not make a hunting-seat of my house again in haste.

"Mode. Consider, Sir, you were once a gentleman "yourself.

"Free. Sentence is passed; don't trouble the "court; I'll hear nothing. You're an idle fellow, "that stroll about the country pilfering of maiden

heads. What, did I not catch you in the fact, "ha? But that I have a decent regard for posterity, "I would have cut away the only credentials you have of humanity, and made a walking sign of ❝ you."

Mode. Sir, I am a gentleman, and expect to be so

used.

Free. How?

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Mode. Take off your bull-dogs; let me speak one word with you alone, and I'll tell you.

Free. Come on, Sir; I'll trust you; I'll give you more credit than you deserve. Do you hear, stay without, that you may be ready when I call. [Exeunt country fellows.] Well, Sir, what have you to say now, why sentence should not pass ?

Mode. Say! why, I say, Sir, that what I did was according to the common law; that the common law is custom, and that it has been the custom, time out mind, for us young fellows, whose blood flows briskly, to use no ceremony with a wholesome cherry-cheek, whether on haycock, meadow, barn, or bed.

Free. Extremely well! and so you would have knocked her down, and ravished her.

Mode. A little agreeable force is absolutely necessary; it saves the woman's honour, and gives such an edge to the appetite

Free. Ay. And so, having finished this honourable affair, that is, having robbed the poor girl of all that could be dear or valuable, having dishonoured her, disgraced yourself, and done an irreparable wrong; why, you could have hummed a tune, taken a pinch of snuff, sat down perfectly satisfied in the probity of the action, and have reconciled yourself to your own reflections with as much ease as you drink a dish of tea. What provokes you to this injustice?

Mode. Love, love and joy, old wormwood. I have made a league with my youth, to get the better of

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