ters I will continue to meet you. A week, or fo, will probably reconcile us.

Matt. Your inftructions shall be observed. 'Tis now high time for us to repair to our. feveral duties: fo, till the evening, at our quarters in Moorfields, we bid you farewel.

Mac. I fhall with myself with you. Succefs attend [Sits down melancholy at the table.

you.

AIR XX. March in Rinaldo, with drums and trumpets.
Matt. Let us take the road.

Hark, I hear the found of coaches!
The hour of attack approaches,
To your arms, brave boys, and load.

See the ball I hold!

Let the chymifts toil like affes,
Our fire their fire furpaffes,

And turns all our lead to gold.

[The gang, ranged in the front of the flage, load their piftols, and flick them under their girdles, then go off, finging the firft part in chorus.

Mac. What a fool is a fond wench! Polly is most confoundedly bit. I love the fex: and a man who loves money, might as well be contented with one guinea, as I with one woman. The town, perhaps, hath been as much obliged to me, for recruiting it with free-hearted ladies, as to any recruiting officer in the army. If it were not for us, and the other gentlemen of the fword, Drury-lane would be uninhabited.

AIR XXI. Would you have a young virgin, &c.

If the heart of a man is deprefs'd with cares,
The mist is difpell'd when a woman appears;
Like the notes of a fiddle, fhe sweetly, fweetly
Raifes the fpirits, and charms our ears.
Rofes and lilies her cheeks difclose,

But her ripe lips are more sweet than those :
Prefs her,

Carefs her,

With bliffes,

Her kiffes

Diffolve us in pleasure, and foft repofe.

C

I must have women. There is nothing unbends the mind like them. Money is not fo ftrong a cordial for the time-Drawer!

Enter Drawer.

Is the porter gone for all the ladies, according to my di rections?

Sure

Draw. I expect him back every minute. But you know, Sir, you fent him as far as Hockley in the Hole for three of the ladies, for one in Vinegar-yard, and for the rest of them fomewhere about Lewkner's-lane. fome of them are below; for I hear the bar bell. As they come, I will frew them up. Coming, coming. [Exit. Enter Mrs. Coaxer, Dolly Trull, Mrs. Vixen, Betty Doxy, Jenny Diver, Mrs. Slammekin, Suky Tawdry, and Molly Brazen.

Mac. Dear Mrs. Coaxer, 'you are welcome: you look charmingly to-day. I hope you don't want the repairs of quality, and lay on paint-Dolly Trull! kifs me, you flut; are you as amorous as ever, huffy? You are always fo taken up with stealing hearts, that you don't allow yourself time to fteal any thing elfe. Ah, Dolly, thou wilt ever be a coquette! -Mrs. Vixen, I'm yours; I always loved a woman of wit and fpirit; they make charming miftreffes, but plaguy wives-Betty Doxy! come hither, huffy: do you drink as hard as ever? You had better stick to good wholesome beer; for, in troth, Betty, ftrong waters will, in time, ruin your conftituțien : you fhould leave thofe to your bettersWhat, and my pretty Jenny Diver too! as prim and demure as ever! There is not any prude, though ever fo high bred, hath a more fanctified look, with a more mischievous heart. Ah, thou art a dear, artful hypocrite!Mrs. Slammekin as carelefs and genteel as ever! All you fine ladies, who know your own beauty, affect an undrefs But fee, here's Suky Tawdry come to contradi& what I was faying: every thing he gets one way, fhe lays out upon her back. Why, Suky, you must keep at leaft a dozen tally-men-Molly Brazen! [She kiffes bim.] That's well done. I love a free-hearted wench: thou hast a most agreeable assurance, girl, and art as willing as a turtle'-But, hark! I hear mufic. The harper is at the door. "If mufic be the food of love, play Ere you feat yourfelves, ladies, what think you of a dance! Come in.

Enter

Enter Harper.

Play the French tune, that Mrs. Slaminekin was fo fond of.

[A dance à la ronde in the French manner; near the end of it, this fong and chorus.'

While we may,

Beauty's a flower defpis'd in decay.

Chorus. Youth's the feafon, &c.

Let us drink and fport to-day,
Ours is not to-morrow.
Love, with youth, flies swift away,

Age is nought but forrow.
Dance and fing,

Time's on the wing,

Life never knows the return of fpring.

Chorus. Let us drink, &c.

Mac. Now, pray, ladies, take your places. Here, fellow. [Pays the Harper.] Bid the drawer bring us more wine. [Exit Harper.] If any of the ladies choose gin, I hope they will be fo free to call for it.

Fenny. You look as if you meant me. Wine is strong enough for me. Indeed, Sir, I never drink strong waters, but when I have the cholic.

Mac. Juft the excufe of the fine ladies! Why, a lady of quality is never without the cholic. I hope, Mrs. Coaxer, you have had good fuccefs of late, in your visits among the mercers.

Coax. We have fo many interlopers. Yet, with induftry, one may still have a little picking. I carried a filver-flowered futeftring, and a piece of black padufoy,

to Mr. Peachum's lock but last week.

Vix. There's Molly Brazen hath the ogle of a rattlefnake. She rivetted a linen-draper's eye fo faft upon

C 2

her,

her, that he was nicked of three pieces of cambric before he could look off.

Braz. Oh, dear Madam!- -But fure nothing can come up to your handling of laces; and then you have fuch a fweet deluding tongue. To cheat a man is nothing; but the woman must have fine parts indeed, who

cheats a woman.

Vix. Lace, Madam, lies in a fmall compafs and is of eafy conveyance. But you are apt, Madam, to think too

well of your friends.

Coax. If any woman hath more art than another, to be fure, 'tis Jenny Diver. Though her fellow be never fo agreeable, he can pick his pocket as coolly as if money were her only pleasure. Now, that is a command of the paffions uncommon in a woman.

Jenny. I never go to the tavern with a man, but in the view of bufinefs. I have other hours, and other fort of men for my pleasure. But had I your address, Madam

Mac. Have done with your compliments, ladies; and drink about. You are not fo fond of me, Jenny, as you used to be.

Jenny, 'Tis not convenient, Sir, to fhew my fondness among fo many rivals. 'Tis your own choice, and not the warmth of my inclination, that will determine you.

AIR XXIII. All in a mifty morning.
Before the barn-door crowing,

The cock, by hens attended,

His eyes around him throwing,
Stands for a while fufpended:
Then one he fingles from the crew,

And chears the happy hen,

With how do you do, and how do you do,

And how do you do again.

Mac. Ah, Jenny, thou art a dear flut.

Trull. Pray, Madam, were you ever in keeping!

Tawd. I hope, Madam, I han't been fo long upon the

town, but I have met with fome good fortune, as well as my neighbours.

Trull.

Trull. Pardon me, Madam, I meant no harm by the queftion; 'twas only in the way of conversation.

Tawd. Indeed, Madam, if I had not been a fool, I might have lived very handfomely with my last friend. But upon his miffing five guineas, he turned me off. Now, I never fufpected he had counted them.

Slam. Who do you look upon, Madam, as your best fort of keepers?

Trull. That, Madam, is thereafter as they be.

Slam. I, Madam, was once kept by a Jew; and, bating their religion, to women they are a good fort of people.

Tawd. Now, for my part, I own I like an old fellow for we always make them pay for what they

can't do.

Vix. A fpruce 'prentice, let me tell you, ladies, is no ill thing; they bleed freely. I have fent at least two or three dozen of them, in my time, to the plantations.

Jenny. But, to be fure, Sir, with fo much good fortune as you have had upon the road, you must be grown immenfely rich.

Mac. The road, indeed, hath done me juftice; but the gaming-table hath been my ruin.

AIR XXIV. When once I lay with another man's wife, &c.

Jenny. The gamefters and lawyers are jugglers alike,
If they meddle, your all is in danger:
Like gypfies, if once they can finger a foufe,
Your pockets they pick, and they pilfer your house,
And give your estate to a stranger.

A man of courage should never put any thing to the
rifque, but his life. Thefe are the tools of a man of
honour. Cards and dice are only fit for cowardly cheats,
who
prey upon their friends.

[She takes up his piftol. Tawdry takes up the other. Tawd. This, Sir, is fitter for your hand. Befides your lofs of money, 'tis a lofs to the ladies. Gaming takes you off from women. How fond could I be of you! but before company, 'tis ill bred.

Mac. Wanton huffics!