DAIR _and_ ANGELICA.

Oh, Sir Harry! Fortune has acted miracles to-day: the story's strange
and tedious, but all amounts to this--that woman's mind is charming as
her person, and I am made a convert too to beauty.

_Sir H._ I wanted only this, to make my pleasure perfect.

_Enter_ SMUGGLER.

_Smug._ So, gentlemen and ladies, I'm glad to find you so merry; is my
gracious nephew among ye?

_Sir H._ Sir, he dares not show his face among such honourable company;
for your gracious nephew is--

_Smug._ What, sir? Have a care what you say.

_Sir H._ A villain, sir.

_Smug._ With all my heart. I'll pardon you the beating me, for that very
word. And pray, Sir Harry, when you see him next, tell him this news
from me, that I have disinherited him--that I will leave him as poor as
a disbanded quarter-master.--Oh, Sir Harry, he is as hypocritical----

_Lady L._ As yourself, Mr. Alderman. How fares my good old nurse, pray,
sir?----Come, Mr. Alderman, for once let a woman advise:--Would you be
thought an honest man, banish covetousness, that worst gout of age:
avarice is a poor pilfering quality, of the soul, and will, as certainly
cheat, as a thief would steal. Would you be thought a reformer of the
times, be less severe in your censures, less rigid in your precepts, and
more strict in your example.

_Sir H._ Right, madam, virtue flows freer from imitation than
compulsion; of which, colonel, your conversion and mine, are just
examples.

In vain are musty morals taught in schools,
By rigid teachers, and as rigid rules,
Where virtue with a frowning aspect stands,
And frights the pupil from its rough commands
But woman----
Charming woman can true converts make,
We love the precept for the teacher's sake.
Virtue in them appears so bright, so gay,
We hear with transport, and with pride obey. [_Exeunt omnes._

* * * * * *

Transcriber's note:

The text includes a number of words with alternate spellings or
spellings no longer common. These have been retained. A single
instance of dy'e was changed to match the otherwise usual d'ye.

The following additional changes were made to the text:

Act II, Scene III, (Colonel Standard)
I ha'n't vered half my message
was changed to read:
I ha'n't delivered half my message.

Act IV, Scene II, (Lady Lurewell)
This must be Sir Harry; tell him I am not be spoken with.
was changed to read:
This must be Sir Har