row morning.

"Lord T. That may be, madam; but I'll order the doors to be locked at
twelve.

"Lady T. Then I won't come home till to-morrow night.

"Lord T. Then, madam, you shall never come home again." [_Exit_ Lord
Townley.

* * * * *

In the end, of course, Lady Townley is converted to the pleasures of
domesticity, and ends the comedy by saying:

"So visible the bliss, so plain the way,
How was it possible my sense could stray?
But now, a convert to this truth I come,
That married happiness is never found from home."

Perhaps when Oldfield delivered these virtuous lines, she thought to
herself that happiness, even of the unmarried kind, was never very far
away from home. But she forgot sentiment when she came back to give
the breezy epilogue:

"Methinks I hear some powder'd critics say
Damn it, this wife reform'd has spoil'd the play!
The coxcombs should have drawn her more in fashion,
Have gratify'd her softer inclination,
Have tipt her a gallant, and clinch'd the provocation.
But there our bard stops short: for 'twere uncivil
T'have made a modern belle all o'er a devil!
He hop'd in honor of the sex, the age
Would bear one mended woman--on the stage."

Continuing, after diverse moral reflections, Nance made this appeal to
her hearers:

"You, you then, ladies, whose unquestion'd lives
Give you the foremost fame of happy wives,
Protect, for its attempt, this helpless play;
Nor leave it to the vulgar taste a prey;
Appear the frequent champion of its cause,
Direct the crowd, and give yourselves applause."

"Zounds, madam," cries a beau who is ogling a woman of quality in a
stage box, "they say Anne Oldfield will never see forty-two again, but
I'll warrant you, madam, she looks not a day older than yourself." And
the woman of quality, who is over forty, bows at the compliment, as
well she may. Bellchambers records that Lady Townley was universally
regarded as Oldfield's _ne plus ultra_ in acting. "She slided so
gracefully into the foibles, and displayed so humorously the excesses,
of a fine woman too sensible of her charms, too confident in her
strength, and led away by her pleasures, that no succeeding Lady
Townley arrived at her many distinguished excellencies in the
character."[A] And the writer goes on to say that "by being a welcome
and constant visitor to families of distinction, Mrs. Oldfield
acquired a graceful carriage in re