s gay enough for them both. The
action, though somewhat farcical, has verve throughout, and the dialogue
crackles. And, as regards the nature of comedy, Baker now knows where he
stands. There is no character who could possibly be taken as an "example."
On the contrary, whenever a pathetic or "exemplary" effect seems imminent
Hillaria or Woodcock is always there to knock it on the head. Thus when
Belinda goes into blank verse to lament the paternal tyranny which was
threatening to separate her from Reynard,

What Noise and Discord sordid Interest breeds!
Oh! that I had shar'd a levell'd State of Life,
With quiet humble Maids, exempt from Pride,
And Thoughts of Worldly Dross that marr their Joys,
In Any Sphere, but a Distinguished Heiress,
To raise me Envy, and oppose my Love.
Fortune, Fortune, Why did you give me Wealth to make me wretched!

Hillaria comes in:

Belinda in Tears--Now has that old Rogue been Plaguing her--Poor Soul!...
Come, Child, Let's retire, and take a Chiriping Dram, Sorrow's dry; I'le
divert you with the New Lampoon, 'tis a little Smutty; but what then; we
Women love to read those things in private. _(Exeunt)_

Within a year Baker had another play ready--_An Act at Oxford_, with the
scene laid in the university town and some of the characters Oxford types.
Whether through objections by the University authorities or not (they
would perhaps have thought themselves justified in bringing pressure,
for Baker certainly does not treat his _alma mater_ with great respect)
the play in this form was not acted. Baker published it in 1704, in the
Dedication referring to "the most perfect Enjoyment of Life, I found at
Oxford" and disclaiming any intention to give offence, he then salvaged
most of the play in a revision, _Hampstead Heath_ (D.L. Oct. 1705),
with the scene changed to Hampstead. It is as non-edifying as
_Tunbridge-Walks_. The note is struck on the first page, when Captain
Smart, who has been trying to read a new comedy entitled _Advice to All
Parties_, flings it down with expressions of ennui; shortly thereafter
Deputy Driver, a member of a Reforming Society, appears on the scene to be
twitted because while pretending to reform the whole world he can't keep
his own wife from gadding; and matters proceed with Smart's project to
trick a skittish independence-loving heiress into keeping a compact she
had made to marry him, and his friend Bloom's attempts at the cagey virtue
of Mrs. Driver. The latt