 | The Magnetick Lady :or, Hvmors Reconcil'd |  |
Chorus.
Dam.This was a pittifull poore shift o' your Poët, Boy, to make his
prime woman with child, and fall in labour, just to compose a quarrell.
Boy.
With whose borrowed eares, have you heard, Sir, all this while,
that you can mistake the current of our Scene so? The streame of the
Argument, threatned her being with child from the very beginning, for it
presented her in the first of the second Act, with some apparent note of
infirmity, or defect: from knowledge of which, the Auditory were
rightly to bee suspended by the Author, till the quarrell, which was but
the accidentall cause, hastned on the discovery of it, in occasioning her
affright; which made her fall into her throwes presently, and within that
compasse of time allow'd to the Comedy, wherein the Poët exprest his
prime Artifice, rather then any errour, that the detection of her being
with child, should determine the quarrell, which had produc'd it.
Pro.
The Boy is too hard for you. Brother Damplay, best marke the
Play, and let him alone.
Dam.
I care not for marking the Play: Ile damne it, talke, and doe that
I come for. I will not have Gentlemen lose their priviledge, nor I my
selfe my prerogative, for neere an overgrowne, or superannuated Poët of
'hem all. Hee shall not give me the Law; I will censure, and be witty,
and take my Tobacco, and enjoy my Magna Charta of reprehension, as
my Predecessors have done before me.
Boy.
Even to license, and absurdity.
Pro.
Not now, because the Gentlewoman is in travell: and the Midwife
may come on the sooner, to put her and us out of our paine.
Dam.
Well, looke to your busines afterward, Boy, that all things bee
search what followes severely and to the naile.
Boy.
Let your naile run smooth then, and not scratch: lest the Author
be bold to pare it to the quick, and make it smart: you'l find him as severe
as your selfe.
Dam.
A shrewd Boy! and has mee every where. The Mid-wife is
come, she has made haste.
| The Magnetick Lady :or, Hvmors Reconcil'd | |