University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Briar's House.
Freeman senr. and Briar.
Briar.

Your son was here last night: I told him plainly
then my resolution: my daughter is no wife for
him.

Freeman.

Once more I tell you that what his mother did was all
unknown to us.

Briar.

It may be so; yet shall my child ne'er be subjected to
her ungovernable pride;

Who, in her peevish moods, wou'd ev'ry day
Upbraid her with her father's lowlyness,
And sour her meals with tart unkind reproaches;
And who wou'd let her know that all she wears
Is but the badge of charity. Rather
Than match my girl to wretchedness like that,
I'd throw her on the barren heath to dwell
In a poor homely hut thatch'd by the hands
Of her laborious husband, whose dayly toil
Shou'd be their chief support, while she at home
Plys, from the morning to the ev'ning sun,
The spinning-wheel,
In the coarse garment which herself has wrought.

Freeman senr.
Nor this, nor that, needs be your daughter's lot:
My wife repents her late rash act,
And wishes now to call your child her own.

Briar.

Which she shall never do: I thank her for her visit;
for by that she shew'd me what a fury my poor child
has escap'd.