Mrs. Trusty. There's a guinea that's not good in it-besides, there's a mistake in the account, too. [Twitching the bag from him.] Act V. Scene 2. THE PROVOKED HUSBAND: A COMEDY, In Five Acts, BY SIR J VANBRUGH AND COLLEY CIBBER. PRINTED FROM THE ACTING COPY, WITH REMARKS, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, To which are added, A DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME,-CAST OF THE CHARACTERS, ENTRANCES AND EXITS, RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE PERFORMERS ON THE STAGE, AND THE WHOLE OF THE STAGE BUSINESS. As now performed at the THEATRES ROYAL, LONDON. EMBELLISHED WITH A WOOD FNGRAVING, By Mr. WHITE, from a Drawing by Mr. R. CRUIKSHANK. LONDON: JOHN CUMBERLAND, 19, LUDGATE HILL. REMARKS. WHEN the talents of two such dramatists as Sir John Vanbrugh and Colley Cibber were combined, it was but reasonable to expect that excellence would be the result. The Provoked Husband is indisputably the best comedy of the new school, in the English language. It unites very skilfully two distinct plots:-the adventures of the Wronghead family, and the quarrels and reconciliation of Lord and Lady Townly. The one is productive of much entertaining character and broad humour: the other is a master-piece of fine writing. For the humour, we are chiefly indebted to Vanbrugh: for the higher qualities, Cibber is alone responsible. That a man's life should be so at variance with his doctrines-that he should write so well, and practise so ill, must receive Cibber's own explanation to the celebrated Mrs. Bracegirdle, who questioned him upon the subject,that the former was necessary, but that the latter was not. We are not very fastidious as to who it was that restored decency to the stage. It is, perhaps, the more welcome, coming from a quarter where it was least expected. If we can pardon ribaldry in Swift, we may surely tolerate morality in Cibber. The Provoked Wife, with the exception of The London Cuckolds, by Ravenscroft, is one of the most indelicate comedies in the English language; The Provoked Husband is one of the most moral. Sir Francis Wronghead is a good-humoured satire on certain individuals who, in parliamentary language, are denominated country gentlemen. Now, with reverence be it spoken, in that august assembly of the nation's representatives, things are not always called by their right names. We may therefore understand, by the term country gentleman, a person with a large estate and a very moderate portion of brains; who votes with the minister just so long as his interest dictates; and whose journeys to London are performed, not to promote the welfare of his country, but to forward his own. Sir Francis Wronghead having overrun his estate, a case of no uncommon occurrence with gentlemen both in town and country, deems it advisable to quarter himself on the public purse; he therefore becomes a parliament-man and a place-hunter. Sir Francis like Shakspeare, was not for one age only, but for all time! The remaining branches of the Wronghead family are a thoughtless extravagant wife, a pert minx of a daughter, and a booby heir. Sir Francis is one of those gentlemen who has ventured all for love: "To please his eye and vex his heart." And if he has been guilty of any libertinism in his youth, he is more than atoning for it by a wedded life of penance and mortification:Thus, to reform his sins of early life, Offended Heav'n sends Sappho for his wife." When Father Luke piously exhorts Darby to repent and marry, Darby philosophically replies,-" I'll marry tirst, and repent afterwards!" John Moody is by far the most entertaining among the comic characters. His description of the setting out and progress of the fas |