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but I want a miftrefs. I am willing to be lewd; but the tempter is wanting on his part.

Enter Elvira veiled.

Elv. Stranger! cavalier! Will you not hear me, you Moor-killer, you matador?

Lor. Meaning me, Madam?

Elv. Face about, man; you a foldier, and afraid of the enemy!

Lor. I must confefs, I did not expect to have been charged first. I fee fouls will not be lost for want of diligence in this devil's reign. [Afide.]—Now, Madam Cynthia behind a cloud, your will and pleasure with me?

Ele. You have the appearance of a cavalier; and if you are as deferving as you feem, perhaps you may not repent of your adventure. If a lady like you well enough to hold difcourfe with you at first fight, you are gentle. man enough, I hope, to help her out with an apology, and to lay the blame on ftars, or deftiny, or what you please, to excufe the frailty of a woman.

Lor. Oh, I love an eafy woman! there's fuch a-do to crack a thick-fhell'd miftrefs; we break our teeth, and find no kernel. 'Tis generous in you to take pity on a ftranger, and not to fuffer him to fall into ill hands at his first arrival.

Elv. You have a better opinion of me than I deserve. You have not feen me yet; and therefore I ain confident you are heart-whole.

Lor. Not abfolutely flain, I must confefs; but I am drawing on apace. You have a dangerous tongue in your head, I can tell you that; and if your eyes prove of as killing metal, there's but one way with me. Let me fee you, for the fafe-guard of my honour: 'tis but decent. the cannon fhould be drawn down upon me before I yield.

Elv. What a terrible fimilitude have you made, CoIonel, to fhew that you are inclining to the wars! I could anfwer you with another in my profeffion. Suppofe you were in want of money; would you not be glad to take a fum upon content in a fealed bag, without peeping? But, however, I will not stand with you for a fample. [Lifts up her veil.

Lor. What eyes were there! how keen their glances!

you

you do well to keep them veiled: they are too fharp to be trufted out of the scabbard.

Elv. Perhaps, now, you may accufe my forwardness: but this day of jubilee is the only time of freedom I have had; and there is nothing fo extravagant as a prifoner, when he gets loofe a little, and is immediately to return to his fetters.

Lor. To confefs freely to you, Madam, I was never in love with less than your whole fex before: but now I have feen you, I am in the direct road of languishing and fighing; and, if love goes on as it begins, for ought I know, by to-morrow morning you may hear of me in rhyme and fennet. I tell you truly, I do not like these fymptoms in myfelf. Perhaps I may go fhufflingly at fift; for I was never before walked in trammels: yet I fhall drudge and moil at conftancy, till I have worn off the hitching in my pace.

Elv. Oh, Sir, there are arts to reclaim the wildest men, as there are to make spaniels fetch and carry! chide them often, and feed them feldom. Now I know your temper, you may thank yourself if you are kept to hard meatyou are in for years, if you make love to me.

Lor. I hate a formal obligation, with an anno domini at the end on't: there may be an evil meaning in the word years, called matrimony.

Elv. I can eafily rid you of that fear: I wish I could rid myfelf as eafily of the bondage.

Lor. Then you are married?

Elv. If a covetous, and a jealous, and an old man be a hufband.

Lor. Three as good qualities for my purpofe as I could with. Now, Love be praised!

Enter Elvira's Duenna, and whispers to her. Elv. [Afide.] If I get not home before my husband, I fhall be ruin'd [To him.] I dare not stay to tell you where-Farewel-Could I once more [Exit.

Lor. This is unconscionable dealing: to be made a flave, and not know whofe livery I wear- -Who have we yonder?

Enter Gomez.

By that shambling in his walk, it fhould be my rich old banker,

banker, Gomez, whom I knew at Barcelona. As I live 'tis he! [To Gom.] What, old Mammon here? Gom. How! young Belzebub ?

Lor. What devil has fet his claws in thy haunches, and brought thee hither to Saragoffa? Sure he meant a farther journey with thee.

Gom. I always remove before the enemy: when the Moors are ready to befiege one town, I fhift my quarters to the next; I keep as far from the infidels as I can.

Lor. That's but a hair's breadth at fartheft.

Gom. Well, you have got a famous victory; all true fubjects are overjoyed at it: there are bonfires decreed ; an the times had not been so hard, my billet should have burnt too.

Lor. I dare fay for thee, thou haft fuch a refpect for a fingle billet, that thou would'st almost have thrown on thy felf to fave it; thou art for faving every thing but thy foul.

Gom. Well, well, you'll not believe me generous till I carry you to the tavern, and crack half a pint with you at my own charge.

Lor. No; I'll keep thee from hanging thyfelf for fuch an extravagance; and instead of it, thou shalt do me a mere verbal courtesy: I have just now seen a most incomparable young lady.

Gom. Whereabouts did you fee this most incomparable young lady?My mind mifgives me plaguily.

[Afide. Lor. Here, man, just before this corner houfe: pray Heaven it prove no bawdy-house.

Gom. [Afide.] Pray Heaven he does not make it one. Lor. What doft thou mutter to thyfelf? Haft thou any thing to fay against the honefty of that house ?

Gom. Not I, Colonel, the walls are very honeft ftone, and the timber very honeft wood, for ought I know; but for the woman I cannot fay, till I know her better. Defcribe her perfon, and if the live in this quarter I may give you tidings of her.

Lor. She's of a iniddle ftature, dark-colour'd hair, the moft bewitching leer with her eyes, the most roguish caft; her cheeks are dimpled when the fmiles, and her files would tempt an hermit..

Gom

Gom. [Afide.] I am dead, I am buried, I am damned. Go on- Colonel--have you no other marks of

her?

Lor. Thou haft all her marks, but that she has an hufband, a jealous, covetous, old huncks: speak; canft thou tell me news of her.?

Gom. Yes, this news, Colonel, that you have seen your last of her.

Lor. If thou helpeft me not to the knowledge of her, thou art a circumcifed Jew.

Gom. Circumcife me no more than I circumcife you, Colonel Hernando. Once more, you have feen your last

of her.

Lor. [Afide.] I am glad he knows me only by that name of Hernando, by which I went at Barcelona; now he can tell no tales of me to my father. [To him.] Come, thou wert ever good-natured, when thou could't get by it. Look here, rogue, 'tis of the right damning colour: thou art not proof against gold, fure! Do not I know thee for a covetous.

Gom. Jealous old huncks; those were the marks of your mistress's husband, as I remember, Colonel.

Lor. O the devil! what a rogue in understanding was I, not to find him out fooner!

[Afide. Gom. Do, do, look fillily, good Colonel; 'tis a decent melancholy after an abfolute defeat.

Lor. Faith, not for that, dear Gomez:-
Gom. But-no pumping, my dear Colonel.

-but

Lor. Hang pumping; I was-thinking a little upon a point of gratitude: we two have been long acquaintance; I know thy merits, and can make fome interest ; go to; thou wert born to authority; I'll make thee Alcaide, mayor of Saragoffa.

Gom. Satisfy yourfelf; you fhall not make me what you think, Colonel.

Lor. Faith but I will; thou haft the face of a magiftrate already.

Gom. And you would provide me with a magiftrate's head to my magiftrate's face; I thank you, Colonel.

Lor. Come, thou art fo fufpicious upon an idle ftorythat woman I faw, I mean that little crooked, ugly woman, for t'other was a lie-is no more thy wife.

-as

I'll go home with thee, and fatisfy thee immediately, my dear friend.

Gom. I fhall not put you to that trouble; no, not fo much as a fingle vifit; not fo much as an embaffy by a civil old woman, nor a ferenade of twincledum twincledum under my windows: nay, I will advise you, out of tenderness to your perfon, that you walk not near yon corner-houfe by night; for to my certain knowledge, there are blunderbufles planted in every loop-hole, that go off conftantly of their own accord at the fqueaking of a fiddle and the thrummming of a guittar.

- Lor. Art thou fo obftinate? Then I denounce open war against thee: I'll demolish thy citadel by force; or, at least, I'll bring my whole regiment upon thee: my thousand red locufts, that fhall devour thee in free quarter. Farewel, wrought night-cap. [Exit.

Gom. Farewel, Buff! free quarter for a regiment of red-coat locufts! I hope to fee them all in the Red Sea first!--But Oh, this Jezabel of mine! I'll get a phyfician that fhall prefcribe her an ounce of camphire every morning for her breakfast, to abate incontinency. She fhall never peep abroad, no, not to church for confeffion and for never going, fhe fhall be condemned for a heretic. She fhall have firipes by Troy-weight, and fuftenance by drachms and fcruples: nay, I'll have a fatting almanack printed on purpofe for her ufe, in which

No carnival nor Christmas fhall appear,

But Lents and Ember-weeks fhall fill the year.

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HEN faw you my Lorenzo?

• Ped. I had a glimpse of him; but he shot

WH

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