دو دو دو دو دو lived with my Lord) I was in the footman's gallery, the night when this play of the Provoked Husband was acted first. There was a great deal of low stuff in it about a country gentleman come up to town to stand for Parliament-man; and there they brought a parcel of his fervants » upon the stage, his coachman I remember particularly; but the gentlemen in our gallery could not bear any thing fo low, and they damned it. I obferve, friend, you have left all that matter " out, and you are to be commended for it." دو СС Nay, gentlemen," cries Jones, "I can never maintain my opinion against so many; indeed, if the generality of his audience dislike him, the learned gentleman who conducts the show may have done very right in dismissing Punch from his fervice." The mafter of the fhow then began a fecond harangue, and faid much of the great force of example, and how much the inferior part of mankind would be deterred from vice, by obferving how odious it was in their fuperiors; when he was unluckily interrupted by an incident, which, though perhaps we might have omitted it at another time, we cannot help relating at prefent, but not in this Chapter. CHAP. V I. From which it may be inferred, that the best Things are liable to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. A violent uproar now arose in the entry, where my landlady was well-cuffing her maid both with her fift and tongue. She had indeed miffed the wench from her employment, and, after a little fearch, had found her on the puppet-show stage in company with the Merry Andrew, and in a fituation not very proper to be described. Tho' Grace (for that was her name) had forfeited all title to modefty, yet had fhe not impudence enough to deny a fact in which she was actually furprised; fhe therefore took another turn, and attempted to mitigate the offence. "Why do "you beat me in this manner, Mistress?" cries the wench. "If don't like my doings, you may turn me away. If I am a w-e," (for the other had liberally beftowed that appellation on her) my betters are so as well as I? What was the fine Lady in the puppet-show juft now? I suppose she did not lie all night out from her husband ,, for nothing." دو כל دو you The landlady now burft into the kitchen, and fell foul on both her husband and the poor puppetmover. "Here, husband," fays fhe, CC you fee the confequence of harbouring these people in your رو دو رو دو دو دو دو دو house. If one does draw a little drink the more for them, one is hardly made amends for the litter they make; and then to have one's house made a bawdy-house of by fuch loufy vermin. In fhort, I defire you would be gone to-morrow morning; for I will tolerate no more fuch doings. It is only the way to teach our fervants idleness and nonsense; for, to be fure, nothing better can be learned by fuch idle fhows as these. I re,, member when puppet-shows were made of good Scripture ftories, as Jephtha's rash vow, and fuch good things, and when wicked people were carried away by the devil. There was fome fense in those matters; but, as the Parfon told us laft Sunday, nobody believes in the devil now-a-days; and here you bring about a parcel of puppets dreft up like Lords and Ladies, only to turn the heads of poor country wenches; and when their heads are once turned topfy-turvy, no wonder every thing else is fo. رو دو رو رو دو دو Virgil, I think, tells us, that when the mob are affembled in a riotous and tumultuous manner, and all forts of miffile weapons fly about, if a man of gravity and authority appears amongst them, the tumult is prefently appeafed, and the mob, which, when collected into one body, may be well compared to an ass, erect their long ears at the grave man's discourse. On the contrary, when a fet of grave men and philofophers are difputing; when wisdom herself 1 may in a manner be confidered as prefent, and adminiftering arguments to the difputants; fhould a tumult rife among the mob, or should one fcold, who is herself equal in noife to a mighty mob, appear among the faid philofophers; their difputes cease in a moment, wisdom no longer performs her minifterial office, and the attention of every one is immediately attracted by the fcold alone. Thus the uproar aforefaid, and the arrival of the landlady filenced the mafter of the puppet-show, and put a speedy and final end to that grave and folemn harangue, of which we have given the Reader a fufficient tàfte already. Nothing indeed could have happened fo very inopportune as this accident; the most wanton malice of fortune could not have contrived fuch another ftratagem to confound the poor fellow, while he was so triumphantly defcanting on the good morals inculcated by his exhibitions. His mouth was now as effectually ftopt, as that of a quack muft be, if, in the midft of a declamation on the great virtues of his pills and powders, the corpfe of one of his martyrs fhould be brought forth, and depofited before the stage, as a testimony of his skill. Inftead, therefore, of anfwering my landlady, the puppet-show man ran out to punish his Merry Andrew; and now the moon beginning to put forth her filver light, as the poets call it (tho' fhe looked at that time more like a piece of copper) Jones called for his reckoning, and ordered Partridge, whom my landlady had just awaked from a profound nap, to prepare for his journey; but Partridge, having lately carried two points, as my Reader has feen before, was emboldened to attempt a third, which was, to prevail with Jones to take up a lodging that evening in the house where he then was. He introduced this with an affected furprise at the intention. which Mr. Jones declared of removing; and after urging many excellent arguments against it, he at laft infifted strongly, that it could be to no manner of purpose whatever for that unless Jones knew which way the Lady was gone, every step he took might very poffibly lead him the farther from her; " for you find, Sir," faid he, "by all the people in the house, that fhe is not gone this way. How much better therefore, would it be to stay till the morning, when we may » expect to meet with fomebody to inquire of?" دو دو This laft argument had indeed fome effect on Jones, and while he was weighing it, the landlord threw all the rhetoric of which he was mafter, into the fame fcale. "Sure, Sir," faid he, " your fervant gives you כל most excellent ad vice: for who would travel by night at this time of the year?" He then began, in the usual style, to trumpet forth the excellent accommodation which his houfe afforded; and my landlady likewife opened on the occafion-But not to detain the Reader with what is common to every |