ARAM. Be ready to show 'em up.
SCENE V.
[To them] BETTY, with Hoods and Looking-glass.
I can't tell, cousin; I believe we are equally concerned. But if
you continue your humour, it won't be very entertaining. (I know
she'd fain be persuaded to stay.) [Aside.]
BELIN. I shall oblige you, in leaving you to the full and free
enjoyment of that conversation you admire.
BELIN. Let me see; hold the glass. Lard, I look wretchedly to-
day!
ARAM. Betty, why don't you help my cousin? [Putting on her
hoods.]
BELIN. Hold off your fists, and see that he gets a chair with a
high roof, or a very low seat. Stay, come back here, you Mrs.
Fidget--you are so ready to go to the footman. Here, take 'em all
again, my mind's changed; I won't go.
SCENE VI.
ARAMINTA, BELINDA.
ARAM. So, this I expected. You won't oblige me, then, cousin, and
let me have all the company to myself?
BELIN. No; upon deliberation, I have too much charity to trust you
to yourself. The devil watches all opportunities; and in this
favourable disposition of your mind, heaven knows how far you may
be tempted: I am tender of your reputation.
ARAM. I am obliged to you. But who's malicious now, Belinda?
BELIN. Not I; witness my heart, I stay out of pure affection.
ARAM. In my conscience I believe you.
SCENE VII.
[To them] VAINLOVE, BELLMOUR, FOOTMAN.
BELL. So, fortune be praised! To find you both within, ladies, is
-
ARAM. No miracle, I hope.
BELL. Not o' your side, madam, I confess. But my tyrant there and
I, are two buckets that can never come together.
BELIN. Nor are ever like. Yet we often meet and clash.
BELL. How never like! marry, Hymen forbid. But this it is to run
so extravagantly in debt; I have laid out such a world of love in
your service, that you think you can never be able to pay me all.
So shun me for the same reason that you would a dun.
BELIN. Ay, on my conscience, and the most impertinent and
troublesome of duns--a dun for money will be quiet, when he sees
his debtor has not wherewithal. But a dun for love is an eternal
torment that never rests -
BELL. Until he has created love where there was none, and then
gets it for his pains. For importunity in love, like importunity
at Court, first creates its own interest and then pursues it for
the favour.
ARAM. Favours that are got by impudence and importunity, are like
discoveries from the rack, when the afflicted person, for his ease,
sometimes confesses secrets his heart knows nothing of.
VAIN. I should rather think favours, so gained, to be due rewards
to indefatigable devotion. For as love is a deity, he must be
served by prayer.
BELIN. O Gad, would you would all pray to love, then, and let us
alone.
VAIN. You are the temples of love, and 'tis through you, our
devotion must be conveyed.
ARAM. Rather poor silly idols of your own making, which upon the
least displeasure you forsake and set up new. Every man now
changes his mistress and his religion as his humour varies, or his
interest.
VAIN. O madam -
ARAM. Nay, come, I find we are growing serious, and then we are in
great danger of being dull. If my music-master be not gone, I'll
entertain you with a new song, which comes pretty near my own
opinion of love and your sex. Who's there? Is Mr. Gavot gone?
[Calls.]
FOOT. Only to the next door, madam. I'll call him.
SCENE VIII.
ARAMINTA, BELINDA, VAINLOVE, and BELLMOUR.
BELL. Why, you won't hear me with patience.
ARAM. What's the matter, cousin?
BELL. Nothing, madam, only -
BELIN. Prithee hold thy tongue. Lard, he has so pestered me with
flames and stuff, I think I sha'n't endure the sight of a fire this
twelvemonth.
BELL. Yet all can't melt that cruel frozen heart.
BELIN. O Gad, I hate your hideous fancy--you said that once
before--if you must talk impertinently, for Heaven's sake let it be
with variety; don't come always, like the devil, wrapt in flames.
I'll not hear a sentence more, that begins with an 'I burn'--or an
'I beseech you, madam.'
BELL. But tell me how you would be adored. I am very tractable.
BELIN. Then know, I would be adored in silence.
BELL. Humph, I thought so, that you might have all the talk to
yourself. You had better let me speak; for if my thoughts fly to
any pitch, I shall make villainous signs.
BELIN. What will you get by that; to make such signs as I won't
understand?
BELL. Ay, but if I'm tongue-tied, I must have all my actions free
to--quicken your apprehension--and I-gad let me tell you, my most
prevailing argument is expressed in dumb show.
SCENE IX.
[To them] MUSIC-MASTER.
ARAM. Oh, I am glad we shall have a song to divert the discourse.
Pray oblige us with the last new song.
SONG.
I.
Thus to a ripe, consenting maid,
Poor, old, repenting Delia said,
Would you long preserve your lover?
Would you still his goddess reign?
Never let him all discover,
Never let him much obtain.
II.
Men will admire, adore and die,
While wishing at your feet they lie:
But admitting their embraces,
Wakes 'em from the golden dream;
Nothing's new besides our faces,
Every woman is the same.
ARAM. So, how de'e like the song, gentlemen?
BELL. Oh, very well performed; but I don't much admire the words.
ARAM. I expected it; there's too much truth in 'em. If Mr. Gavot
will walk with us in the garden, we'll have it once again; you may
like it better at second hearing. You'll bring my cousin.
BELL. Faith, madam, I dare not speak to her, but I'll make signs.
[Addresses Belinda in dumb show.]
BELIN. Oh, foh, your dumb rhetoric is more ridiculous than your
talking impertinence, as an ape is a much more troublesome animal
than a parrot.
ARAM. Ay, cousin, and 'tis a sign the creatures mimic nature well;
for there are few men but do more silly things than they say.
BELL. Well, I find my apishness has paid the ransom for my speech,
and set it at liberty--though, I confess, I could be well enough
pleased to drive on a love-bargain in that silent manner--'twould
save a man a world of lying and swearing at the year's end.
Besides, I have had a little experience, that brings to mind -
When wit and reason both have failed to move;
Kind looks and actions (from success) do prove,
Ev'n silence may be eloquent in love.
ACT III.--SCENE I.
SCENE: The Street.
SILVIA and LUCY.
SILV. Will he not come, then?