_Lucr._ Is’t possible thou should’st have perceived it already?
_Lucr._ And now I begin to love him, ‘twould vex me to see my Mother marry him--well, I shall never call him Father.
_Isab._ He’ll take care to give himself a better Title.
_Lucr._ This _Devonshire_ Knight too, who is recommended to my Mother as a fit Husband for me, I shall be so tormented with--My Brother swears he’s the pertest, most unsufferable Fool he ever saw; when he was at my Uncle’s last Summer, he made all his Diversion.
_Isab._ Prithee let him make ours now, for of all Fops your Country Fop is the most tolerable Animal; those of the Town are the most unmanagable Beasts in Nature.
_Lucr._ And are the most noisy, keeping Fops.
_Isab._ Keeping begins to be as ridiculous as Matrimony, and is a greater Imposition upon the Liberty of Man; the Insolence and Expence of their Mistresses has almost tir’d out all but the Old and Doting part of Mankind: The rest begin to know their value, and set a price upon a good Shape, a tolerable Face and Mein:--and some there are who have made excellent Bargains for themselves that way, and will flatter ye and jilt ye an Antiquated Lady as artfully as the most experienc’d Miss of ‘em all.
_Lucr._ Lord, Lord! what will this World come to?--but this Mother of mine--_Isabella_. [Sighs.
_Isab._ Is discreet and virtuous enough, a little too affected, as being the most learned of her Sex.
_Lucr._ Methinks to be read in the Arts, as they call ‘em, is the peculiar Province of the other Sex.
_Isab._ Indeed the Men would have us think so, and boast their Learning and Languages; but if they can find any of our Sex fuller of Words, and to so little purpose as some of their Gownmen, I’ll be content to change my Petticoats for Pantaloons, and go to a Grammar-school.
_Lucr._ Oh, they’re the greatest Babelards in Nature.
_Isab._ They call us easy and fond, and charge us with all weakness; but look into their Actions of Love, State or War, their roughest business, and you shall find ‘em sway’d by some who have the luck to find their Foibles; witness my Father, a Man reasonable enough, till drawn away by doting Love and Religion: what a Monster my young Mother makes of him! flatter’d him first into Matrimony, and now into what sort of Fool or Beast she pleases to make him.