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diff --git a/16267.txt b/16267.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..570f59c --- /dev/null +++ b/16267.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4341 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gamester (1753), by Edward Moore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Gamester (1753) + +Author: Edward Moore + +Commentator: Charles H. Peake + Phillip R. Wikelund + +Release Date: July 12, 2005 [EBook #16267] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GAMESTER (1753) *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Louise Hope and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + Series Five: + + _Drama_ + + + No. 1 + + Edward Moore, _The Gamester_ (1753) + + + With an Introduction by + Charles H. Peake + + and + + a Bibliographical Note by + Philip R. Wikelund + + + The Augustan Reprint Society + July, 1948 + _Price: 75 cents_ + + * * * * * + + _GENERAL EDITORS_ + +RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_ +EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ +H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + + _ASSISTANT EDITOR_ + +W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_ + + + _ADVISORY EDITORS_ + +EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_ +BENJAMIN BOYCE, _University of Nebraska_ +LOUIS I. BREDVOLD _University of Michigan_ +CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_ +JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ +ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_ +SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ +ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_ +JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_ + + + Lithoprinted from copy supplied by author + by + Edwards Brothers, Inc. + Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. + 1948 + + * * * * * + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +This reprint of Edward Moore's _The Gamester_ makes available to +students of eighteenth century literature a play which, whatever its +intrinsic merits, is historically important both as a vehicle for a +century of great actors and as a contribution to the development of +middle-class tragedy which had considerable influence on the Continent. +_The Gamester_ was first presented at the Drury Lane Theatre February 7, +1753 with Garrick in the leading role, and ran for ten successive +nights. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century it remained a popular +stock piece--John Philip Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Barry, the Keans, +Macready, and others having distinguished themselves in it--and in +America from 1754 to 1875 it enjoyed even more performances than in +England. (J.H. Caskey, _The Life and Works of Edward Moore_, 96-99). +Moore's middle-class tragedy is the only really successful attempt +to follow Lillo's decisive break with tradition in England in the +eighteenth century. His background, like Lillo's, was humble, religious, +and mercantile. The son of a dissenting pastor, Moore received his early +education in dissenters' academies, and then served an apprenticeship to +a London linen-draper. After a few years in Ireland as an agent for a +merchant, Moore returned to London to join a partnership in the linen +trade. The partnership was soon dissolved, and Moore turned to letters +for a livelihood. Among his works are _Fables for the Female Sex_ (1744) +which went through three editions, _The Foundling_ (1748), a successful +comedy, and _Gil Blas_ (1751), an unsuccessful comedy. In 1753, with +encouragement and some assistance from Garrick, he produced _The +Gamester_, upon which his reputation as a writer depends. + +It is impossible, of course, to review here all the factors involved in +the development of middle-class tragedy in England in the eighteenth +century. However, certain aspects of that movement which concern Moore's +immediate predecessors and which have not been adequately recognized +might be mentioned briefly. Aside from Elizabethan and Jacobean attempts +to give tragic expression to everyday human experience, historians have +noted the efforts of Otway, Southerne, and Rowe to lower the social +level of tragedy; but in this period middle-class problems and +sentiments and domestic situations appear in numerous tragedies, +long-since forgotten, which in form, setting, and social level present +no startling deviations from traditional standards. Little or no +attention has been given to some of these obscure dramatists who in the +midst of the Collier controversy attempted to illustrate in tragedy the +arguments advanced in the third part of John Dennis's _The Usefulness of +the Stage, to the Happiness of Mankind, to Government, and to Religion_ +(1698). Striving to demonstrate the usefulness of the stage, these +avowed reformers produced essentially domestic tragedies, by treating +such problems as filial obedience and marital fidelity in terms of +orthodox theology. The argument that the stage can be an adjunct of +the pulpit is widespread, and appears most explicitly in Hill's preface +to his _Fatal Extravagance_ (1721), sometimes regarded as the first +middle-class tragedy in the eighteenth century, and in Lillo's +dedication to _George Barnwell_ (1731). The line from these obscure +dramatists at the turn of the century to Lillo is direct and clear. Of +these forgotten plays we can note here only _Fatal Friendship_ (1698) +by Mrs. Catherine Trotter whom John Hughes hailed as "the first of +stage-reformers" + +(_To the Author of Fatal Friendship, a Tragedy_), an unquestionably +domestic tragedy inculcating a theological "lesson". To this play, +which was acted with "great applause" (_Biographica Dramatica_, +107), Aaron Hill was, I am convinced, considerably indebted for his +_Fatal Extravagance_, which is, in turn, one of the sources of _The +Gamester_. + +In the early eighteenth century, then, there is clearly discernible a +two-fold tendency toward middle-class tragedy which reaches its fullest +expression in Lillo: the desire to lower the social level of the +characters in order to make the tragedy more moving; and the desire to +defend the stage by demonstrating its religious and moral utility. In +his prologue to _The Fair Penitent_ (l703), Rowe gave expression to the +first: the "fate of kings and empires", he argues, is too remote to +engage our feelings, for "we ne'er can pity that we ne'er can share"; +therefore he offers "a melancholy tale of private woes". In his +prologue, Lillo repeats this idea, but in his dedication he shows +himself primarily concerned with the second tendency. Specifically +challenging those "who deny the lawfulness of the stage", he argues +that "the more extensively useful the moral of any tragedy is, the more +excellent that piece must be of its kind"; the generality of mankind is +more liable to vice than are kings; therefore "plays founded on moral +tales in private life may be of admirable use... by stifling vice in its +first principles". Dramatists who were concerned only or primarily with +the first of these tendencies (the emotional effect), produced domestic +or pseudo-domestic tragedies in the manner of Otway and Rowe. But those +who stressed the second (moral and religious utility), seeking practical +themes of widespread applicability, quite logically moved toward genuine +middle-class tragedy. Thus Hill's _Fatal Extravagance_ is concerned with +the "vice" of gambling; while Charles Johnson's _Caelia, or The Perjur'd +Lover_ (1732) attacks fashionable libertinism of the day, telling the +story which Richardson was later to retell in seven ponderous volumes. +In _Caelia_ the religious rationalization of the tragic action is +subdued, Johnson apparently preferring to stress the social and moral +aspects of his subject, and to this end he resolutely refused to +expunge or modify the boldly realistic brothel scenes, against which +a fastidious audience had protested. + +A comparison of _The Gamester_ with its predecessor, _Fatal +Extravagance_, reflects certain developments in the intellectual +background of the first half of the eighteenth century. Hill anticipated +Lillo in repeating Rowe's argument for lowering the social level of +tragedy and in stating vigorously his desire to defend the stage by +demonstrating its religious and moral utility. An admirer of Dennis's +critical writings, Hill repeats Dennis's argument that the stage can +affect those whom the pulpit falls to reach, and he offers his play +as proof that "sound and useful instruction may be drawn from the +_Theatre_", challenging the enemies of the stage to test his play "by +the rules of religion and virtue" (Preface). Taking a "hint", as he +says, from _A Yorkshire Tragedy_, Hill endeavored to show the "private +sorrows" that result from gaming. + +At the opening of the play, the hero, having gambled away his fortune, +faces poverty. His friend who signed his bond is in jail and a kindly +uncle has failed to secure the needed relief. In a fit of passion +growing out of despair, the hero kills the villainous creditor, and +decides to poison his (the hero's) wife and children, and then stab +himself. In his dying moments he learns that the uncle has substituted +a harmless cordial for the poison and that a long-lost brother has died +leaving him a fortune. This bare outline gives no indication of Hill's +careful theological rationalization of character and plot which he +promised in his preface. Hill incorporated in his play the teachings of +orthodox divines; there is nothing 'revolutionary' in his analytical +presentation of human nature. The theological significance of Hill's +play has not, to my knowledge, been recognized; thematic passages tend +to be dismissed as tiresome and gratuitous moralizing and the plot +is often regarded as empty melodrama or the representation of some +ambiguous 'fate'. It is in this deliberate theological rationalization +of his materials that Hill owes most to Mrs. Trotter's domestic tragedy +and that he differs significantly from Moore. + +As with Hill and Lillo, Moore's desire to write a play with an +extensively useful 'moral' led him to middle-class realism and prose. +To attack the widespread fashion of gaming which he regarded as a "vice", +Moore attempted to present "a natural picture" in language adapted "to +the capacities and feelings of every part of the audience" (Preface, +1756). That he should have treated this social problem tragically is to +be explained, perhaps, by his sources and by his religious background. +He justified the "horror of its catastrophe" on the grounds that "so +prevailing and destructive a vice as Gaming" warranted it. _The +Gamester_ has been justly credited with superior dramatic qualities in +comparison with Hill's _Fatal Extravagance,_, but we might perhaps note +briefly certain aspects of the two plays which reflect changes in the +intellectual background. In both plays theological ideas are involved +in the treatment of the fall of the hero, partially in Moore's play, +completely In Hill's. Not recognizing ideas common to early eighteenth +century sermons, the modern reader may perhaps puzzle over the steadily +increasing moral paralysis and despondency in Moore's hero, Beverly. +Vice, preached the divines, beclouds the reason, leaving it +progressively incapable of controlling the passions: + + Follies, if uncontroul'd, of every kind, + Grow into passions, and subdue the mind. (V, 4) + +Further each commission of sin causes progressive loss of grace, without +which man cannot act rightly. In prison Beverly is incapable of prayer +("I cannot pray--Despair has laid his iron hand upon me, and seal'd me +for perdition..."). However, a benevolent deity touches him with the +finger of grace, enabling him to repent ("I wish'd for ease, a moment's +ease, that cool repentance and contrition might soften vengeance"). He +can now pray for mercy and in his dying moments is vouchsafed assurance +of forgiveness ("Yet Heaven is gracious--I ask'd for hope, as the bright +presage of forgiveness, and like a light, blazing thro' darkness, it +came and chear'd me..."). + +In this aspect Moore is working along the lines laid down by Hill, but +there is a significant difference, attributable perhaps to the weakening +of orthodox theology and the spreading influence of the Shaftesburian +school of ethical theorists. In the older theology, man's progressive +loss of grace correspondingly releases his natural propensity for evil, +and working in these concepts neither Hill nor Lillo hesitated to show +his hero descending to murder. Moore, influenced perhaps by the ethical +sentiments of the day, compromised his theological concepts and +permitted his hero no really evil act (excluding of course his suicide), +and stressed instead Beverly's mistaken trust in Stukely, who is, as +Elton has pointed out, a "Mandevillian man" (_Survey of English +Literature: 1730-1760_, I, 329-30). + +There is another significant difference between the two plays which +reflects the development of religious thought in the first half of the +eighteenth century. Commenting on the too-late arrival of the news of +the uncle's death, Elton remarks that "this _too-lateness_... which +is in the nature of an accident, is a common and mechanical device of +Georgian tragedy" (I, 330). Hill employed the device, the good news +coming as a complete surprise, but he made it part of a carefully +ordered plot designed to reveal the direct intervention and mysterious +workings of a particular Providence, making characterization and action +consistent, and giving his play a precise theological significance. In +Moore's day, however, under the impact of deism and the developing +rationalism, the concept of a particular Providence in orthodox theology +had become so subtilized that the older idea of direct and striking +intervention in human affairs all but disappeared. By mid-eighteenth +century, deity, as Leslie Stephen points out, "appears under the +colourless shape of Providence--a word which may be taken to imply +a remote divine superintendence, without admitting an actual divine +interference" (_History of English Thought In the Eighteenth Century_, +II, 336). The references to Providence in Moore's play are of this type, +pious labels on prudential morality. Moore carefully avoids the various +devices employed by Hill to indicate direct divine intervention; +consequently the late arrival of the news of the uncle's death (which +was expected throughout the play) is without special meaning, and serves +only as a theatrical device intended to heighten the emotional effect. +_The Gamester_, then, is a clear reflection of the state of English +thought in the middle of the eighteenth century, in which a declining +theology becomes suffused with the ideas and sentiments of the moralists +of the age. + +Despite the popularity of their plays, neither Lillo nor Moore inspired +any significant followers in England. On the Continent, however, their +influence was considerable. In his introduction to his edition of _The +London Merchant_, A.W. Ward traces Lillo's influence on the Continent, +and Caskey gives a detailed account of Moore's (119-134). _The Gamester_ +was translated into German, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian. It was +first acted at Breslau in 1754 and retained its stage popularity for +more than two decades. A German translation appeared in 1754, and for +more than twenty years numerous editions and translations continued to +appear. In France, Diderot admired the play and translated it in 1760 +(not published until 1819); Saurin's translation and adaptation (1767) +proved popular on the French stage (he later provided an alternate happy +ending which was frequently played). + +_The Gamester_ is reproduced, with permission, from a copy owned by the +University of Michigan. + + Charles H. Peake + + University of Michigan + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +The first edition of Moore's _The Gamester_ appeared in 1753 shortly +after the opening of Garrick's performance of the play on February 7. +This edition is in many respects a good text; it has seemed desirable +for several reasons, however, to reprint this work from the 1756 edition +of _Poems, Fables, and Plays_ (often referred to as the "Collected +Works"). The 1756 text often corrects that of 1753 and is generally +superior to later printings; it contains passages and improved readings +not present in other editions; it aims at formal correctness, employing +classical scene division; as a "Works" edition it exhibits excellent +editorial and typographical treatment; it enjoys a superior general +readability advantageous to classroom use; and, finally, it contains +Moore's vindicatory preface, which, as far as an examination of +available copies shows, does not appear in other editions. Inasmuch +as the 1756 printing is somewhat late, standing between the fourth and +fifth editions of the play, a brief bibliographical account of _The +Gamester_ is offered. + +The play was printed separately many times in the eighteenth century. +The first edition, in the University of Michigan copy, bears the title: +THE / GAMESTER. / A / TRAGEDY. / As it is Acted at the / _Theatre-Royal_ +in _Drury-Lane_. / [rule] / ornament / [rule] / _LONDON_: / Printed for +R. FRANCKLIN, in _Russel-Street_, / _Covent-Garden_; and Sold by +R. DODSLEY, / in _Pall-Mall_. M.DCC.LIII. / The anonymity of the +titlepage is half-hearted, for the dedication to Henry Pelham is +signed "Edw. Moore." A prologue written by Garrick, an epilogue, +and the cast of the original performance precede the eighty-four page +text. Francklin and Dodsley brought out a second edition in the same +year and a fourth edition in 1755; presumably a third edition had +been issued in the interim. In 1771 a fifth and a sixth edition +appeared, and in 1776 another London edition came out. In 1784 two +more editions made an appearance, the first printed for R. Butters +(John H. Caskey, _The Life and Works of Edward Moore_, Yale Studies +in English, LXXV [New Haven, 1927], p. 174), the second printed for +a group of four booksellers--Thomas Davies, W. Nicoll, Samuel Bladon, +and John Bew. The same combination of booksellers, with W. Lowndes +taking the place of Davies, issued in 1789 an inferior reprinting of +their 1784 text. The editions of 1784 and 1789 are interesting because +they identify by inverted commas the cuts made in contemporary stage +versions. Before the end of the century three editions were printed +outside London: two Dublin imprints of 1763 and 1783, and an American +imprint of 1791 by Henry Taylor in Philadelphia. + +In addition to these separate publications, _The Gamester_ was included +in two collections of Moore's works. The 1756 edition has already been +noticed. THE DRAMATIC WORKS OF Mr. Edward Moore, as the 1788 titlepage +describes the volume, was issued by the Lowndes-Nicoll-Bladon-Bew group +and was actually an assembled text made up of the 1784 printing of _The +Gamester_, the 1786 _The Foundling_, and the 1788 _Gil Blas_. + +The play was a favorite in many popular dramatic collections of the +late eighteenth and early nineteenth century; it appeared in Bell's +_British Theatre_ in 1776 and thereafter, in Mrs. Inchbald's _The +British Theatre_ in 1808, in Dibdin's _London Theatre_ in 1815, and in +Cumberland's _British Theatre_ in 1826. According to Caskey and other +sources the play was thus reprinted more than a dozen times by the +middle of the nineteenth century. Since then it has declined in favor +and has seldom been reprinted, even in textbook anthologies covering +representative literature of the period. + +The 1756 text of the play and the plates from the Davies-Nicoll- +Bladon-Bew 1784 edition have been reproduced through the cooperation of +the University of Michigan Library from copies of these editions in its +possession. Because of its lack of significance, the dedication to +Henry Pelham has not been reprinted. + + Philip R. Wikelund + + University of Michigan + + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + + + THE + GAMESTER. + + + A + TRAGEDY. + + + As it is Acted at the + Theatre-Royal + in + Drury-Lane. + + + + + [Illustration: MRS SIDDONS and MR KEMBLE as + _Mr. & Mrs. Beverley Act 5. Sc. 4_. + Bev. _O! for a few short Moments to tell you + how my Heart bleeds for you._] + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It having been objected to this tragedy, that its language is prose, and +its catastrophe too horrible, I shall entreat the reader's patience for +a minute, that I may say a word or two to these objections. + +The play of the GAMESTER was intended to be a natural picture of that +kind of life, of which all men are judges; and as it struck at a vice so +universally prevailing, it was thought proper to adapt its language to +the capacities and feelings of every part of the audience: that as some +of its characters were of no higher rank than _Sharpers_, it was +imagined that (whatever good company they may find admittance to in the +world) their speaking blank verse upon the stage would be unnatural, +if not ridiculous. But though the more elevated characters also speak +prose, the judicious reader will observe, that it is a species of prose +which differs very little from verse: in many of the most animated +scenes, I can truly say, that I often found it a much greater difficulty +to avoid, than to write, _measure_. I shall only add, in answer to this +objection, that I hoped to be more interesting, by being more natural; +and the event, as far as I have been a witness of it, has more than +answered my expectations. + +As to the other objection, the horror of its catastrophe, if it be +considered simply what that catastrophe is, and compared with those of +other tragedies, I should humbly presume that the working it up to any +uncommon degree of horror, is the _merit_ of the play, and not its +_reproach_. Nor should so prevailing and destructive a vice as GAMING be +attacked upon the theatre, without impressing upon the imagination all +the horrors that may attend it. + +I shall detain the reader no longer than to inform him, that I am +indebted for many of the most popular passages in this play to the +inimitable performer, who, in the character of the_ Gamester, _exceeded +every idea I had conceived of it in the writing. + + + + +PROLOGUE. + +Written and spoken by Mr. GARRICK. + + Like fam'd La Mancha's knight, who launce in hand, + Mounted his steed to free th' enchanted land, + Our Quixote bard sets forth a monster-taming, + Arm'd at all points, to fight that hydra--GAMING. + Aloft on Pegasus he waves his pen, + And hurls defiance at the caitiff's den. + The _First_ on fancy'd giants spent his rage, + But _This_ has more than windmills to engage: + He combats passion, rooted in the soul, + Whose pow'rs, at once delight ye, and controul; + Whose magic bondage each lost slave enjoys, + Nor wishes freedom, though the spell destroys. + To save our land from this MAGICIAN's charms, + And rescue maids and matrons from his arms, + Our knight poetic comes. And Oh! ye fair! + This black ENCHANTER's wicked arts beware! + His subtle poison dims the brightest eyes, + And at his touch, each grace and beauty dies: + Love, gentleness and joy to rage give way, + And the soft dove becomes a bird of prey. + May this our bold advent'rer break the spell, + And drive the _demon_ to his native hell. + Ye slaves of passion, and ye dupes of chance, + Wake all your pow'rs from this destructive trance! + Shake off the shackles of this tyrant vice: + Hear other calls than those of cards and dice: + Be learn'd in nobler arts, than arts of _play_, + And other debts, than those of _honour_ pay: + No longer live insensible to shame, + Lost to your country, families and fame. + Could our romantic muse this work atchieve, + Would there one honest heart in _Britain_ grieve? + Th' attempt, though wild, would not in vain be made, + If every honest hand would lend its aid. + + + + + Dramatis Personae. + + MEN. + + Beverley, Mr. GARRICK. + Lewson, Mr. MOSSOP. + Stukely, Mr. DAVIES. + Jarvis, Mr. BERRY. + Bates, Mr. BURTON. + Dawson, Mr. BLAKES. + Waiter, Mr. ACKMAN. + + + WOMEN + + Mrs. Beverley, Mrs. PRITCHARD. + Charlotte, Miss. HAUGHTON. + Lucy, Mrs. PRICE. + + + SCENE, LONDON. + + + + + THE + GAMESTER. + + A + TRAGEDY. + + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. + + +_Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY, and CHARLOTTE._ + +_Mrs. Beverley._ Be comforted, my dear; all may be well yet. +And now, methinks, the lodgings begin to look with another face. +O sister! sister! if these were all my hardships; if all I had +to complain of were no more than quitting my house, servants, +equipage and show, your pity would be weakness. + +_Char._ Is poverty nothing then? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Nothing in the world, if it affected only Me. While we +had a fortune, I was the happiest of the rich: and now 'tis gone, +give me but a bare subsistance, and my husband's smiles, and I'll be +the happiest of the poor. To Me now these lodgings want nothing but +their master. Why d'you look so at me? + +_Char._ That I may hate my brother. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Don't talk so, Charlotte. + +_Char._ Has he not undone you? Oh! this pernicious vice of gaming! +But methinks his usual hours of four or five in the morning might +have contented him; 'twas misery enough to wake for him till then: +need he have staid out all night? I shall learn to detest him. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Not for the first fault. He never slept from me +before. + +_Char._ Slept from you! No, no; his nights have nothing to do with +sleep. How has this one vice driven him from every virtue! nay, from +his affections too!--The time _was_, sister-- + +_Mrs. Bev._ And _is_. I have no fear of his affections. Would I knew +that he were safe! + +_Char._ From ruin and his companions. But that's impossible. His +poor little boy too! What must become of Him? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Why, want shall teach him industry. From his father's +mistakes he shall learn prudence, and from his mother's resignation, +patience. Poverty has no such terrors in it as you imagine. There's +no condition of life, sickness and pain excepted, where happiness is +excluded. The needy peasant, who rises early to his labour, enjoys +more welcome rest at night for't. His bread is sweeter to him; his +home happier; his family dearer; his enjoyments surer. The sun that +rouses him in the morning, sets in the evening to release him. All +situations have their comforts, if sweet contentment dwell in the +heart. But my poor Beverley has none. The thought of having ruined +those he loves, is misery for ever to him. Would I could ease his +mind of That! + +_Char._ If He alone were ruined, 'twere just he should be punished. +He is my brother, 'tis true; but when I think of what he has done; +of the fortune You brought him; of his own large estate too, +squandered away upon this vilest of passions, and among the vilest +of wretches! O! I have no patience! My own little fortune is +untouched, he says: would I were sure on't! + +_Mrs. Bev._ And so you may; 'twould be a sin to doubt it. + +_Char._ I will be sure on't. 'Twas madness in me to give it to his +management. But I'll demand it from him this morning. I have a +melancholy occasion for't. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What occasion? + +_Char._ To support a sister. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No; I have no need on't. Take it, and reward a lover +with it. The generous Lewson deserves much more. Why won't you make +him happy? + +_Char._ Because my sister's miserable. + +_Mrs. Bev._ You must not think so. I have my jewels left yet. I'll +sell them to supply our wants; and when all's gone these hands shall +toil for our support. The poor should be industrious--Why those +tears, Charlotte? + +_Char._ They flow in pity for you. + +_Mrs. Bev._ All may be well yet. When he has nothing to lose, +I shall fetter him in these arms again; and then what is it to be +poor? + +_Char._ Cure him but of this destructive passion, and my uncle's +death may retrieve all yet. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Ay, Charlotte, _could_ we cure him. But the disease of +play admits no cure but poverty; and the loss of another fortune +would but encrease his shame and his affliction. Will Mr. Lewson +call this morning? + +_Char._ He said so last night. He gave me hints too, that he had +suspicions of our friend Stukely. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Not of treachery to your Brother? That he loves play I +know; but surely he is honest. + +_Char._ He would fain be thought so; therefore I doubt him. Honesty +needs no pains to set itself off. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What now, Lucy? + + +SCENE II. + +_Enter LUCY._ + +_Lucy_. Your old steward, madam. I had not the heart to deny him +admittance, the good old man begged so hard for it. + [_Exit._ + + +SCENE III. + +_Enter JARVIS._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Is this well, Jarvis? I desired you to avoid me. + +_Jar._ Did you, madam? I am an old man, and had forgot. Perhaps too +you forbad my tears; but I am old, madam, and age will be forgetful. + +_Mrs. Bev._ The faithful creature! how he moves me! + [_To Charlotte._ + +_Char._ Not to have seen him had been cruelty. + +_Jar._ I have forgot these apartments too. I remember none such in +my young master's house; and yet I have lived in't these five and +twenty years. His good father would not have dismissed me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ He had no reason, Jarvis. + +_Jar._ I was faithful to him while he lived, and when he died, he +bequeathed me to his son. I have been faithful to Him too. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I know it, I know it, Jarvis. + +_Char._ We both know it. + +_Jar._ I am an old man, madam, and have not a long time to live. +I asked but to have died with him, and he dismissed me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Prithee no more of this! 'Twas his poverty that +dismissed you. + +_Jar._ Is he indeed so poor then? Oh! he was the joy of my old +heart. But must his creditors have all? And have they sold his house +too? His father built it when He was but a prating boy. The times I +have carried him in these arms! And, Jarvis, says he, when a beggar +has asked charity of me, why should people be poor? You shan't be +poor, Jarvis; if I was a king, nobody should be poor. Yet He is +poor. And then he was so brave!--O, he was a brave little boy! And +yet so merciful, he'd not have killed the gnat that stung him. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Speak to him, Charlotte; for I cannot. + +_Char._ When I have wiped my eyes. + +_Jar._ I have a little money, madam; it might have been more, but I +have loved the poor. All that I have is yours. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No, Jarvis; we have enough yet. I thank you though, and +will deserve your goodness. + +_Jar._ But shall I see my master? And will he let me attend him in +his distresses? I'll be no expence to him: and 'twill kill me to be +refused. Where is he, madam? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Not at home, Jarvis. You shall see him another +time. + +_Char._ To-morrow, or the next day. O, Jarvis! what a change is here! + +_Jar._ A change indeed, madam! My old heart akes at it. And yet +methinks--But here's somebody coming. + + +SCENE IV. + +_Enter LUCY with STUKELY._ + +_Lucy._ Mr. Stukely, Madam. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ Good morning to you, Ladies. Mr. Jarvis, your servant. +Where's my friend, madam? + [_To Mrs. Beverley._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ I should have asked that question of You. Have not you +seen him to-day? + +_Stu._ No, madam. + +_Char._ Nor last night? + +_Stu._ Last night! Did not he come home then? + +_Mrs. Bev._ No. Were not you together? + +_Stu._ At the beginning of the evening; but not since. Where can he +have staid? + +_Char._ You call yourself his friend, Sir; why do you encourage him +in this madness of gaming? + +_Stu._ You have asked me that question before, madam; and I told you +my concern was that I could not save him. Mr. Beverley is a man, +madam; and if the most friendly entreaties have no effect upon him, +I have no other means. My purse has been his, even to the injury of +my fortune. If That has been encouragement, I deserve censure; but I +meant it to retrieve him. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I don't doubt it, Sir; and I thank you. But where did +you leave him last night? + +_Stu._ At Wilson's, madam, if I ought to tell; in company I did not +like. Possibly he may be there still. Mr. Jarvis knows the house, +I believe. + +_Jar._ Shall I go, madam? + +_Mrs. Bev._ No; he may take it ill. + +_Char._ He may go as from himself. + +_Stu._ And if he pleases, madam, without naming Me. I am faulty +myself, and should conceal the errors of a friend. But I can refuse +nothing here. + [_Bowing to the ladies._ + +_Jar._ I would fain see him, methinks. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Do so then. But take care how you upbraid him. I have +never upbraided him. + +_Jar._ Would I could bring him comfort! + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ Don't be too much alarmed, madam. All men have their errors, +and their times of seeing them. Perhaps my friend's time is not come +yet. But he has an uncle; and old men don't live for ever. You +should look forward, madam: we are taught how to value a second +fortune by the loss of a first. + [_A knocking at the door._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Hark!--No; that knocking was too rude for Mr. Beverley. +Pray heaven he be well! + +_Stu._ Never doubt it, madam. You shall be well too: every thing +shall be well. + [_Knocking again._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ The knocking is a little loud though. Who waits there? +Will none of you answer?--None of you, did I say? Alas! I thought +myself in my own house, surrounded with servants. + +_Char._ I'll go, sister--But don't be alarmed so. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ What extraordinary accident have you to fear, madam? + +_Mrs. Bev._ I beg your pardon; but 'tis ever thus with me in Mr. +Beverley's absence. No one knocks at the door, but I fancy 'tis a +messenger of ill news. + +_Stu._ You are too fearful, madam; 'twas but one night of absence; +and if ill thoughts intrude (as love is always doubtful) think of +your worth and beauty, and drive them from your breast. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What thoughts? I have no thoughts that wrong my +husband. + +_Stu._ Such thoughts indeed would wrong him. The world is full of +slander; and every wretch that knows himself unjust, charges his +neighbour with like passions; and by the general frailty, hides his +own. If you are wise, and would be happy, turn a deaf ear to such +reports: 'tis ruin to believe them. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Ay, worse than ruin. 'Twould be to sin against +conviction. Why was it mentioned? + +_Stu._ To guard you against rumour. The sport of half mankind is +mischief; and for a single error they make men devils. If their +tales reach you, disbelieve them. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What tales? By whom? Why told? I have heard nothing; or +if I had, with all his errors, my Beverley's firm faith admits no +doubt. It is my safety; my seat of rest and joy, while the storm +threatens round me. I'll not forsake it. (_Stukely sighs, and looks +down_) Why turn you from me? And why that sigh? + +_Stu._ I was attentive, madam; and sighs will come we know not why. +Perhaps I have been too busy. If it should seem so, impute my zeal +to friendship, that meant to guard you against evil tongues. Your +Beverley is wronged; slandered most vilely. My life upon his truth. + +_Mrs. Bev._ And mine too. Who is't that doubts it? But no matter--I +am prepared, Sir.--Yet why this caution?--You are my husband's +friend; I think you mine too; the common friend of both. (_Pauses_) +I had been unconcerned else. + +_Stu._ For heaven's sake, madam, be so still! I meant to guard you +_against_ suspicion, not to alarm it. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Nor have you, Sir. Who told you of suspicion? I have a +heart it cannot reach. + +_Stu._ Then I am happy--I would say more, but am prevented. + + +SCENE V. + +_Re-enter CHARLOTTE._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Who was it, Charlotte? + +_Char._ What a heart has that Jarvis!--A creditor, sister. But the +good old man has taken him away. Don't distress his wife! Don't +distress his sister! I could hear him say. 'Tis cruel to distress +the afflicted. And when he saw me at the door, he begged pardon that +his friend had knocked so loud. + +_Stu._ I wish I had known of this. Was it a large demand, madam? + +_Char._ I heard not that; but visits such as these, we must expect +often. Why so distressed, sister? This is no new affliction. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No, Charlotte; but I am faint with watching; + +quite sunk and spiritless. Will you excuse me, Sir? I'll to my +chamber, and try to rest a little. + +_Stu._ Good thoughts go with you, madam. + [_Exit Mrs. Beverley._ +My bait is taken then. (_Aside._) Poor Mrs. Beverley! How my heart +grieves to see her thus! + +_Char._ Cure her, and be a friend then. + +_Stu._ How cure her, madam? + +_Char._ Reclaim my brother. + +_Stu._ Ay; give him a new creation; or breathe another soul into +him. I'll think on't, madam. Advice, I see, is thankless. + +_Char._ Useless I am sure it is, if through mistaken friendship, or +other motives, you feed his passion with your purse, and sooth it by +example. Physicians, to cure fevers, keep from the patient's thirsty +lip the cup that would inflame him; You give it to his hands. (_A +knocking._) Hark, Sir! These are my brother's desperate symptoms. +Another creditor. + +_Stu._ One not so easily got rid of--What, Lewson! + + +SCENE VI. + +_Enter LEWSON._ + +_Lew._ Madam, your servant. Yours, Sir. I was enquiring for you at +your lodgings. + +_Stu._ This morning? You had business then? + +_Lew._ You'll call it by another name, perhaps. Where's Mr. +Beverley, madam? + +_Char._ We have sent to enquire for him. + +_Lew._ Is he abroad then? He did not use to go out so early. + +_Char._ No; nor to stay out so late. + +_Lew._ Is that the case? I am sorry for it. But Mr. Stukely, +perhaps, may direct you to him. + +_Stu._ I have already, Sir. But what was your business with +Me? + +_Lew._ To congratulate you upon your late successes at play. Poor +Beverley! But You are his friend; and there's a comfort in having +successful friends. + +_Stu._ And what am I to understand by this? + +_Lew._ That Beverley's a poor man, with a rich friend; that's all. + +_Stu._ Your words would mean something, I suppose. Another time, +Sir, I shall desire an explanation. + +_Lew._ And why not now? I am no dealer in long sentences. A minute +or two will do for me. + +_Stu._ But not for Me, Sir. I am slow of apprehension, and must have +time and privacy. A lady's presence engages my attention. Another +morning I may be found at home. + +_Lew._ Another morning then, I'll wait upon you. + +_Stu._ I shall expect you, Sir. Madam, your servant. + [_Exit._ + +_Char._ What mean you by this? + +_Lew._ To hint to him that I know him. + +_Char._ How know him? Mere doubt and supposition! + +_Lew._ I shall have proof soon. + +_Char._ And what then? Would you risk your life to be his punisher? + +_Lew._ My life, madam! Don't be afraid. And yet I am happy in your +concern for me. But let it content you that I know this Stukely. +'Twould be as easy to make him honest as brave. + +_Char._ And what d'you intend to do? + +_Lew._ Nothing, till I have proof. Yet my suspicions are well-grounded. +But methinks, madam, I am acting here without authority. Could I +have leave to call Mr. Beverley brother, his concerns would be my +own. Why will you make my services appear officious? + +_Char._ You know my reasons, and should not press me. But I am cold, +you say: and cold I will be, while a poor sister's destitute. My +heart bleeds for her! and till I see her sorrows moderated, love has +no joys for me. _Lew._ Can I be less a friend by being a brother? +I would not say an unkind thing; but the pillar of your house is +shaken. Prop it with another, and it shall stand firm again. You +must comply. + +_Char._ And will, when I have peace within myself. But let us change +the subject. Your business here this morning is with my sister. +Misfortunes press too hard upon her: yet till to day she has borne +them nobly. + +_Lew._ Where is she? + +_Char._ Gone to her chamber. Her spirits failed her. + +_Lew._ I hear her coming. Let what has passed with Stukely be a +secret. She has already too much to trouble her. + + +SCENE VII. + +_Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Good morning, Sir. I heard your voice, and, as I +thought, enquiring for me. Where's Mr. Stukely, Charlotte? + +_Char._ This moment gone. You have been in tears, sister; but here's +a friend shall comfort you. + +_Lew._ Or if I add to your distresses, I'll beg your pardon, madam. +The sale of your house and furniture was finished yesterday. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I know it, Sir. I know too your generous reason for +putting me in mind of it. But you have obliged me too much +already. + +_Lew._ There are trifles, madam, which you have set a value on: +those I have purchased, and will deliver. I have a friend too that +esteems you; he has bought largely, and will call nothing his, till +he has seen you. If a visit to him would not be painful, he has +begged it may be this morning. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Not painful in the least. My pain is from the kindness +of my friends. Why am I to be obliged beyond the power of return? + +_Lew._ You shall repay us at your own time. I have a coach waiting +at the door. Shall we have Your company, madam? + [_To Charlotte._ + +_Char._ No. My brother may return soon; I'll stay and receive him. + +_Mrs. Bev._ He may want a comforter, perhaps. But don't upbraid him, +Charlotte. We shan't be absent long. Come, Sir, since I _must_ be so +obliged. + +_Lew._ 'Tis I that am obliged. An hour or less will be sufficient +for us. We shall find you at home, madam? (_To Charlotte._) + [_Exit with Mrs. Beverley._ + +_Char._ Certainly. I have but little inclination to appear abroad. +O! this brother! this brother! to what wretchedness has he reduced +us! + [_Exit._ + + +SCENE VIII. _Changes to _STUKELY'S_ lodgings._ + +_Enter STUKELY._ + +_Stu._ That Lewson suspects me, 'tis too plain. Yet why should he +suspect me? I appear the friend of Beverley as well as he. But I am +rich it seems: and so I am; thanks to another's folly and my own +wisdom. To what use is wisdom, but to take advantage of the weak? +This Beverley's my fool: I cheat him, and he calls me friend. But +more business must be done yet. His wife's jewels are unsold; + +so is the reversion of his uncle's estate. I must have these too. +And then there's a treasure above all. I love his wife. Before she +knew this Beverley, I loved her; but like a cringing fool, bowed at +a distance, while He stept in and won her. Never, never will I +forgive him for it. My pride, as well as love, is wounded by this +conquest. I must have vengeance. Those hints, this morning, were +well thrown in. Already they have fastened on her. If jealousy +should weaken her affections, want may corrupt her virtue. My hate +rejoyces in the hope. These jewels may do much. He shall demand them +of her; which, when mine, shall be converted to special purposes.--What +now, Bates? + + +SCENE IX. + +_Enter BATES._ + +_Bates._ Is it a wonder then to see me? The forces are in readiness, +and only wait for orders. Where's Beverley? + +_Stu._ At last night's rendezvous, waiting for Me. Is Dawson with you? + +_Bates._ Dressed like a nobleman; with money in his pocket, and a +set of dice that shall deceive the devil. + +_Stu._ That fellow has a head to undo a nation. But for the rest, +they are such low-mannered, ill-looking dogs, I wonder Beverley has +not suspected them. + +_Bates._ No matter for manners and looks: do You supply them with +money, and they are gentlemen by profession. The passion of gaming +casts such a mist before the eyes, that the nobleman shall be +surrounded with sharpers, and imagine himself in the best company. + +_Stu._ There's that Williams too: it was He, I suppose, that called +at Beverley's with the note this morning. What directions did you +give him? + +_Bates._ To knock loud, and be clamorous. Did not you see him? + +_Stu._ No. The fool sneaked off with Jarvis. Had he appeared +within-doors, as directed, the note had been discharged. I waited +there on purpose. I want the women to think well of me; for Lewson's +grown suspicious; he told me so himself. + +_Bates._ What answer did you make him? + +_Stu._ A short one. That I would see him soon, for farther +explanation. + +_Bates._ We must take care of him. But what have we to do with +Beverley? Dawson and the rest are wondering at you. + +_Stu._ Why let them wonder. I have designs above Their narrow reach. +They see me lend him money; and they stare at me. But they are +fools. I want him to believe me beggared by him. + +_Bates._ And what then? + +_Stu._ Ay, there's the question; but no matter. At night you may +know more. He waits for me at Wilson's. I told the women where to +find him. + +_Bates._ To what purpose? + +_Stu._ To save suspicion. It looked friendly; and they thanked me. +Old Jarvis was dispatched to him. + +_Bates._ And may intreat him home. + +_Stu._ No; he experts money from me: but I'll have none. His wife's +jewels must go. Women are easy creatures, and refuse nothing where +they love. Follow me to Wilson's; but besure he sees you not. You +are a man of character, you know; of prudence and discretion. Wait +for me in an outer room; I shall have business for you presently. +Come, Sir. + + Let drudging fools by honesty grow great; + The shorter road to riches is deceit. + + [_Exeunt._ + + + + +ACT II. + + +_SCENE a gaming house, with a table, box, dice, &c._ + +_BEVERLEY is discovered sitting._ + +_Beverley_. Why, what a world is this! The slave that digs for gold, +receives his daily pittance, and sleeps contented; while those, for +whom he labours, convert their good to mischief; making abundance +the means of want. O shame! shame! Had fortune given me but a +little, that little had been still my own. But plenty leads to +waste; and shallow streams maintain their currents, while swelling +rivers beat down their banks, and leave their channels empty. What +had I to do with play? I wanted nothing. My wishes and my means were +equal. The poor followed me with blessings; love scattered roses on +my pillow, and morning waked me to delight.--O, bitter thought! that +leads to what I was, by what I am! I would forget both--Who's there? + + +SCENE II. + +_Enter a WAITER._ + +_Wait._ A gentleman, Sir, enquires for you. + +_Bev._ He might have used less ceremony. Stukely I suppose? + +_Wait._ No, Sir; a stranger. + +_Bev._ Well, shew him in. (_Exit Waiter._) A messenger from Stukely +then. From Him that has undone me! Yet all in friendship; and now he +lends me from his little, to bring back fortune to me. + + +SCENE III. + +_Enter JARVIS._ + +Jarvis! Why this intrusion?--Your absence had been kinder. + +_Jar._ I came in duty, Sir. If it be troublesome-- + +_Bev._ It is. I would be private; hid even from myself. Who sent you +hither? + +_Jar._ One that would persuade you home again. My mistress is not +well; her tears told me so. + +_Bev._ Go with thy duty there then. But does she weep? I am to blame +to let her weep. Prithee begone; I have no business for thee. + +_Jar._ Yes, Sir; to lead you from this place. I am your servant +still. Your prosperous fortune blessed my old age. If That has left +you, I must not leave you. + +_Bev._ Not leave me! Recall past time then; or through this sea of +storms and darkness, shew me a star to guide me. But what can'st +Thou? + +_Jar._ The little that I can, I will. You have been generous to me. +I would not offend you, Sir--but-- + +_Bev._ No. Think'st thou I'd ruin Thee too? I have enough of shame +already. My wife! my wife! Would'st thou believe it, Jarvis? I have +not seen her all this long night; I, who have loved her so, that +every hour of abscence seemed as a gap in life. But other bonds have +held me. O! I have played the boy; dropping my counters in the +stream, and reaching to redeem them, have lost Myself. Why wilt Thou +follow misery? Or if thou wilt, go to thy mistress--She has no guilt +to sting her, and therefore may be comforted. + +_Jar._ For pity's sake, Sir! I have no heart to see this change. + +_Bev._ Nor I to bear it. How speaks the world of me, Jarvis? + +_Jar._ As of a good man dead. Of one, who walking in a dream, fell +down a precipice. The world is sorry for you. + +_Bev._ Ay, and pities me. Says it not so? But I was born to infamy. +I'll tell thee what it says. It calls me villain; a treacherous +husband; a cruel father; a false brother; one lost to nature and her +charities--Or to say all in one short word, it calls me--Gamester. +Go to thy mistress; I'll see her presently. + +_Jar._ And why not now? Rude people press upon her; loud, bawling +creditors; wretches, who know no pity. I met one at the door; he +would have seen my mistress--I wanted means of present payment, so +promised it to-morrow. But others may be pressing; and she has grief +enough already. Your absence hangs too heavy on her. + +_Bev._ Tell her I'll come then. I have a moment's business. But what +hast Thou to do with My distresses? Thy honesty has left thee poor; +and age wants comfort. Keep what thou hast for cordials; left +between thee and the grave, misery steal in. I have a friend shall +counsel me--This is that friend. + + +SCENE IV. + +_Enter STUKELY._ + +_Stu._ How fares it, Beverley? Honest Mr. Jarvis, well met; I hoped +to find you here. That viper Williams! Was it not He that troubled +you this morning? + +_Jar._ My mistress heard him then? I am sorry that she heard him. + +_Bev._ And Jarvis promised payment. + +_Stu._ That must not be. Tell him I'll satisfy him. + +_Jar._ Will you, Sir? Heaven will reward you for't. + +_Bev._ Generous Stukely! Friendship like yours, had it ability like +will, would more than ballance the wrongs of fortune. + +_Stu._ You think too kindly of me. Make haste to Williams; his +clamours may be rude else. + [_To Jarvis._ + +_Jar._ And my master will go home again. Alas! Sir, we know of +hearts there breaking for his absence. + [_Exit._ + +_Bev._ Would I were dead! + +_Stu._ Or turned hermit; counting a string of beads in a dark cave; +or under a weeping willow, praying for mercy on the wicked. Ha! ha! +ha! Prithee be a man, and leave dying to disease and old age. +Fortune may be ours again; at least, we'll try for't. + +_Bev._ No, it has fooled us on too far. + +_Stu._ Ay, ruined us; and therefore we'll sit down contented. These +are the despondings of men without money; but let the shining ore +chink in the pocket, and folly turns to wisdom. We are fortune's +children. True, she's a fickle mother; but shall We droop because +She's peevish? No; she has smiles in store. And these her frowns are +meant to brighten them. + +_Bev._ Is this a time for levity? But You are single in the ruin, +and therefore may talk lightly of it. With Me 'tis complicated misery. + +_Stu._ You censure me unjustly. I but assumed these spirits to chear +my friend. Heaven knows he wants a comforter. + +_Bev._ What new misfortune? + +_Stu._ I would have brought you money; but lenders want securities. +What's to be done? All that was mine is yours already. + +_Bev._ And there's the weight that sinks me. I have undone my friend +too; one, who to save a drowning wretch, reached out his hand, and +perished with him. + +_Stu._ Have better thoughts. + +_Bev._ Whence are they to proceed? I have nothing left. + +_Stu. (Sighing) _Then we're indeed undone. What, nothing? No +moveables? nor useless trinkets? Bawbles, locked up in caskets, to +starve their owners? I have ventured deeply for you. + +_Bev._ Therefore this heart-ake; for I am lost beyond all hope. + +_Stu._ No : means may be found to save us. Jarvis is rich. Who made +him so? This is no time for ceremony. + +_Bev._ And is it for dishonesty? The good old man! Shall I rob Him +too? My friend would grieve for't. No; let the little that he has, +buy food and cloathing for him. + +_Stu._ Good morning then. + [_Going._ + +_Bev._ So hasty! Why, then good morning. + +_Stu._ And when we meet again, upbraid me. Say it was I that tempted +you. Tell Lewson so; and tell him I have wronged you: he has +suspicions of me, and will thank you. + +_Bev_, No; we have been companions in a rash voyage, and the same +storm has wrecked us both. Mine shall be self-upbraidings. + +_Stu._ And will they feed us? You deal unkindly by me. I have sold +and borrowed for you, while land or credit lasted; and now, when +fortune should be tried, and my heart whispers me success, I am +deserted; turned loose to beggary, while You have hoards. + +_Bev._ What hoards? Name them, and take them. + +_Stu._ Jewels. + +_Bev._ And shall this thriftless hand seize Them too? My poor, poor +wife! Must she lose all? I would not wound her so. + +_Stu._ Nor I, but from necessity. One effort more, and fortune may +grow kind. I have unusual hopes. + +_Bev._ Think of some other means then. + +_Stu._ I have; and you rejected them. + +_Bev._ Prithee let me be a man. + +_Stu._ Ay, and your friend a poor one. But I have done. And for +these trinkets of a woman, why, let her keep them to deck out pride +with, and shew a laughing world that she has finery to starve +in. + +_Bev._ No; she shall yield up all. My friend demands it. But need he +have talked lightly of her? The jewels that She values are truth and +innocence: those will adorn her ever; and for the rest, she wore +them for a husband's pride, and to his wants will give them. Alas! +you know her not. Where shall we meet? + +_Stu._ No matter. I have changed my mind. Leave me to a prison; 'tis +the reward of friendship. + +_Bev._ Perish mankind first! Leave you to a prison! No: fallen as +you see me, I'm not that wretch. Nor would I change this heart, +overcharged as 'tis with folly and misfortune, for one most prudent +and most happy, if callous to a friend's distresses. + +_Stu._ You are too warm. + +_Bev._ In such a cause, not to be warm is to be frozen. Farewell. +I'll meet you at your lodgings. + +_Stu._ Reflect a little. The jewels may be lost. Better not hazard +them. I was too pressing. + +_Bev._ And I ungrateful. Reflection takes up time. I have no leisure +for't. Within an hour expect me. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ The thoughtless, shallow prodigal! We shall have sport at +night then--But hold--the jewels are not ours yet. The lady may +refuse them. The husband may relent too. 'Tis more than probable--I'll +write a note to Beverley, and the contents shall spur him to demand +them. But am I grown this rogue through avarice? No; I have warmer +motives: love and revenge. Ruin the husband, and the wife's virtue +may be bid for. 'Tis of uncertain value, and sinks, or rises in the +purchase, as want, or wealth, or passion governs. The poor part +cheaply with it; rich dames, though pleased with selling, will have +high prices for't; your love-sick girls give it for oaths and lying; +but wives, who boast of honour and affections, keep it against a +famine. Why, let the famine come then; I am in haste to purchase. + + +SCENE V. + +_Enter BATES._ + +Look to your men, Bates; there's money stirring. We meet to-night +upon this spot. Hasten and tell them so. Beverley calls upon me at +my lodgings, and we return together. Hasten, I say; the rogues will +scatter else. + +_Bates._ Not till their leader bids them. + +_Stu._ Come on then. Give them the word, and follow me; I must +advise with you. This is a day of business. + [_Exeunt._ + + +SCENE VI. _changes to _BEVERLEY'S_ lodgings_. + +_Enter BEVERLEY, and CHARLOTTE._ + +_Char._ Your looks are changed too; there's wildness in them. My +wretched sister! how will it grieve her to see you thus! + +_Bev._ No, no; a little rest will ease me. And for your Lewson's +kindness to her, it has my thanks: I have no more to give him. + +_Char._ Yes; a sister and her fortune. I trifle with him; and he +complains. My looks, he says, are cold upon him. He thinks +too-- + +_Bev._ That I have _lost_ your fortune--He dares not think +so. + +_Char._ Nor does he--You are too quick at guessing. He cares not if +you had. That care is mine. I lent it you to husband; and now I +claim it. + +_Bev._ You have suspicions then? + +_Char._ Cure them, and give it me. + +_Bev._ To stop a sister's chiding. + +_Char._ To vindicate her brother. + +_Bev._ How if he needs it not? + +_Char._ I would fain hope so. + +_Bev._ Ay, would and cannot. Leave it to time then; 'twill satisfy +all doubts. + +_Char._ Mine are already satisfied. + +_Bev._ 'Tis well. And when the subject is renewed, speak to me like +a sister, and I will answer like a brother. + +_Char._ To tell me I'm a beggar. Why, tell it now. I that can bear +the ruin of those dearer to me, the ruin of a sister and her infant, +can bear that too. + +_Bev._ No more of this--You wring my heart. + +_Char._ Would that the misery were all your own! But innocence must +suffer. Unthinking rioter! whose home was heaven to him: an angel +dwelt there, and a little cherub, that crowned his days with +blessings--How has he lost this heaven, to league with devils! + +_Bev._ Forbear, I say; reproaches come too late; they search, but +cure not. And for the fortune you demand, we'll talk to-morrow on't; +our tempers may be milder. + +_Char._ Or if 'tis gone, why, farewel all. I claimed it for a +sister. She holds my heart in hers; and every pang She feels, tears +it in pieces--But I'll upbraid no more. What heaven permits, it may +ordain; and sorrow then is sinful. Yet that the husband! father! +brother! should be its instrument of vengeance!--'Tis grievous to +know that. + +_Bev._ If you're my sister, spare the remembrance--It wounds too +deeply. To-morrow shall clear all; and when the worst is known, it +may be better than your fears. Comfort my wife; and for the pains of +absence, I'll make atonement. The world may yet go well with +us. + +_Char._ See where she comes!--Look chearfully upon her. Affections, +such as hers, are prying; and lend those eyes that read the +soul. + + +SCENE VII. + +_Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY, and LEWSON._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ My life! + +_Bev._ My love! How fares it? I have been a truant husband. + +_Mrs. Bev._ But we meet now, and that heals all. Doubts and alarms I +have had; but in this dear embrace I bury and forget them. My friend +here (_pointing to Lewson_) has been indeed a friend. Charlotte, +'tis You must thank him: your brother's thanks and mine are of too +little value. + +_Bev._ Yet what we have, we'll pay. I thank, you, Sir, and am +obliged. I would say more, but that your goodness to the wife, +upbraids the husband's follies. Had I been wise, She had not +trespassed on your bounty. + +_Lew._ Nor has she trespassed. The little I have done, acceptance +over-pays. + +_Char._ So friendship thinks-- + +_Mrs. Bev._ And doubles obligations, by striving to conceal +them--We'll talk another time on't. You are too thoughtful, +love. + +_Bev._ No; I have reason for these thoughts. + +_Char._ And hatred for the cause. Would you had that too! + +_Bev._ I have. The cause was avarice. + +_Char._ And who the tempter? + +_Bev._ A ruined friend. Ruined by too much kindness, + +_Lew._ Ay, worse than ruined; stabbed in his fame; mortally stabbed. +Riches can't cure him. + +_Bev._ Or if they could, those I have drained him of. Something of +this he hinted in the morning--that Lewson had suspicions of +him--Why these suspicions? + [_Angrily._ + +_Lew._ At school we knew this Stukely. A cunning plodding boy he +was, sordid and cruel. Slow at his talk, but quick at shifts and +tricking. He schemed out mischief, that others might be punished; +and would tell his tale with so much art, that for the lash he +merited, rewards and praise were given him. Shew me a boy with such +a mind, and time that ripens manhood in him, shall ripen vice too. +I'll prove him, and lay him open t'you. Till then be warned. I know +him, and therefore shun him. + +_Bev._ As I would those that wrong him. You are too busy, Sir. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No, not too busy--Mistaken perhaps--That had been milder. + +_Lew._ No matter, madam. I can bear this, and praise the heart that +prompts it. Pity such friendship should be so placed! + +_Bev._ Again, Sir!--But I'll bear too. You wrong him, Lewson, and +will be sorry for't. + +_Char._ Ay, when 'tis proved he wrongs him. The world is full of +hypocrites. + +_Bev._ And Stukely one--So you'd infer, I think. I'll hear no more +of this--My heart akes for him--I have undone him. + +_Lew._ The world says otherwise. + +_Bev._ The world is false then. I have business with you, love. (_To +Mrs. Beverley._) We'll leave them to their rancour. + [_Going._ + +_Char._ No. We shall find room within for't. Come this way, +Sir. + [_To Lewson._ + +_Lew._ Another time my friend will thank me; that time is hastening +too. + [_Exit with Charlotte._ + +_Bev._ They hurt me beyond bearing. Is Stukely false? Then honesty +has left us! + +'Twere sinning against heaven to think so. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I never doubted him. + +_Bev._ No; You are charity. Meekness and ever-during patience live +in that heart, and love that knows no change--Why did I ruin you? + +_Mrs. Bev._ You have not ruined me. I have no wants when You are +present, nor wishes in your absence, but to be blest with your +return. Be but resigned to what has happened, and I am rich beyond +the dreams of avarice. + +_Bev._ My generous girl!--But memory will be busy; still crowding on +my thoughts, to sour the present by the past. I have another pang too. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Tell it, and let me cure it. + +_Bev._ That friend, that generous friend, whose fame they have +traduced--I have undone Him too. While he had means, he lent me +largely; and now a prison must be his portion. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No; I hope otherwise. + +_Bev._ To hope must be to act. The charitable wish feeds not the +hungry. Something must be done. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What? + +_Bev._ In bitterness of heart he told me, just now he told me, I had +undone him. Could I hear that, and think of happiness? No; I have +disclaimed it, while He is miserable. + +_Mrs. Bev._ The world may mend with us, and then we may be grateful. +There's comfort in that hope. + +_Bev._ Ay; 'tis the sick man's cordial, his promised cure; while in +preparing it, the patient dies.--What now? + + +SCENE VIII. + +_Enter LUCY._ + +_Lucy._ A letter, Sir. + [_Delivers it, and exit._ + +_Bev._ The hand is Stukely's. + [_Opens, and reads it to himself._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ And brings good news--at least I'll hope so--What says +he, love? + +_Bev._ Why, this--too much for patience. Yet he directs me to +conceal it from you. + [_Reads._ + + Let your haste to see me be the only proof of your esteem for + me. I have determined, since we parted, to bid adieu to England; + chusing rather to forsake my country, than to owe my freedom in + it to the means we talked of. Keep this a secret at home, and + hasten to the ruined + R. STUKELY + +Ruined by friendship! I must relieve, or follow him. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Follow him, did you say? Then I am lost indeed! + +_Bev._ O this infernal vice! how has it sunk me! A vice, whose +highest joy was poor to my domestic happiness. Yet how have I +pursued it! Turned all my comforts to bitterest pangs! and all Thy +smiles to tears. Damned, damned infatuation! + +_Mrs. Bev._ Be cool, my life! What are the means the letter talks +of? Have You, have I those means? Tell me, and ease me. I have no +life while You are wretched. + +_Bev._ No, no; it must not be. 'Tis I alone have sinned; 'tis I +alone must suffer. You shall reserve those means, to keep my child +and his wronged mother from want and wretchedness. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What means? + +_Bev._ I came to rob you of them; but cannot--dare not; those jewels +are your sole support--I should be more than monster to request them. + +_Mrs. Bev._ My jewels! Trifles, not worth the speaking of, if +weighed against a husband's peace; but let them purchase That, and +the world's wealth is of less value. + +_Bev._ Amazing goodness! How little do I seem before such virtues! + +_Mrs. Bev._ No more, my love. I kept them till occasion called to +use them; now is the occasion, and I'll resign them chearfully. + +_Bev._ Why, we'll be rich in love then--But this excess of kindness +melts me. Yet for a friend one would do much. He has denied Me +nothing. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Come to my closet--But let him manage wisely. We have no +more to give him. + +_Bev._ Where learnt my love this excellence? 'Tis heaven's own +teaching; that heaven, which to an angel's form, has given a mind +more lovely. I am unworthy of you, but will deserve you better. + + Henceforth my follies and neglects shall cease, + And all to come be penitence and peace; + Vice shall no more attract me with her charms, + Nor pleasure reach me, but in these dear arms. + + [_Exeunt._ + + + + +ACT III. + + +SCENE I. _STUKELY'S lodgings_. + +_Enter STUKELY, and BATES._ + +_Stukely_. So runs the world, Bates. Fools are the natural prey of +knaves; nature designed them so, when she made lambs for wolves. The +laws that fear and policy have framed, nature disclaims: she knows +but two; and those are force and cunning. The nobler law is force; +but then there's danger in't; while cunning, like a skilful miner, +works safely and unseen. + +_Bat._ And therefore wisely. Force must have nerves and sinews; +cunning wants neither. The dwarf that has it, shall trip the giant's +heels up. + +_Stu._ And bind him to the ground. Why, we'll erect a shrine for +nature, and be her oracles. Conscience is weakness; fear made, and +fear maintains it. The dread of shame, inward reproaches, and +fictitious burnings, swell out the phantom. Nature knows none of +this; Her laws are freedom. + +_Bat._ Sound doctrine, and well delivered! + +_Stu._ We are sincere too, and practice what we teach. Let the grave +pedant say as much--But now to business. The jewels are disposed of; +and Beverley again worth money. He waits to count his gold out, and +then comes hither. If my design succeeds, this night we finish with +him. Go to your lodgings, and be busy. You understand conveyances, +and can make ruin sure. + +_Bat._ Better stop here. The sale of this reversion may be talked +of; there's danger in't. + +_Stu._ No; 'tis the mark I aim at. We'll thrive, and laugh. You are +the purchaser, and there's the payment. (_Giving a pocket book._) He +thinks you rich; and so you shall be. Enquire for titles, and deal +hardly; 'twill look like honesty. + +_Bat._ How if he suspects us? + +_Stu._ Leave it to Me. I study hearts, and when to work upon them. +Go to your lodgings; and if we come, be busy over papers. Talk of a +thoughtless age, of gaming and extravagance, you have a face +for't. + +_Bat._ A feeling too that would avoid it. We push too far; but I +have cautioned you. If it ends ill, you'll think of me; and so adieu. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ This fellow sins by halves; his fears are conscience +to him. I'll turn these fears to use. Rogues that dread shame, will +still be greater rogues to hide their guilt--This shall be thought +of. Lewson grows troublesome--we must get rid of him--he knows too +much. I have a tale for Beverley; part of it truth too. He shall +call Lewson to account. If it succeeds, 'tis well; if not, we must +try other means--But here he comes--I must dissemble. + + +SCENE II. + +_Enter BEVERLEY._ + +Look to the door there! (_In a seeming fright._)--My friend!--I +thought of other visitors. + +_Bev._ No: these shall guard you from them. (_Offering notes_) Take +them, and use them cautiously. The world deals hardly by us. + +_Stu._ And shall I leave you destitute? No: Your wants are greatest. +Another climate may treat me kinder. The shelter of to-night takes +me from this. + +_Bev._ Let these be your support then. Yet is there need of parting? +I may have means again; we'll share them, and live wisely. + +_Stu._ No. I should tempt you on. Habit is nature in me; ruin can't +cure it. Even now I would be gaming. Taught by experience as I am, +and knowing this poor sum is all that's left us, I am for venturing +still. And say I am to blame; yet will this little supply our wants? +No; we must put it out to usury. Whether 'tis madness in me, or some +resistless impulse of good fortune, I yet am ignorant; but-- + +_Bev._ Take it, and succeed then. I'll try no more. + +_Stu._ 'Tis surely impulse; it pleads so strongly--But You are +cold--we'll e'en part here then. And for this last reserve, keep it +for better uses; I'll have none on't. I thank you though, and will +seek fortune singly--One thing I had forgot-- + +_Bev._ What is it? + +_Stu._ Perhaps, 'twere best forgotten. But I am open in my nature, +and zealous for the honour of my friend--Lewson speaks freely of you. + +_Bev._ Of You I know he does. + +_Stu._ I can forgive him for't; but for my friend I'm angry. + +_Bev._ What says he of me? + +_Stu._ That Charlotte's fortune is embezzled. He talks on't +loudly. + +_Bev._ He shall be silenced then--How heard you of it? + +_Stu._ From many. He questioned Bates about it. You must account +with him, he says. + +_Bev._ Or He with Me--and soon too. + +_Stu._ Speak mildly to him. Cautions are best. + +_Bev._ I'll think on't--But whither go you? + +_Stu._ From poverty and prisons--No matter whither. If fortune +changes you may hear from me. + +_Bev._ May these be prosperous then. (_Offering the notes, which he +refuses_) Nay, they are yours; I have sworn it, and will have +nothing. Take them and use them. + +_Stu._ Singly I will not. My cares are for my friend; for his lost +fortune, and ruined family. All separate interests I disclaim. +Together we have fallen; together we must rise. My heart, my honour, +both will have it so. + +_Bev._ I am weary of being fooled. + +_Stu._ And so am I. Here let us part then. These bodings of +good-fortune shall be stifled; I'll call them folly, and forget +them. This one embrace, and then farewel. + [_Offering to embrace._ + +_Bev._ No; stay a moment--How my poor heart's distracted! I have +these bodings too; but whether caught from You, or prompted by my +good or evil genius, I know not--The trial shall determine--And yet, +my wife-- + +_Stu._ Ay, ay, she'll chide. + +_Bev._ No; My chidings are all here. + [_Pointing to his heart._ + +_Stu._ I'll not persuade you. + +_Bev._ I _am_ persuaded; by reason too; the strongest reason--necessity. +Oh! could I once regain the height I have fallen from, heaven should +forsake me in my latest hour, if I again mixed in these scenes, or +sacrificed the husband's peace, his joy and best affections to +avarice and infamy! + +_Stu._ I have resolved like You; and since our motives are so +honest, why should we fear success? + +_Bev._ Come on then. Where shall we meet? + +_Stu_, At Wilson's--Yet if it hurts you, leave me: I have misled you +often. + +_Bev._ We have misled each other--But come! Fortune is fickle, and +may be tired with plaguing us. There let us rest our hopes. + +_Stu._ Yet think a little. + +_Bev._ I cannot--Thinking but distracts me. + +_When desperation leads, all thoughts are vain;_ +_Reason would lose, what rashness may obtain._ + + [_Exeunt._ + + +SCENE III. __BEVERLEY'S_ lodgings. +Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY, and CHARLOTTE._ + +_Char._ 'Twas all a scheme, a mean one; unworthy of my brother. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No, I am sure it was not. Stukely is honest too; I know +he is. This madness has undone them both. + +_Char._ My brother irrecoverably. You are too spiritless a wife--A +mournful tale, mixt with a few kind words, will steal away your +soul. The world's too subtle for such goodness. Had I been by, he +should have asked your life sooner than those jewels. + +_Mrs. Bev._ He should have had it then. (_Warmly_) I live but to +oblige him. She who can love, and is beloved like Me, will do as +much. Men have done more for mistresses, and women for a base +deluder. And shall a wife do less? Your chidings hurt me, Charlotte. + +_Char._ And come too late; they might have saved you else. How could +he use you so? + +_Mrs. Bev._ 'Twas friendship did it. His heart was breaking for a +friend. + +_Char._ The friend that has betrayed him. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Prithee don't think so. + +_Char._ To-morrow he accounts with Me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ And fairly: I will not doubt it. + +_Char._ Unless a friend has wanted--I have no patience--Sister! +sister! we are bound to curse this friend. + +_Mrs. Bev._ My Beverley speaks nobly of him. + +_Char._ And Lewson truly--But I displease you with this talk--To-morrow +will instruct us. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Stay till it comes then. I would not think so hardly. + +_Char._ Nor I, but from conviction. Yet we have hope of better days. +My uncle is infirm, and of an age that threatens hourly. Or if he +lives, You never have offended him; and for distresses so unmerited, +he will have pity. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I know it, and am chearful. We have no more to lose; and +for what's gone, if it brings prudence home, the purchase is well +made. + +_Char._ My Lewson will be kind too. While he and I have life and +means, You shall divide with us--And see, he's here. + + +SCENE IV. + +_Enter LEWSON._ + +We were just speaking of you. + +_Lew._ 'Tis best to interrupt you then. Few characters will bear a +scrutiny; and where the bad out-weighs the good, he's safest that's +least talked of. What say you, madam? + [_To Charlotte._ + +_Char._ That I hate scandal, though a woman; therefore talk seldom +of you. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Or, with more truth, that, though a woman, she loves to +praise; therefore talks always of you. I'll leave you to decide +it. + [_Exit._ + +_Lew._ How good and amiable! I came to talk in private with you; of +matters that concern you. + +_Char._ What matters? + +_Lew._ First answer me sincerely to what I ask. + +_Char._ I will--But you alarm me. + +_Lew._ I am too grave, perhaps; but be assured of this, I have no +news that troubles Me, and therefore should not You. + +_Char._ I am easy then. Propose your question. + +_Lew._ 'Tis now a tedious twelve-month, since with an open and kind +heart, you said you loved me. + +_Char._ So tedious, did you say? + +_Lew._ And when in consequence of such sweet words, I pressed for +marriage, you gave a voluntary promise, that you would live for +Me. + +_Char._ You think me changed then? + [_Angrily._ + +_Lew._ I did not say so. A thousand times I have pressed for the +performance of this promise; but private cares, a brother's and a +sister's ruin, were reasons for delaying it. + +_Char._ I had no other reasons--Where will this end? + +_Lew._ It shall end presently. + +_Char._ Go on, Sir. + +_Lew._ A promise, such as this, given freely, not extorted, the +world thinks binding; but I think otherwise. + +_Char._ And would release me from it? + +_Lew._ You are too impatient, madam. + +_Char._ Cool, Sir--quite cool--Pray go on. + +_Lew._ Time, and a near acquaintance with my faults, may have +brought change: if it be so; or, for a moment, if you have wished +this promise were unmade, here I acquit you of it. This is my +question then; and with such plainness as I ask it, I shall entreat +an answer. Have you repented of this promise? + +_Char._ Stay, Sir. The man that can _suspect_ me, shall _find_ me +changed. Why am I doubted? + +_Lew._ My doubts are of myself. I have my faults, and You have +observation. If from my temper, my words or actions, you have +conceived a thought against me, or even a wish for separation, all +that has passed is nothing. + +_Char._ You startle me--But tell me--I must be answered first. Is it +from honour you speak this? or do you wish me changed? + +_Lew._ Heaven knows I do not. Life and my Charlotte are so +connected, that to lose one, were loss of both. Yet for a promise, +though given in love, and meant for binding; if time, or accident, +or reason should change opinion, with Me that promise has no force. + +_Char._ Why, now I'll answer you. Your doubts are prophecies--I am +really changed. + +_Lew._ Indeed! + +_Char._ I could torment You now, as You have Me; but 'tis not in my +nature. That I am changed I own; for what at first was inclination, +is now grown reason in me; and from that reason, had I the +world--nay, were I poorer than the poorest, and You too wanting +bread; with but a hovel to invite me to--I would be yours, and happy. + +_Lew._ My kindest Charlotte! (_Seizing her hand_) Thanks are too +poor for this, and words too weak! But if we love so, why should our +union be delayed? + +_Char._ For happier times. The present are too wretched. + +_Lew._ I may have reasons, that press it now. + +_Char._ What reasons? + +_Lew._ The strongest reasons; unanswerable ones. + +_Char._ Be quick and name them. + +_Lew._ No, madam; I am bound in honour to make conditions first; +I am bound by inclination too. This sweet profusion of kind words +pains while it pleases. I dread the losing you. + +_Char._ Astonishment! What mean you? + +_Lew._ First promise, that to-morrow, or the next day, you will be +mine for ever. + +_Char._ I do--though misery should succeed. + +_Lew._ Thus then I seize you! and with you every joy on this side +heaven! + [_Embracing her._ + +_Char._ And thus I seal my promise. (_Returning his embrace._) Now, +Sir, your secret? + +_Lew._ Your fortune's lost. + +_Char._ My fortune lost!--I'll study to be humble then. But was my +promise claimed for this? How nobly generous! Where learnt you this +sad news? + +_Lew._ From Bates, Stukely's prime agent. I have obliged him, and +he's grateful. He told it me in friendship, to warn me from my +Charlotte. + +_Char._ 'Twas honest in him; and I'll esteem him for't. + +_Lew._ He knows much more than he has told. + +_Char._ For Me it is enough. And for your generous love, I thank you +from my soul. If you'd oblige me more, give me a little time. + +_Lew._ Why time? It robs us of our happiness. + +_Char._ I have a task to learn first. The little pride this fortune +gave me, must be subdued. Once we were equal; and might have met +obliging and obliged. But now 'tis otherwise; and for a life of +obligations, I have not learnt to bear it. + +_Lew._ Mine is that life. You are too noble. + +_Char._ Leave me to think on't. + +_Lew._ To-morrow then you'll fix my happiness? + +_Char._ All that I can, I will. + +_Lew._ It must be so; we live but for each other. Keep what you know +a secret; and when we meet to-morrow, more may be known. Farewell. + [_Exit._ + +_Char._ My poor, poor sister! how would this wound her! But I'll +conceal it, and speak comfort to her. _Exit_. + + +SCENE V. _changes to a room in the gaming-house._ + +_Enter BEVERLEY, and STUKELY._ + +_Bev._ Whither would you lead me? + [_Angrily._ + +_Stu._ Where we may vent our curses. + +_Bev._ Ay, on yourself, and those damned counsels that have +destroyed me. A thousand fiends were in that bosom, and all let +loose to tempt me--I had resisted else. + +_Stu._ Go on, Sir. I have deserved this from you. + +_Bev._ And curses everlasting. Time is too scanty for them. + +_Stu._ What have I done? + +_Bev._ What the arch-devil of old did--soothed with false hopes, for +certain ruin. + +_Stu._ Myself unhurt; nay, pleased at your destruction--So your +words mean. Why, tell it to the world: I am too poor to find a +friend in't. + +_Bev._ A friend! What's he? I had a friend. + +_Stu._ And have one still. + +_Bev._ Ay; I'll tell you of this friend. He found me happiest of the +happy; fortune and honour crowned me; and love and peace lived in my +heart. One spark of folly lurked there; That too he found; and by +deceitful breath, blew it to flames that have consumed me. This +friend were You to Me. + +_Stu._ A little more perhaps--The friend who gave his all to save +you; and not succeeding, chose ruin with you. But no matter--I have +undone you, and am a villain. + +_Bev._ No; I think not. The villains are within. + +_Stu._ What villains? + +_Bev._ Dawson and the rest--We have been dupes to sharpers. + +_Stu._ How know you this? I have had doubts, as well as You; yet +still as fortune changed, I blushed at my own thoughts. But You have +proofs, perhaps? + +_Bev._ Ay, damned ones. Repeated losses: night after night, and no +reverse. Chance has no hand in this. + +_Stu._ I think more charitably; yet I am peevish in my nature, and +apt to doubt. The world speaks fairly of this Dawson; so does it of +the rest. We have watched them closely too. But 'tis a right usurped +by losers, to think the winners knaves. We'll have more manhood in +us. + +_Bev._ I know not what to think. This night has stung me to the +quick--blasted my reputation too. I have bound my honour to these +vipers; played meanly upon credit, till I tired them; and now they +shun me, to rifle one another. What's to be done? + +_Stu._ Nothing. My counsels have been fatal. + +_Bev._ By heaven! I'll not survive this shame--Traitor! 'tis You +have brought it on me. (_Taking hold of him._) Shew me the means to +save me, or I'll commit a murder here, and next upon myself. + +_Stu._ Why, do it then, and rid me of ingratitude. + +_Bev._ Prithee, forgive this language--I speak I know not what. Rage +and despair are in my heart, and hurry me to madness. My home is +horror to me--I'll not return to't. Speak quickly; tell me, if in +this wreck of fortune, one hope remains? Name it, and be my +oracle. + +_Stu._ To vent your curses on--You have bestowed them liberally. +Take your own counsel: and should a desperate hope present itself, +'twill suit your desperate fortune. I'll not advise you. + +_Bev._ What hope? By heaven! I'll catch at it, however desperate. +I am so sunk in misery, it cannot lay me lower. + +_Stu._ You have an uncle. + +_Bev._ Ay. What of Him? + +_Stu._ Old men live long by temperance; while their heirs starve on +expectation. + +_Bev._ What mean you? + +_Stu._ That the reversion's yours; and will bring money to pay debts +with--nay, more; it may retrieve what's past. + +_Bev._ Or leave my child a beggar. + +_Stu._ And what's his father? A dishonourable one; engaged for sums, +he cannot pay. That should be thought of. + +_Bev._ It is my shame; the poison that inflames me. Where shall we +go? To whom? I am impatient till all's lost. + +_Stu._ All may be yours again. Your man is Bates. He has large funds +at his command, and will deal justly by you. + +_Bev._ I am resolved--Tell them, within, we'll meet them presently; +and with full purses too--Come, follow me. + +_Stu._ No. I'll have no hand in this; nor do I counsel it. Use your +discretion, and act from that. You'll find me at my lodgings. + +_Bev._ + Succeed what will, this night I'll dare the worst-- + 'Tis loss of fear, to be compleatly curs'd. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ Why, lose it then for ever. Fear is the mind's worst evil; +and 'tis a friendly office to drive it from the bosom. Thus far has +fortune crowned me--Yet Beverley is rich; rich in his wife's best +treasure; her honour and affections. I would supplant him there too. +But 'tis the curse of thinking minds, to raise up difficulties. +Fools only conquer women: fearless of dangers which they see not, +they press on boldly, and by persisting, prosper. Yet may a tale of +art do much. Charlotte is sometimes absent. The seeds of jealousy +are sown already: If I mistake not, they have taken root too. Now is +the time to ripen them, and reap the harvest. The softest of her +sex, if wronged in love, or thinking that she's wronged, becomes a +tygress in revenge. I'll instantly to Beverley's--No matter for the +danger--When beauty leads us on, 'tis indiscretion to reflect, and +cowardice to doubt. + [_Exit_. + + +SCENE VI. _changes to _BEVERLEY'S_ lodgings._ + +_Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY, and _Lucy_._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Did Charlotte tell you any thing? + +_Lucy_. No, madam. + +_Mrs. Bev._ She looked confused methought; said she had business +with her Lewson; which, when I pressed to know, tears only were her +answer. + +_Lucy._ She seemed in haste too: yet her return may bring you comfort. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No, my kind girl; I was not born for't. But why do I +distress thee? Thy sympathizing heart bleeds for the ills of others. +What pity that thy mistress can't reward thee! But there's a power +above, that sees, and will remember all. Prithee, sooth me with the +song thou sung'st last night: it suits this change of fortune; and +there's a melancholy in't that pleases me. + +_Lucy_. I fear it hurts you, madam. Your goodness too draws tears +from me: but I'll dry them, and obey you. + +SONG. + + When Damon languish'd at my feet, + And I believ'd him true, + The moments of delight how sweet! + But ah! how swift they flew! + The sunny hill, the flow'ry vale, + The garden and the grove, + Have echoed to his ardent tale, + And vows of endless love. + + II. + + The conquest gain'd, he left his prize, + He left her to complain; + To talk of joy with weeping eyes, + And measure time by pain. + But heav'n will take the mourner's part, + In pity to despair; + And the last sigh that rends the heart, + Shall waft the spirit there. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I thank thee, Lucy; I thank heaven too my griefs are +none of these. Yet Stukely deals in hints--He talks of rumours--I'll +urge him to speak plainly--Hark?--There's some one entering. + +_Lucy._ Perhaps my master, madam. + [_Exit._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Let him be well too, and I am satisfied. (_Goes to the +door, and listens._) No; 'tis another's voice; his had been music to +me. Who is it, Lucy? + + +SCENE VII. + +_Re-enter LUCY with STUKELY._ + +_Lucy._ Mr. Stukely, madam. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ To meet you thus alone, madam, was what I wished. Unseasonable +visits, when friendship warrants them, need no excuse; therefore I +make none. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What mean you, Sir? And where's your friend? + +_Stu._ Men may have secrets, madam, which their best friends are not +admitted to. We parted in the morning, not soon to meet again. + +_Mrs. Bev._ You mean to leave us then? To leave your country too? +I am no stranger to your reasons, and pity your misfortunes. + +_Stu._ Your pity has undone you. Could Beverley do this? That letter +was a false one; a mean contrivance, to rob you of your jewels. +I wrote it not. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Impossible! Whence came it then? + +_Stu._ Wronged as I am, madam, I must speak plainly-- + +_Mrs. Bev._ Do so, and ease me. Your hints have troubled me. +Reports, you say, are stirring--Reports of whom? You wished me not +to credit them. What, Sir, are these reports? + +_Stu._ I thought them slander, madam; and cautioned you in +friendship; left from officious tongues the tale had reached you, +with double aggravation. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Proceed, Sir. + +_Stu._ It is a debt due to my fame, due to an injured wife too--We +both are injured. + +_Mrs. Bev._ How injured? and who has injured us? + +_Stu._ My friend, your husband. + +_Mrs. Bev._ You would resent for both then? But know, Sir, My +injuries are my own, and do not need a champion. + +_Stu._ Be not too hasty, madam. I come not in resentment, but for +acquittance. You thought me poor; and to the feigned distresses of a +friend gave up your jewels. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I gave them to a husband. + +_Stu._ Who gave them to a-- + +_Mrs. Bev._ What? Whom did he give them to? + +_Stu._ A mistress. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No; on my life he did not. + +_Stu._ Himself confessed it, with curses on her avarice. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I'll not believe it. He has no mistress--or if he has, +why is it told to Me? + +_Stu._ To guard you against insults. He told me, that to move you to +compliance, he forged that letter, pretending I was ruined; ruined +by Him too. The fraud succeeded; and what a trusting wife bestowed +in pity, was lavished on a wanton. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Then I am lost indeed; and my afflictions are too +powerful for me. His follies I have borne without upbraiding, and +saw the approach of poverty without a tear. My affections, my strong +affections supported me through every trial. + +_Stu._ Be patient, madam. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Patient! The barbarous man! And does he think my +tenderness of heart is his security for wounding it? But he shall +find that injuries such as these, can arm my weakness for vengeance +and redress. + +_Stu._ Ha! then I may succeed. (_Aside._) Redress is in your power. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What redress? + +_Stu._ Forgive me, madam, if in my zeal to serve you, I hazard your +displeasure. Think of your wretched state. Already want surrounds +you. Is it in patience to bear That? To see your helpless little one +robbed of his birth-right? A sister too, with unavailing tears, +lamenting her lost fortune? No comfort left you, but ineffectual +pity from the Few, out-weighed by insults from the Many? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Am I so lost a creature? Well, Sir, my redress? + +_Stu._ To be resolved is to secure it. The marriage vow, once +violated, is in the sight of heaven dissolved--Start not, but hear +me! 'Tis now the summer of your youth; time has not cropt the roses +from your cheek, though sorrow long has washed them. Then use your +beauty wisely; and, freed by injuries, fly from the cruellest of +men, for shelter with the kindest. + +_Mrs. Bev._ And who is He? + +_Stu._ A friend to the unfortunate; a bold one too; who while the +storm is bursting on your brow, and lightening flashing from your +eyes, dares tell you that he loves you. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Would that these eyes had heaven's own lightening! that +with a look, thus I might blast thee! Am I then fallen so low? Has +poverty so humbled me, that I should listen to a hellish offer, and +sell my soul for bread? O, villain! villain!--But now I know thee, +and thank thee for the knowledge. + +_Stu._ If you are wife, you shall have cause to thank me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ An injured husband too shall thank thee. + +_Stu._ Yet know, proud woman, I have a heart as stubborn as your +own; as haughty and imperious: and as it loves, so can it hate. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Mean, despicable villain! I scorn thee, and thy threats. +Was it for this that Beverley was false? That his too credulous wife +should in despair and vengeance give up her honour to a wretch? But +he shall know it, and vengeance shall be his. + +_Stu._ Why send him for defiance then. Tell him I love his wife; but +that a worthless husband forbids our union. I'll make a widow of +you, and court you honourably. + +_Mrs. Bev._ O, coward! coward! thy soul will shrink at him. Yet in +the thought of what may happen, I feel a woman's fears. Keep thy own +secret, and begone. Who's there? + + +SCENE VIII. + +_Enter LUCY._ + +Your absence, Sir, would please me. + +_Stu._ I'll not offend you, madam. + [_Exit with Lucy._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Why opens not the earth to swallow such a monster? Be +conscience then his punisher, till heaven in mercy gives him +penitence, or dooms him in its justice. + + +SCENE IX. + +_Re-enter LUCY._ + +Come to my chamber, Lucy; I have a tale to tell thee, shall make +thee weep for thy poor mistress. + + Yet heav'n the guiltless sufferer regards, + And whom it most afflicts, it most rewards. + + [_Exeunt._ + + + + +ACT IV. + + +SCENE, __BEVERLEY'S_ lodgings._ + +_Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY, CHARLOTTE, and LEWSON._ + +_Charlotte._ The smooth-tongued hypocrite! + +_Lew._ But we have found him, and will requite him. Be chearful, +madam; (_To Mrs. Beverley_) and for the insults of this ruffian, you +shall have ample retribution. + +_Mrs. Bev._ But not by violence--Remember you have sworn it: I had +been silent else. + +_Lew._ You need not doubt me; I shall be cool as patience. + +_Mrs. Bev._ See him to-morrow then. + +_Lew._ And why not now? By heaven, the veriest worm that crawls is +made of braver spirit than this Stukely. Yet for my promise, I'll +deal gently with him. I mean to watch his looks: from those, and +from his answers to my charge, much may be learnt. Next I'll to +Bates, and sift him to the bottom. If I fail there, the gang is +numerous, and for a bribe will each betray the other. Good night; +I'll lose no time. + [_Exit._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ These boisterous spirits! how they wound me! But +reasoning is in vain. Come, Charlotte; we'll to our usual watch. The +night grows late. + +_Char._ I am fearful of events; yet pleased--To-morrow may relieve +us. + [_Going._ + + +SCENE II. + +_Enter JARVIS._ + +_Char._ How now, good Jarvis? + +_Jar._ I have heard ill news, madam. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What news? Speak quickly. + +_Jar._ Men are not what they seem. I fear me, Mr. Stukely is +dishonest. + +_Char._ We know it, Jarvis. But what's your news? + +_Jar._ That there's an action against my master, at his friend's +suit. + +_Mrs. Bev._ O, villain! villain! 'twas this he threatened then. Run +to that den of robbers, Wilson's--Your master may be there. Entreat +him home, good Jarvis. Say I have business with him--But tell him +not of Stukely--It may provoke him to revenge--Haste! haste! good +Jarvis. + [_Exit Jarvis._ + +_Char._ This minister of hell! O, I could tear him piece-meal! + +_Mrs. Bev._ I am sick of such a world. Yet heaven is just; and in +its own good time, will hurl destruction on such monsters. + [_Exeunt._ + + +SCENE III. _changes to _STUKELY'S_ lodgings._ + +_Enter STUKELY, and BATES, meeting_. + +_Bates._ Where have you been? + +_Stu._ Fooling my time away: playing my tricks, like a tame monkey, +to entertain a woman--No matter where-- I have been vext and +disappointed. Tell me of Beverley. How bore he his last shock? + +_Bates._ Like one (so Dawson says) whose senses had been numbed by +misery. When all was lost, he fixed his eyes upon the ground, and +stood some time, with folded arms, stupid and motionless. Then +snatching his sword, that hung against the wainscot, he sat him +down; and with a look of fixt attention, drew figures on the floor. +At last he started up, looked wild, and trembled; and like a woman, +seized with her sex's fits, laughed out aloud, while the tears +trickled down his face--so left the room. + +_Stu._ Why, this was madness. + +_Bates._ The madness of despair. + +_Stu._ We must confine him then. A prison would do well. (_A +knocking at the door._) Hark! that knocking may be his. Go that way +down. (_Exit Bates._) Who's there? + + +SCENE IV. + +_Enter LEWSON._ + +_Lew._ An enemy. An open and avowed one. + +_Stu._ Why am I thus broke in upon? This house is mine, Sir; and +should protect me from insult and ill-manners. + +_Lew._ Guilt has no place of sanctuary; wherever found, 'tis +virtue's lawful game. The fox's hold, and tyger's den, are no +security against the hunter. + +_Stu._ Your business, Sir? + +_Lew._ To tell you that I know you--Why this confusion? That look of +guilt and terror? Is Beverley awake? Or has his wife told tales? The +man that dares like You, should have a soul to justify his deeds, +and courage to confront accusers. Not with a coward's fear to shrink +beneath reproof. + +_Stu._ Who waits there? + [_Aloud, and in confusion._ + +_Lew._ By heaven, he dies that interrupts us. (_Shutting the door._) +You should have weighed your strength, Sir; and then, instead of +climbing to high fortune, the world had marked you for what you are, +a little paultry villain. + +_Stu._ You think I fear you. + +_Lew._ I know you fear me. This is to prove it. (_Pulls him by the +sleeve._) You wanted privacy! A lady's presence took up your +attention! Now we are alone, Sir.--Why, what a wretch! (_Flings him +from him._) The vilest insect in creation will turn when trampled +on; yet has this Thing undone a man--by cunning and mean arts undone +him. But we have found you, Sir; traced you through all your +labyrinths. If you would save yourself, fall to confession: no mercy +will be shewn else. + +_Stu._ First prove me what you think me. Till then, your threatenings +are in vain. And for this insult, vengeance may yet be mine. + +_Lew._ Infamous coward! Why, take it now then-- (_Draws, and Stukely +retires._) Alas! I pity thee. Yet that a wretch like this should +overcome a Beverley! it fills me with astonishment! A wretch, so +mean of soul, that even desperation cannot animate him to look upon +an enemy. You should not thus have soared, Sir, unless, like others +of your black profession, you had a sword to keep the fools in awe, +your villainy has ruined. + +_Stu._ Villainy! 'Twere best to curb this licence of your tongue; +for know, Sir, while there are laws, this outrage on my reputation +will not be borne with. + +_Lew._ Laws! Dar'st Thou seek shelter from the laws? those laws, +which thou and thy infernal crew live in the constant violation of? +Talk'st thou of reputation too? when under friendship's sacred name, +thou hast betrayed, robbed, and destroyed? + +_Stu._ Ay, rail at gaming; 'tis a rich topic, and affords noble +declamation. Go, preach against it in the city: you'll find a +congregation in every tavern. If they should laugh at you, fly to my +lord, and sermonize it there: he'll thank you and reform. + +_Lew._ And will example sanctify a vice? No, wretch; the custom of +my lord, or of the Cit that apes him, cannot excuse a breach of law, +or make the gamester's calling reputable. + +_Stu._ Rail on, I say. But is this zeal for beggared Beverley? Is it +for Him that I am treated thus? No; He and His might all have +groaned in prison, had but the sister's fortune escaped the wreck, +to have rewarded the disinterested love of honest Mr. Lewson. + +_Lew._ How I detest thee for the thought! But thou art lost to every +human feeling. Yet let me tell thee, and may it wring thy heart! +that though my friend is ruined by thy snares, thou hast unknowingly +been kind to Me. + +_Stu._ Have I? It was indeed unknowingly. + +_Lew._ Thou hast assisted me in love; given me the merit that I +wanted; since but for Thee, my Charlotte had not known 'twas her +dear self I sighed for, and not her fortune. + +_Stu._ Thank me, and take her then. + +_Lew._ And as a brother to poor Beverley, I will pursue the robber +that has seized him, and snatch him from his gripe. + +_Stu._ Then know, imprudent man, he _is_ within my gripe; and should +my friendship for him be slandered once again, the hand that has +supplied him, shall fall and crush him. + +_Lew._ Why, now there's spirit in thee! This is indeed to be a +villain! But I shall reach thee yet. Fly where thou wilt, my +vengeance shall pursue thee--and Beverley shall yet be saved, be +saved from thee, thou monster; nor owe his rescue to his wife's +dishonour. + [_Exit_. + +_Stu._ (_Pausing_) Then ruin has enclosed me. Curse on my coward +heart! I would be bravely villainous; but 'tis my nature to shrink +at danger, and he has found me. Yet fear brings caution, and That +security. More mischief must be done, to hide the past. Look to +yourself, officious Lewson--there may be danger stirring--How now, +Bates? + + +SCENE V. + +_Enter BATES._ + +_Bates._ What is the matter? 'Twas Lewson, and not Beverley, that +left you. I heard him loud: you seem alarmed too. + +_Stu._ Ay, and with reason. We are discovered. + +_Bates._ I feared as much, and therefore cautioned you; but You were +peremptory. + +_Stu._ Thus fools talk ever; spending their idle breath on what is +past; and trembling at the future. We must be active. Beverley, at +worst, is but suspicious; but Lewson's genius, and his hate to Me, +will lay all open. Means must be found to stop him. + +_Bates._ What means? + +_Stu._ Dispatch him--Nay, start not--Desperate occasions call for +desperate deeds. We live but by his death. + +_Bates._ You cannot mean it? + +_Stu._ I do, by heaven. + +_Bates._ Good night then. + [_Going._ + +_Stu._ Stay. I must be heard, then answered. Perhaps the motion was +too sudden; and human nature starts at murder, though strong +necessity compels it. I have thought long of this; and my first +feelings were like yours; a foolish conscience awed me, which soon I +conquered. The man that would undo me, nature cries out, undo. +Brutes know their foes by instinct; and where superior force is +given, they use it for destruction. Shall man do less? Lewson +pursues us to our ruin; and shall we, with the means to crush him, +fly from our hunter, or turn and tear him? 'Tis folly even to +hesitate. + +_Bates._ He has obliged me, and I dare not. + +_Stu._ Why, live to shame then, to beggary and punishment. You would +be privy to the deed, yet want the soul to act it. Nay more; had my +designs been levelled at his fortune, you had stept in the foremost. +And what is life without its comforts? Those you would rob him of; +and by a lingering death, add cruelty to murder. Henceforth adieu to +half-made villains--there's danger in them. What you have got is +your's; keep it, and hide with it: I'll deal my future bounty to +those who merit it. + +_Bates._ What's the reward? + +_Stu._ Equal division of our gains. I swear it, and will be +just. + +_Bates._ Think of the means then. + +_Stu._ He's gone to Beverley's-- Wait for him in the street--'tis a +dark night, and fit for mischief. A dagger would be useful. + +_Bates._ He sleeps no more. + +_Stu._ Consider the reward! When the deed's done, I have farther +business with you. Send Dawson to me. + +_Bates._ Think it already done--and so farewel. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ Why, farewel Lewson then; and farewel to my fears. This night +secures me. I'll wait the event within. + [_Exit._ + + +SCENE VI. _changes to the street. Stage darkened._ + +_Enter BEVERLEY._ + +_Bev._ How like an out-cast do I wander! Loaded with every curse, +that drives the soul to desperation! The midnight robber, as he +walks his rounds, sees by the glimmering lamp my frantic looks, and +dreads to meet me. Whither am I going? My home lies there; all that +is dear on earth it holds too; yet are the gates of death more +welcome to me. I'll enter it no more--Who passes there? Tis Lewson. +He meets me in a gloomy hour; and memory tells me, he has been +meddling with my fame. + + +SCENE VII. + +_Enter LEWSON._ + +_Lew._ Beverley! Well met. I have been busy in your affairs. + +_Bev._ So I have heard, Sir; and now must thank you for't. + +_Lew._ To-morrow I may deserve your thanks. Late as it is, I go to +Bates. Discoveries are making that an arch villain trembles +at. + +_Bev._ Discoveries are made, Sir, that You shall tremble at. Where +is this boasted spirit? this high demeanour, that was to call me to +account? You say I have wronged my sister--Now say as much. But +first be ready for defence, as I am for resentment. + [_Draws._ + +_Lew._ What mean you? I understand you not. + +_Bev._ The coward's stale acquittance. Who, when he spreads foul +calumny abroad, and dreads just vengeance on him, cries out, what +mean you, I understand you not. + +_Lew._ Coward, and calumny! Whence are these words? But I forgive, +and pity you. + +_Bev._ Your pity had been kinder to my fame. But you have traduced +it; told a vile story to the public ear, that I have wronged my +sister. + +_Lew._ 'Tis false. Shew me the man that dares accuse me. + +_Bev._ I thought you brave, and of a soul superior to low malice; +but I have found you, and will have vengeance. This is no place for +argument. + +_Lew._ Nor shall it be for violence. Imprudent man! who in +revenge for fancied injuries, would pierce the heart that loves +him! But honest friendship acts from itself, unmoved by slander, or +ingratitude. The life you thirst for, shall be employed to serve you. + +_Bev._ 'Tis thus you would compound then! First do a wrong beyond +forgiveness; and to redress it, load me with kindness unsolicited. +I'll not receive it. Your zeal is troublesbme. + +_Lew._ No matter. It shall be useful. + +_Bev._ It will not be accepted. + +_Lew._ It must. You know me not. + +_Bev._ Yes; for the slanderer of my fame: who under shew of +friendship, arraigns me of injustice; buzzing in every ear foul +breach of trust, and family dishonour. + +_Lew._ Have I done this? Who told you so? + +_Bev._ The world. 'Tis talked of everywhere. It pleased you to add +threats too: you were to call me to account --Why, do it now then; +I shall be proud of such an arbiter. + +_Lew._ Put up your sword, and know me better. I never injured you. +The base suggestion comes from Stukely: I see him and his aims. + +_Bev._ What aims? I'll not conceal it; _'twas_ Stukely that accused +you. + +_Lew._ To rid him of an enemy: perhaps of two. He fears discovery, +and frames a tale of falsehood, to ground revenge and murder +on. + +_Bev._ I must have proof of this. + +_Lew._ Wait till to-morrow then. + +_Bev._ I will. + +_Lew._ Good night. I go to serve you. Forget what's past, as I do; +and chear your family with smiles. To-morrow may confirm them, and +make all happy. + [_Exit._ + +_Bev._ (_Pausing_) How vile, and how absurd is man! His boasted +honour is but another name for pride; which easier bears the +consciousness of guilt, than the world's just reproofs. But 'tis the +fashion of the times; and in defence of falsehood and false honour, +men die martyrs. I knew not that my nature was so bad. + [_Stands musing._ + + +SCENE VIII. + +_Enter BATES, and JARVIS._ + +_Jar._ This way the noise was--and yonder's my poor master. + +_Bates._ I heard him at high words with Lewson. The cause I know not. + +_Jar._ I heard him too. Misfortunes vex him. + +_Bates._ Go to him, and lead him home--But he comes this way--I'll +not be seen by him. + [_Exit._ + +_Bev._ (_Starting._) What fellow's that? (_Seeing Jarvis_). Art thou +a murderer, friend? Come, lead the way; I have a hand as mischievous +as thine; a heart as desperate too--Jarvis!--To bed, old man, the +cold will chill thee. + +_Jar._ Why are you wandering at this late hour?--Your sword drawn +too!--For heav'n's sake sheath it, Sir; the sight distracts +Me. + +_Bev._ Whose voice was that? + [_Wildly_. + +_Jar._ 'Twas mine, Sir. Let me intreat you to give the sword to +me. + +_Bev._ Ay, take it; quickly take it--Perhaps I am not so curst, but +heav'n may have sent thee at this moment to snatch me from +perdition. + +_Jar._ Then I am blest. + +_Bev._ Continue so, and leave me. My sorrows are contagious. No one +is blest that's near me. + +_Jar._ I came to seek you, Sir. + +_Bev._ And now thou hast found me, leave me. My thoughts are wild, +and will not be disturbed. + +_Jar._ Such thoughts are best disturbed. + +_Bev._ I tell thee that they will not. Who sent thee hither? + +_Jar._ My weeping mistress. + +_Bev._ Am I so meek a husband then? that a commanding wife +prescribes my hours, and sends to chide me for my absence? + +Tell her, I'll not return. + +_Jar._ Those words would kill her. + +_Bev._ Kill her! Would they not be kind then? But she shall live to +curse me--I have deserved it of her. Does she not hate me, +Jarvis? + +_Jar._ Alas, Sir! Forget your griefs, and let me lead you to her. +The streets are dangerous. + +_Bev._ Be wise, and leave me then. The night's black horrors are +suited to my thoughts. These stones shall be my resting-place. +(_Lies down._) Here shall my soul brood o'er its miseries; till with +the fiends of hell, and guilty of the earth, I start and tremble at +the morning's light. + +_Jar._ For pity's sake, Sir!--Upon my knees I beg you to quit this +place, and these sad thoughts. Let patience, not despair, possess +you. Rise, I beseech you. There's not a moment of your absence, that +my poor mistress does not groan for. + +_Bev._ Have I undone her, and is she still so kind? (_Starting up_) +It is too much--My brain can't hold it--O, Jarvis! Jarvis! how +desperate is that wretch's state, which only death or madness can +relieve! + +_Jar._ Appease his mind, good heaven! and give him resignation! +Alas, Sir, could beings in the other world perceive the events of +this, how would your parents' blessed spirits grieve for you, even +in heaven! Let me conjure you by Their honoured memories; by the +sweet innocence of your yet helpless child, and by the ceaseless +sorrows of my poor mistress, to rouze your manhood, and struggle +with these griefs. + +_Bev._ Thou virtuous, good old man! thy tears and thy entreaties +have reached my heart, through all its miseries. O! had I listened +to Thy honest warnings, no earthly blessing had been wanting to me! +I was so happy, that even a wish for more than I possessed, was +arrogant presumption. But I have warred against the power that blest +me, and now am sentenced to the hell I merit. + +_Jar._ Be but resigned, Sir, and happiness may yet be yours. + +_Bev._ Prithee be honest, and do not flatter misery. + +_Jar._ I do not, Sir--Hark! I hear voices--Come this way; we may +reach home un-noticed. + +_Bev._ Well, lead me then--Un-noticed did'st thou say? Alas! I dread +no looks, but of those wretches I have made at home. + [_Exeunt._ + + +SCENE IX. _changes to _STUKELY'S_._ + +_Enter STUKELY, and DAWSON._ + +_Stu._ Come hither, Dawson. My limbs are on the rack, and my soul +shivers in me, till this night's business be complete. Tell me thy +thoughts: is Bates determined? or does he waver? + +_Daw._ At first he seemed irresolute; wished the employment had been +mine; and muttered curses on his coward hand, that trembled at the +deed. + +_Stu._ And did he leave you so? + +_Daw._ No. We walked together; and sheltered by the darkness, saw +Beverley and Lewson in warm debate. But soon they cooled; and then +I left them, to hasten hither; but not till 'twas resolved Lewson +should die. + +_Stu._ Thy words have given me life. That quarrel too was fortunate; +for if my hopes deceive me not, it promises a grave to Beverley. + +_Daw._ You misconceive me. Lewson and he were friends. + +_Stu._ But My prolific brain shall make them enemies. If Lewson +falls, he falls by Beverley: an upright jury shall decree it. Ask me +no questions, but do as I direct. This writ (_Takes out a pocket +book_) for some days past, I have treasured here, till a convenient +time called for its use. That time is come. Take it, and give it to +an officer. It must be served this instant. + [_Gives a paper._ + +_Daw._ On Beverley? + +_Stu._ Look at it. 'Tis for the sums that I have lent him. + +_Daw._ Must he to prison then? + +_Stu._ I asked obedience; not replies. This night a jail must be his +lodging. 'Tis probable he's not gone home yet. Wait at his door, and +see it executed. + +_Daw._ Upon a beggar? He has no means of payment. + +_Stu._ Dull and insensible! If Lewson dies, who was it killed him? +Why, he that was seen quarrelling with him; and I that knew of +Beverley's intents, arrested him in friendship--A little late, +perhaps; but 'twas a virtuous act, and men will thank me for it. +Now, Sir, you understand me? + +_Daw._ Most perfectly; and will about it. + +_Stu._ Haste then; and when 'tis done, come back and tell me. + +_Daw._ 'Till then farewel. + [_Exit._ + +_Stu._ Now tell thy tale, fond wife! And, Lewson, if again thou +can'st insult me, I'll kneel and own thee for my master. + +_Not av'rice now, but vengeance fires my breast +And one short hour must make me curst, or blest._ + + [_Exit._ + + + + +ACT V. + + +SCENE I. _Enter STUKELY, BATES, and DAWSON._ + +_Bates._ Poor Lewson! But I told you enough last night. The thoughts +of him are horrible to me. + +_Stu._ In the street, did you say? And no one near him? + +_Bates._ By his own door; he was leading me to his house. +I pretended business with him, and stabbed him to the heart, while he +was reaching at the bell. + +_Stu._ And did he fall so suddenly? + +_Bates._ The repetition pleases you, I see. I told you, he fell +without a groan. + +_Stu._ What heard you of him this morning? + +_Bates._ That the watch found him in their rounds, and alarmed the +servants. I mingled with the crowd just now, and saw him dead in his +own house. The sight terrified me. + +_Stu._ Away with terrors, till his ghost rise and accuse us. We have +no living enemy to fear--unless 'tis Beverley; and him we have +lodged safe in prison. + +_Bates._ Must He be murdered too? + +_Stu._ No; I have a scheme to make the law his murderer. At what +hour did Lewson fall? + +_Bates._ The clock struck twelve, just as I turned to leave him. +'Twas a melancholy bell, I thought, tolling for his death. + +_Stu._ The time was lucky for us. Beverley was arrested at one, you +say? + [_To Dawson._ + +_Daw._ Exactly. + +_Stu._ Good. We'll talk of this presently. The women were with him, +I think? + +_Daw._ And old Jarvis. I would have told you of them last night, but +your thoughts were too busy. 'Tis well you have a heart of stone, +the tale would melt it else. + +_Stu._ Out with it then. + +_Daw._ I traced him to his lodgings; and pretending pity for his +misfortunes, kept the door open, while the officers seized him. +'Twas a damned deed--but no matter--I followed my instructions. + +_Stu._ And what said he? + +_Daw._ He upbraided me with treachery, called You a villain, +acknowledged the sums you had lent him, and submitted to his fortune. + +_Stu._ And the women-- + +_Daw._ For a few minutes astonishment kept them silent. They looked +wildly at one another, while the tears streamed down their cheeks. +But rage and fury soon gave them words; and then, in the very +bitterness of despair, they cursed me, and the monster that had +employed me. + +_Stu._ And you bore it with philosophy? + +_Daw._ Till the scene changed, and then I melted. I ordered the +officers to take away their prisoner. The women shrieked, and would +have followed him; but We forbad them. 'Twas then they fell upon +their knees, the wife fainting, the sister raving, and both, with +all the eloquence of misery, endeavouring to soften us. I never felt +compassion till that moment; and had the officers been moved like +Me, we had left the business undone, and fled with curses on +ourselves. But their hearts were steeled by custom: the tears of +beauty, and the pangs of affection, were beneath their pity. They +tore him from their arms, and lodged him in prison, with only Jarvis +to comfort him. + +_Stu._ There let him lie, till we have farther business with him. +And for You, Sir, let me hear no more of your compassion. A fellow +nursed in villainy, and employed from childhood in the business of +hell, should have no dealings with compassion. + +_Daw._ Say you so, Sir? You should have named the devil that tempted +me. + +_Stu._ 'Tis false. I found you a villain; therefore employed +you--But no more of this--We have embarked too far in mischief to +recede. Lewson is dead; and we are all principals in his murder. +Think of that. There's time enough for pity, when ourselves are out +of danger. Beverley still lives, though in a jail. His ruin will sit +heavy on him; and discoveries may be made to undo us all. Something +must be done, and speedily. You saw him quarrelling with Lewson in +the street last night? + [_To Bates._ + +_Bates._ I did; his steward, Jarvis, saw him too. + +_Stu._ And shall attest it. Here's matter to work upon. An unwilling +evidence carries weight with him. Something of my design I have +hinted t'you before. Beverley must be the author of this murder; and +We the parties to convict him. But how to proceed, will require time +and thought--Come along with Me; the room within is fitter for +privacy. But no compassion, Sir--(_To Dawson_) We want leisure +for't--This way. + [_Exeunt._ + + +SCENE II. _changes to _BEVERLEY'S_ lodgings_. + +_Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY, and CHARLOTTE._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ No news of Lewson yet? + +_Char._ None. He went out early, and knows not what has happened. + +_Mrs. Bev._ The clock strikes eight--I'll wait no longer. + +_Char._ Stay but till Jarvis comes. He has sent twice to stop us +till we see him. + +_Mrs. Bev._ I have no life in this separation. O! what a night was +last night! I would not pass another such, to purchase worlds by it. +My poor Beverley too! What must He have felt!--The very thought +distracts me! To have him torn at midnight from me! A loathsome +prison his habitation! A cold damp room his lodging! The bleak +winds, perhaps, blowing upon his pillow! No fond wife to lull him to +his rest! and no reflections but to wound and tear him!--'Tis too +horrible! I wanted love for him, or they had not forced him from me. +They should have parted soul and body first. I was too tame. + +_Char._ You must not talk so. All that we could we did; and Jarvis +did the rest. The faithful creature will give him comfort. Why does +he delay coming? + +_Mrs. Bev._ And there's another fear. His poor master may be +claiming the last kind office from him--His heart perhaps is breaking. + +_Char._ See where he comes!--His looks are chearful too. + + +SCENE III. + +_Enter JARVIS._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Are tears then chearful? Alas, he weeps! Speak to him +Charlotte: I have no tongue to ask him questions. + +_Char._ How does your master, Jarvis? + +_Jar._ I am old and foolish, madam; and tears will come before my +words--But don't You weep. (_To Mrs. Beverley._) I have a tale of +joy for you. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What tale? Say but he's well, and I have joy enough. + +_Jar._ His mind too shall be well; all shalt be well--I have news +for him that shall make his poor heart bound again!--Fie upon old +age! how childish it makes me! I have a tale of joy for you, and my +tears drown it. + +_Char._ Shed them in showers then, and make haste to tell it. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What is it, Jarvis? + +_Jar._ Yet why should I rejoice when a good man dies? Your uncle, +madam, died yesterday. + +_Mrs. Bev._ My uncle!--O heavens! + +_Char._ How heard you of his death? + +_Jar._ His steward came express, madam: I met him in the street, +enquiring for your lodgings. I should not rejoice, perhaps; but he +was old, and my poor master a prisoner--Now he shall live again--O, +'tis a brave fortune! and 'twas death to me to see him a prisoner. + +_Char._ Where left you the steward? + +_Jar._ I would not bring him hither, to be a witness of your +distresses--and besides, I wanted once before I die, to be the +messenger of joy t'you. My good master will be a man again. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Haste, haste then; and let us fly to him!--We are +delaying our own happiness. + +_Jar._ I had forgot a coach, madam; and Lucy has ordered one. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Where was the need of that? The news has given me wings. + +_Char._ I have no joy, till my poor brother shares it with me. How +did he pass the night, Jarvis? + +_Jar._ Why now, madam, I can tell you. Like a man dreaming of death +and horrors. When they led him to his cell--for 'twas a poor +apartment for my master--he flung himself upon a wretched bed, and +lay speechless till day-break. A sigh now and then, and a few tears +that followed those sighs, were all that told me he was alive. +I spoke to him, but he would not hear me; and when I persisted, he +raised his hand at me, and knit his brow so--I thought he would have +struck me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ O miserable! But what said he, Jarvis? Or was he silent +all night? + +_Jar._ At day-break he started from the bed, and looking wildly at +me, asked who I was. I told him, and bid him be of comfort--Begone, +old wretch, says he--I have sworn never to know comfort--My wife! my +child! my sister! I have undone them all, and will know no +comfort--Then letting go his hold, and falling upon his knees, he +imprecated curses on himself. + +_Mrs. Bev._ This is too horrible!--But you did not leave him +so? + +_Char._ No, I am sure he did not. + +_Jar._ I had not the heart, madam. By degrees I brought him to +himself. A shower of tears came to his relief; and then he called me +his kindest friend, and begged forgiveness of me like a child--I was +a child too, when he begged forgiveness of me; my heart throbbed so, +I could not speak to him. He turned from me for a minute or two, and +suppressing a few bitter sighs, enquired after his wretched +family--Wretched was his word, madam--Asked how you bore the misery +of last night--If you had goodness enough to see him in prison--And +then begged me to hasten to you. I told him he must be more himself +first--He promised me he would; and, bating a few sullen intervals, +he became composed and easy. And then I left him; but not without an +attendant; a servant in the prison, whom I hired to wait upon him. +'Tis an hour since we parted: I was prevented in my haste, to be the +messenger of joy t'you. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What a tale is this?--But we have staid too long--A +coach is needless. + +_Char._ Hark! I hear one at the door. + +_Jar._ And Lucy comes to tell us--We'll away this moment. + +_Mrs. Bev._ To comfort him, or die with him. + [_Exeunt._ + + +SCENE IV. _changes to STUKELY's lodgings_. + +_Enter STUKELY, BATES, and DAWSON._ + +_Stu._ Here's presumptive evidence at least: or if we want more, +why, we must swear more. But all unwillingly: we gain credit by +reluctance. I have told you how to proceed. Beverley must die. We +hunt him in view now, and must not slacken in the chace. 'Tis either +death for Him, or shame and punishment for Us. Think of that, and +remember your instructions. You, Bates, must to the prison +immediately: I would be there but a few minutes before you. And you, +Dawson, must follow in a few minutes after. So here we divide--But +answer me; are you resolved upon this business like men? + +_Bates._ Like villains rather--But you may depend upon us. + +_Stu._ Like what we are then--You make no answer, Dawson--Compassion, +I suppose, has seized you. + +_Daw._ No; I have disclaimed it. My answer is Bates's--You may +depend upon me. + +_Stu._ Consider the reward! Riches and security! I have sworn to +divide with you to the last shilling. So here we separate, till we +meet in prison. Remember your instructions, and be men. + [_Exeunt._ + + +SCENE V. _changes to a prison._ + +_BEVERLEY is discovered sitting. After a short pause, he starts up, +and comes forward._ + +_Bev._ Why, there's an end then. I have judged deliberately, and the +result is death. How the self-murderer's account may stand, I know +not. But this I know; the load of hateful life oppresses me too +much. The horrors of my soul are more than I can bear--(_Offers to +kneel_) Father of mercy!--I cannot pray--Despair has laid his iron +hand upon me, and sealed me for perdition--Conscience! conscience! +thy clamours are too loud--Here's that shall silence them. (_Takes a +vial out of his pocket, and looks at it._) Thou art most friendly to +the miserable. Come then, thou cordial for sick minds! come to my +heart! (_Drinks_) O, that the grave would bury memory as well as +body! For if the soul sees and feels the sufferings of those dear +ones it leaves behind, the EVERLASTING has no vengeance to torment +it deeper--I'll think no more on't--Reflection comes too late. Once +there was a time for't--but now 'tis past--Who's there? + + +SCENE VI. + +_Enter JARVIS._ + +_Jar._ One that hoped to see you with better looks. Why do you turn +so from me? I have brought comfort with me--And see who comes to +give it welcome! + +_Bev._ My wife and sister! Why, 'tis but one pang more then, and +farewel world. + [_Aside._ + + +SCENE VII. + +_Enter Mrs. BEVERLEY, and CHARLOTTE._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Where is he? (_Runs and embraces him_) O, I have him! +I have him! And now they shall never part us more! I have news, love, +to make you happy for ever--but don't look coldly on me. + +_Char._ How is it, brother? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Alas! he hears us not. Speak to me, love. I have no +heart to see you thus. + +_Bev._ Nor I to bear the sense of so much shame. This is a sad place. + +_Mrs. Bev._ We come to take you from it; to tell you that the world +goes well again; that providence has seen our sorrows, and sent the +means to heal them--Your uncle died yesterday. + +_Bev._ My uncle!--No, do not say so--O! I am sick at heart! + +_Mrs. Bev._ Indeed!--I meant to bring you comfort. _Bev._ Tell me he +lives then--If you would give me comfort, tell me he lives. + +_Mrs. Bev._ And if I did, I have no power to raise the dead. He died +yesterday. + +_Bev._ And I am heir to him? + +_Jar._ To his whole estate, Sir--But bear it patiently. + +_Bev._ Well, well--(_Pausing_) Why, fame says I am rich then? + +_Mrs. Bev._ And truly so--Why do you look so wildly? + +_Bev._ Do I? The news was unexpected. But has he left me all? + +_Jar._ All, all, Sir--He could not leave it from you. + +_Bev._ I'm sorry for it. + +_Char._ Sorry! Why sorry? + +_Bev._ Your uncle's dead, Charlotte. + +_Char._ Peace be with his soul then. Is it so terrible that an old +man should die? + +_Bev._ He should have been immortal. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Heaven knows I wished not for his death. 'Twas the will +of providence that he should die. Why are you disturbed so? + +_Bev._ Has death no terrors in it? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Not an old man's death. Yet if it troubles you, I wish +him living. + +_Bev._ And I, with all my heart. + +_Char._ Why, what's the matter? + +_Bev._ Nothing. How heard you of his death? + +_Mrs. Bev._ His steward came express. Would I had never known +it! + +_Bev._ Or had heard it one day sooner--For I have a tale to tell, +shall turn you into stone; or if the power of speech, remain, you +shall kneel down and curse me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Alas! what tale is this? And why are we to curse you? +I'll bless you for ever. + +_Bev._ No; I have deserved no blessings. The world holds not such +another wretch. All this large fortune, this second bounty of +heaven, that might have healed our sorrows, and satisfied our utmost +hopes, in a curst hour I sold last night. + +_Char._ Sold! How sold? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Impossible! It cannot be! + +_Bev._ That devil Stukely, with all hell to aid him, tempted me to +the deed. To pay false debts of honour, and to redeem past errors, +I sold the reversion--sold it for a scanty sum, and lost it among +villains. + +_Char._ Why, farewel all then. + +_Bev._ Liberty and life. Come, kneel and curse me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Then hear me heaven! (_Kneels_) Look down with mercy on +his sorrows! Give softness to his looks, and quiet to his heart! +Take from his memory the sense of what is past, and cure him of +despair! On Me, on Me, if misery must be the lot of either, multiply +misfortunes! I'll bear them patiently, so He is happy! These hands +shall toil for his support! These eyes be lifted up for hourly +blessings on him! And every duty of a fond and faithful wife, be +doubly done to chear and comfort him!--So hear me! so reward +me! + [_Rises_. + +_Bev._ I would kneel too, but that offended heaven would turn my +prayers to curses. What have I to ask for? I, who have shook hands +with hope? Is it for length of days that I should kneel? No; My time +is limited. Or is it for this world's blessings upon You and Yours? +To pour out my heart in wishes for a ruined wife, a child and +sister? O! no! For I have done a deed to make you miserable. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Why miserable? Is poverty so miserable?--The real wants +of life are few: a little industry will supply them all; and +chearfulness will follow. It is the privilege of honest industry; +and we'll enjoy it fully. + +_Bev._ Never, never! O, I have told you but in part. The irrevocable +deed is done. + +_Mrs. Bev._ What deed? And why do you look so at me? + +_Bev._ A deed, that dooms my soul to vengeance; that seals Your +misery here, and Mine hereafter. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No, no; You have a heart too good for't-- Alas! he +raves, Charlotte--his looks too terrify me--Speak comfort to him--He +can have done no deed of wickedness. + +_Char._ And yet I fear the worst. What is it, brother? + +_Bev._ A deed of horror. + +_Jar._ Ask him no questions, madam. This last misfortune has hurt +his brain. A little time will give him patience. + + +SCENE VIII. + +_Enter STUKELY._ + +_Bev._ Why is this villain here? + +_Stu._ To give You liberty and safety. There's his discharge, madam. +(_Giving a paper to Mrs. Beverley_) Let him begone this moment. The +arrest last night was meant in friendship; but came too late. + +_Char._ What mean you, Sir? + +_Stu._ The arrest was too late, I say. I would have kept his hands +from blood, but was too late. + +_Mrs. Bev._ His hands from blood! Whose blood?--O, wretch! +wretch! + +_Stu._ From Lewson's blood. + +_Char._ No, villain! Yet what of Lewson? Speak quickly! + +_Stu._ You are ignorant then! I thought I heard the murderer at +confession. + +_Char._ What murderer? And who is murdered? Not Lewson? Say he +lives, and I'll kneel down and worship you. + +_Stu._ In pity, so I would; but that the tongues of all cry murder. +I came in pity, not in malice; to save the brother, not kill the +sister. Your Lewson's dead. + +_Char._ O horrible! Why, who has killed him?--And yet it cannot be. +What crime had He committed that he should die? Villain! he lives! +he lives! and shall revenge these pangs. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Patience, sweet Charlotte! + +_Char._ O, 'tis too much for patience! + +_Mrs. Bev._ He comes in pity, he says. O! execrable villain! The +friend is killed then, and this the murderer? + +_Bev._ Silence, I charge you. Proceed, Sir. + +_Stu._ No. Justice may stop the tale--and here's an evidence. + + +SCENE IX. + +_Enter BATES._ + +_Bates._ The news, I see, has reached you. But take comfort, madam. +(_To Charlotte_) There's one without, enquiring for you. Go to him, +and lose no time. + +_Char._ O misery! misery! + [_Exit_. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Follow her, Jarvis. If it be true that Lewson's dead, +her grief may kill her. + +_Bates._ Jarvis must stay here, madam: I have some questions for him. + +_Stu._ Rather let him fly. His evidence may crush his master. + +_Bev._ Why, ay; this looks like management. + +_Bates._ He found you quarrelling with Lewson in the street last +night. + [_To Beverley._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ No; I am sure he did not. + +_Jar._ Or if I did-- + +_Mrs. Bev._ 'Tis false, old man--They had no quarrel; there was no +cause for quarrel. + +_Bev._ Let him proceed, I say--O! I am sick! sick! Reach me a chair. + [_He sits down._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ You droop, and tremble, love--Your eyes are fixt +too--Yet You are innocent. If Lewson's dead, You killed him +not. + + +SCENE X. + +_Enter DAWSON._ + +_Stu._ Who sent for Dawson? + +_Bates._ 'Twas I. We have a witness too, you little think of. +Without there! + +_Stu._ What witness? + +_Bates._ A right one. Look at him. + + +SCENE XI. + +_Re-enter CHARLOTTE, with LEWSON._ + +_Stu._ Lewson! O--villains! villains! + [_To Bates and Dawson._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Risen from the dead! Why, this is unexpected happiness! + +_Char._ Or is't his ghost? (_To Stukely_) That sight would please +you, Sir. + +_Jar._ What riddle's this? + +_Bev._ Be quick and tell it--My minutes are but few. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Alas! why so? You shall live long and happily. + +_Lew._ While shame and punishment shall rack that viper. (_Pointing +to Stukely_) The tale is short. I was too busy in his secrets, and +therefore doomed to die. Bates, to prevent the murder, undertook it. +I kept aloof to give it credit-- + +_Char._ And gave Me pangs unutterable. + +_Lew._ I felt them all, and would have told you; but vengeance +wanted ripening. The villain's scheme was but half executed. The +arrest by Dawson followed the supposed murder: and now, depending on +his once wicked associates, he comes to fix the guilt on Beverley. + +_Mrs. Bev._ O! execrable wretch! + +_Bates._ Dawson and I are witnesses of this. + +_Lew._ And of a thousand frauds. His friend undone by sharpers and +false dice; and Stukely sole contriver, and possessor of all. + +_Daw._ Had he but stopt on this side murder, we had been villains +still. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Thus heaven turns evil into good; and by permitting sin, +warns men to virtue. + +_Lew._ Yet punishes the instrument. So shall our laws; though not +with death. But death were mercy. Shame, beggary, and imprisonment, +unpitied misery, the stings of conscience, and the curses of mankind +shall make life hateful to him--till at last, his own hand end him. +How does my friend? + [_To Beverley_. + +_Bev._ Why, well. Who's he that asks me? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Tis Lewson, love. Why do you look so at him? + +_Bev._ They told me he was murdered. + [_Wildly._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Ay; but he lives to save us. + +_Bev._ Lend me your hand--The room turns round. + +_Mrs. Bev._ O heaven! + +_Lew._ This villain here, disturbs him. Remove him from his sight: +and for your lives, see that you guard him. (_Stukely is taken off +by Dawson and Bates_) How is it, Sir? + +_Bev._ 'Tis here--and here--(_Pointing to his head and heart._) And +now it tears me! + +_Mrs. Bev._ You feel convulsed too--What is't disturbs you? + +_Lew._ This sudden turn of joy perhaps. He wants rest too. Last +night was dreadful to him. His brain is giddy. + +_Char._ Ay, never to be cured. Why, brother!--O! I fear! +I fear! + +_Mrs. Bev._ Preserve him, heaven!--My love! my life! look at +me!--How his eyes flame! + +_Bev._ A furnace rages in this heart--I have been too hasty. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Indeed!--O me! O me!--Help, Jarvis! Fly, fly for help! +Your master dies else--Weep not, but fly! (_Exit Jarvis_) What is +this hasty deed?--Yet do not answer me--My fears have guessed +it. + +_Bev._ Call back the messenger. 'Tis not in medicine's power to help +me. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Is it then so? + +_Bev._ Down, restless flames!--(_Laying his hand on his heart_) down +to your native hell!-- there you shall rack me--O! for a pause from +pain! + +_Mrs. Bev._ Help, Charlotte! Support him, Sir! (_To Lewson_) + +_Bev._ What river's this? I'll plunge, and cool me! (_Flings himself +upon the ground._) O! 'tis a sea of fire!--Lift me! lift me! + [_They raise him to his chair._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ This is a killing fight! + +_Bev._ (_Starting_) That pang was well. It has numbed my senses. +Where's my wife? Can you forgive me, love? + +_Mrs. Bev._ Alas! for what? + +_Bev._ (_Starting again_) And there's another pang--Now all is +quiet. Will you forgive me? + +_Mrs. Bev._ I will. Tell me for what? + +_Bev._ For meanly dying. + +_Mrs. Bev._ No--do not say it. + +_Bev._ As truly as my soul must answer it. Had Jarvis staid this +morning, all had been well. But pressed by shame; pent in a prison; +tormented with my pangs for You; driven to despair and madness; +I took the advantage of his absence, corrupted the poor wretch he +left to guard me, and--swallowed poison. + +_Mrs. Bev._ O! fatal deed! + +_Char._ Dreadful and cruel! + +_Bev._ Ay, most accursed--And now I go to my account. This rest from +pain brings death; yet 'tis heaven's kindness to me. I wished for +ease, a moment's ease, that cool repentance and contrition might +soften vengeance. Bend me, and let me kneel. (_They lift him from +his chair, and support him on his knees_) I'll pray for You too. +Thou Power that mad'st me, hear me! If for a life of frailty, and +this too hasty deed of death, thy justice dooms me, here I acquit +the sentence. But if, enthroned in mercy where thou sitt'st, thy +pity has beheld me, send me a gleam of hope; that in these last and +bitter moments, my soul may taste of comfort! And for these mourners +here, O! let their lives be peaceful, and their deaths happy! Now +raise me. + [_They lift him to the chair._ + +_Mrs. Bev._ Restore him, heaven! Stretch forth thy arm omnipotent, +and snatch him from the grave! O save him! save him! + +_Bev._ Alas! that prayer is fruitless: already death has seized me. +Yet heaven is gracious. I asked for hope, as the bright presage of +forgiveness, and like a light, blazing through darkness, it came and +cheared me. 'Twas all I lived for, and now I die. + +_Mrs. Bev._ Not yet!--Not yet!--Stay but a little, and I'll die too. + +_Bev._ No; live, I charge you. We have a little one: though I have +left him, You will not leave him. To Lewson's kindness I bequeath +him--Is not this Charlotte? We have lived in love, though I have +wronged you--Can you forgive me, Charlotte? + +_Char._ Forgive you!--O, my poor brother! + +_Bev._ Lend me your hand, love. So--raise me--No--'twill not be--my +life is finished--O! for a few short moments to tell you how my +heart bleeds for you!--That even now, thus dying as I am, dubious +and fearful of hereafter, my bosom pang is for Your miseries!--Support +her heaven!--And now I go--O, mercy! mercy! + [_Dies._ + +_Lew._ Then all is over--How is it, madam? (_To Mrs. Beverley._) My +poor Charlotte too! + + +SCENE the last. + +_Enter JARVIS._ + +_Jar._ How does my master, madam? Here's help at hand--Am I too late +then? + [_Seeing Beverley._ + +_Char._ Tears! tears! why fall you not? O wretched sister!--Speak to +her, Lewson--her grief is speechless. + +_Lew._ Remove her from this sight. Go to her, Jarvis; lead and +support her. Sorrow like hers forbids complaint. Words are for +lighter griefs. Some ministring angel bring her peace! (_Jarvis and +Charlotte lead her off._) And Thou, poor breathless corps, may thy +departed soul have found the rest it prayed for! Save but one error, +and this last fatal deed, thy life was lovely. Let frailer minds +take warning; and from example learn, that want of prudence is want +of virtue. + + Follies, if uncontroul'd, of every kind, + Grow into passions, and subdue the mind; + With sense and reason hold superior strife, + And conquer honour, nature, fame and life. + + + + +EPILOGUE. + +Written by a FRIEND, + +And Spoken by Mrs. PRITCHARD. + + On every GAMESTER in th' Arabian nation, + 'Tis said, that Mahomet denounc'd damnation; + But in return for wicked cards and dice, + He gave them black-ey'd girls in paradise. + Should he thus preach, good countrymen, to You, + His converts would, I fear, be mighty few: + So much your hearts are set on sordid gain, + The brightest eyes around you shine in vain: + Should the most heav'nly beauty bid you take her, + You'd rather hold--_two aces and a maker._ + By your example, our poor sex drawn in, + Is guilty of the same unnat'ral sin: + The study now of every girl of parts + Is how to win your money, not your hearts. + O! in what sweet, what ravishing delights, + Our beaux and belles together pass their nights! + By ardent perturbations kept awake, + Each views with longing eyes the other's--stake. + The _smiles_ and _graces_ are from Britain flown, + Our_ Cupid _is an errant sharper grown, + And _Fortune_ sits on _Cytherea_'s throne. + In all these things, though women may be blam'd, + Sure men, the wiser men, should be asham'd! + And 'tis a horrid scandal, I declare, + That four strange queens should rival all the fair; + Four jilts, with neither beauty, wit nor parts, + O shame! have got possession of their hearts; + And those bold sluts, for all their queenly pride, + Have play'd loose tricks, or else they're much bely'd. + Cards were at first for benefits design'd, + Sent to amuse, and not enslave the mind: + From good to bad how easy the transition! + For what was pleasure once, is now perdition. + Fair ladies, then these wicked GAMESTERS shun, + Whoever weds one, is, you see, undone. + + +FINIS. + + + [Illustration: Act 5. The Gamester. Sc. 4. + Mr. REDDISH as BEVERLEY. + Bev.--_Thou art most friendly to the miserable._ + _Published Octo. 19, 1776, by T. Lowndes & Partners_] + + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + + + _THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY_ + + Announces Its + + _Publications for the Third Year (1948-1949)_ + +[Transcriber's Note: +Many of the listed titles are or will be available from Project +Gutenberg. Where possible, the e-text number is given in brackets.] + +_At least two_ items will be printed from each of the _three_ following +groups: + +Series IV: Men, Manners, and Critics + +Sir John Falstaff (pseud.), _The Theatre _(1720). +Aaron Hill, Preface to _The Creation_; and Thomas Brereton, Preface to + _Esther_. [#15870] +Ned Ward, Selected Tracts. + +Series V: Drama + +Edward Moore, _The Gamester _(1753). +Nevil Payne, _Fatal Jealousy _(1673). +Mrs. Centlivre, _The Busie Body _(1709). +Charles Macklin, _Man of the World _(1781). + +Series VI: Poetry and Language + +John Oldmixon, _Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley _(1712); and + Arthur Mainwaring, _The British Academy _(1712). +Pierre Nicole, _De Epigrammate_. +Andre Dacier, Essay on Lyric Poetry. + + + + + _THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY_ + + Makes Available + + _Inexpensive Reprints of Rare Materials_ + + from + + English Literature of the + Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries + + +Students, scholars, and bibliographers of literature, history, and +philology will find the publications valuable. _The Johnsonian News +Letter_ has said of them: "Excellent facsimiles, and cheap in price, +these represent the triumph of modern scientific reproduction. Be sure +to become a subscriber; and take it upon yourself to see that your +college library is on the mailing list." + +The Augustan Reprint Society is a non-profit, scholarly organization, +run without overhead expense. By careful management it is able to offer +at least six publications each year at the unusually low membership fee +of $2.50 per year in the United States and Canada, and $2.75 in Great +Britain and the continent. + +Libraries as well as individuals are eligible for membership. Since the +publications are issued without profit, however, no discount can be +allowed to libraries, agents, or booksellers. + +New members may still obtain a complete run of the first year's +publications for $2.50, the annual membership fee. + +During the first two years the publications are issued in three series: +I. Essays on Wit; II. Essays on Poetry and Language; and III. Essays on +the Stage. + + +PUBLICATIONS FOR THE FIRST YEAR (1946-1947) + +MAY, 1946: +Series I, No. 1--Richard Blackmore's _Essay upon Wit_ (1716), and +Addison's _Freeholder_ No. 45 (1716). [#13484] + +JULY, 1946: +Series II, No. 1--Samuel Cobb's _Of Poetry_ and _Discourse on Criticism_ +(1707). [#14528] + +SEPT., 1946: +Series III, No. l--Anon., _Letter to A.H. Esq.; concerning the Stage_ +(1698) and Richard Willis' _Occasional Paper_ No. IX (1698). + +NOV., 1946: +Series I, No. 2--Anon., _Essay on Wit_ (1748), together with Characters +by Flecknoe, and Joseph Warton's _Adventurer_ Nos. 127 and 133. [#14973] + +JAN., 1947: +Series II, No. 2--Samuel Wesley's _Epistle to a Friend Concerning +Poetry_ (1700) and _Essay on Heroic Poetry_ (1693). + +MARCH, 1947: +Series III, No. 2--Anon., _Representation of the Impiety and Immorality +of the Stage_ (1704) and anon., _Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage_ +(1704). [#15656] + + +PUBLICATIONS FOR THE SECOND YEAR (1947-1948) + +MAY, 1947: +Series I, No. 3--John Gay's _The Present State of Wit_; and a section on +Wit from _The English Theophrastus_. With an Introduction by Donald Bond. +[#14800] + +JULY, 1947: +Series II., No. 3--Rapin's _De Carmine Pastorali_, translated by Creech. +With an Introduction by J.E. Congleton. [#14495] + +SEPT., 1947: +Series III, No. 3--T. Hanmer's (?), _Some Remarks on the Tragedy of +Hamlet_. With an Introduction by Clarence D. Thorpe. [#14899] + +NOV., 1947: +Series I, No. 4--Corbyn Morris' _Essay towards Fixing the True Standards +of Wit_, etc. With an Introduction by James L. Clifford. [#16233] + +JAN., 1948: +Series II, No. 4--Thomas Purney's _Discourse on the Pastoral_. With an +Introduction by Earl Wasserman. + +MARCH, 1948: +Series III, No. 4--Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction +by Joseph Wood Krutch. + + + + +The list of publications is subject to modification in response to +requests by members. From time to time Bibliographical Notes will +be included in the issues. Each issue contains an Introduction by a +scholar of special competence in the field represented. + +The Augustan Reprints are available only to members. They will never +be offered at "remainder" prices. + + +_GENERAL EDITORS_ + +RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_ +EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ +H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +_ADVISORY EDITORS_ + +EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_ +LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_ +BENJAMIN BOYCE, _University of Nebraska_ +CLEANTH BROOKS, _Louisiana State University_ +JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ +ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_ +SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ +JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_ + + + + +[Errata Noted by Transcriber: + +Editor's Introduction and _Gamester_ text: + The main character's name is spelled "Beverly" in the Introduction, + "Beverley" in the play as originally printed. This has been left + unchanged. + +ACT III, SCENE I: opening + _STUKELY'S lodgings_. + _text reads_ STUKELEY'S... + +ACT V, SCENE VIII: opening + _Enter STUKELY._ + _text reads_ STUKLEY. ] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gamester (1753), by Edward Moore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GAMESTER (1753) *** + +***** This file should be named 16267.txt or 16267.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/6/16267/ + +Produced by David Starner, Louise Hope and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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