Enter Mifs WALSINGHAM and Lady RACHEL MILDEW. Miss Wal. My dear Mrs. Belville, I am extremely unhappy to fee you fo diftreffed.

Lady Rach. Now I am extremely glad to fee her fo; for if the were not greatly diftreffed, it would be monftrously unnat. Mrs. Bel. O Matilda.! my husband! my children! [ural. Mifs Wal. Don't weep, my dear, don't weep! pray be com forted, all may end happily. Lady Rachel beg of her not to cry fo.

Lady Rach, Why, you are crying yourfelf, Mifs Wallingham. And tho I think it out of character to encourage her tears, I cannot help keeping you company.

Mrs. Bel. O, why is not fome effectual method contrived to prevent this horrible practice of duelling.

Lady Rach. I'll expose it on the stage, fince the law now. a-days kindly leaves the whole cognizance of it to the theatre. Mifs Wal. And yet, if the laws against it were as well en forced as the laws against deftroying the game, perhaps it would be equally for the benefit of the kingdom.

Mrs. Bel. No law will ever be effectual, till the custom is rendered infamous. Wives muft fhriek! mothers must ago. nize orphans must be multiplied! unlefs fome bleffed hand firip the fafcinating glare from honorable murder, and bravely expofe the idol who is worshipped thus in blood. While it is difreputable to obey the laws, we cannot look for reformation. But if the duellift is once banished from the presence of his fov ereign; if he is for life excluded the confidence of his country; if a mark of indeliable difgrace is flamped upon him, the fword of public juftice will be the fole chaftifer of wrongs; trifies will not be punished with death, and offences really meriting fuch a punifiment will be referved for the only proper revenger, the common executioner,

Lay Rach. I could not have expreffed myfelf better on this fubject, y dear; but till fuch a hand, as you talk of, is found, the belt will fall into the error of the times.

Mifs Wah Yes, and butcher each other like madmes, for fear their courage fhould be fufpected by foois.

Colonel RIVERS and Sir HARRY,

Sir Har. COLONEL, your molt obedient: I am come

apon the old bufinefs; for unless I am allowed to entertain hopes of Mifs Rivers, I fhall be the most miferable of all human beings.

Riv. Sir Harry, I have already told you by letter, and I now tell you perfonally, I cannot liften to your propofale? Sir Har, No Sir?

Riv. No Sir; I have promifed my daughter to Mr. Sid ney; do you know that, Sir ?

Sir Har. I do ; but what then? Engagements of this kind, you know

Riv. So then you know I have promised her to Mr. Sidney? Sir Har, I do; but I also know that matters are not finally fettled between Mr. Sidney and you; and I moreover know, that his fortune is by no means equal to mine, therefore—

Riv. Sir Harry, let me afk you one queftion before you make your confequence.

Sir Har. A. thousand if you please, Sir.

Riv, Why then, Sir, let me afk you, what you have ever obferved in me or my conduct, that you defire me fo familiarly to break my word? I thought, Sir, you confidered me as a man of honor.

Sir Har. And fo I de, Sir, a man of the niceft honor.

Riv. And yet, Sir, you ask me to violate the fanctity of my word: and tell me directly that it is my intereft to be a rafcal. Sir Har. I really don't understand you, colonel: I thot 1 was talking to a man who knew the world; and as you have not figned

fo

Riv. Why this is mending matters with a witnefs: And you think because I am not legally bound, I am under no neceffity of keeping my word! Sir Harry laws were never made for men of honor; they want no bond but the rectitude of their own fentiments; and laws are of no use but to bind the villains of fociety.

Sir Har. Wells, but my dear Colonel, if you have no regard for me, fhew fome little regard for your daughter.

Rip. Ifhew the greatest regard for my daughter, by giv ing her to a man of honor, and I muft not be infulted with any further repetition of your proposals.

Sir Har. Infult you, Colonel ! is the offer of my alliance an infult is my readiness to make what fettlements you think proper

Riv. Sir Harry, I should confider the offer of a kingdom an -infult, if it were to be purchased by the violation of my word, Befides, tho my daughter fhall never go a beggar to the arms of her husband, I would rather fee her happy than rich; and

if the has enough to provide handfomely for a young family, and fomething to fpare for the exigencies of a worthy friend, I fhall think her as affluent as if, fhe was miftrefs of Mexico.

Sir Har. Well Colonel, I have done ; but I believe—

Riv. Well, Sir Harry, and as our conference is done, we will, if you pleafe, retire to the ladies; I fhall be always glad of your acquaintance, tho I cannot receive you as a fun.in.law: for a union of intereft I look upon us a union of dishonor, and confider marriage for money, at beft but a legal prostitution.

Scene between SHYLOCK and TUBAL.*

OW now Tubal ! what news from Genoa? Have

Shy. HOW

you heard any thing of my backfliding daughter! Tub. I often came where 1 heard of her, but could not And her.

Shy. Why there, there, there, a diamond gone that coft me two thousand ducats at Frankfort! The curfe never fell upon a nation till now! I never felt it before! Two thousand ducats, in that and other precious jewels! I with the lay dead at my feet I No news of them! and I know not what spent in the fearch. Lofs upon lofs. The thief gone with fo much, and fo much to find the thief; and no fatisfaction, no revenge ; no ill luck ftirring but what lights on my shoulders.

Tub, O yes, other men have ill luch too-Antonio, as-I heard in Genoa

Shy. (Interrupting him) What, has he had ill luck?
Tub. Has had a fhip caft away coming from Tripoli.
Shy. Thank fortune! Is it true? is it true?

Tub. I fpoke with some of the failors that efcaped from the wreck.

Shy. I thank you good Tubal. Good news! Good news! What, in Genoa, you fpoke with them.

Tub. Your daughter, as I heard, fpent twenty ducats in one night.

Shy. You ftick a dagger in me, Tubal. I never shall fee my gold again. Twenty ducats in one night Twenty du cats! O father Abraham!'

Tub. There came feveral of Antonio's creditors in my company to Venice, who fay he cannot but break.

Shy. I am glad on't ;. I'll plague him; 1'll torture him ; I am glad on't.

*

Shylock had fent Tubal after his daughter, who had eloped from his house. Antonio was a merchant, hated by Shylock❤

Tub. One of them fhewed me a ring he had of your daugh ter for a monkey.

Shy. Out upon her! You torture me, Tubal. It was my ruby, I would not have given it for as many monkeys as could ftand together upon Realto.

Tub. Antonio is certainly undone.

Shy. Ay, ay, there is fome comfort in that. Go, Tubal, engage an officer. Tell him to be ready; I'll be revenged on An. I'll wash my hands to the elbows in his heart's blood.

tonio.

JUBA and SYPHAX.

Jub. Slave obferv'd of late thy looks are fall'n,
PHAX, I joy to meet thee thus alone.
O'ereaft with gloomy cares and difcontent;
Then, tell me, Syphax, I conjure thee, tell me
What are the thoughts that knit thy brow in frowns,
And turn thy eyes thus coldly on thy prince?
Sypb. 'Tis not my talent to conceal my thoughts,
Or carry fmiles or funshine in my face,

When difcontent fits heavy at my heart;

I have not fo much of the Roman in me.

Jub. Why doft thou caft out fuch ungenerous terms,
Against the lords and fovereigns of the world?
Doft not thou fee mankind fall down before them
And own the force of their fuperior virtue?

Is their a nation in the wilds of Afric

Amift our barren rocks and burning fands,

That does not tremble at the Roman name?

Syph. Gods! Where's the worth that fets this people up Above your own Numidia's tawny fons ?

Do they with tougher finews bend the bow?
Or flies the javelin fwifter to its mark,
Launch'd with the vigor of a Roman arm?
Who like our a&tive African inftru&s
The fiery fteed, and trains him to his hand?
Or guides in troops the embattled elephant,
Laden with war? Thefe, thefe are arts, my prince,
In which your Zamia does not ftoop to Rome.
Jub. Thefe all are virtues of a meaner rank,
Perfections that are placed in bones and nerves ;
A Roman four is bent on higher views;
To civilize the rude unpolifa'd world;

To lay it under the restraint of laws;
To make mar mild, and fociable to man ;
To cultivate the wild licentious favage
With wifdom, difcipline, and liberal arts;
The establishments of life: Virtues like thefe
Make human nature shine, reform the foul,
And break our fierce barbarians into men.

Syph. Patience, juft Heavens! Excufe an old man's warmth!
What are thofe wond'rous civilizing arts,
This Roman polifh, and this fmooth behavior,
That renders man thus tractable and tame ?
Are they not only to difguife our paffions,
To fet our looks at variance with our thoughts,
To check the ftarts and fallies of the foul,
And break off all its commerce with the tongue ?
In fhort to change us into other creatures,
Than what our natures and the Gods defign'd us ?
Jub. To ftrike thee dumb, turn up thine eyes
There may't thou fee to what a godlike height,
The Roman virtues lift up mortal man.
While good, and juft, and anxious for his friends,
He's ftill feverely bent against him felf;

Renouncing fleep, and reft, and food, and eafe,
He ftrives with thirst and hunger, toil and heat;
And when his fortune fets before him all

The pomp and pleasure which his foul could with,
His rigid virtues will accept of none.

Syph. Believe me, prince, there's not an African
That traverfes out vaft Numidian deferts,
In quest of pray, and lives upon his bow,
But better practices these boafted virtues :
Course are his meals, the fortune of the chafe,
Amidft the running ftreams he fakes his thirit,
Toils all the day, and at the approach of night,
On the first friendly bank he throws him down,
Or refts his head upon a rock till morn;
Then rifes fresh, purfues the wonted game,
And if the following day he chance to find
A new repaft, or an untafted fpring,
Bleffes his ftars and thinks it luxury.

to Cato t

Jub. Thy prejudices, Syphax, won't difcern
What virtues grow from ignorance, and what from choice,