Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A33919
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A short view of the immorality, and profaneness of the English stage together with the sense of antiquity upon this argument / by Jeremy Collier ...; Short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English stage
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Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing C5263; ESTC R19806
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126,651
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310
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the Relapser had a more fashionable Fancy in his Head His Moral holds forth this notable Instruction 1 st That all Younger Brothers should be careful to run out their Circumstances as Fast and as Ill as they can And when they have put their Affairs in this posture of Advantage they may conclude themselves in the high Road to Wealth and Success For as Fashion Blasphemously applies it Providence takes care of Men of Merit 2 ly That when a Man is press'd his business is not to be govern'd by Scruples or formalize upon Conscience and Honesty The quickest Expedients are the best For in such cases the Occasion justifies the Means and a Knight of the Post is as good as one of the Garter In the 3 d. Place it may not be improper to look a little into the Plot. Here the Poet ought to play the Politician if ever This part should have some stroaks of Conduct and strains of Invention more then ordinary There should be something that is admirable and unexpected to surprize the Audience And all this Finess must work by gentle degrees by a due preparation of Incidents and by Instruments which are probable 'T is Mr. Rapins remark that without probability every Thing is lame and Faulty Where there is no pretence to Miracle and Machine matters must not exceed the force of Beleif To produce effects without proportion and likelyhood in the Cause is Farce and Magick and looks more like Conjuring than Conduct Let us examine the Relapser by these Rules To discover his Plot we must lay open somewhat more of the Fable Lord Foplington a Town Beau had agreed to Marry the Daughter of Sir Tun-belly Clumsey a Country Gentleman who lived Fifty miles from London Notwithstanding this small distance the Lord had never seen his Mistress nor the Knight his Son in Law Both parties out of their great Wisdom leave the treating the Match to Coupler When all the preliminaries of Settlement were adjusted and Lord Foplington expected by Sir Tun-belly in a few days Coupler betrays his Trust to Young Fashion He advises him to go down before his Brother To Counterfeit his Person and pretend that the strength of his Inclinations brought him thither before his time and without his Retinue And to make him pass upon Sir Tun-belly Coupler gives him his Letter which was to be Lord Foplingtons Credential Young Fashion thus provided posts down to Sir Tunbelly is received for Lord Foplington and by the help of a little Folly and Knavery in the Family Marries the young Lady without her Fathers Knowledge and a week before the Appointment This is the Main of the Contrivance The Counterturn in Lord Foplingtons appearing afterwards and the Support of the main Plot by Bulls and Nurses attesting the Marriage contain's little of Moment And here we may observe that Lord Foplington has an unlucky Disagreement in his Character This Misfortune sits hard upon the credibility of the Design 'T is true he was Formal and Fantastick Smitten with Dress and Equipage and it may be vapour'd by his Perfumes But his Behaviour is far from that of an Ideot This being granted 't is very unlikely this Lord with his five Thousand pounds per annum should leave the choise of his Mistress to Coupler and take her Person and Fortune upon Content To court thus blindfold and by Proxy does not agree with the Method of an Estate nor the Niceness of a Beau. However the Poet makes him engage Hand over Head without so much as the sight of her Picture His going down to Sir Tunbelly was as extraordinary as his Courtship He had never seen this Gentleman He must know him to be beyond Measure suspicious and that there was no Admittance without Couplers Letter This Letter which was the Key to the Castle he forgot to take with him and tells you 't was stolen by his Brother Tam. And for his part he neither had the Discretion to get another nor yet to produce that written by him to Sir Tun-belly Had common Sense been consulted upon this Occasion the Plot had been at an End and the Play had sunk in the Fourth Act. The Remainder subsists purely upon the strength of Folly and of Folly altogether improbable and out of Character The Salvo of Sir John Friendly's appearing at last and vouching for Lord Foplington won't mend the matter For as the Story informs us Lord Foplington never depended on this Reserve He knew nothing of this Gentleman being in the Country nor where he Lived The truth is Sir John was left in Town and the Lord had neither concerted his journey with him nor engaged his Assistance Let us now see how Sir Tun-belly hangs together This Gentleman the Poet makes a Justice of Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant and seats him fifty Miles from London But by his Character you would take him for one of Hercules's Monsters or some Gyant in Guy of Warwick His Behaviour is altogether Romance and has nothing agreeable to Time or Country When Fashion and Lory went down they find the Bridge drawn up the Gates barr'd and the Blunderbuss cock'd at the first civil Question And when Sir Tun-belly had notice of this formidable Appearance he Sallies out with the Posse of the Family and marches against a Couple of Strangers with a Life Gaurd of Halberds Sythes and Pitchforks And to make sure work Young Hoyden is lock'd up at the first approach of the Enemy Here you have prudence and wariness to the excess of Fable and Frensy And yet this mighty man of suspition trusts Coupler with the Disposal of his only Daughter and his Estate into the Bargain And what was this Coupler Why a sharper by Character and little better by Profession Farther Lord Foplington and the Knight are but a days Journey asunder and yet by their treating by Proxy and Commission one would Fancy a dozen Degrees of Latitude betwixt them And as for Young Fashion excepting Couplers Letter he has all imaginable Marks of Imposture upon him He comes before his Time and without the Retinue expected and has nothing of the Air of Lord Foplington's Conversation When Sir Tun-belly ask'd him pray where are your Coaches and Servants my Lord He makes a trifling excuse Sir that I might give you and your Fair Daughter a proof how impatient I am to be nearer akin to you I left my Equipage to follow me and came away Post with only one Servant To be in such a Hurry of Inclination for a Person he never saw is somewhat strange Besides 't is very unlikely Lord Foplington should hazard his Complexion on Horseback out ride his Figure and appear a Bridegroom in Deshabille You may as soon perswade a Peacock out of his Train as a Beau out of his Equipage especially upon such an Occasion Lord Foplington would scarsely speak to his Brother just come a Shore till the Grand Committee of Taylors Seamtresses c. was dispatch'd
Pomp and Curiosity were this Lords Inclination why then should he mortifie without necessity make his first Approaches thus out of Form and present himself to his Mistress at such Disadvantage And as this is the Character of Lord Foplington so 't is reasonable to suppose Sir Tunbelly acquainted with it An enquiry into the Humour and management of a Son in Law is very natural and Customary So that we can't without Violence to Sense suppose Sir Tunbelly a Stranger to Lord Foplington's Singularities These Reasons were enough in all Conscience to make Sir Tunbelly suspect a Juggle and that Fashion was no better then a Counterfeit Why then was the Credential swallow'd without chewing why was not Hoyden lock'd up and a pause made for farther Enquiry Did this Justice never hear of such a Thing as Knavery or had he ever greater reason to guard against it More wary steps might well have been expected from Sir Tunbelly To run from one extream of Caution to another of Credulity is highly improbable In short either Lord Foplington and Sir Tunbelly are Fools or they are not If they are where lies the Cunning in over-reaching them What Conquest can there be without Opposition If they are not Fools why does the Poet make them so Why is their Conduct so gross so particolour'd and inconsistent Take them either way and the Plot miscarries The first supposition makes it dull and the later incredible So much for the Plot. I shall now in the 4 th Place touch briefly upon the Manners The Manners in the Language of the Stage have a signification somewhat particular Aristotle and Rapin call them the Causes and Principles of Action They are formed upon the Diversities of Age and Sex of Fortune Capacity and Education The propriety of Manners consists in a Conformity of Practise and Principle of Nature and Behaviour For the purpose An old Man must not appear with the Profuseness and Levity of Youth A Gentleman must not talk like a Clown nor a Country Girl like a Town Jilt And when the Characters are feign'd 't is Horace's Rule to keep them Uniform and consistent and agreeable to their first setting out The Poet must be careful to hold his Persons tight to their Calling and pretentions He must not shift and shuffle their Understandings Let them skip from Wits to Blockheads nor from Courtiers to Pedants On the other hand If their business is playing the Fool keep them strictly to their Duty and never indulge them in fine Sentences To manage otherwise is to desert Nature and makes the Play appear monstrous and Chimerical So that instead of an Image of Life 't is rather an Image of Impossibility To apply some of these remarks to the Relapser The fine Berinthia one of the Top-Characters is impudent and Profane Lovelace would engage her Secrecy and bids her Swear She answers I do Lov. By what Berinth By Woman Lov. That 's Swearing by my Deity do it by your own or I shan't believe you Berinth By Man then This Lady promises Worthy her Endeavours to corrupt Amanda and then They make a Profane jest upon the Office In the progress of the Play after a great deal of Lewd Discourse with Lovelace Berinthia is carried off into a Closet and Lodged in a Scene of Debauch Here is Decency and Reservedness to a great exactness Monsieur Rapin blames Ariosto and Tasso for representing two of their Women over free and airy These Poets says he rob Women of their Character which is Modesty Mr. Rymer is of the same Opinion His words are these Nature knows nothing in the Manners which so properly and particularly distinguish a Woman as her Modesty An impudent Woman is fit only to be kicked and expos'd in Comedy Now Berinthia appears in Comedy 't is true but neither to be kick'd nor expos'd She makes a Considerable Figure has good Usage keeps the best Company and goes off without Censure or Disadvantage Let us now take a Turn or two with Sir Tun-belly's Heiress of 1500 pounds a year This Young Lady swears talks smut and is upon the matter just as ragmanner'd as Mary the Buxsome 'T is plain the Relapser copyed Mr. Durfey's Original which is a sign he was somewhat Pinch'd Now this Character was no great Beauty in Buxsome But it becomes the Knights Daughter much worse Buxsome was a poor Pesant which made her Rudeness more natural and expected But Deputy Lieutenants Children don't use to appear with the Behaviour of Beggars To breed all People alike and make no distinction between a Seat and a Cottage is not over artful nor very ceremonious to the Country Gentlemen The Relapser gives Miss a pretty Soliloquy I 'll transcribe it for the Reader She swears by her Maker 't is well I have a Husband a coming or I 'de Marry the Baker I would so No body can knock at the Gate but presently I must be lock'd up and here 's the Young Gray-hound can run loose about the Hoase all day long she can 't is very well Afterwards her Language is too Lewd to be quoted Here is a Compound of Ill Manners and Contradiction Is this a good Resemblance of Quality a Description of a great Heiress and the effect of a Cautious Education By her Coarsness you would think her Bred upon a Common and by her Confidence in the Nursery of the Play-house I suppose the Relapser Fancies the calling her Miss Hoyden is enough to justifie her Ill Manners By his favour this is a Mistake To represent her thus unhewn he should have suited her Condition to her Name a little better For there is no Charm in Words as to matters of Breeding An unfashionable Name won't make a Man a Clown Education is not form'd upon Sounds and Syllables but upon Circumstances and Quality So that if he was resolv'd to have shown her thus unpolish'd he should have made her keep Sheep or brought her up at the Wash-Boul Sir Tun-belly accosts Young Fashion much at the same rate of Accomplishment My Lord I humbly crave leave to bid you Welcome in Cup of Sack-wine One would imagine the Poet was overdozed before he gave the Justice a Glass For Sack-wine is too low for a Petty Constable This peasantly expression agrees neither with the Gentlemans Figure nor with the rest of his Behaviour I find we should have a Creditable Magistracy if the Relapser had the Making them Here the Characters are pinch'd in Sense and stinted to short Allowance At an other time they are over-indulged and treated above Expectation For the purpose Vanity and Formalizing is Lord Foplingtons part To let him speak without Aukwardness and Affectation is to put him out of his Element There must be Gumm and stiffening in his Discourse to make it natural However the Relapser has taken a fancy to his Person and given him some of the most Gentile raillery in the whole Play To give an Instance or two This Lord