As to the Generosity of his Temper, he tells his poor Footman, If he did not wait better—­he would turn him away, in the insolent Phrase of, I’ll uncase you.

Now for Mrs. Harriot:  She laughs at Obedience to an absent Mother, whose Tenderness Busie describes to be very exquisite, for that she is so pleased with finding Harriot again, that she cannot chide her for being out of the way.  This Witty Daughter, and fine Lady, has so little Respect for this good Woman, that she Ridicules her Air in taking Leave, and cries, In what Struggle is my poor Mother yonder?  See, see, her Head tottering, her Eyes staring, and her under Lip trembling.  But all this is atoned for, because she has more Wit than is usual in her Sex, and as much Malice, tho’ she is as Wild as you would wish her and has a Demureness in her Looks that makes it so surprising! Then to recommend her as a fit Spouse for his Hero, the Poet makes her speak her Sense of Marriage very ingeniously:  I think, says she, I might be brought to endure him, and that is all a reasonable Woman should expect in an Husband.  It is, methinks, unnatural that we are not made to understand how she that was bred under a silly pious old Mother, that would never trust her out of her sight, came to be so Polite.

It cannot be denied, but that the Negligence of every thing, which engages the Attention of the sober and valuable Part of Mankind, appears very well drawn in this Piece:  But it is denied, that it is necessary to the Character of a Fine Gentleman, that he should in that manner trample upon all Order and Decency.  As for the Character of Dorimant, it is more of a Coxcomb than that of Fopling.  He says of one of his Companions, that a good Correspondence between them is their mutual Interest.  Speaking of that Friend, he declares, their being much together makes the Women think the better of his Understanding, and judge more favourably of my Reputation.  It makes him pass upon some for a Man of very good Sense, and me upon others for a very civil Person.

This whole celebrated Piece is a perfect Contradiction to good Manners, good Sense, and common Honesty; and as there is nothing in it but what is built upon the Ruin of Virtue and Innocence, according to the Notion of Merit in this Comedy, I take the Shoemaker to be, in reality, the Fine Gentleman of the Play:  For it seems he is an Atheist, if we may depend upon his Character as given by the Orange-Woman, who is her self far from being the lowest in the Play.  She says of a Fine Man who is Dorimant’s Companion, There is not such another Heathen in the Town, except the Shoemaker.  His Pretension to be the Hero of the Drama appears still more in his own Description of his way of Living with his Lady. There is, says he, never a Man in Town lives more like a Gentleman with his Wife than I do; I never mind her Motions; she never enquires into