Bram. ’Twas a prodigious Affront; and if you’ll believe me, Madam, I’m disaffected to ev’ry kind o’thing but your Ladyship.

L. Toss. What if we adjourn into the Drawing-Room Major?  We’ll sit upon the Squabb, drink Whistlejacket, and abuse all Mankind.

Bram. Nature, Madam, has sufficiently expos’d all Mankind, in forming your Ladyship so far beyond ’em. [Exeunt.

SCENE Changes to Lady Rodomonts.

    Enter Lady Rodomont, and the Collonel.

L. Rod. Collonel, I sent for you to wish you Joy, I hear you’re to be marry’d.

Coll. [aside.] It works I find; Sir Harry’s Thought was admirable—­ Yes, Madam, your Ladyship made such fine Encomiums on Matrimony, with so much Rhetorick, and force of Reason, that you have persuaded me into that comfortable State.

La. Rod. I persuade you, did I use any Arguments to persuade you to’t. [Aside.] How he tortures me; but I’ll be calm—­Have I seen the Lady, Collonel; did she ever appear in Company; pray how is she built.

Col. Built as other Women are, Madam; she has her Gun-Room, her Steerage, her Fore-Castle, her Quarter-Deck, her Great-Cabbin, and her Poop; as for her good Qualities, few Women care to hear each other prais’d; but I’ll tell you what Imperfections she has not:  She is no proud conceited haughty Dame, that tow’rs over Mankind with an Estate; no vain Coquet, that loves a Croud of Followers, invites and smiles, that drills ’em to admire her; then basely, like a false dissembling Crocodile, prevaricates, and jilts their well-meant Passion.

La. Rod. Hum!

Col. She’s rich and beautiful, yet humble too, thinks herself not the Phoenix o’ the Age, nor seems surpriz’d, or mortify’d, to find Ladies a multitude that far excel her.

La. Rod. Very well.

Col. In short, She has Sense to know a Gentleman that offers Love sincere, whose Character maintains his just Pretensions, ought to be treated with the like Regard; and that a faithful and a tender Husband sufficiently repays the Dross of Fortune.

La. Rod..[Aside.] He has drawn me to the Life, but I’ll return it—­ Such humble things make admirable Wives, and Women when they marry hectoring Blades, must buy their Peace with wond’rous Condescension, but when a Lady’s unexception’d Graces, artless, immaculate, and universal, impow’r her to select thro’ ev’ry Clime; nay, when she grasps the fickle Pow’r of Fortune, and is to raise the Man she stoops to wed, Lovers must sue on more submissive Terms; no Task’s too hard when Heav’n’s the Reward.  I have a Lover too, no blust’ring Red-Coat, that thinks at the first Onset he must plunder, bullies his Mistresses, and beats his Men; but when two Armies meet in Line of Battle, your finest Collonels often prove the coolest.