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infirm; and allow me that superiority a good constitution gives me over you-health is the greatest of all possessions; and 'tis a maxim with me, that an hale cobler is a better man than a sick king.

Jus. W. Well, well, you are a sportsman.

Haw. And so would you be too, if you would take my advice. A sportsman! why there is nothing like it; I would not exchange the satisfaction I feel, while I am beating the lawns and thickets about my little farm, for all the entertainment and pageantry in Christendom. AIR.

Let gay ones and great,
Make the most of their fate,
From pleasure to pleasure they run;
Well, who cares a jot,

I envy them not,

While I have my dog and my gun.

For exercise, air,
To the fields I repair,

With spirits unclouded and light;
The blisses I find,

No stings leave behind,

But health and diversion unite.

Enter HODGE, L.

Hodge. (L. c.) Did your worship call, sir?

Jus. W. (c.) Call, sir; where have you and the rest of these rascals been? but I suppose I need not askYou must know there is a statute, a fair for hiring servants, held upon my green to-day; we have it usually at this season of the year, and it never fails to put all the folks hereabout out of their senses.

Hodge. Lord, your honour, look out, and see what a nice show they make yonder; [Pointing L.S. E.] they had got pipers, and fiddlers, and were dancing as I came along, for dear life-I never saw such a mortal throng in our village in all my born days again.

Haw. Why, I like this now, this is as it should be. Jus. W. No, no, 'tis a very foolish piece of business; good for nothing but to promote idleness and the getting of bastards: but I shall take measures for preventing it another year, and I doubt whether I am not sufficiently authorised already; for by an act passed anno undecimo Coroli primi, which empowers a justice of peace, who is lord of the manor

Haw. Come, come, never mind the act; let me tell you, this is a very proper, a very useful meeting; I want a servant or two myself, I must go see what your market affords ;-and you shall go, and the girls, my little Lucy and the other young rogue, and we'll make à day on't as well as the rest.

Jus. W. I wish, master Hawthorn, I could teach you to be a little more sedate: why won't you take pattern by me, and consider your dignity?-Odds heart, I don't wonder you are not a rich man; you laugh too much ever to be rich.

Haw. Right, neighbour Woodcock! health, good humour, and competence, is my motto: and, if my executors have a mind, they are welcome to make it my epitaph.

AIR.

The honest heart, whose thoughts are clear
From fraud, disguise, and guile,

Need neither fortune's frowning fear,
Nor court the harlot's smile.

The greatness that would make us grave,
Is but an empty thing;

What more than mirth would mortals have?

The cheerful man's a king.

[Exit, R.

Enter LUCINDA, L.-HODGE going off, R.

Luc. Hist, hist, Hodge!

Hodge. [Turns back.] Who calls? here am I.

Luc. Well, have you been?

Hodge. (c.) Been, ay, I ha' been far enough, an that be all: you never knew any thing fall out so crossly in your born days.

Luc. Why, what's the matter?

Hodge. Why, you know, I dare not take a horse out of his worship's stables this morning, for fear it should be missed, and breed questions; and our old nag at home was so cruelly beat i'th' hoofs, that, poor beast, it had not a foot to set to ground; so I was fain to go to farmer Ploughshare's, at the Grange, to borrow the loan of his bald filly; and, would you think it? after walking all that way-de'el from me, if the cross-grained toad did not deny me the favour.

Luc. Unlucky!

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Hodge. Well, then I went my ways to the King'shead in the village, but all their cattle were at plough: and I was as far to seek below at the turnpike: so at last, for want of a better, I was forced to take up with dame Quickset's blind mare.

Luc. Oh then you have been?

Hodge. Yes, yes, I ha' been.

Luc. Pshaw! Why did not you say so at once? Hodge. Ay, but I have had a main tiresome jaunt on't, for she is a sorry jade at best.

Luc. Well, well, did you see Mr. Eustace, and what did he say to you ?-Come, quick-have you e'er a letler?

Hodge. Yes, he gave me a letter, if I ha'na' lost it. Luc. Lost it, man!

Hodge. Nay, nay, have a bit of patience: adwawns, you are always in such a hurry. [Rummaging all his pockets, not finding it, he appears overwhelmed with despair.] I put it somewhere in this waistcoat pocket. [At length recollecting, he snatches it in a rapture from his coat sleeve.] Oh, here it is.

Luc. So! give it me.

[Reads the letter to herself. Hodge. Lord a mercy! how my arm achs with beating that plaguy beast: I'll be hang'd if I won'na' rather ha' thrash'd half a day, than ha' ridden her.

Luc. Well, Hodge, you have done your business very well.

Hodge. Well, have not I now?

Luc. Yes-Mr. Eustace tells me in this letter, that he will be in the green lane, at the other end of the village, by twelve o'clock-you know where he came before.

Hodge. Ay, ay.

Luc. Well, you must go there; and wait till he arrives, and watch your opportunity to introduce him, across the fields, into the little summer house, on the left side of the garden.

Hodge. That's enough.

Luc. But take particular care that nobody sees you.
Hodge. I warrant you.

Luc. Nor for your life drop a word of it to any mor

tal.

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LOVE IN A VILLAGE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-A Garden, with Statues, Fountains, and Flower-pots, R. and L.

ROSETTA and LUCINDA are discovered at work, seated upon two garden-chairs, c.

DUET.

Ros. Hope! thou nurse of young desire,
Fairy promiser of joy,

Painted vapour, glow-worm fire,
Temp'rate sweet, that ne'er can cloy.

Luc. Hope! thou earnest of delight,
Softest soother of the mind,
Balmy cordial, prospect bright,
Surest friend the wretched find.

Both. Kind deceiver, flatter still,

Deal out pleasures unpossest;
With thy dreams my fancy fill,
And in wishes make me blest.

Luc. (R. C.) Heigho!-Rosetta!
Ros. (c.) Well, child, what do you say?

[Both rise.

Luc. 'Tis a sad thing to live in a village a hundred miles from the capital, with a preposterous gouty father, and a superannuated maiden aunt. I am heartily sick of my situation.

Ros. And with reason. But 'tis in a great measure your own fault: here is this Mr. Eustace, a man of character and family; he likes you, you like him; you know one another's minds, and yet you will not resolve to make yourself happy with him.

road, can't you; and don't keep wherreting me with your nonsense.

Madge. (R. c.) Nay, pray you, Hodge, stay, and let me speak to you a bit.

Hodge. Well, what sayn you?

Madge. Dear heart, how can you be so barbarous? and is this the way you serve me after all; and won't you keep your word, Hodge?

Hodge. Why no, I won't, I tell you; I have chang'd my mind.

Madge. Nay, but surely, surely-Consider, Hodge, you are obligated in conscience to make me an honest

woman.

Hodge. Obligated in conscience! How am I obligated?

Madge. Because you are; and none but the basest of rogues would bring a poor girl to shame, and afterwards leave her to the wide world.

Hodge. Bring you to shame! Don't make me speak, Madge; don't make me speak.

Madge. Yes, do, speak your worst.

Hodge. Why, then, if you go to that, you were fain to leave your own village down in the west, for a bairn you had by the clerk of the parish, and I'll bring the man shall say it to your face.

Madge. No, no, Hodge, 'tis no such thing, 'tis a base lie of Farmer Ploughshare's. But I know what makes you false-hearted to me, that you may keep company with young madam's waiting-woman; and I'm sure she's no fit body for a poor man's wife.

Hodge. How should you know what she's fit for. She's fit for as much as you, mayhap; don't find fault with your betters, Madge.

Enter YOUNG MEADOWS, behind R. and crosses to L. Oh! master Thomas, [MADGE retires R.] I have a word or two to say to you: pray did not you go down the village one day last week with a basket of something upon your shoulder?

Young M. (L.) Well, and what then?

Hodge. Nay, not much, only the hostler at the Greenman was saying, as how there was a passenger at their house as see'd you go by, and said he know'd you; and axt a mort of questions-So I thought I'd tell you. Young M. The devil!

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