Reënter LUCY in a hurry

Lucy. O ma'am, here is Sir Anthony Absolute just come home with your aunt.

Lyd. They'll not come here. Lucy, do you watch.

[Exit LUCY. 5 Jul. Yet I must go. Sir Anthony does not know famethown. I take another opportunity of d if we detain

and

I am hen. meet, he'llfe, to show

paying my respects to Mrs. Malaprop, when she shall treat me as long as she chooses, with her meas 10 select words so ingeniously misapplied, without being mispronounced.

Lucy. O Lud°! ma'am, they are both coming upstairs.

machérie

Lyd. Well, I'll not detain you, coz.

15 my dear Julia, I'm sure

Lyd. Here, my dear

Adieu,

you are in haste to send through my room you'll au bout de

[Embraces LYDIA and exit. Lucy, hide these books.

20 Quick, quick. Fling Peregrine Pickle under the

a toilet throw Roderick Random into the closet

put The Innocent Adultery into The Whole Duty of Man thrust Lord Aimworth under the sofa

foure

Cram Ovid behind the 61ster there put The rea Man of Feeling into your pockets, so

now lay Mrs. Chapone night, and leave Fordyce's 5 Sermons open on the table.

on a arraché Lucy.O burn it, ma'am! the hairdresser has torn away a far as Proper Pride propre

Lyd. Never open at Sobriety. - Fling Nevena me Lord Chesterfield's Letters. Now for 'em 10 Is bie Ext LUCY.

Enter MRS. MALA PROP, and SIR ANTHONY ABSOLUTE

Mrs. Mal. There, Sir Anthony, there sits the deliberate simpleton who wants to

ma

her family, and lavishy herself on a few not worth a shilling. Lyd. Madam, I thought you once.

Mrs. Mal. You thought, miss! I don't know 15 any business you have to think at all thought does not become a young woman. But the pointour we would request of you is, that you will promise forget this fellow to illiterate him, I say,

to

quite from your memory.

Lyd. Ah, madam! our memories are independent of our wills. It is not so easy to forget.

20

Mais j'affirme que,

si

on

Mrs. Mal. But say it is, miss; there is nothing on earth so easy as to forget, if a person chooses to set about it. I'm sure I have as much forgot your poor dear uncle as if he had never existed 5 and I thought it my duty so to do; and let me tell you, Lydia, these violent memories don't become a reconviennent young woman.

Sir Anth. Why member what hole she won't pretend to resordered not!, this comes 10 of her factures

reading!

Lyd. What crime, madam, have I committed, to be treated thus?

descontatible of it.

15

Mrs. Mal. Now don't attempt to extirpate yourself from the matter; you know that of proof But tell me, will you promise to do as you're bid? Will you take a husband of your friends' choosing?

Lyd. Madam, I must tell you plainly, that had I no preference for any one else, the choice you have 20 made would be my aversion.

Mrs. Mal. What business have you, miss, with preference and aversion? They don't become a young woman; and you ought to know, that as both always wear off, 'tis safest in matrimony to 25 begin with a little aversion. I am sure I hated your poor dear uncle before marriage as if he had been a

blackamoor and yet, miss, you are sensible what a wife I made! and when it pleased Heaven to release me from him, 'tis unknown what tears I shed! But suppose we were going to give you another choice, will you promise us to give up this 5 Beverley?

Lyd. Could I belie my thoughts so far as to give that promise, my actions would certainly as far belie my words.

You 10

Mrs. Mal. Take yourself to your room. are fit company for nothing but your own illhumours.

Lyd. Willingly, ma'am I cannot change for

the worse.

[Exit. Mrs. Mal. There's a little intricate° hussy for 15 you!

Sir Anth. It is not to be wondered at, ma'am, all this is the natural consequence of teaching girls to read. Had I a thousand daughters, by Heaven! I'd as soon have them taught the black art as their 20 alphabet!

Mrs. Mal. Nay, nay, Sir Anthony, you are an absolute misanthropy.

Sir Anth. In my way hither, Mrs. Malaprop, I observed your niece's maid coming forth from a 25 circulating library! - She had a book in each hand

5

ΤΟ

they were half-bound volumes, with marble From that moment I guessed how full

covers!

of duty I should see her mistress!

Mrs. Mal. Those are vile places, indeed!

Sir Anth. Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge! It blossoms through the year! And depend on it, Mrs. Malaprop, that they who are so fond of handling the leaves, will long for the fruit at last. Mrs. Mal. Fy, fy, Sir Anthony! you surely speak laconically.°

Comm

Sir Anth. Why, Mrs. Malaprop, in moderation now, what would you have a woman know?

Mrs. Observe me, Sir Anthony. I would 15 by no means wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning; I don't think so much learning becomes a young woman: for instance, I would never let her meddle with Greek, or Hebrew, or algebra, or simony, or fluxions, or paradoxes, or 20 such inflammatory branches of learning neither would it be necessary for her to handle any of your mathematical, astronomical, diabolical instruments.

But, Sir Anthony, I would send her, at nine years old, to a boarding-school, in order to learn a little 25 ingenuity and artifice. Then, sir, she should have a supercilious knowledge in accounts; and as hautaine dela comptabilité