Nib. Ignorant Wretches!
Cank. Was ever Man so tortured with such Fools! (Aside)—I hope, Mr. Heartly, you will not offer to vindicate the Dialogue. There is not one Attempt to Wit all through the Play, but that about the Gravestone; the Characters all speak like People in common Conversation.
Heart. I thought that was a Beauty, Mr. Canker.
Cank. Yes just as barrenness is in Land. Don't you see, Sir, what Whicherly and Congreve have done in their Comedies?
Heart. Yes Sir, and I know what their Masters, Terence, Plautus, Moliere, and our own Johnson have done, who thought themselves most excellent in their Dialogue when they could make their Characters speak, not what was most witty, but what was most proper to Time, Place, Character, and Circumstance.
Lady. Upon my Word, Mr. Heartly, you are a very accurate Critick, and I am entirely of your Judgment.
Cank. Well, but allowing it all [it] deserves, why must it be praised so very much?
Heart. Because, Sir, Praise is the food, and too often the only Reward of Merit; and none deny it but the ill natured and the envious.
Cank. And none give it but the Ignorant or the Fulsome.
Heart. Sir, that is not very Complaisant—pray Sir, who do you mean by the Ignorant?