All that’s Bright must Fade.
Love. All for Love or the World Well Lost, a tragedy by Dryden, on the same subject as Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1679).
Love á-la-Mode, by C. Macklin (1779). The “love à-la-mode” is that of fortune-hunters. Charlotte Goodchild is courted by a Scotchman “of ponderous descent,” an Italian Jew broker of great fortune, and an Irishman in the Prussian army. It is given out that Charlotte has lost her money through the bankruptcy of Sir Theodore Goodchild, her guardian. Upon this, the à-la-mode suitors withdraw, and leave Sir Callaghan O’Brallaghan, the true lover, master of the situation. The tale about the bankruptcy is, of course, a mere myth.
Love-Chase (The), a drama by S. Knowles (1837). Three lovers chased three beloved ones, with a view to marriage. (1) Waller loves Lydia, lady’s maid to Widow Green, but in reality the sister of Trueworth. She quitted home to avoid a hateful marriage, and took service for the nonce with Widow Green. (2) Wildrake loves Constance, daughter of Sir William Fondlove. (3) Sir William Fondlove, aged 60, loves Widow Green, aged 40. The difficulties to be overcome were these: The social position of Lydia galled the aristocratic pride of Waller, but love won the day. Wildrake and Constance sparred with each other, and hardly knew they loved till it dawned upon them that each might prefer some other, and then they felt that the loss would be irreparable. Widow Green set her heart on marrying Waller; but as Waller preferred Lydia, she accepted Sir William for better or worse.
Love Doctor (The), L’Amour Médecin, a comedy by Molière (1665). Lucinde, the daughter of Sganarelle, is in love, and the father calls in four doctors to consult upon the nature of her malady. They see the patient, and retire to consult together, but talk about Paris, about their visits, about the topics of the day; and when the father enters to know what opinion they have formed, they all prescribe different remedies, and pronounce different opinions. Lisette then calls in a “quack” doctor (Clitandre, the lover), who says that he must act on the imagination, and proposes a seeming marriage, to which Sganarelle assents, saying, “Voila un grand médecin.” The assistant, being a notary, Clitandre and Lucinde are formally married.
⁂ This comedy is the basis of the Quack Doctor, by Foote and Bickerstaff, only in the English version Mr. Ailwood is the patient.
Love in a Village, an opera by Isaac Bickerstaff. It contains two plots: the loves of Rosetta and young Meadows, and the loves of Lucinda and Jack Eustace. The entanglement is this: Rosetta’s father wanted her to marry young Meadows, and Sir William Meadows wanted his son to marry Rosetta; but as the young people had never seen each other, they turned restive and ran away. It so happened that both took service with Justice Woodcock—Rosetta as chamber-maid, and Meadows as gardener. Here they fell in love with each other, and ultimately married, to the delight of all concerned. The other part of the plot is this:
Lucinda was the daughter of Justice Woodcock, and fell in love with Jack Eustace while nursing her sick mother, who died. The justice had never seen the young man, but resolutely forbade the connection; whereupon Jack Eustace entered the house as a music-master, and, by the kind offices of friends, all came right at last.
Love Makes a Man, a comedy concocted by Colley Cibber, by welding together two of the comedies of Beaumont and Fletcher, viz., the Elder Brother and the Custom of the Country. Carlos, a young student (son of Antonio), sees Angelina, the daughter of Charino, and falls in love with her. His character instantly changes, and the modest, diffident bookworm becomes energetic, manly, and resolute. Angelina is promised by her father to Clodio, a coxcomb, the younger brother of Carlos; but the student elopes with her. They are taken captives, but meet after several adventures, and become duly engaged. Clodio, who goes in search of the fugitives, meets with Elvira, to whom he engages himself, and thus leaves the field open to his brother Carlos.
Love’s Labor’s Lost. Ferdinand, king of Navarre, with three lords named Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, agreed to spend three years in study, during which time no woman was to approach the court. Scarcely had they signed the compact, when the princess of France, attended by Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, besought an interview respecting certain debts said to be due from the king of France to the king of Navarre. The four gentlemen fell in love with the four ladies: the king with the princess, Biron with Rosaline, Longaville with Maria, and Dumain with Katharine. In order to carry their suits, the four gentlemen, disguised as Muscovites, presented themselves before the ladies; but the ladies, being warned of the masquerade, disguised themselves also, so that the gentlemen in every case addressed the wrong lady. However, it was at length arranged that the suits should be deferred for twelve months and a day; and if, at the expiration of that time, they remained of the same mind, the matter should be taken into serious consideration.—Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594).