[266]"The Dramatic Works of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar," ed. Leigh Hunt, 1840. Dedication of "Love in a Wood" to her Grace the Duchess of Cleveland.
[267]Act III. 3.
[268]"The Country Wife," V. 4.
[269]Read the epilogue, and see what words and details authors dared then to put in the mouths of actresses.
[270]"That spark, who has his fruitless designs upon the bed-ridden rich widow, down to the sucking heiress in her... clout.—Love in a Wood," I. 2.
Mrs. Flippant: "Though I had married the fool, I thought to have reserved the wit as well as other ladies."—Ibid.
Dapperwit: "I will contest with no rival, not with my old rival your coachman."—Ibid.
"She has a complexion like a Holland cheese, and no more teeth left, than such as give a haut goût to her breath."—Ibid. II. 1.
[271]Ibid. III. 2.
[272]Ibid. V. 2.