1 Be. Gh. D—— me, Ned, didst ever know such fools as they, that could not be satisfy’d to live cuckolds, but must die so too, with a witness,
[Aside.
2 Be. Gh. R——t me, Jack, if ever I was of that fighting humour; nor did I ever fight but once, and then forc’d to it; but my stays sav’d my life, and I wore my glove that was cut in the encounter as long as ’twould hang on my hand: therefore, tho’ I knew Sir Roger Allfight kiss’d my wife, yet as long as I could sup at the Rose, and break the drawer’s head if he made not haste, or brought bad wines, or so, ’gad I let him kiss her and welcome.
[Aside.
1 Be. Gh. S——k me, Ned, I was always of thy mind, as long as I could flutter abroad in my glass coach, have my diamond snuff-box full of Orangeree or Roderigo, &c. D—— me if I car’d a rush who rode in my saddle. But mark that formal coxcomb now going to speak: lord! how fine a thing it is to be a man of wit, and what a singular figure he makes! but hark, old grey-beard begins.
Lucif. Speak you the next.
Ghost. I was a man of quality, of the same country; but my fortune being, in my youth, run out, in France for breeding, and in England by keeping, I thought in my riper years to retrieve all by marrying a city heiress; but she had by nature, so much of the mother in her, that by intriguing and equipage she soon brought me into a worse condition than before: so that, as my last refuge, I was forc’d to turn Plotter, and being discover’d, was lopp’d shorter by the head, as all this honourable tribe that follows me were.
Lucif. Away with ’em. [They are carry’d off, and, as the next are bringing to the bar, the beaux discourse again.
1 Beau. Gh. D—me, Ned, this was a worse fool than the other.
2 Beau. Gh. R—t me, Jack, vous avez raison: for I always lov’d to keep myself out of the jeopardy of action: Jack, I’d talk treason, or so; sort myself with the disaffected, and blow up the coals of their discontent, or so: but for engagements, covenants, conditions, and unlawful assemblies, ’gad they must pardon me.