"Pev. 'Tis false.
"Pamphil. Hunting women's reputations.
"Pev. What, thou wert amorous?
"Pamphil. No, on my honor, sir, but vain, confounded vain—the character of bringing down my game was all I wished, and, like a true sportsman, I would have given my birds to my pointers.
"Pev. This crime is new—what shall we do with him?" &c. &c.
This singular Drama does not appear to have been ever finished. With respect to the winding up of the story, the hermit, we may conclude, would have turned out to be the banished counsellor, and the devils, his followers; while the young huntsman would most probably have proved to be the rightful heir of the dukedom.
In a more crude and unfinished state are the fragments that remain of his projected opera of "The Foresters." To this piece (which appears to have been undertaken at a later period than the preceding one) Mr. Sheridan often alluded in conversation—particularly when any regret was expressed at his having ceased to assist Old Drury with his pen,—"wait (he would say smiling) till I bring out my Foresters." The plot, as far as can be judged from the few meagre scenes that exist, was intended to be an improvement upon that of the Drama just described—the Devils being transformed into Foresters, and the action commencing, not with the loss of a son, but the recovery of a daughter, who had fallen by accident into the hands of these free-booters. At the opening of the piece the young lady has just been restored to her father by the heroic Captain of the Foresters, with no other loss than that of her heart, which she is suspected of having left with her preserver. The list of the Dramatis Personae (to which however he did not afterwards adhere) is as follows:—
Old Oscar.
Young Oscar.
Colona.