The Fine Lady's Airs (1709) by Thomas Baker
page 5 of 111 (04%)
page 5 of 111 (04%)
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Belinda in Tears--Now has that old Rogue been Plaguing her--Poor Soul!...
Come, Child, Let's retire, and take a Chiriping Dram, Sorrow's dry; I'le divert you with the New Lampoon, 'tis a little Smutty; but what then; we Women love to read those things in private. _(Exeunt)_ Within a year Baker had another play ready--_An Act at Oxford_, with the scene laid in the university town and some of the characters Oxford types. Whether through objections by the University authorities or not (they would perhaps have thought themselves justified in bringing pressure, for Baker certainly does not treat his _alma mater_ with great respect) the play in this form was not acted. Baker published it in 1704, in the Dedication referring to "the most perfect Enjoyment of Life, I found at Oxford" and disclaiming any intention to give offence, he then salvaged most of the play in a revision, _Hampstead Heath_ (D.L. Oct. 1705), with the scene changed to Hampstead. It is as non-edifying as _Tunbridge-Walks_. The note is struck on the first page, when Captain Smart, who has been trying to read a new comedy entitled _Advice to All Parties_, flings it down with expressions of ennui; shortly thereafter Deputy Driver, a member of a Reforming Society, appears on the scene to be twitted because while pretending to reform the whole world he can't keep his own wife from gadding; and matters proceed with Smart's project to trick a skittish independence-loving heiress into keeping a compact she had made to marry him, and his friend Bloom's attempts at the cagey virtue of Mrs. Driver. The latter project comes to nothing, but both hunter and hunted find pleasure in the chase while it lasts. When Mrs. D. returns to the Deputy at the end, her motive for reassuming his yoke is a sound one-- she's out of funds; and her advice to him, "If you'd check my Rambling, loose my Reins," is sound Wycherleyan sense. It must be admitted that when one compares the dialogue of _Hampstead Heath_ with that of the _Act_ some punches are shown to have been pulled in the revision.[4] While keeping |
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