LOCKIT. Those, I see, will fit the Captain better--Take down the
further Pair. Do but examine them, Sir.--Never was better work. How
genteely they are made!--They will fit as easy as a Glove, and the
nicest Man in England might not be asham'd to wear them. [He puts on
the Chains.] If I had the best Gentleman in the Land in my Custody I
could not equip him more handsomly. And so, Sir--I now leave you to
your private Meditations.

[Exeunt leaving Macheath solus.]

MACHEATH.

AIR XXV. Courtiers, Courtiers, think it no Harm, &c.

Man may escape from Rope and Gun;
Nay, some have out liv'd the Doctor's Pill;
Who takes a Woman must be undone,
That Basilisk is sure to kill.
The Fly that sips Treacle is lost in the Sweets,
So he that tastes Woman, Woman, Woman,
He that tastes Woman, ruin meets.

To what a woful Plight have I brought myself! Here must I (all Day
long, 'till I am hang'd) be confin'd to hear the Reproaches of a
Wench who lays her Ruin at my Door--I am in the Custody of her
Father, and to be sure, if he knows of the matter, I shall have a
fine time on't betwixt this and my Execution.--But I promis'd the
Wench Marriage--What signifies a Promise to a Woman? Does not Man in
Marriage itself promise a hundred things that he never means to