MRS. BELLAMANT. My lord, this insolence is intolerable; and from this hour I never will see your face again. [A noise without.
LORD RICHLY. Hey! what is the meaning of this?
SCENE IX.
MR. MODERN, with Servants, MR. BELLAMANT, MRS. MODERN, LORD RICHLY, MRS. BELLAMANT.
MR. MODERN. Come out, strumpet, show thy face and thy adulterer’s before the world; thou shalt be a severe example of the vengeance of an injured husband.
LORD RICHLY. I have no farther business here at present; for, I fear, more husbands have discovered injuries than one. [Exit.
MRS. BELLAMANT. Protect me, Heavens! what do I see!
MR. BELLAMANT. This was a masterpiece of my evil genius.
MRS. MODERN. Sir, this insult upon my reputation shall not go unrevenged; I have relations, brothers, who will defend their sister’s fame from the base attacks of a perfidious husband, from any shame he would bring on her innocence.
MR. MODERN. Thou hast a forehead that would defend itself from any shame whatsoever; for that, you have grafted on my forehead, I thank you and this worthy gentleman.
MRS. MODERN. Sir, you shall smart for the falsehood of this accusation. [Exit.
MR. MODERN. Madam, you shall smart for the truth of it; this honest man [Pointing to the servant] is evidence of the fact of your dishonour and mine. And for you, sir, [To Bellamant] you may depend upon it, I shall take the strictest satisfaction which the law will give me; so I shall leave you, at present, to give satisfaction to your wife. [Exeunt.
SCENE X.
MR. BELLAMANT, MRS. BELLAMANT.
MR. BELLAMANT. [After some pause.] When the criminal turns his own accuser, the merciful judge becomes his advocate; guilt is too plainly written in my face to admit of a denial, and I stand prepared to receive what sentence you please.
MRS. BELLAMANT. As you are your own accuser, be your own judge; you can inflict no punishment on yourself equal to what I feel.
MR. BELLAMANT. Death has no terrors equal to that thought. Ha! I have involved thee too in my ruin, and thou must be the wretched partaker of my misfortunes.
MRS. BELLAMANT. While I was assured of your truth I could have thought that happiness enough; yet I have still this to comfort me, the same moment that has betrayed your guilt has discovered my innocence.
MR. BELLAMANT. Oh! thou ungrateful fool, what stores of bliss hast thou in one vicious moment destroyed! [To himself.] Oh! my angel, how have I requited all your love and goodness? For what have I forsaken thy tender virtuous passion!
MRS. BELLAMANT. For a new one. How could I be so easily deceived? How could I imagine there was such truth in man, in that inconstant fickle sex, who are so prone to change; that, to indulge their fondness for variety, they would grow weary of a paradise to wander in a desert?
MR. BELLAMANT. How weak is that comparison to show the difference between thee and every other woman!
MRS. BELLAMANT. I had once that esteem of you; but hereafter I shall think all men the same; and when I have weaned myself of my love for you, will hate them all alike.
MR. BELLAMANT. Thy sentence is too just. I own I have deserved it; I never merited so good a wife. Heaven saw it had given too much, and thus has taken the blessing from me.
MRS. BELLAMANT. You will soon think otherwise. If absence from me can bring you to those thoughts, I am resolved to favour them.
MR. BELLAMANT. Thou shalt enjoy thy wish; we will part, part this night, this hour. Yet let me ask one favour; the ring which was a witness of our meeting, let it be so of our separation. Let me bear this as a memorial of our love. This shall remind me of all the tender moments we have had together, and serve to aggravate my sorrows: henceforth HI study only to be miserable; let Heaven make you happy, and curse me as it pleases.
MRS. BELLAMANT. It cannot make me more wretched than you have made me.
MR. BELLAMANT. Yet, do believe me when I swear, I never injured you with any other woman. Nay, believe me when I swear, how much soever I may have deserved the shame I suffer, I did not now deserve it.
MRS. BELLAMANT. And must we part?
MR. BELLAMANT. Since it obliges you.
MRS. BELLAMANT. That I may have nothing to remember you by, take back this, and this, and this, and all the thousand embraces thou hast given me —— till I die in thy loved arms — and thus we part for ever.
MR. BELLAMANT. Ha!
MRS. BELLAMANT. Oh! I forgive thee all: forget it as a frightful dream — it was no more, and I awake to real joy.
MR. BELLAMANT. Oh! let me press thee to my heart; for every moment that I hold thee thus gives bliss beyond expression, a bliss no vice can give. Now life appears desirable again. Yet shall I not see thee miserable? Shall I not see my children suffer for their father’s crime?
MRS. BELLAMANT. Indulge no more uneasy thoughts; fortune may have blessings yet in store for us and them.
MR. BELLAMANT. Excellent goodness! My future days shall have no wish, no labour, but for thy happiness; and from this hour, I’ll never give thee cause of a complaint.
And whatsoever rocks our fates may lay
In life’s hard passage to obstruct our way;
Patient, the toilsome journey I’ll abide!
And bless my fortune with so dear a guide.
ACT V.
SCENE I.
MR. BELLAMANT’S House.
EMILIA, speaking to a Servant, afterwards LADY CHARLOTTE
GAYWIT.
EMILIA. It is very strange you will not give me the liberty of denying myself; that you will force me to be at home whether I will or no.
SERVANT. I had no such order from your ladyship.
EMILIA. Well, well, go wait upon her up. I am but in an ill humour to receive such a visit; I must try to make it as short as I can.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Emilia, good morrow: am not I an early creature? I have been so frightened with some news I have heard — I am heartily concerned for you, my dear, I hope the fright has not done you any mischief.
EMILIA. I am infinitely obliged to you, Lady Charlotte.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Oh! I could not stay one moment; you see I hurried into my chair to you half undrest; never was creature in such a pickle, so frightful; Lud! I was obliged to draw all the curtains round me.
EMILIA. I don’t perceive you had any reason for that, Lady Charlotte.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Why, did you ever see any thing so hideous, so odious as this gown? Well, Emilia, you certainly have the prettiest fancy in the world. I like what you have on now better than Lady Pinup’s, though hers cost so much more. Some people have the strangest way of laying out their money. You remember our engagement to-night.
EMILIA. You must excuse me; it will look very odd to see me abroad on this occasion.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Not odd in the least. Nobody minds these things. There’s no rule upon such occasions. Sure you don’t intend to stay at home, and receive formal visits?
EMILIA. No: but I intend to stay at home, and receive no visits.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Why, child, you will be laughed at by all the town. There never was such a thing done in the world; staying at home is quite left off upon all occasions; a woman scarce stays at home a week for the death of a husband. Dear Emilia, don’t be so awkward: I can make no excuse for you: Lady Polite will never forgive you.
EMILIA. That I shall be sorry for: but I had rather not be forgiven by her than by myself.
SCENE II.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT, LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT, EMILIA.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. Sister, good-morrow; Lady Charlotte abroad so early!
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. You may well be surprised; I have not been out at this hour these fifty years.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. You will never be able to hold it out till night.
EMILIA. [Aside.] I am sure, if she should take it in her head to stay with me, I shall not: and, unless some dear creature, like herself, should come and take her away, I seem to be in danger.
> LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. [To Captain Bellamant, after a whisper.] Don’t tell me of what I said last night. Last night was last year; an age ago: and I have the worst memory in the world.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. You seem to want one, egad!
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Indeed, I do not. A memory would be of no use to me; for I was never of the same mind twice in my life; and, though I should remember what I said at one time, I should as certainly remember not to do it another.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. You dear agreeable creature! sure, never two people were so like one another as you and I are. We think alike, we act alike, and some people think we are very much alike in the face.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Do you hear him, Emilia? He has made one of the most shocking compliments to me; I believe I shall never be able to bear a looking-glass again.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. Faith, and if it was not for the help of a looking-glass, you would be the most unhappy creature in the world.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Impertinent!
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. For then you would be the only person debarred from seeing the finest face in the world.
EMILIA. Very fine, indeed.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Civil enough. I think I begin to endure the wretch again now.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. Keep but in that mind half an hour —
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. Emilia, good morrow; you will excuse the shortness of my visit.
EMILIA. No apologies on that account, Lady Charlotte.
LADY CHARLOTTE GAYWIT. You are a good creature, and know the continual hurry of business I am in. Don’t you follow me, you thing you! — [To Captain Bellamant.
CAPTAIN BELLAMANT. Indeed, Lady Charlotte, but I shall, and I hope to some purpose. [Aside.
SCENE III.
EMILIA. [Alone.] So, I am once more left to my own thoughts. Heaven knows they are like to afford me little entertainment. Oh! Gaywit, too much I sympathise with thy uneasiness. Didst thou know the pangs I feel on thy account, thy generous heart would suffer more on mine. Ha! my words have raised a spirit.
SCENE IV.
EMILIA, MR. GAYWIT.
MR. GAYWIT. I hope, madam, you will excuse a visit at so unseasonable an hour.
EMILIA. Had you come a little earlier you had met a mistress here.
MR. GAYWIT. I met the lady you mean, madam, at the door, and Captain Bellamant with her.
EMILIA. You are the most cavalier lover I know; you are no more jealous of a rival with your mistress than the most polite husband is of one with his wife.
MR. GAYWIT. A man should not be jealous of his friend, madam; and I believe Captain Bellamant will be such to me in the highest manner. I wish I were so blest in another heart as he appears to be in Lady Charlotte’s. I wish I were as certain of gaining the woman I do love as of losing her I do not.
EMILIA. I suppose if your amour be of any date, you can easily guess at the impressions you have made.
MR. GAYWIT. No, nor can she guess at the impression she has made on me; for, unless my eyes have done it, I never acquainted her with my passion.
EMILIA. And that your eyes have done it you may be assured, if you have seen her often. The love that can be concealed must be very cold indeed; but, methinks, it is something particular in you to desire to conceal it.
MR. GAYWIT. I have been always fearful to disclose a passion which I know not whether it be in my power to pursue. I would not even have given her the uneasiness to pity me, much less have tried to raise her love.
EMILIA. If you are so tender of her, take care you never let her suspect so much generosity. That may give her a secret pang.
MR. GAYWIT. Heaven forbid it should one equal to those I feel; lest, while I am endeavouring to make my addresses practicable, she should unadvisedly receive those of another.
EMILIA. If she can discover your love as plain as I can, I think you may be easy on that account.
MR. GAYWIT. He must dote like me who can conceive the ecstasy these words have given.
EMILIA. [Knocking.] Come in.
SERVANT. Your honour’s servant, sir, is below.
MR. GAYWIT. I come to him. — Madam, your most obedient servant; I go on business which will by noon give me the satisfaction of thinking I have preserved the best of fathers to the best of women. [Exit.
EMILIA. I know he means mine; but why do I mention that, when every action of his life leaves me no other doubt than whether it convinces me more of his love, or of his deserving mine?
SCENE V
LORD RICHLY’S House.
LORD RICHLY, SERVANT.
LORD RICHLY. Desire Mr. Bellamant to walk in. What can the meaning of this visit be? Perhaps he comes to make me proposals concerning his wife; but my love shall not get so far the better of my reason, as to lead me to an extravagant price; I’ll not go above two thousand, that’s positive.
SCENE VI.
LORD RICHLY, MR. BELLAMANT.
LORD RICHLY. My dear Bellamant.
MR. BELLAMANT. My lord, I have received an obligation from you, which I thus return. [Gives him a bank-bill.
LORD RICHLY. Pshaw! trifles of this nature can hardly be called obligations; I would do twenty times as much for dear Jack Bellamant.
MR. BELLAMANT. The obligation, indeed, was to my wife, nor hath she made you a small return; since it is to her entreaty you owe your present safety, your life.
LORD RICHLY. I am not apprised of the danger; but would owe my safety to no one sooner than to Mrs. Bellamant.
MR. BELLAMANT. Come, come, my lord; this prevarication is low and mean; you know you have used me basely, villainously; and under the cover of acquaintance and friendship, have attempted to corrupt my wife; for which, but that I would not suffer the least breath of scandal to sully her reputation, I would exact such vengeance on thee —
LORD RICHLY. Sir, I must acquaint you, that this is a language I have not been used to.
MR. BELLAMANT. No, the language of flatterers and hireling sycophants has been what you have dealt in — wretches, whose honour and love are as venal as their praise. Such your title might awe, or your fortune bribe to silence; such you should have dealt with, and not have dared to injure a man of honour.
LORD RICHLY. This is such presumption —
MR. BELLAMANT. No, my lord, yours was the presumption, mine is only justice, nay, and mild too; unequal to your crime, which requires a punishment from my hand, not from my tongue.
LORD RICHLY. Do you consider who I am?
MR. BELLAMANT. Were you as high as heraldry could lift you, you should not injure me unpunished. Where grandeur can give license to oppression the people must be slaves, let them boast what liberty they please.
LORD RICHLY. Sir, you shall hear of this.
MR. BELLAMANT. I shall be ready to justify my words by any action you dare provoke one to: and be assured of this, if ever I discover any future attempts of yours to my dishonour, your life shall be its sacrifice. Henceforward, my lord, let us behave as if we had never known one another.
[Exit.
LORD RICHLY. Here’s your man of sense now. — He was half ruined in the House of Lords a few days ago, and is in a fair way of going the other step in Westminster Hall in a few days more; yet has the impudence to threaten a man of my fortune and quality for attempting to debauch his wife; which many a fool, who rides in his coach and six, would have had sense enough to have winked at.
SCENE VII.
LORD RICHLY, MR. GAYWIT.
MR. GAYWIT. Your lordship is contemplative.
LORD RICHLY. So, nephew, by this early visit I suppose you had ill-luck last night; for where fortune frowns on you, she always smiles on me by blessing me with your company.
MR. GAYWIT. I have long since put it out of the power of fortune to do me either favour or injury. My happiness is now in the power of another mistress.
LORD RICHLY. And thou art too pretty a fellow not to have that mistress in your power.
MR. GAYWIT. The possession of her, and in her of all m
y desires, depends on your consent.
LORD RICHLY. You know, Harry, you have my consent to possess all the women in town, except those few that I am particular with: provided you fall not foul of mine, you may board and plunder what vessels you please.
MR. GAYWIT. This is a vessel, my lord, neither to be taken by force, nor hired by gold. I must buy her for life, or not board her at all.
Complete Fictional Works of Henry Fielding Page 286