your love; to one who has power to procure | Sir Gilbert's letter did come to me from New you affluence, and generosity to improve your enjoyment of it. Miss Rich. And are you sure, Sir, that the gentleman you mean is what you describe him? Honeyw. I have the best assurances of ithis serving me. He does indeed deserve the highest happiness, and that is in your power to confer. As for me, weak and wavering as I have been, obliged by all, and incapable of serving any, what happiness can I find but in solitude? what hope, but in being forgotten? Miss Rich. A thousand! to live among friends that esteem you, whose happiness it will be to be permitted to oblige you. Honeyw. No, Madam, my resolution is fixed. Inferiority among strangers is easy; but among those that once were equals, insupportable. Nay, to show you how far my resolution can go, I can now speak with calmness of my former follies, my vanity, my dissipation, my weakness. I will even confess, that among the number of my other presumptions, I had the insolence to think of loving you. Yes, Madam, while I was pleading the passion of another, my heart was tortured with its own. But it is over; it was unworthy our friendship, and let it be forgotten. Miss Rich. You amaze me! Honeyw. But you'll forgive it, I know you will; since the confession should not have come from me even now, but to convince you of the sincerity of my intention of-never mentioning it more. [Going. Miss Rich. Stay, Sir, one moment-Ha! he here Enter Lofty. Loft. Is the coast clear? None but friends? I have followed you here with a trifling piece of intelligence; but it goes no farther, things are not yet ripe for a discovery. I have spirits working at a certain board; your affair at the treasury will be done in less than a thousand years. Mum! Miss Rich. Sooner, Sir, I should hope. Loft. Why, yes, I believe it may, if it falls into proper hands that know where to push and where to parry; that know how the land lies eh, Honeywood? Miss Rich. It has fallen into yours. Loft. Well, to keep you no longer in suspense, your thing is done. It is done, I say— that's all. I have just had assurances from Lord Neverout, that the claim has been examined, and found admissible. Quietus is the word, Madam. Honeyw. But how! his lordship has been at Newmarket these ten days. Loft. Indeed! Then, Sir Gilbert Goose must have been most damnably mistaken. ad it of him. I Miss Kich. He! why, Sir Gilbert and his family have been in the country this month. Loft. This month! it must certainly be so market, so that he must have met his lordship there; and so it came about. I have his letter about me; I'll read it to you. (Taking out a large bundle.) That's from Paolì of Corsica, that from the Marquis of Squilachi.-Have you a mind to see a letter from Count Poniatowski, now King of Poland?-Honest Pon(Searching.) O, Sir, what! are you here too? I'll tell you what, honest friend, if you have not absolutely delivered my letter to Sir William Honeywood, you may return it. The thing will do without him. Sir Will. Sir, I have delivered it; and must inform you, it was received with the most mortifying contempt. Croak. Contempt! Mr Lofty, what can that mean? Loft. Let him go on, let him go on, I say. You'll find it come to something presently. Sir Will. Yes, Sir; I believe you'll be amazed, if after waiting some time in the antechamber, after being surveyed with insolent curiosity by the passing servants, I was at last assured, that Sir William Honeywood knew no such person, and I must certainly have been imposed upon. Loft. Good! let me die; very good. Ha! ha ha! Croak. Now, for my life, I can't find out half the goodness of it. Loft. You can't? Ha! ha! Croak. No, for the soul of me! I think it was as confounded a bad answer as ever was sent from one private gentleman to another. Loft. And so you can't find out the force of the message? Why, I was in the house at that very time. Ha ha! it was I that sent that very answer to my own letter. Ha ha! Croak. Indeed! How? why? Loft. In one word, things between Sir William and me must be behind the curtain. A party has many eyes. He sides with Lord Buzzard, I side with Sir Gilbert Goose. So that unriddles the mystery. Croak. And so it does, indeed ; and all my suspicions are over. Loft. Your suspicions! What, then, you have been suspecting, you have been suspecting, have you? Mr Croaker, you and I were friends; we are friends no longer. Never talk to me. It's over; I say, it's over. Croak. As I hope for your favour, I did not mean to offend. It escaped me.. Don't be discomposed. Loft. Zounds! Sir, but I am discomposed, and will be discomposed. To be treated thus! Who am I? Was it for this I have been dreaded both by ins and outs? Have I been libelled in the Gazetteer, and praised in the St James's? have I been chaired at Wildman's, and a speaker at Merchant-Tailor's Hall? have I had my hand to addresses, and my head in the print shops; and talk to me of suspects? Croak. My dear Sir, be pacified. What can you have but asking pardon? Loft. Sir, I will not be pacified-Suspects! | thanks, as I have here an interest that calls me. Who am I? To be used thus! Have I paid (Turning to Honeywood.) Yes, Sir, you are court to men in favour to serve my friends; surprised to see me; and a desire of correcting the lords of the treasury, Sir William Honey- your follies led me hither. I saw with indigwood, and the rest of the gang, and talk to me nation the errors of a mind that only sought of suspects? Who am I, I say, who am I? applause from others; that easiness of disposition, which though inclined to the right, bad not courage to condemn the wrong. I saw with regret those splendid errors, that still took name from some neighbouring duty; your charity, that was but injustice, your benevolence, that was but weakness; and your friendship, but credulity. I saw with regret great talents and extensive learning only employed to add sprightliness to error, and increase your perplexities. I saw your mind with a thousand natural charms; but the greatness of its beauty served only to heighten my pity for its prostitution. Sir Wil. Since you are so pressing for an answer, I'll tell you who you are -A gentleman as well acquainted with politics as with men in power; as well acquainted with persons of fashion as with modesty with lords of the treasury as with truth; and withal, as you are with Sir William Honeywood. I am Sir William Honeywood. (Discovering his ensigns of the Lath.) Croak. Sir William Honeywood! Honeyw. Astonishment ! my uncle! (Aside.) Loft. So then, my confounded genius has been all this time only leading me up to the garret, in order to fling me out of the window. Croak. What, Mr Importance, and are these your works? Suspect you! You, who have been dreaded by the ins and outs; you, who have had your hand to addresses, and your head stuck up in print-shops. If you were served right, you should have your head stuck up in a pillory. Loft. Ay, stick it where you will; for by the Lord, it cuts but a very poor figure where it sticks at present. Sir Will. Well, Mr Croaker, I hope you now see how incapable this gentleman is of serving you, and how little Miss Richland has to expect from his influence. Croak. Ay, Sir, too well I see it; and I can't but say I have had some boding of it these ten days. So I'm resolved, since my son has placed his affections on a lady of moderate fortune, to be satisfied with his choice, and not run the hazard of another Mr Lofty in helping him to a better. Sir Will. I approve your resolution; and here they come to receive a confirmation of your pardon and consent. Enter Mrs Croaker, Jarvis, Leontine, and livia. Mrs Croak. Where's my husband? Come, come, lovey, you must forgive them. Jarvis bere has been to tell me the whole affair; and Isay, you must forgive them. Our own was a stolen match, you know, my dear; and we never had any reason to repent of it. Croak. I wish we could both say so. However, this gentleman, Sir William Honeywood, has been beforehand with you in obtaining their pardon. So, if the two poor fools have a mind to marry, I think we can tack them together without crossing the Tweed for it. (Joining their hands.) Leont. How blest and unexpected! What, what can we say to such goodness? But our future obedience shall be the best reply. And as for this gentleman, to whom we oweSir Will. Excuse me. Sir, if I interrupt your Honeyw. Cease to upbraid me, Sir: I have for some time but too strongly felt the justice of your reproaches. But there is one way still left me. Yes, Sir, I have determined this very hour to quit for ever a place where I have made. myself the voluntary slave of all, and to seek among strangers that fortitude which may give strength to the mind, and marshal all its dissipated virtues. Yet ere I depart, permit me to solicit favour for this gentleman; who, notwithstanding what has happened, has, laid me under the most signal obligations.-Mr Lofty Loft. Mr Honeywood, I'm resolved upon a reformation as well as you. I now begin to find that the man who first invented the art of speaking truth, was a much cunninger fellow than I thought him. And to prove that I design to speak truth for the future, I must now assure you, that you owe your late enlargement to another; as, upon my soul, I had no hand in the matter. So now, if any of the company has a mind for preferment, he may take my place; I'm determined to resign. [Exit. Honeyw. How have I been deceived! Sir Will. No, Sir, you have been obliged to a kinder, fairer friend, for that favour-to Miss Richland. Would she complete our joy, and make the man she has honoured by her friendship happy in her love, I should then forget all, and be as blest as the welfare of my dearest kinsman can make me. Miss Rich. After what is past, it would but be affectation to pretend to indifference. Yes, I will own an attachment, which I find was more than friendship. And if my entreaties cannot alter his resolution to quit the country, I will even try if my hand has not power to detain him. (Giving her hand.) Honeyw. Heavens! how can I have deserved all this? How express my happiness, my gratitude?-A moment like this overpays an age of apprehension. Croak. Well, now I see content in every face; but heaven send we be all better this day three months! Sir Will. Henceforth, nephew, learn to respect yourself. He who seeks only for applause from without, has all his happiness in another's An epilogue, things can't go on without it; keeping. It could not fail, would you but set about it. Young man, cries one, (a bard laid up in clover,) Honeyw. Yes, Sir, I now too plainly perceive my errors; my vanity, in attempting to please all by fearing to offend any; my meanness in approving folly lest fools should disapprove. Henceforth, therefore, it shall be my study to reserve my pity for real distress; my friendship for true merit; and my love for her, who first taught me what it is to be happy. Alas, young man, my writing days are over; Those things are not our forte at Covent Our author's friends, thus placed at happy Give him good words indeed, but no assistance. He eyes the centre, where his friends, sit snug ; THE MISTAKES OF A NIGHT. A COMEDY. DEAR SIR, DEDICATION. TO SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to inform the public, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most unaffected piety. I have, particularly, reason to thank you for your partiality to this performance. The undertaking a Comedy, not merely sentimental, was very dangerous and Mr Colman, who saw this piece in its various stages, always thought it so. However, I ventured to trust it to the public; and, though it was necessarily delayed till late in the season, I have every reason to be grateful. I am, Dear Sir, PROLOGUE BY DAVID GARRICK, Esq. Your most sincere Friend and Admirer, OLIVER GOLDSMITH. What shall we do?-If Comedy forsake us, eye With a sententious look that nothing means, Enter Mr Woodward, dressed in black, and (Faces are blocks in sentimental scenes) holding a handkerchief to his eyes. EXCUSE me, Sirs, I pray-I can't yet speak, I'm crying now-and have been all the week. "Tis not alone this mourning suit," good masters. “I've that within”—for which there are no plasters! Pray, would you know the reason why I'm The Comic Muse, long sick, is now a dying! Thus I begin-"All is not gold that glitters, bitters. When ignorance enters, folly is at hand: Learning is better far than house and land. I give it up-morals won't do for me;. motion, He, in Five Draughts prepared, presents & A kind of magic charm-for be assured, No poisonous drugs are mix'd in what he |