TATT. Well, first then -
SCENE XIV.
[To them] MRS FRAIL.
TATT. Oh, unfortunate! She's come already; will you have patience
till another time? I'll double the number.
SCAN. Well, on that condition. Take heed you don't fail me.
MRS FRAIL. I shall get a fine reputation by coming to see fellows
in a morning. Scandal, you devil, are you here too? Oh, Mr Tattle,
everything is safe with you, we know.
SCAN. Tattle -
TATT. Mum. O madam, you do me too much honour.
VAL. Well, Lady Galloper, how does Angelica?
MRS FRAIL. Angelica? Manners!
VAL. What, you will allow an absent lover -
MRS FRAIL. No, I'll allow a lover present with his mistress to be
particular; but otherwise, I think his passion ought to give place
to his manners.
VAL. But what if he has more passion than manners?
MRS FRAIL. Then let him marry and reform.
VAL. Marriage indeed may qualify the fury of his passion, but it
very rarely mends a man's manners.
MRS FRAIL. You are the most mistaken in the world; there is no
creature perfectly civil but a husband. For in a little time he
grows only rude to his wife, and that is the highest good breeding,
for it begets his civility to other people. Well, I'll tell you
news; but I suppose you hear your brother Benjamin is landed? And
my brother Foresight's daughter is come out of the country: I
assure you, there's a match talked of by the old people. Well, if
he be but as great a sea-beast as she is a land-monster, we shall
have a most amphibious breed.
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