School For Scandal | Page 5

BACKBITE Mr. Dodd?ROWLEY Mr. Aikin?SPUNGE?MOSES?SNAKE?CARELESS--and other companions to CHARLES
LADY TEAZLE?MARIA?LADY SNEERWELL?MRS. CANDOUR?MISS VERJUICE
PROLOGUE
WRITTEN BY MR. GARRICK
A school for Scandal! tell me, I beseech you,?Needs there a school this modish art to teach you??No need of lessons now, the knowing think;?We might as well be taught to eat and drink.?Caused by a dearth of scandal, should the vapours?Distress our fair ones--let them read the papers;?Their powerful mixtures such disorders hit;?Crave what you will--there's quantum sufficit.?"Lord!" cries my Lady Wormwood (who loves tattle,?And puts much salt and pepper in her prattle),?Just risen at noon, all night at cards when threshing?Strong tea and scandal--"Bless me, how refreshing!?Give me the papers, Lisp--how bold and free! [Sips.]?LAST NIGHT LORD L. [Sips] WAS CAUGHT WITH LADY D.?For aching heads what charming sal volatile! [Sips.]?IF MRS. B. WILL STILL CONTINUE FLIRTING,?WE HOPE SHE'LL draw, OR WE'LL undraw THE CURTAIN.?Fine satire, poz--in public all abuse it,?But, by ourselves [Sips], our praise we can't refuse it.?Now, Lisp, read you--there, at that dash and star:"?"Yes, ma'am--A CERTAIN LORD HAD BEST BEWARE,?WHO LIVES NOT TWENTY MILES FROM GROSVENOR SQUARE;?FOR, SHOULD HE LADY W. FIND WILLING,?WORMWOOD IS BITTER"----"Oh! that's me! the villain!?Throw it behind the fire, and never more?Let that vile paper come within my door."?Thus at our friends we laugh, who feel the dart;?To reach our feelings, we ourselves must smart.?Is our young bard so young, to think that he?Can stop the full spring-tide of calumny??Knows he the world so little, and its trade??Alas! the devil's sooner raised than laid.?So strong, so swift, the monster there's no gagging:?Cut Scandal's head off, still the tongue is wagging.?Proud of your smiles once lavishly bestow'd,?Again our young Don Quixote takes the road;?To show his gratitude he draws his pen,?And seeks his hydra, Scandal, in his den.?For your applause all perils he would through--?He'll fight--that's write--a cavalliero true,?Till every drop of blood--that's ink--is spilt for you.
ACT I
SCENE I.--LADY SNEERWELL'S House
LADY SNEERWELL at her dressing table with LAPPET;?MISS VERJUICE drinking chocolate
LADY SNEERWELL. The Paragraphs you say were all inserted:
VERJUICE. They were Madam--and as I copied them myself in a feigned Hand there can be no suspicion whence they came.
LADY SNEERWELL. Did you circulate the Report of Lady Brittle's Intrigue with Captain Boastall?
VERJUICE. Madam by this Time Lady Brittle is the Talk of half the Town--and I doubt not in a week the Men will toast her as a Demirep.
LADY SNEERWELL. What have you done as to the insinuation as to a certain Baronet's Lady and a certain Cook.
VERJUICE. That is in as fine a Train as your Ladyship could wish. I told the story yesterday to my own maid with directions to communicate it directly to my Hairdresser. He I am informed has a Brother who courts a Milliners' Prentice in Pallmall?whose mistress has a first cousin whose sister is Feme [Femme] de Chambre to Mrs. Clackit--so that in the common course of Things it must reach Mrs. Clackit's Ears within four-and-twenty hours and then you know the Business is as good as done.
LADY SNEERWELL. Why truly Mrs. Clackit has a very pretty Talent-- a great deal of industry--yet--yes--been tolerably successful in her way--To my knowledge she has been the cause of breaking off six matches[,] of three sons being disinherited and four Daughters being turned out of Doors. Of three several Elopements, as many close confinements--nine separate maintenances and two Divorces.-- nay I have more than once traced her causing a Tete-a-Tete in the Town and Country Magazine--when the Parties perhaps had never seen each other's Faces before in the course of their Lives.
VERJUICE. She certainly has Talents.
LADY SNEERWELL. But her manner is gross.
VERJUICE. 'Tis very true. She generally designs well[,] has a free tongue and a bold invention--but her colouring is too dark and her outline often extravagant--She wants that delicacy of Tint--and mellowness of sneer--which distinguish your Ladyship's Scandal.
LADY SNEERWELL. Ah you are Partial Verjuice.
VERJUICE. Not in the least--everybody allows that Lady Sneerwell can do more with a word or a Look than many can with the most laboured Detail even when they happen to have a little truth on their side to support it.
LADY SNEERWELL. Yes my dear Verjuice. I am no Hypocrite to deny the satisfaction I reap from the Success of my Efforts. Wounded myself, in the early part of my Life by the envenomed Tongue of Slander I confess I have since known no Pleasure equal to the reducing others to the Level of my own injured Reputation.
VERJUICE. Nothing can be more natural--But my dear Lady Sneerwell There is one affair in which you have lately employed me, wherein, I confess I am at a Loss to guess your motives.
LADY SNEERWELL. I conceive you mean with respect to my neighbour, Sir Peter Teazle, and his Family--Lappet.--And has my conduct in this matter really appeared to you so mysterious?
[Exit MAID.]
VERJUICE.