The Contrast | Page 5

your own Bards be proud to copy you!?Should rigid critics reprobate our play,?At least the patriotic heart will say,?"Glorious our fall, since in a noble cause.?"The bold attempt alone demands applause."?Still may the wisdom of the Comic Muse?Exalt your merits, or your faults accuse.?But think not, tis her aim to be severe;--?We all are mortals, and as mortals err.?If candour pleases, we are truly blest;?Vice trembles, when compell'd to stand confess'd.?Let not light Censure on your faults offend,?Which aims not to expose them, but amend.?Thus does our Author to your candour trust;?Conscious, the free are generous, as just.
Characters
New-York Maryland
Col. MANLY, Mr Henry. Mr Hallam.?DIMPLE, Mr Hallam. Mr Harper.?VANROUGH, Mr Morris. Mr Morris.?JESSAMY, Mr Harper. Mr Biddle.?JONATHAN, Mr Wignell. Mr Wignell.
CHARLOTTE, Mrs Morris. Mrs Morris.
MARIA, Mrs Harper. Mrs Harper.
LETITIA, Mrs Kenna. Mrs Williamson.
JENNY, Miss Tuke. Miss W. Tuke.
SERVANTS
SCENE, NEW-YORK.
The Contrast.

ACT I.
Scene, an Apartment at CHARLOTTE'S.
CHARLOTTE and LETITIA discovered.
LETITIA
AND so, Charlotte, you really think the pockethoop?unbecoming.
CHARLOTTE
No, I don't say so. It may be very becoming to?saunter round the house of a rainy day; to visit my?grand-mamma, or to go to Quakers' meeting: but to?swim in a minuet, with the eyes of fifty well-dressed?beaux upon me, to trip it in the Mall, or walk on the?battery, give me the luxurious, jaunty, flowing, bellhoop.?It would have delighted you to have seen me?the last evening, my charming girl! I was dangling?o'er the battery with Billy Dimple; a knot of young?fellows were upon the platform; as I passed them I?faultered with one of the most bewitching false steps?you ever saw, and then recovered myself with such a?pretty confusion, flirting my hoop to discover a jet?black shoe and brilliant buckle. Gad! how my little?heart thrilled to hear the confused raptures of--?"Demme, Jack, what a delicate foot!" "Ha! General,?what a well-turned--"
LETITIA
Fie! fie! Charlotte [stopping her mouth], I protest?you are quite a libertine.
CHARLOTTE
Why, my dear little prude, are we not all such?libertines? Do you think, when I sat tortured two?hours under the hands of my friseur, and an hour?more at my toilet, that I had any thoughts of my aunt?Susan, or my cousin Betsey? though they are both?allowed to be critical judges of dress.
LETITIA
Why, who should we dress to please, but those?are judges of its merit?
CHARLOTTE
Why, a creature who does not know Buffon from?Souflee--Man!--my Letitia--Man! for whom we?dress, walk, dance, talk, lisp, languish, and smile.?Does not the grave Spectator assure us that even our?much bepraised diffidence, modesty, and blushes are?all directed to make ourselves good wives and mothers?as fast as we can? Why, I'll undertake with one flirt?of this hoop to bring more beaux to my feet in one?week than the grave Maria, and her sentimental?circle, can do, by sighing sentiment till their hairs?are grey.
LETITIA
Well, I won't argue with you; you always out-talk?me; let us change the subject. I hear that Mr. Dimple?and Maria are soon to be married.
CHARLOTTE
You hear true. I was consulted in the choice?of the wedding clothes. She is to be married in a?delicate white sattin, and has a monstrous pretty?brocaded lutestring for the second day. It would?have done you good to have seen with what an?affected indifference the dear sentimentalist turned?over a thousand pretty things, just as if her heart?did not palpitate with her approaching happiness,?and at last made her choice and arranged her dress?with such apathy as if she did not know that plain?white sattin and a simple blond lace would shew her?clear skin and dark hair to the greatest advantage.
LETITIA
But they say her indifference to dress, and even to?the gentleman himself, is not entirely affected.
CHARLOTTE
How?
LETITIA
It is whispered that if Maria gives her hand to Mr.?Dimple, it will be without her heart.
CHARLOTTE
Though the giving the heart is one of the last of all?laughable considerations in the marriage of a girl of?spirit, yet I should like to hear what antiquated notions?the dear little piece of old-fashioned prudery has got?in her head.
LETITIA
Why, you know that old Mr. John-Richard-RobertJacob?-Isaac-Abraham-Cornelius Van Dumpling, Billy?Dimple's father (for he has thought fit to soften his?name, as well as manners, during his English tour),?was the most intimate friend of Maria's father. The?old folks, about a year before Mr. Van Dumpling's?death, proposed this match: the young folks were?accordingly introduced, and told they must love one?another. Billy was then a good-natured, decent-dressing?young fellow, with a little dash of the coxcomb,?such as our young fellows of fortune usually have. At?this time, I really believe she thought she loved him;?and had they been married, I doubt not they?might have jogged on, to the end of the chapter, a?good kind of a sing-song lack-a-daysaical life, as other?honest married folks do.
CHARLOTTE
Why did they not then marry?
LETITIA
Upon