The Pretentious Young Ladies | Page 5

a few of her
expressions indelicate, yet her plots are always lively and well
sustained and her dialogues very witty. The date of her birth is
unknown, but she died on the 16th of April, 1689, and was buried in
the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
In 1682, was performed, at the Theatre, Dorset Garden, her play. _The
False Count, or a New Way to Play an Old Game_. The prologue
attacks the Whigs most furiously, and the epilogue, spoken by Mrs.
Barry, is very indecent. The plot of this play, or rather farce, is very
improbable, and the language is more than free. Julia, in love with Don

Carlos, afterwards Governor of Cadiz, was forced by her father to
marry Francisco, a rich old man, formerly a leather-seller; the latter
going with his family to sea on a party of pleasure, are taken prisoners
by Carlos and his servants, disguised as Turks. They are carried to a
country house, and made to believe they are in the Grand Turk's
seraglio. There is also an underplot, in which Isabella, Francisco's
proud and vain daughter, is courted by Guilion, a supposed Count, but
in reality a chimney-sweep, whose hand she accepts. In the end
everything is discovered, and Guilion comes to claim his wife in his
sooty clothes.
Thomas Shadwell, a dramatist, and the poet-laureate of William III.,
who has been flagellated by Dryden in his MacFlecknoe and in the
second part of Absalom and _Achitophel_, and been mentioned with
contempt by Pope in his _Dunciad_, took from the _Précieuses
Ridicules_ Mascarille and Jodelet, and freely imitated and united them
in the character of La Roch, a sham Count, in his _Bury-Fair_, acted by
His Majesty's servants in 1689. This play, dedicated to Charles, Earl of
Dorset and Middlesex, was written "during eight months' painful
sickness." In the Prologue Shadwell states:
That every Part is Fiction in his Play; Particular Reflections there are
none; Our Poet knows not one in all your Town. If any has so very little
Wit, To think a Fop's Dress can his Person fit, E'en let him take it, and
make much of it.
Whilst, in The _Pretentious Young Ladies_, Mascarille and Jodelet
impose upon two provincial girls, in _Bury-Fair_, La Roch, "a French
peruke-maker" succeeds in deceiving Mrs. Fantast and Mrs. Gertrude
under the name of Count de Cheveux. The Count is very amusing, and
though a coward to boot, pretends to be a great warrior. His description
of war is characteristic; he states that "de great Heros always burne and
kille de Man, Woman, and Shilde for deir Glory."

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
LA GRANGE, \ ) repulsed Lovers. DU CROISY, /
GORGIBUS, a good citizen.
[Footnote: Gorgibus was the name of certain characters in old comedies.
The actor, L'Epy, who played this part, had a very loud voice; hence
Molière gave him probably this name.]

THE MARQUIS DE MASCARILLE, valet to La Grange.
[Footnote: Mascarille was played by Molière, and has a personality
quite distinct from the servant of the same name in the Blunderer and
the _Love-Tiff_. The dress in which he acted this part, has not been
mentioned in the inventory taken after his death, but in a pamphlet,
published in 1660, he is described as wearing an enormous wig, a very
small hat, a ruff like a morning gown, rolls in which children could
play hide-and-seek, tassels like cornucopise, ribbons that covered his
shoes, with heels half a foot in height.]
THE VISCOUNT JODELET, valet to Du Croisy.
ALMANZOR, footman to the pretentious ladies.
TWO CHAIRMEN.
MUSICIANS.
MADELON, _daughter to Gorgibus_, \ ) The pretentious young ladies.
CATHOS, _niece to Gorgibus_, /
MAROTTE, maid to the pretentious young ladies.
LUCILE. \ ) two female neighbours. CÉLIMÈNE. /
SCENE--GORGIBUS' HOUSE, PARIS.

THE PRETENTIOUS YOUNG LADIES. (LES PRÈCIEUSES
RIDICULES.)

ACT I.

SCENE I.--LA GRANGE, DU CROISY.
DU. CR. Mr. La Grange.
LA. GR. What?
DU. CR. Look at me for a moment without laughing.
LA. GR. Well?
DU. CR. What do you say of our visit? Are you quite pleased with it?
LA. GR. Do you think either of us has any reason to be so?
DU. CR. Not at all, to say the truth.
LA. GR. As for me, I must acknowledge I was quite shocked at it. Pray
now, did ever anybody see a couple of country wenches giving
themselves more ridiculous airs, or two men treated with more
contempt than we were? They could hardly make up their mind to order
chairs for us. I never saw such whispering as there was between them;

such yawning, such rubbing of the eyes, and asking so often what
o'clock it was. Did they answer anything else but "yes," or "no," to
what we said to them? In short, do you not agree with