likely to conduce to your improvement, I concurred with your mother's desire to keep it secret. But since I find she turns it to a wrong use, I must now declare you have been age these three months. TONY. Of age!

of

Am I of age, father?

HARD. Above three months.

TONY. Then you'll see the first use I'll make of my liberty. (Taking Miss NEVILLE's hand.) Witness all men by these presents, that I, Anthony Lumpkin, esquire, of BLANK place, refuse you, Constantia Neville, spinster, of no place at all, for my true and lawful wife. So Constance Neville may marry whom she pleases, and Tony Lumpkin is his own man again.

Sir CHAS. O brave 'Squire !

HAST. My worthy friend!

Mrs. HARD. My undutiful offspring!

MARL. Joy, my dear George, I give you joy sincerely. And could I prevail upon my little tyrant here to be less arbitrary, I should be the happiest man alive, if you would return me the favour.

HAST. (To Miss HARDCASTLE.) Come, Madam, you are now driven to the very last scene of all your contrivances. I you like him, I'm sure he loves you, and you must

know

and shall have him.

HARD. (Joining their hands.) And I say so too. And, Mr. Marlow, if she makes as good a wife as she has a daughter, I don't believe you'll ever repent your bargain. So now to supper. To-morrow we shall gather all the poor of the parish about us, and the mistakes of the night shall be crowned with a merry morning. So, boy, take her; and as you have been mistaken in the mistress, my wish is, that you may never be mistaken in the wife. [Exeunt omnes. (1)

(1) [For the Epilogue, spoken by Mrs. Bulkley, in the character of Miss Hardcastle, see p. 153.]

EPILOGUE,

To be Spoken in the Character of Tony Lumpkin.

BY J. CRADOCK, ESQ. (1)

WELL-now all's ended-and my comrades gone,
Pray what becomes of "mother's nonly son?"
A hopeful blade!—in town I'll fix my station.
And try to make a bluster in the nation;
As for my cousin Neville, I renounce her,
Off-in a crack-I'll carry big Bet Bouncer.

Why should not I in the great world appear? I soon shall have a thousand pounds a year! here inherit,

No matter what a man may
In London-'gad, they've some regard to spirit.
I see the horses prancing up the streets,

And big Bet Bouncer bobs to all she meets;
Then hoiks to jigs and pastimes ev'ry night—
Not to the plays-they say it a'n't polite;
To Sadler's-Well perhaps, or operas go,
And once by chance, to the roratorio.
Thus here and there, for ever up and down,
We'll set the fashions too to half the town;
And then at auctions-money ne'er regard,
Buy pictures like the great, ten pounds a yard :
Zounds, we shall make these London gentry say,
We know what's damn'd genteel as well as they.

(1) This came too late to be spoken. [See p. 153.]

SCENE

FROM

THE GRUMBLER,

A FARCE.

[Now first printed.]

[Gratitude to Quick, for his able personation of Tony Lumpkin in “She Stoops to Conquer,” induced Goldsmith to consent to alter Sir Charles Sedley's translation of Bruey's Comedy of “Le Grondeur” into a Farce for his benefit. The following is an outline of the plot. Sourby, an ill-tempered, discontented man, is the torment of his family, neighbours, and servants. In the opening of the piece his son is on the point of being married to Clarissa, the consent of Sourby being chiefly obtained by the lady, who believes he has a design upon her himself, relinquishing her naturally mild character for that of a termagant. The character thus assumed agrees however so well with his own, that, in defiance of previous arrangements, he determines to marry her himself, a design favoured by her fortune being in his power. No other remedy occurs to the lovers to avoid his tyranny than further deception: the lady therefore assumes the character of an extravagant, giddy woman of fashion, who is determined to have "habits, feasts, fiddles, hautboys, masquerades, concerts, and especially a ball for fifteen days after their nuptials." Above all, her intended husband must learn to dance; and she will admit of no excuse on the plea of years. In a change of scene the dancing-master arrives; Sourby, as soon as he knows his errand, orders him off and threatens chastisement: but the former having his cue, declares he has positive orders from Clarissa to make him dance, and drawing his sword compels him to do so by force. In the midst of this scene Wentworth arrives, and Sourby, in a fit of rage, renounces the lady. The piece was represented at CoventGarden Theatre, on the 8th of May 1773, but was not repeated. As it has never been printed, a scene, from the MS. copy, in the possession of John Paine Collier, Esq., is here given.—See Life, ch. xiii.]