tle.

_Re-enter Dorinda_.

_Mrs. Sul_. Nay, now, you 're angry, sir. {449}

_Count Bel_. Angry!--_Fair Dorinda [Sings 'Fair
Dorinda,' the opera tune, and addresses Dorinda._]
Madam, when your ladyship want a fool, send for me.
_Fair Dorinda, Revenge, etc, [Exit singing_.

_Mrs. Sul_. There goes the true humour of his nation--
resentment with good manners, and the height of
anger in a song! Well, sister, you must be judge,
for you have heard the trial.

_Dor_. And I bring in my brother guilty.

_Mrs. Sul_. But I must bear the punishment. Tis hard,
sister. {460}

_Dor_. I own it; but you must have patience.

_Mrs. Sul_. Patience! the cant of custom--Providence
sends no evil without a remedy. Should I lie
groaning under a yoke I can shake off, I were
accessory to my ruin, and my patience were no
better than self-murder.

_Dor_. But how can you shake off the yoke? your divisions
don't come within the reach of the law for a divorce.

_Mrs. Sul_. Law! what law can search into the remote
abyss of nature? what evidence can prove the
unaccountable disaffections of wedlock? Can a jury
sum up the endless aversions that are rooted in our
souls, or can a bench give judgment upon antipathies? {474}

_Dor_. They never pretended, sister; they never meddle,
but in case of uncleanness.

_Mrs. Sul_. Uncleanness! O sister! casual violation is
a transient injury, and may possibly be repaired, but
can radical hatreds be ever reconciled? No, no,
sister, nature is the first lawgiver, and when she has
set tempers opposite, not all the golden links of
wedlock nor iron manacles of law can keep 'em
fast.

Wedlock we own ordain'd by Heaven's decree,
But such as Heaven ordain'd it first to be;--
Concurring tempers in the man and wife
As mutual helps to draw the load of life.

View all the works of Providence above,
The stars with harmony and concord move;
View all the works of Providence below, {490}
The fire, the water, earth and air, we know,
All in one plant agree to make it grow.

Must man, the chiefest work of art divine,
Be doom'd in endless discord to repine?
No, we should injure Heaven by that surmise,
Omnipotence is just, were man but wise.

[_Exeunt_.

ACT IV., SCENE I

_The Gallery in Lady Bountiful's House,
Mrs. Sullen discovered alone_.

_Mrs. Sul_. Were I born an humble Turk, whe