away with it: Hey,
Jowler!--I think I am bewitched, I cannot hold.
_Wood._ Your servant, your servant, madam: I am in a little haste at
present. [_Going._
_Pleas._ Pray resolve me first, for which of them you lie in ambush;
for, methinks, you have the mien of a spider in her den. Come, I know
the web is spread, and whoever comes, Sir Cranion stands ready to dart
out, hale her in, and shed his venom.
_Wood._ [_Aside._] But such a terrible wasp, as she, will spoil the
snare, if I durst tell her so.
_Pleas._ It is unconscionably done of me, to debar you the freedom and
civilities of the house. Alas, poor gentleman! to take a lodging at so
dear a rate, and not to have the benefit of his bargain!--Mischief on
me, what needed I have said that? [_Aside._
_Wood._ The dialogue will go no farther. Farewell, gentle, quiet lady.
_Pleas._ Pray stay a little; I'll not leave you thus.
_Wood._ I know it; and therefore mean to leave you first.
_Pleas._ O, I find it now! you are going to set up your bills, like a
love-mountebank, for the speedy cure of distressed widows, old ladies,
and languishing maids in the green-sickness: a sovereign remedy.
_Wood._ That last, for maids, would be thrown away: Few of your age
are qualified for the medicine. What the devil would you be at, madam?
_Pleas._ I am in the humour of giving you good counsel. The wife can
afford you but the leavings of a fop; and to a witty man, as you think
yourself, that is nauseous: The mistress has fed upon a fool so long,
she is carrion too, and common into the bargain. Would you beat a
ground for game in the afternoon, when my lord mayor's pack had been
before you in the morning?
_Wood._ I had rather sit five hours at one of his greasy feasts, then
hear you talk.
_Pleas._ Your two mistresses keep both shop and warehouse; and what
they cannot put off in gross, to the keeper and the husband, they sell
by retail to the next chance-customer. Come, are you edified?
_Wood._ I am considering how to thank you for your homily; and, to
make a sober application of it, you may have some laudable design
yourself in this advice.
_Pleas._ Meaning, some secret inclination to that amiable person of
yours?
_Wood._ I confess, I am vain enough to hope it; for why should you
remove the two dishes, but to make me fall more hungrily on the third?
_Pleas._ Perhaps, indeed, in the w
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