Mascarille-Viscount, tell me, have you seen the countess

lately?

Jodelet It is about three weeks since I paid her a visit.

Mascarille Do you know that the duke came to see me this morning, and wanted to take me out into the country to hunt a stag with him?

Madelon Here come our friends.

Enter LUCILE, CELIMÈNE, ALMANZOR, and Musicians.

MadelonThese My dears, we beg you will excuse us. gentlemen had a fancy for the soul of motion, and we sent for you to fill up the void of our assembly.

Lucile - You are very kind.

Mascarille — This is only a ball got up in haste, but one of these days we will have one in due form. Have the musicians come?

Almanzor Yes, sir, here they are.

Cathos Come then, my dears, take your places.

Mascarille [dancing alone by way of prelude] - La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Madelon He has a most elegant figure.

Cathos And seems a proper dancer.

Mascarille [taking out MADELON to dance]

The liberty

of my heart will dance a coranto as well as my feet. Play in time, musicians. Oh, what ignorant fellows! There is no possibility of dancing with them. Devil take you, can't you play in time? La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Steady, you village

scrapers.

Jodelet [dancing in his turn] — Gently, don't play so fast, I have only just recovered from an illness.

Enter DU CROISY and LA GRANGE.

La Grange [a stick in his hand]-Ah! scoundrels, what are you doing here? We have been looking for you these three hours. [He beats MASCARILLE and JODELET. Mascarille-Oh! oh! oh! You never said anything about

La Grange-It becomes you well, you rascal, to ape the man of rank.

Du Croisy-This will teach you to know your position. [Exeunt DU CROISY and LA GRANGE. Madelon-What does this all mean?

Jodelet -It is a wager.

Cathos fashion!

What! to suffer yourselves to be beaten in that

Mascarille-Yes, I would not take any notice of it: I have a violent temper, and I should not have been able to command it. Madelon-Such an insult in our presence!

Mascarille Not worth mentioning, we have known each other for a long while now; and among friends we must not take offense at such trifles.

Reënter Du CROISY and LA GRANGE.

La Grange-Ah! you rascals, you shall not laugh at us, I assure you. Come in, you there. [Three or four ruffians enter. Madelon What do you mean by coming to disturb us in our own house?

Du Croisy-What, ladies! shall we suffer our servants to be better received than we were? shall we allow them to come and make love to you at our expense, and to give you a ball? Madelon Your servants!

La Grange-Yes, our servants; and it is neither proper nor honest in you to entice them away from their duty as you have done.

Madelon Heavens! What insolence!

La Grange-But they shall not have the advantage of wearing our clothes to dazzle your eyes, and if you wish to love them, it shall be for their good looks. Quick, you fellows, strip them at once.

Jodelet Farewell our finery.

Mascarille Farewell, marquisate; farewell, viscountship! Du Croisy-Ah! ah! rascals, have you the impudence to wish to cut us out? You will have to find elsewhere, I can tell you, wherewith to make yourselves agreeable to your ladyloves. La Grange-To supplant us; and that, too, in our own clothes. It is too much!

Mascarille-O Fortune, how inconstant thou art!

Du Croisy-Quick, I say, strip off everything that belongs

to us.

La Grange-Take away all the clothes; quick! Now,

ladies, in their present condition, you may make love to them as much as you please. We leave you entirely free to act. This gentleman and I assure you that we shall be in no way jealous.

[Exeunt all but MADELON, CATHOS, JODELET, MASCARILLE, and Musicians.

Cathos Ah! what humiliation.

Madelon - I am nearly dying with vexation.

First Musician [to MASCARILLE] — And what does all this mean? Who is to pay us?

Mascarille Ask my lord the Viscount.

Second Musician [to JODELET] - Who is to give us our money?

Jodelet Ask my lord the Marquis.

Enter GORGIBUS.

Gorgibus [to MADELON and CATHOS] - From all I hear and see, you have got us into a nice mess; the gentlemen and ladies who have just left have given me a fine account of your doings!

Madelon-Ah! my father, it is a most cruel trick they have played us.

Gorgibus - Yes, it is a cruel trick, no doubt, but one which results from your folly - miserable simpletons that you are. They felt insulted by your way of receiving them; and I, wretched man, must swallow the affront as best I may.

Madelon-Ah! I will be revenged or die in the attempt. And you, wretches! dare you stop here after all your insolence?

Mascarille - To treat a marquis in this manner! Yes, that's the way of the world; we are spurned by those who till lately cherished us. Come along, come along, my friend, let us go and seek our fortunes elsewhere; I see that nothing but outward show pleases here, and that they have no consideration for virtue unadorned. [Exeunt MASCARILLE and JODELET. First Musician-Sir, we shall expect you to pay us, since they do not; for it was here we played.

Gorgibus [beating them] - Yes, yes, I will pay you, and here is the coin you shall receive. As for you, stupid, foolish girls, I don't know what keeps me from giving you as much. We shall become the laughingstock of the whole neighbor

Go,

hood; this is the result of all your ridiculous nonsense. hide yourselves, idiots; hide yourselves forever [exeunt MADELON and CATHOS]; and you, the cause of all their folly, worthless trash, mischievous pastimes of vacant minds, romances, verses, songs, sonnets, lays and lies, may the devil take you all!

NOTABLE MEN AND SAYINGS OF ENGLAND.

BY THOMAS FULLER.

(From "The Worthies of England.")

[THOMAS FULLER, English divine and historian, was born at Aldwinckle, Northamptonshire, in 1608, and was educated at Cambridge. He became widely known as a preacher in the Savoy Church, London, and on the outbreak of the Civil War joined the king at Oxford and acted as chaplain to Sir Ralph Hopton's men. After the Restoration he was reinstated in the preferments of which he had been deprived by the parliamentarians, and received the appointment of chaplain extraordinary to Charles II. His Worthies of England" has both a literary and a historical value. Other writings are: "The History of the Holy War," "The Holy State and the Profane State," "A Pisgah-sight of Palestine," and "Church History of Britain." He died at London in 1661.]

FIRST we will dispatch that sole proverb of this county, Berkshire, viz.:—

"The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still."

Bray, a village well known in this county, so called from the Bibroces, a kind of ancient Britons inhabiting thereabouts. The vivacious vicar hereof living under King Henry the Eighth, King Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, was first a Papist, then a Protestant, then a Papist, then a Protestant again. He had seen some martyrs burnt (two miles off) at Windsor, and found this fire too hot for his tender temper. This vicar being taxed by one for being a turncoat and an inconstant changeling, "Not so," said he, "for I always kept my principle, which is this, to live and die the vicar of Bray." Such many nowadays, who though they cannot turn the wind will turn their mills, and set them so, and wheresoever it bloweth their grist shall certainly be grinded.

Proceed we now to the proverbs general of England:

England were but a fling,

Save for the crooked stick and the gray-goose wing.

"But for the crooked stick," etc. That is, use of archery. Never were the arrows of the Parthians more formidable to the Romans than ours to the French horsemen. [Yet] since arrows are grown out of use, though the weapons of war be altered, the Englishman's hand is still in use as much as ever before; so that England is now as good with a straight iron as ever it was with a crooked stick. . .

"England is the paradise of women, hell of horses, purgatory of servants."

For the first, billa vera; women, whether maids, wives, or widows, finding here the fairest respect and kindest usage. Our common law is a more courteous carver for them than the civil law beyond the seas, allowing widows the thirds of their husbands' estates, with other privileges. The highest seats are granted them at all feasts; and the wall (in crowding, most danger to the weakest; in walking, most dignity to the worthiest), resigned to them. The indentures of maidservants are canceled by their marriage, though the term be not expired; which to young men in the same condition is denied. In a word, betwixt law and (law's corival) custom, they freely enjoy many favors; and we men, so far from envying them, wish them all happiness therewith.

For the next, "England's being a hell for horses"; Ignoramus; as not sufficiently satisfied in the evidence alleged. Indeed, the Spaniard, who keeps his jennets rather for show than use, makes wantons of them. However, if England be faulty herein in their overviolent riding, racing, hunting, it is high time the fault were amended; the rather, because "the good man regardeth the life of his beast."

For the last," Purgatory for servants"; we are so far from finding the bill, we cast it forth as full of falsehood. We have but two sorts, apprentices and covenant servants. The parents of the former give large sums of money to have their children bound for seven years, to learn some art or mystery; which argueth their good usage as to the generality in our nation: otherwise it were madness for men to give so much money to buy their children's misery. As for our covenant servants, they make their own covenants; and if they be bad, they may thank themselves. Sure I am, their masters, if breaking them, and abusing their servants with too little meat or sleep, too much work of correction (which is true also of apprentices) are liable by law to make them reparation.