Status Updates From The Comedies of William Con...

On to the final play, The Way of the World, which I read back in undergrad...but do I remember even one little thing about it?

***&1/2 for Love For Love, which started slowly but gathered steam—and wit—as it went, and from which I learned...

Sir Sampson: ...don't despise fifty; odd, fifty, in a hale constitution, is no such contemptible age.
Angelica: Fifty a contemptible age! Not at all; a very fashionable age I think.—I assure you I know very considerable beaux that set a good face upon fifty. Fifty! I have seen fifty...,

On to Love For Love, play 3 of 4...

A young poet is liable to the same vanity and indiscretion with a young lover; and the great man that smiles upon one, and the fine woman that looks kindly upon t'other, are each of'em in danger of having the favour published with the first opportunity.

Could poets but forsee how plays would take,
Then they could tell what epilogues to make;
[...]
[But] poor poets the favour are denied
Even to make exceptions when they're tried.
'Tis hard that they must every one admit;
Methinks I see some faces in the pit,
Which must of consequence be foes to wit.
You who can judge, to sentence may proceed;
But though he cannot write, let him be freed [...cont'd]

Lady Froth: ...between you and I, I had whimsies and vapours, but I gave them vent.
Cynthia: How pray, madam?
LF: O I writ, writ abundantly—do you never write?
C: Write what?
LF: Songs, elegies, satires, encomiums, panegyrics, lampoons, plays, or heroic poems.
C: O Lord, not I madam; I'm content to be a courteous reader.
LF: O inconsistent! In love, and not write!

The premise to The Double Dealer is completely mental: Mellefont is worried that his wedding tomorrow to Cynthia will be cancelled due to his aunt, who plans to ravish him and get herself pregnant by him and thereby exact revenge upon him for not loving her back: in producing an heir for her husband (M's uncle), she will be depriving M of an inheritance he will get only if she herself remains childless!

Beginning The Double Dealer...

Careless: Pox, I'm weary of guzzling.
Me (guzzling): I'm weary of the pox.