They
were giving a play called "The Three Fast Men," which had a moral of such
powerful virtue that it ought to have reformed everybody in the
neighborhood. Three ladies being in love with the three fast men, and
resolved to win them back to regular hours and the paths of sobriety by
every device of the female heart, dress themselves in men's clothes,--such
is the subtlety of the female heart in the bosoms of modern young ladies
of fashion,--and follow their lovers about from one haunt of dissipation
to another and become themselves exemplarily vicious,--drunkards,
gamblers, and the like. The first lady, who was a star in her lowly orbit,
was very great in all her different _roles_, appearing now as a
sailor with the hornpipe of his calling, now as an organ-grinder, and now
as a dissolute young gentleman,--whatever was the exigency of good morals.
The dramatist seemed to have had an eye to her peculiar capabilities, and
to have expressly invented edifying characters and situations that her
talents might enforce them.
Pages:
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291