MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
SUNDAY, MAY 21.
I am too much disturbed in my mind to think of any thing but revenge; or
I did intend to give thee an account of Miss Harlowe's observations on
the play. Miss Harlowe's I say. Thou knowest that I hate the name of
Harlowe; and I am exceedingly out of humour with her, and with her saucy
friend.
What's the matter now? thou'lt ask.
Matter enough; for while we were at the play, Dorcas, who had her orders,
and a key to her lady's chamber, as well as a master-key to her drawers
and mahogany chest, closet-key and all, found means to come at some of
Miss Howe's last-written letters. The vigilant wench was directed to
them by seeing her lady take a letter out of her stays, and put it to the
others, before she went out with me--afraid, as the women upbraidingly
tell me, that I should find it there.
Dorcas no sooner found them, than she assembled three ready writers of
the non-apparents; and Sally, and she, and they employed themselves with
the utmost diligence, in making extracts, according to former directions,
from these cursed letters, for my use. Cursed, may I well call them--
Such abuses!--Such virulence!--O this little fury Miss Howe!--Well might
her saucy friend (who has been equally free with me, or the occasion
could not have been given) be so violent as she lately was, at my
endeavouring to come at one of these letters.
I was sure, that this fair-one, at so early an age, with a constitution
so firm, health so blooming, eyes so sparkling, expectations therefore so
lively, and hope so predominating, could not be absolutely, and from her
own vigilance, so guarded, and so apprehensive, as I have found her to
be.
Sparkling eyes, Jack, when the poetical tribe have said all they can for
them, are an infallible sign of a rogue, or room for a rogue, in the
heart.
Thou mayest go on with thy preachments, and Lord M. with his wisdom of
nations, I am now more assured of her than ever. And now my revenge is
up, and joined with my love, all resistance must fall before it. And
most solemnly do I swear, that Miss Howe shall come in for her snack.
And here, just now, is another letter brought from the same little
virulent devil. I hope to procure scripts from that too, very speedily,
if it be put to the test; for the saucy fair-one is resolved to go to
church this morning; no so much from a spirit of devotion, I have reason
to think, as to try whether she can go out without check, controul, or
my attention.
***
I have been denied breakfasting with her. Indeed she was a little
displeased with me last night: because, on our return from the play, I
obliged her to pass the rest of the night with the women and me, in their
parlour, and to stay till near one. She told me at parting, that she
expected to have the whole next day to herself. I had not read the
extracts then; so I had resolved to begin a new course, and, if possible,
to banish all jealousy and suspicion from her heart: and yet I had no
reason to be much troubled at her past suspicions; since, if a woman will
continue with a man whom she suspects, when she can get from him, or
thinks she can, I am sure it is a very hopeful sign.
***
She is gone. Slipt down before I was aware. She had ordered a chair, on
purpose to exclude my personal attendance. But I had taken proper
precautions. Will. attended her by consent; Peter, the house-servant,
was within Will.'s call.
I had, by Dorcas, represented her danger from Singleton, in order to
dissuade her from going at all, unless she allowed me to attend her; but
I was answered, with her usual saucy smartness, that if there were no
cause of fear of being met with at the playhouse, when there were but two
playhouses, surely there was less at church, when there were so many
churches. The chairmen were ordered to carry her to St. James's Church.
But she would not be so careless of obliging me, if she knew what I have
already come at, and how the women urge me on; for they are continually
complaining of the restraint they lie under in their behaviour; in their
attendance; neglecting all their concerns in the front house; and keeping
this elegant back one entirely free from company, that she may have no
suspicion of them. They doubt not my generosity, they say: But why for
my own sake, in Lord M.'s style, should I make so long a harvest of so
little corn?
Women, ye reason well. I think I will begin my operations the moment she
comes in.
***
I have come at the letter brought her from Miss Howe to-day. Plot,
conjuration, sorcery, witchcraft, all going forward! I shall not be able
to see this Miss Harlowe with patience. As the nymphs below ask, so do
I, Why is night necessary? And Sally and Polly upbraidingly remind me of
my first attempts upon themselves. Yet force answers not my end--and yet
it may, if there be truth in that part of the libertine's creed, That
once subdued, is always subdued! And what woman answers affirmatively to
the question?
***
She is returned: But refuses to admit me: and insists upon having the day
to herself. Dorcas tells me, that she believes her denial is from
motives of piety.--Oons, Jack, is there impiety in seeing me?--Would it
not be the highest act of piety to reclaim me? And is this to be done by
her refusing to see me when she is in a devouter frame than usual?--But I
hate her, hate her heartily! She is old, ugly, and deformed.--But O the
blasphemy! yet she is a Harlowe: and I do and can hate her for that.
But since I must not see her, [she will be mistress of her own will, and
of her time, truly!] let me fill up my time, by telling thee what I have
come at.
The first letter the women met with, is dated April 27.* Where can she
have put the preceding ones!--It mentions Mr. Hickman as a busy fellow
between them. Hickman had best take care of himself. She says in it, 'I
hope you have no cause to repent returning my Norris--it is forthcoming
on demand.' Now, what the devil can this mean!--Her Norris forthcoming
on demand!--the devil take me, if I am out-Norris'd!--If such innocents
can allow themselves to plot (to Norris), well may I.
* See Vol. IV. Letter II.
She is sorry, that 'her Hannah can't be with her.'--And what if she
could?--What could Hannah do for her in such a house as this?
'The women in the house are to be found out in one breakfasting.' The
women are enraged at both the correspondents for this; and more than ever
make a point of my subduing her. I had a good mind to give Miss Howe to
them in full property. Say but the word, Jack, and it shall be done.
'She is glad that Miss Harlowe had thoughts of taking me at my word. She
wondered I did not offer again.' Advises her, if I don't soon, 'not to
stay with me.' Cautions her, 'to keep me at a distance; not to permit
the least familiarity.'--See, Jack! see Belford!--Exactly as I thought!--
Her vigilance all owing to a cool friend; who can sit down quietly, and
give that advice, which in her own case she could not take. What an
encouragement to me to proceed in my devices, when I have reason to think
that my beloved's reserves are owing more to Miss Howe's cautions than to
her own inclinations! But 'it is my interest to be honest,' Miss Howe
tells her.--INTEREST, fools!--I thought these girls knew, that my
interest was ever subservient to my pleasure.
What would I give to come at the copies of the letters to which those of
Miss Howe are answers!
The next letter is dated May 3.* In this the little termagant expresses
her astonishment, that her mother should write to Miss Harlowe, to forbid
her to correspond with her daughter. Mr. Hickman, she says, is of
opinion, 'that she ought not to obey her mother.' How the creeping
fellow trims between both! I am afraid, that I must punish him, as well
as this virago; and I have a scheme rumbling in my head, that wants but
half an hour's musing to bring into form, that will do my business upon
both. I cannot bear, that the parental authority should be thus
despised, thus trampled under foot. But observe the vixen, ''Tis well he
is of her opinion; for her mother having set her up, she must have
somebody to quarrel with.'--Could a Lovelace have allowed himself a
greater license? This girl's a devilish rake in her heart. Had she been
a man, and one of us, she'd have outdone us all in enterprise and spirit.
* See Vol. IV. Letter X.
'She wants but very little farther provocation,' she says, 'to fly
privately to London. And if she does, she will not leave her till she
sees her either honourably married, or quit of the wretch.' Here, Jack,
the transcriber Sally has added a prayer--'For the Lord's sake, dear Mr.
Lovealce, get this fury to London!'--Her fate, I can tell thee, Jack, if
we had her among us, should not be so long deciding as her friend's.
What a gantelope would she run, when I had done with her, among a dozen
of her own pitiless sex, whom my charmer shall never see!--But more of
this anon.
I find by this letter, that my saucy captive has been drawing the
characters of every varlet of ye. Nor am I spared in it more than you.
'The man's a fool, to be sure, my dear.' Let me perish, if they either
of them find me one!--'A silly fellow, at least.' Cursed contemptible!--
'I see not but they are a set of infernals!' There's one for thee,
Lovelace! and yet she would have her friend marry a Beelzebub.--And what
have any of us done, (within the knowledge of Miss Harlowe,) that she
should give such an account of us, as should excuse so much abuse from
Miss Howe!--But the occasion that shall warrant this abuse is to come!
She blames her, for 'not admitting Miss Partington to her bed--watchful,
as you are, what could have happened?--If violence were intended, he
would not stay for the night.' I am ashamed to have this hinted to me by
this virago. Sally writes upon this hint--'See, Sir, what is expected
from you. An hundred, and an hundred times have we told you of this.'--
And so they have. But to be sure, the advice from them was not half the
efficacy as it will be from Miss Howe.--'You might have sat up after her,
or not gone to bed,' proceeds she.
But can there be such apprehensions between them, yet the one advise her
to stay, and the other resolve to wait my imperial motion for marriage?
I am glad I know that.
She approves of my proposal of Mrs. Fretchville's house. She puts her
upon expecting settlements; upon naming a day: and concludes with
insisting upon her writing, notwithstanding her mother's prohibitions;
or bids her 'take the consequence.' Undutiful wretches! How I long to
vindicate against them both the insulted parental character!
Thou wilt say to thyself, by this time, And can this proud and insolent
girl be the same Miss Howe, who sighed for an honest Sir George Colmar;
and who, but for this her beloved friend, would have followed him in all
his broken fortunes, when he was obliged to quit the kingdom?
Yes, she is the very same. And I always found in others, as well as in
myself, that a first passion thoroughly subdued, made the conqueror of it
a rover; the conqueress a tyrant.
Well, but now comes mincing in a letter, from one who has 'the honour of
dear Miss Howe's commands'* to acquaint Miss Harlowe, that Miss Howe is
'excessively concerned for the concern she has given her.'
* See Vol. IV. Letter XII.
'I have great temptations, on this occasion,' says the prim Gothamite,
'to express my own resentments upon your present state.'
'My own resentments!'----And why did he not fall into this temptation?
--Why, truly, because he knew not what that state was which gave him so
tempting a subject--only by a conjecture, and so forth.
He then dances in his style, as he does in his gait! To be sure, to be
sure, he must have made the grand tour, and come home by way of
Tipperary.
'And being moreover forbid,' says the prancer, 'to enter into the cruel
subject.'--This prohibition was a mercy to thee, friend Hickman!--But why
cruel subject, if thou knowest not what it is, but conjecturest only from
the disturbance it gives to a girl, that is her mother's disturbance,
will be thy disturbance, and the disturbance, in turn, of every body with
whom she is intimately acquainted, unless I have the humbling of her?
In another letter,* the little fury professes, 'that she will write, and
that no man shall write for her,' as if some medium of that kind had been
proposed. She approves of her fair friend's intention 'to leave me, if
she can be received by her relations. I am a wretch, a foolish wretch.
She hates me for my teasing ways. She has just made an acquaintance with
one who knows a vast deal of my private history.' A curse upon her, and
upon her historiographer!--'The man is really a villain, an execrable
one.' Devil take her!--'Had I a dozen lives, I might have forfeited them
all twenty crimes ago.' An odd way of reckoning, Jack!
* See Letter XXIII. of this volume.
Miss Betterton, Miss Lockyer, are named--the man, (she irreverently
repeats) she again calls a villain. Let me perish, I repeat, if I am
called a villain for nothing!--She 'will have her uncle,' as Miss Harlowe
requests, 'sounded about receiving her. Dorcas is to be attached to her
interest: my letters are to be come at by surprise or trick'--
What thinkest thou of this, Jack?
Miss Howe is alarmed at my attempt to come at a letter of hers.
'Were I to come at the knowledge of her freedoms with my character,' she
says, 'she should be afraid to stir out without a guard.' I would advise
the vixen to get her guard ready.
'I am at the head of a gang of wretches,' [thee, Jack, and thy brother
varlets, she owns she means,] 'who join together to betray innocent
creatures, and to support one another in their villanies.'--What sayest
thou to this, Belford?
'She wonders not at her melancholy reflections for meeting me, for being
forced upon me, and tricked by me.'--I hope, Jack, thou'lt have done
preaching after this!
But she comforts her, 'that she will be both a warning and an example to
all her sex.' I hope the sex will thank me for this!
The nymphs had not time, they say, to transcribe all that was worthy of
my resentment in this letter: so I must find an opportunity to come at it
myself. Noble rant, they say, it contains--But I am a seducer, and a
hundred vile fellows, in it.--'And the devil, it seems, took possession
of my heart, and of the hearts of all her friends, in the same dark hour,
in order to provoke her to meet me.' Again, 'There is a fate in her
error,' she says--Why then should she grieve?--'Adversity is her shining
time,' and I can't tell what; yet never to thank the man to whom she owes
the shine!
In the next letter,* wicked as I am, 'she fears I must be her lord and
master.'
* See Letter XXIX. of this volume.