Letter XV

Summary

My dear Lady,

I gave you in my last, my bold Remarks upon a Tragedy—The Distress’d Mother—I will now give you my shallow Notions of a Comedy—The Tender Husband.

I lik’d this Title; tho’ I can't say I was pleas’d at all with its second; with an explanatory Or,—The Accomplish’d Fools. But when I was told it was written by Sir Richard Steele, and that Mr. Addison had given some Hints towards it, if not some Characters, O dear Sir, said I, give us your Company to this Play; for the Authors of the Spectators cannot possibly produce a faulty Scene!

Mr. B. indeed smil’d; for I had not then read the Play: And the Earl of F. his Countess, Miss Darnford, Mr. B. and myself, agreed to meet with a Niece of my Lord's in the Stage-Box, which was taken on purpose:

There seems to me, my dear Lady, to be a great deal of Wit and Satire in the Play: But, upon my Word, I was grievously disappointed as to the Morality of it: Nor, in some Places, is Probability preserved; and there are divers Speeches so very free, that I could not have expected to meet with such from the Names I mention’d.

I should be afraid of being censur’d for my Presumption, were I to write to any body less indulgent to my Boldness, than your Ladyship: But I will make no Apologies to you, Madam.—Let me see, then, can I give you the brief History of this Comedy, as I did of the Tragedy?—I profess I hardly know, whether I can or not; at least, whether I should or not.—But I’ll try.

The Tender Husband, Mr. CLERIMONT, has for his Wife a Lady who has travell’d, and is far gone in all the French Fashions: “She brought me,” says he, “a noble Fortune; and I thought, she had a Right to share it; therefore carry’d her to see the World, forsooth, and make the Tour of France and Italy, where she learn’d to lose her Money gracefully, to admire every Vanity in our Sex, and contemn every Virtue in her own; which, with ten thousand other Perfections, are the ordinary Improvements of a travell’d Lady.”