My favorite passage in all of Restoration drama:
Estridge. If thou knew'st once the pleasure of such a sprightly Girl as Olivia, the kind quarrels, the fondness, the pretty sullenness after a little absence, which must be charm'd out of it with Kisses, and those thousand other Devises that make a Lovers happiness; thou wou'dst think all this as easie, as lying a bed in the Country in a rainy morning.
Though this one comes close:
Olivia. The only way to oblige most men is to use 'um thus, a little now and then; even to their faces; it gives 'um an Opinion of our wit; and is consequently a Spur to theirs: the great pleasure of Gaming were lost, if we saw one anothers hands; and of Love, if we knew one anothers Hearts.
--Charles Sedley, The Mulberry-Garden, 1668
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I feel like this passage is ALL ABOUT ME. Which is kind of frightening, actually.
ReplyDeleteLast year at Oxford, I told my tutor that I was living in a Restoration comedy. He winced, and understood.
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