Matt. By these questions fomething feems to have ruffled you. Are any of us fufpected?

Mach. I have a fixt confidence, gentlemen, in you all, as men of honour, and as fuch I value and respect you. Peachum is a man that is useful to us.

Matt. Is he about to play us any foul play? I'll fhoot him through the head.

Mach. I beg you, gentlemen, act with conduct and discretion. A piftol is your last resort.

Matt. He knows nothing of this meeting.

Mach. Bufinefs cannot go on without him. He is a man that knows the world, and is a neceffary agent to us. We have had a flight difference, and till it is accommodated I shall be obliged to keep out of his way. Any private difpute of mine thall be of no ill confeYou must continue to act under quence to my friends his direction, for the moment we break loose from him our gang is ruin'd.

Matt. As a bawd to a whore, I grant you, he is to us of great convenience.

Mach. Make him believe I have quitted the gang, which I can never do but with life. At our private quarters I will continue to meet you. A week or fo will probably reconcile us.

Matt. Your inftructions fhall be obferved. "Tis now high time for us to repair to our several duties; fo till the evening at our quarters in Moor-fields we bid you farewell.

Mach. I fhall wish myself with you. Succefs attend [Sits down melancholly at the table.

you.

AIR XX. March in Rinaldo, with drums and trumpets.

Matt. Let us take the road.

Hark! I hear the found of coaches!
The hour of attack approaches,

Toyour arms, brave boys, and load.
See the bull 1 hold!

Let the chymifts toil like affes,
Our fire their fire furpaffes,
And turns all our lead to gold.

[The gang, ranged in the front of the stage, load their pistols, and ftick them under their girdles; then go off finging the first part in chorus.

Mach. What a fool is a fond wench! Polly is moft confoundedly bit-I love the fex. And a man who loves money, might be as well contented with one guinea, as I with one woman. The town perhaps hath been as much obliged to me, for recruiting it with free hearted ladies, as to any recruiting officer in the army. If it were not for us and the other gentlemen of the fword, Drury-Lane would be uninhabited.

AIR XXI. Would you have a young virgin, &c.
If the heart of a man is depreft with cares,
The mift is difpell'd when a woman appears;
Like the notes of a fiddle, he sweetly, fweetly,
Raifes the fpirits and charms our ears.

Rofes and lilies her cheeks difclofe,

But her ripe lips are more fweet than those.
Prefs her,
Carefs her,
With bliffes
Her kiffes

Diffolve us in pleasure, and foft repofe.

I must have women. There is nothing unbends the mind like them. Money is not fo ftrong a cordial for the time. Drawer.-[Enter drawer.] Is the porter gone for all the ladies, according to my directions? Draw. I expect him back every minute. But you know, fir, you fent him as far as Hockley in the Hole for three of the ladies, for one in Vinegar-Yard, and for the rest of them fomewhere about Lewkner's-lane. Sure fome of them are below, for I hear the bar bell. As they come I will show them up. Coming, coming.

SCENE

Macheath, Mrs. Coaxer, Dolly Trull, Mrs. Vixen, Betty Doxy, Jenny Diver, Mrs. Slammekin, Suky Tawdry, and Molly Brazen.

Mach. Dear Mrs. Coaxer, you are welcome. You look charmingly to-day. I hope you don't want the repairs of quality, and lay on paint-Dolly Trull! Kifs me, you flut; are you as amorous as ever, huffy? You are always fo taken up with ftealing hearts, that you don't allow yourfelf time to fteal any thing elfe. Ah, Dolly, thou wilt ever be a coquette Mrs. Vixen, I'm yours, I always loved a woman of wit and fpirit; they make charming miftreffes, but plaguy wives Betty Doxy! Come hither, huffy, do you drink as hard as ever? You had better flick to good. whole fome beer; for in troth, Betty, ftrong-waters will in time ruin your conftitution. You fhould leave thofe to your betters. What and my pretty Jenny Diver too! as prim. and demure as ever! There is not any prude, though ever fo high bred, hath a more fanctify'd look, with a more mischievous heart. Ab! thou art a dear, artful hypocrite-Mrs. Slammekin! as carelefs and genteel as ever! All you fine ladies, who know your own beauty, affect an undrefs-But fee, here's Suky Tawdry come to contradict what I was faying. Every thing The gets one way the lays out upon her back. Why, Suky, you must keep at leaft a dozen tally men.-. n.-Molly Brazen! [She kiffes him.] That's well done. I love a free hearted wench. Thou haft a moft agreeable affurance, girl, and art as willing as a turtle-But hark,' I hear mufick. The harper is at the door. If mufick be the food of love, play on. Ere you feat yourselves, ladies, what think you of a dance? Come in.

[Enter Harper.] Play the French tune, that Mrs. Slammekin was fo fond of.

[A dance à la ronde in the French manner; near the end of it this fong. Chorus.

While we may,

Beauty's a flower, defpis'd in decay.

Youth's the feafon, &c.

Let us drink and sport to day,

Ours is not to-morrow.

Love with youth flies fwift away,
Age is nought but forrows.
Dance and fing,

Time's on the wing,

Life never knows the return of Spring.

Let us drink, &c.

Mach. Now, pray ladies, take your places, here fellow, [pays the harper.] Bid the drawer bring us more wine, [Ex. harper.] If any of the ladies choofe gin, I hope they will be fo free to call for it.

Jenny. You look as if you meant me. Wine is ftrong enough for me. Indeed, fir, I never drink ftrongwaters but when I have the cholic.

Mach. Just the excufe of the fine ladies: Why, a lady of quality is never without the cholic. I hope, Mrs. Coaxer, you have had good fuccefs of late in your visits among the mercers.

Coax. We have fo many interlopers-Yet, with induftry, one may fill have a little picking. I carried a filver flower'd luteftring, and a piece of black paduafoy to Mr. Peachum's lock but last week.

Vix. There's Molly Brazen hath the ogle of a rattlefnake. She rivetted a linen-draper's eye fo faft upon her, that he was nick'd of three pieces of cambrick before he could look off.

But fure nothing can

Braz. O dear madam! come up to your handling of laces! And then you have fuch a fweet deluding tongue! To cheat a man is nothing, but the woman muft have fine parts indeed, who cheats a woman!

Kix. Lace, madam, lies in a finall compafs, and is of eafy conveyance. But you are apt, madam, to friends. Coax.

think too

well of

your

Coax. If any woman hath more art than another, to be fure, 'tis Jenny Diver. Though her fellow be never fo agreeable, the can pick his pocket as cooly, as if money were her only pleasure. Now that is a command of the paffions uncommon in a woman!

Jenny. I never go to the tavern with a man, but in the view of bufinefs. I have other hours, and other fort of men for my pleasure. But had I your addrefs,

madam

Mach. Have done with your compliments, ladies; and drink about. You are not fo fond of me, Jenny, as you used to be.

Jenny. 'Tis not convenient, fir, to fhow my fondnefs among fo many rivals. 'Tis your own choice, and not the warmth of my inclination, that will determine you.

AIR XXIII. All in a misty morning, We.

Before the barn-door crowing,
The cock by hens attended,
His eyes around him throwing,
Stands for a while fufpended:
Then one be fingles from the crew,
And cheers the happy hen;
With how do you do, and how do you do,
And bow do you do again.

Mach. Ah Jenny! thou art a dear flut.

Trull. Pray, madam, were you ever in keeping? Tawd. I hope, madam, I ha'nt been fo long upon the town, but I have met with fome good fortune as well as my neighbours.

Trull. Pardon me, madain, I meant no harm by the queflion; 'twas only in the way of converfation.

Tawd. Indeed, madam, if I had not been a fool, I might have lived very handfonely with my laft friend, But upon his mifling five guineas, he turn'd me off. Now I never fulpected he had counted them.'

Slam. Who do you look upon, madam, as your best fort of keepers?

Trull. That, madam, is thereafter as they be. Slam. I, madam, was once kept by a Jew; and, bating their religion, to women they are a good fort of Tawd. people.