Yes, my dear; and though the bank hath stopped payment, he was so cheerful and so agreeable! Sure there is not a finer gentleman upon the road than the Captain! if he comes from Bagshot at any reasonable hour, he hath promised to make one this evening with Polly and me, and Bob Booty at a party of quadrille. Pray, my dear, is the Captain rich?
Peachum
The Captain keeps too good company ever to grow rich. Marybone and the chocolate-houses are his undoing. The man that proposes to get money by play should have the education of a fine gentleman, and be trained up to it from his youth.
Mrs. Peachum
Really, I am sorry upon Polly’s account the Captain hath not more discretion. What business hath he to keep company with lords and gentlemen? he should leave them to prey upon one another.
Peachum
Upon Polly’s account! What, a plague, does the woman mean?—Upon Polly’s account!
Mrs. Peachum
Captain Macheath is very fond of the girl.
Peachum
And what then?
Mrs. Peachum
If I have any skill in the ways of women, I am sure Polly thinks him a very pretty man.
Peachum
And what then? You would not be so mad to have the wench marry him! Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to their wives.
Mrs. Peachum
But if Polly should be in love, how should we help her, or how can she help herself? Poor girl, I am in the utmost concern about her.
Air IV. Why is your faithful slave disdained? etc.
If love the virgin’s heart invade, How, like a moth, the simple maid Still plays about the flame! If soon she be not made a wife, Her honour’s singed, and then for life, She’s—what I dare not name.
Peachum
Look ye, wife. A handsome wench in our way of business is as profitable as at the bar of a Temple coffeehouse, who looks upon it as her livelihood to grant every liberty but one. You see I would indulge the girl as far as prudently we can. In anything, but marriage! After that, my dear, how shall we be safe? Are we not then in her husband’s power? For a husband hath the absolute power over all a wife’s secrets but her own. If the girl had the discretion of a court-lady, who can have a dozen young fellows at her ear without complying with one, I should not matter it; but Polly is tinder, and a spark will at once set her on a flame. Married! If the wench does not know her own profit, sure she knows her own pleasure better than to make herself a property! My daughter to me should be, like a court-lady to a minister of state, a key to the whole gang. Married! If the affair is not already done, I’ll terrify her from it, by the example of our neighbours.
Mrs. Peachum
Mayhap, my dear, you may injure the girl. She loves to imitate the fine ladies, and she may only allow the Captain liberties in the view of interest.
Peachum
But ’tis your duty, my dear, to warn the girl against her ruin, and to instruct her how to make the most of her beauty. I’ll go to her this moment, and sift her. In the meantime, wife, rip out the coronets and marks of these dozen of cambric handkerchiefs, for I can dispose of them this afternoon to a chap in the city. Exit Peachum.
Mrs. Peachum
Never was a man more out of the way in an argument than my husband! Why must our Polly, forsooth, differ from her sex, and love only her husband? And why must Polly’s marriage, contrary to all observations, make her the less followed by other men? All men are thieves in love, and like a woman the better for being another’s property.
Air V. Of all the simple things we do, etc.
A maid is like the golden ore, Which hath guineas intrinsical in’t, Whose worth is never known before It is tried and impressed in the mint. A wife’s like a guinea in gold, Stampt with the name of her spouse; Now here, now there; is bought, or is sold; And is current in every house.
Enter Filch.
Mrs. Peachum
Come hither, Filch. I am as fond of this child, as though my mind misgave me he were my own. He hath as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman, and is as nimble-fingered as a juggler. If an unlucky session does not cut the rope of thy life, I pronounce, boy, thou wilt be a great man in history. Where was your post last night, my boy?
Filch
I plied at the opera, madam; and considering ’twas neither dark nor rainy, so that there was no great hurry in getting chairs and coaches, made a tolerable hand on’t. These seven handkerchiefs, madam.
Mrs. Peachum
Coloured ones, I see. They are of sure sale from our warehouse at Redriff among the seamen.
Filch
And this snuffbox.
Mrs. Peachum
Set in gold! A pretty encouragement this to a young beginner.
Filch
I had a fair tug at a charming gold watch. Pox take the tailors for making the fobs so deep and narrow! It stuck by the way, and I was forced to make my escape under a coach. Really, madam, I fear I shall be cut off in the flower of my youth, so that every now and then (since I was pumpt) I have thoughts of taking up and going to sea.
Mrs. Peachum
You should go to Hockley in the Hole, and to Marybone, child, to learn valour. These are the schools that
