( 20 )
Enter Bellamour and Angelica.
Bell. Women grow troublesom when they are so fond: Your Cousin Angelica might have spar'd you this trouble; I'd as live see a Ghost, as receive a remembrance from a Cast Mistress.
Ang. You say you lov'd her once, and it is by that Love she now conjures you not to give way to any other: Passion which will make her desperate, and you perjur'd.
Bell. I shou'd be sorry to make a Lady desperate; but if to change a Mistriss is Perjury, who is innocent?
Ang. What Reason can you give for your change?
Bell. Faith none at all: Our Inclinations are our Masters, and we wander but as our Stars lead us; if they are false Lights, and shew us out of the way, let them answer for't. It was my fortune to see Angelica, and to love her. It was my fortune to be absent from her, and to forget her: What is there new in all this? I confess she has Beauty and Wit, and I wish her a great deal of Happiness; but there is a Luck which over-rules all, the deserving are not always the successful.
Ang. Sure Fortune will never side with Falshood and Perjury———
Bell. O you mistake Fortune: Fortune is, as it were, an Hospital for Villany and Folly, where all are provided for, whom Nature has maim'd and disfigur'd. Mark every rude unpolish'd Owl you meet, he's sure to be some Minion of Fortune's; and every nauseous ill-favour'd Hagg, is not her Name a Fortune? The Children of this World have all different Portions; some have Wit, others Beauty: But where there is no Merit to be found, those have Fortune, which is the Cordial Drop prescrib'd by Providence to comfort 'em, for the severity and unkindness of Nature.
Ang. And so by consequence, because my Cousin Angelica has some merit, therefore she must be unfortunate.
