[ 253 ]
was; and the Lady is taught to despise him at that rate, that it is hardly reconcileable to her Sense, that she should ever entertain him in the Quality of a Husband. It is true, that she had but a mean Fortune, viz. five thousand Pounds. What then? she had much rather have married a Scotch Nobleman, as she could have done, the Earl of ———, though he had not above a thousand Pounds a Year. But then she had had a Man of Quality, and she had had a Coronet upon her Coach; she had match'd like her self, and mingled with noble Blood, as she ought to have done. But now she is Debased and Dishonoured, she is levelled with the Canail; the old Countess, her Lady-Mother, considered nothing but the Money; and d it, she had rather have been King Ch———'s Whore, and then she might have been a Duchess, and her Children had been Dukes of course, and had had noble Blood in their Veins by the lowest degree, and royal Blood on the other Side; whereas now, in short, she looks upon her self to be little better than Prostituted, and that meerly for an Estate.
With this Elevation of Pride, concerning Blood and Family, she treats her Husband with the utmost Disdain: She will have her Equipage by her self; she will not so much as give his Liveries, but the Livery of her own Family; the won't have his Coat of Arms painted upon her Coach, or engraven upon her Plate; much less will she suffer her Coat of Arms to be quartered with his, if she could help it, on any Occasion; and 'tis a great Mortification to her, that her eldest Son, attach'd to his Father, and honouring his Person, learns not to copy after her; and is not ashamed of the Blood ofhis