Scene X.

Love for Love

by William Congreve

SIR SAMPSON, VALENTINE, SCANDAL, JEREMY.

VALENTINE
Ha, ha, ha; you need not run so fast, honesty will
not overtake you. Ha, ha, ha, the rogue found me out to be in forma
pauperis presently.

SIR SAMPSON LEGEND
Oons! What a vexation is here! I know
not what to do, or say, nor which way to go.

VALENTINE
Who's that that's out of his way? I am Truth, and
can set him right. Harkee, friend, the straight road is the worst
way you can go. He that follows his nose always, will very often be
led into a stink. Probatum est. But what are you for? religion or
politics? There's a couple of topics for you, no more like one
another than oil and vinegar; and yet those two, beaten together by a
state-cook, make sauce for the whole nation.

SIR SAMPSON LEGEND
What the devil had I to do, ever to beget
sons? Why did I ever marry?

VALENTINE
Because thou wert a monster, old boy! The two
greatest monsters in the world are a man and a woman! What's thy
opinion?

SIR SAMPSON LEGEND
Why, my opinion is, that those two
monsters joined together, make yet a greater, that's a man and his
wife.

VALENTINE
Aha! Old True-penny, say'st thou so? Thou hast
nicked it. But it's wonderful strange, Jeremy.

JEREMY
What is, sir?

VALENTINE
That gray hairs should cover a green head--and I
make a fool of my father. What's here! Erra Pater: or a bearded
sibyl? If Prophecy comes, Truth must give place.