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The Jealous Wife.

Charles. For heaven's sake, sir, she will be

Oakly. Let her alone-let her alone.

White, Sc.

Harriet. Pray, my dear sir, let us assist her. She may

Oakly. I don't care.

Let her alone, I say.

Act V. Sc. III.

THE JEALOUS WIFE.

A COMEDY,

In Fibe Acts.

BY GEORGE COLMAN, 1732-1794.

PRINTED FROM THE ACTING COPY, WITH REMARKS, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL.

To which are added,

A DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME,-CAST OF THE CHARACTERS,
EXITS AND ENTRANCES, RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE PER-
FORMERS ON THE STAGE, AND THE WHOLE OF THE STAGE

BUSINESS,

As now Performed at the

THEATRES-ROYAL, LONDON.

EMBELLISHED WITH A FINE WOOD ENGRAVING,

By Mr. WHITE, from a Drawing by Mr. R. CRUIKSHANK.

LONDON:

JOHN CUMBERLAND, 19, LUDGATE HILL.

ALIHW.

REMARKS.

The Jealous Wife is one of the first order of modern comedies, if the word modern applies to a play written at the accession of his late Majesty George III. It embraces an extensive range of society; it pourtrays in striking colours a jealous wife, and a pliant husband; and it shows how the latter, by a little well-timed, well regulated firmness, may molify the violence of the former, convince her of her error, and clear up the ambiguous appearances of his own conduct.

The ladies must excuse us for saying that nothing can exceed their violence-when they are violent; which all the world knows is very seldom ;-yet, to say the truth, they do sometimes, nobody knows why or wherefore, contrive to be suddenly unhappy, unaccountably ill, and insist on going out in the carriage, at a time when the most sober and orderly of Jehus might reasonably expect to indulge himself with a few extra draughts of ale, in the hall. These are symptoms that my lady is not happy, and that a crisis of some sort or other is approaching. The crisis in this comedy actually comes on, attended by circumstances which excite much interest and afford exquisite entertainment.

Of lovers, foppish lords, and fox-hunting squires, the stage has shown us an abundance; but a more happy and effective combination of them has never been attempted by any dramatist than by Mr. Colman in this comedy of the Jealous Wife.

17, Catherine-Street, June, 1824.

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