Now disappointment on her!--Defend this, Absolute; why don't you defend this?--Country-dances! jigs and reels! am I to blame now? A minuet I could have forgiven--I should not have minded that--I say I should not have regarded a minuet--but country-dances!--Zounds! had she made one in a cotillion--I believe I could have forgiven even that--but to be monkey-led for a night!--to run the gauntlet through a string of amorous palming puppies!--to show paces like a managed filly!--Oh, Jack, there never can be but one man in the world whom a truly modest and delicate woman ought to pair with in a country-dance; and, even then, the rest of the couples should be her great-uncles and aunts! (ABSOLUTE: Ay, to be sure!--grandfathers and grandmothers!) If there be but one vicious mind in the set, 'twill spread like a contagion--the action of their pulse beats to the lascivious movement of the jig--their quivering, warm-breathed sighs impregnate the very air--the atmosphere becomes electrical to love, and each amorous spark darts through every link of the chain!--I must leave you--I own I am somewhat flurried--and that confounded looby has perceived it. (Going.) (ABSOLUTE: Nay, but stay, Faulkland, and thank Mr. Acres for his good news.) Damn his news! (Exit.)

Faulkland Monologue from The Rivals

Rehearse Faulkland's monologue