THE NEW SCIENCE AND COMEDY 87 



"Sir Maurice, To dissolve the Philosopher's Stone in? 



Lovewit, No, to extract the quintessence of all plays, to sell 



by drops to poets of this age ' '. 68 



Catchat has discovered "three men in the Moon fighting a duel in 

 a Church- Yard "; 69 she is just now engaged in "teaching a Flea 

 to sing". "The little Creature", says she, "understands notes 

 already ; and if I live, she shall sing a song in the next opera that 's 

 acted". 70 Even Witless has caught the scientific fever, for he and 

 his tutor are projecting a "penny-post to the West Indies". 71 

 Already he has made an exact and accurate Map, containing the 

 most curious and most remarkable Signs upon the Road between 

 Cambridge and London, with their several Motto 's, Inscription and 

 Devices, as they were faithfully taken and delineated by Timothy 

 Witless, Batchelor of Arts, in his Tale of Travels. 72 And Sir 

 Maggot has his schemes abrewing, for "some virtuosi are to wait 

 on him" about a scheme for the House (Parliament) to have all 

 the Cities, Towns, Villages in England turned into Sea-ports. 73 



The cynic and scoffer of the play is Sir Maurice, who can find 

 no good thing in all of this wit. He makes no claim to having the 

 virtuoso 's kind of knowledge ; commonsense is still good enough for 

 him. "I am no Scholar, and I thank my Stars for it; but with 

 your leave, so much Commonsense has taught me". 74 But what 

 more could be expected of a man who would "affront a Telescope"; 

 one who is made up of a "strange Compound of Vulgar and Clown 

 ish Atoms". He embodies commonsense commenting on the "fan 

 atic branches" of the new philosophy. 



A worthy representative of the female wits is to be found in the 

 character of Valeria of Mrs. Centlivre's The Basset Table (1706). 

 She has, indeed, gone far beyond all previous "virtuosas" in the 

 matter of experiments; she is "a Daughter run mad after Philoso 

 phy". 75 In her first appearance she dashes upon the stage in the 



68 Ibid. Act IV, sc. 2. 

 88 Ibid. Act III, sc. 1. 



70 Ibid. 



71 Ibid. 



72 The Female Virtuosoes, Act II, sc. 2. 

 78 Ibid. Act III, sc. 1. 



74 Ibid. 



The Basset-Table, Act II. 



