[A noise is heard as of one without, clamorous to come in.]

Margaret.  ’Tis your brother Simon, John.

Enter Simon, with his sword in a menacing posture, John staggers towards him and falls at his feet, Margaret standing over him.

Simon.  Is this the man I came so far to see—­
         The perfect Cavalier, the finish’d courtier
         Whom Ladies lov’d, the gallant curled Woodvil,
         Whom brave men fear’d, the valiant, fighting Woodvil,
         The haughty high-ambitioned Parricide—­
         The same that sold his father’s secret in his cups,
         And held it but an after-dinner’s trick?—­
         So humble and in tears, a crestfallen penitent,
         And crawling at a younger brother’s feet! 
         The sinews of my [stiff] revenge grow slack. 
         My brother, speak to me, my brother John.
         (Aside) Now this is better than the beastly deed
         Which I did meditate.

John (rising and resuming his old dignity).  You come to take my life,
         I know it well. 
         You come to fight with me—­[Laying his hand upon his sword.]
         This arm was busy on the day of Naseby: 
         ’Tis paralytic now, and knows no use of weapons. 
         The luck is yours, Sir. [Surrenders his sword.]

Simon.  My errand is of peace: 
         A dying father’s blessing and lost prayers
         For his misguided son. 
         Sir Walter sends it with his parting breath. 
         He bade me with my brother live in peace,
         He bade me fall upon his neck and weep,
         (As I now do) and love my brother John;
         For we are only left in the wide world
         The poor survivors of the Woodvil name. [They embrace.]

Simon.  And Margaret here shall witness our atonement—­
         (For Margaret still hath followed all your fortunes). 
         And she shall dry thy tears and teach thee pray. 
         So we’ll together seek some foreign land,
         Where our sad story, John, shall never reach.

End of “Pride’s Cure” and Charles Lamb’s Dramatic Works!!

After all this [Mr. Campbell adds finally] is the reader prepared to think Manning altogether wrong and Lamb altogether right as to what was done in the process of transforming Pride’s Cure into John Woodvil?

The version of 1818 here printed differs practically only in minor matters of typography and punctuation from that of 1802.  There are, however, a few alterations which should be noted.  On page 176, in John’s first speech, “fermentations” was, in 1802, “stimuli.”  On page 178, in the speech of the Third Gentleman, there is a change.  In 1802 he said “(dashing his glass down) Pshaw, damn these acorn cups, they would not drench a fairy.  Who shall pledge,” &c.  And at the end of Act III, one line is omitted.  In 1802 John was made to say, after disarming Lovel (page 186):—­