The Works of Aphra Behn Volume I Part 137

p. 398 _Nickers._ Or knickers, marbles generally made of baked clay.

cf. Duffet's farce, _The Mock Tempest_ (1675), Act iv, I:--

_Enter _Hypolito playing with Nickers.

_Hyp._ Anan, Anan, forsooth-- you, Sir, don't you stir the Nickers.

I'l play out my game presently.

+Act IV: Scene iv+

p. 402 _Joan Sanderson._ The air to which the Cus.h.i.+on Dance was usually performed. It may be found in Playford's _Dancing Master_, 1686. Sometimes the dance itself was known as Joan Sanderson.

+Act V: Scene i+

p. 406 _The Tall Irishman._ Oliver Cromwell's porter, yclept Daniel, was a giant. This fellow, through poring over mystical divinity, lost his wits: he preached, prophesied, and raved until finally he was incarcerated in Bedlam, where, after a while, his liberty was allowed him. A famous item amongst his books was a large Bible presented by Neil Gwynne. D'Urfey in his Prologue to _Sir Barnaby Whigg_ (1681), has: 'Like Oliver's porter, but not so devout.' There is a rare, if not unique, portrait of Daniel in the Print Room, British Museum. The reputed portrait in Pierce Tempest's _Cryes of the City of London_ (No. 71. Un insense pour la Religion. M. Lauron del. P. Tempest ex.) is not that of a remarkably tall man.

p. 410 _Enter Hewson with Guards._ 5 December, 1659, Hewson did actually suppress a rising of London prentices, two or three of whom were killed and some score wounded. This made him very unpopular.

+Act V: Scene iia+

p. 412_ Lord Capel._ Arthur, Lord Capel, Baron Hadham, a gallant royalist leader, was, after the surrender of Colchester, treacherously imprisoned. He escaped, but was betrayed, and beheaded 9 March, 1649.

p. 412 _Brown Bushel._ A sea captain. Originally inclined to the Parliament, he became a royalist. In 1643 he was taken prisoner, but after being exchanged lived quietly and retired till 1648, when he was seized as a deserter, and after three years captivity, tried, and executed 29 April, 1651.

p. 413 _Earl of Holland._ Henry Rich, Earl of Holland (1590-1649), a staunch royalist, was executed 9 March, 1649, in company with Lord Capel and the Duke of Hamilton.

p. 413 _Judas._ The piece of plate dubb'd Judas would be gilded, cf.

Middleton's _Chaste Maid in Cheapside_, (4to, 1630), iii, 2.

_3rd Gossip._ Two great 'postle-spoons, one of them gilt.

_1st Puritan._ Sure that was Judas then with the red beard.

Red is the traditional colour of Judas' hair. cf. Dryden's lines on Jacob Tonson the publisher:--

With two left legs and Judas-coloured hair.

p. 414 _an act, 24 June._ Cromwell's parliament pa.s.sed Draconian Acts punis.h.i.+ng adultery, incest, fornication, with death; the two former on the first offence, the last on the second conviction.

_Mercurius Politicus_, No. 168. Thursday, 25 August-- Thursday, 1 September, 1653 (p. 2700), records the execution of an old man of eighty-nine who was found guilty at Monmouth a.s.size of adultery with a woman over sixty. It is well known that under the Commonwealth the outskirts of London were crowded with brothels, and the license of Restoration days pales before the moral evils and cankers existing under Cromwell. The officially recognized independent diurnals _Mercurius Democritus_, _Mercurius Fumigosus_, have been described as 'abominable'. In 1660, when the writers of these attempted to circulate literature which had been common in the preceeding decade, they were promptly 'clapt up in Newgate'.

p. 414 _Peters the first_, _Martin the Second._ Hugh Peters has been noticed before. Henry Martin was an extreme republican, and at one time even a Leveller. He was a commissioner of the High Court of Justice and a regicide. At the Restoration he was imprisoned for life and died at Chepstow Castle, 1681, aged seventy-eight. He was notorious for profligacy and shamelessness, and kept a very seraglio of mistresses.

p. 415 _Tantlings._ St. Antholin's (St. Anthling's), Budge Row, Watling Street, had long been a stronghold of puritanism. As early as 1599, morning prayer and lecture were inst.i.tuted, 'after the Geneva fas.h.i.+on'. The bells began at five in the morning. This church was largely attended by fanatics and extremists. There are frequent allusions to St. Antholin's and its matutinal chimes. The church was burned down in the Great Fire. Middleton and Dekker's _Roaring Girl_ (1611): 'Sha's a tongue will be heard further in a still morning than Saint Antling's bell.'

She will outpray A preacher at St. Antlin's.

--Mayne's _City Match_ (1639), iv, v.

Davenant's _News from Plymouth_ (fol. 1673, licensed 1635), i, I:--

Two disciples to St. Tantlin, That rise to long exercise before day.

p. 416 _Lilly._ William Lilly (1602-81). The famous astrologer and fortune-teller. In Tatham's _The Rump_ (1660), he is introduced on the stage, and there is a scene between him and Lady Lambert, Act iv.

p. 416 _sisseraro._ More usually sasarara. A corruption of _certiorari_, a writ in law to expedite justice. 'If it be lost or stole ... I could bring him to a cunning kinsman of mine that would fetcht again with a sesarara,' --_The Puritan_ (1607). 'Their souls fetched up to Heaven with a sasarara.' --_The Revenger's Tragedy_, iv, 2 (1607), _The Vicar of Wakefield_ (1766), ch. xxi: '"As for the matter of that," returned the hostess, "gentle or simple, out she shall pack with a sussarara".'

+Act V: Scene iii+

p. 421 _Twelve Houses._ Each of the astrological divisions of the heavens denoting the station of a planet is termed a house.

+Act V: Scene v+

p. 423 _bear the bob._ To join in the chorus. Bob is the burden or refrain of a song.

p. 423 _Colt-staff._ Or col-staff (Latin _collum_). A staff by which two men carry a load, one end of the pole resting on a shoulder of each porter. cf. _Merry Wives of Windsor_, iii, 3, 'Where's the cowl-staff?'

p. 423 _Fortune my Foe._ This extremely popular old tune is in Queen Elizabeth's _Virginal Book_; in William Ballet's MS. Lute Book; in _Bellerophon_ (1622), and in numerous other old musical works. There are allusions to it in Shakespeare and many of the dramatists.