The Works of Aphra Behn Volume Iv Part 65

p. 204, l. 20 _their._ 4to 1671 '_the_'.

p. 206, l. 33 _Visors._ 1724 '_Vizards_'.

p. 207, l. 5 _Braves._ 1724 'Bravoes'.

p. 209, l. 19 _'Twas a Temptation._ 1724 quite erroneously gives this speech to Cloris.

p. 212, l. 13 _Clo. speaks aside to Guil._ 1724 'Aside to Guil.'

p. 212, l. 24 _Curtain Falls._ Only in 4to 1671.

+Epilogue+

p. 213, l. 5 _E'en humble._ 4to 1671 omits 'E'en'.

p. 213, l. 22 _Leadies._ 1724 'Ladies'.

NOTES: CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

+Prologue+

p. 121 _Great Johnson's way._ cf. what Mrs. Behn says in her 'Epistle to the Reader' prefacing _The Dutch Lover_ (Vol. I, p. 224), of the Jonsonian enthusiast: 'a man the most severe of Johnson's Sect.'

p. 121 _Nokes and Angel._ The two celebrated low comedians. Angel died in the spring of 1673. He was a great farceur, but gagged unmercifully, to the no small annoyance of the poets.

p. 121 _Cataline._ Jonson's tragedy was revived with great splendour at the King's House, Friday, 18 December, 1668, and remained a stock play until the retirement of Hart (who excelled in Catiline) at the Union in 1682. Michael Mohun was famous in Cethegus, and Mrs. Corey in Semp.r.o.nia. Pepys found the play itself rather dull as a whole 'though most fine in clothes, and a fine Scene of the Senate, and of a fight, as ever I saw in my life.' A year before its actual production his crony, Harry Harris, a member of the rival theatre had 'talked of _Catiline_ which is to be suddenly acted at the King's House; and there all agree that it cannot be well done at that house, there not being good actors enough; and Burt acts Cicero, which they all conclude he will not be able to do well. The King gives them 500 for robes, there being, as they say, to be sixteen scarlet robes.'

(11 December, 1667.) In the first quarto (1672), of Buckingham's _The Rehearsal_, Bayes refers to _Catiline_ saying that his design in a certain scene is '_Roman_ cloaths, guilded Truncheons, forc'd conceipt, smooth Verse, and a Rant.' The words 'Roman cloaths' are omitted in all subsequent editions.

p. 121 _the Comick Hat._ In 1670 there was produced at the Theatre Royal, Dryden's _The Conquest of Granada_, Part I. The witty prologue was 'spoken by Mrs. Ellen Gwyn' (who acted Almahide) 'in a Broad-Brimm'd Hat, and Waist Belt'. It commences thus:--

This jest was first of t'other house's making, And five times tried, has never fail'd of taking; For 'twere a shame a poet should be kill'd Under the shelter of so broad a s.h.i.+eld.

This is the hat, whose very sight did win ye To laugh and clap as tho' the devil were in ye.

As then, for Nokes, so now I hope you'll be So dull, to laugh, once more, for love of me.

Two slightly different explanations are given of the jest. Theatrical tradition has it that Dryden supplied Nell Gwynne, who was plump and pet.i.te, with this hat of the circ.u.mference of a cart wheel, in ridicule of a hat worn by Nokes of the Duke's company whilst playing Ancient Pistol. It is again said that in May, 1670, whilst the Court was at Dover to receive the d.u.c.h.ess of Orleans, the Duke's Company played there Shadwell's _The Sullen Lovers_, and Caryl's _Sir Salomon; or, The Cautious c.o.xcomb_, in which latter comedy Nokes acted Sir Arthur Addle, a bawling fop. The dress of the French gallants attending the d.u.c.h.ess was characterised by an excessively short laced scarlet or blue coat, a very broad waist-belt and a wide-leaved hat.

Nokes appeared on the stage in a still shorter coat, a huger waist-belt, and a hat of preposterous dimensions. The Duke of Monmouth buckled his own sword to the actor's side, and, according to old Downes, our comedian looked more like a dressed-up ape or a quiz on the French than Sir Arthur Addle. The English Court was straightway convulsed with laughter at this mimicry, which seems, to say the least, in highly questionable taste. When Nell Gwynne appeared and burlesqued the biter, Charles II, who was present at the first performance of _The Conquest of Granada_, well nigh died of merriment, and her verve in delivering Dryden's witty lines wholly completed her conquest of the King. Nell Gwynne did not appear on the boards after 1670.

p. 121 _The Jig and Dance._ cf. note (on p. 43), Vol. III, p. 477: _A Jigg_ (_The Town Fop_). The Jig is in this prologue clearly distinct from a dance. Act IV, sc. iii (p. 185): 'Cloris dances a Jig'-- (i.e. the simple dance).

+ACT I: Scene iii+

p. 133 _Capriol._ Capriole (French) signifies a leap made by a horse without advancing.

+ACT I: Scene iv+

p. 140 _Clarina why thus clouded?_ Similar expressions in Davenant's _The Siege of Rhodes_ (4to 1663), Part 1, the Second Entry:--

_Mustapha._ I bring the morning pictur'd in a cloud.

And in Sir William Barclay's _The Lost Lady_ (folio, 1639), Act II:--

Enter _Phillida_ veiled who talks to _Ergasto_ aside and then goes out.

_Cleon._ From what part of the town comes this fair day In a cloud that makes you look so cheerfully?

are burlesqued in _The Rehearsal_, III, v:--

_Vols._ Can vulgar vestments high-born beauty shroud?

Thou bring'st the Morning pictur'd in a Cloud.

+ACT III: Scene ii+

p. 164 _... is welcome._ Buckingham parodies this in _The Rehearsal_, IV, iii:--

_Cordelia._ My lieges, news from _Volscius_ the prince.

_Usher._ His news is welcome, whatso'er it be.

_Smith._ How, sir, do you mean that? Whether it be good or bad?

+ACT III: Scene iii+

p. 172 _tabering._ Beating on; tapping; drumming. This rare word occurs in _Nahum_, II, vii: 'Her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves tabering upon their b.r.e.a.s.t.s.'

+ACT IV: Scene ii+

p. 180 _Hansel'd._ To handsel is to inaugurate with some ceremony of an auspicious kind, e.g. to begin the New Year by presenting a new comer with a gift.

p. 183 _She leapt into the River._ _The Rehearsal_, Act V, burlesques this:-- '_The Argument of the Fifth Act_ ... _Cloris_ in despair, drowns herself: and Prince _Pretty-man_, discontentedly, walks by the River side.'

+ACT IV: Scene iv+

p. 188 _foutering._ Fouter (Fr. foutre; Lat. futuere), _verb.u.m obscaenum_. cf. the noun in phrase 'to care not a fouter' (footra, footre, foutre), _2 Henry IV_, V, iii. To 'fouter' is also used (a vulgarism and a provincialism) in a much mitigated sense = to meddle about aimlessly, to waste time and tongue doing nothing, as of a busybody.

p. 189 _Niperkin._ This would seem to be a slang expression, as Grose gives it meaning 'a small measure'. It was also used for the actual stone jug. cf. D'Urfey, _Pills to Purge Melancholy_ (1719): 'Quart-pot, Pint-pot, nipperkin.' _N.E.D._, quoting this pa.s.sage, explains as 'a small quant.i.ty of wine, ale, or spirits.'

p. 190 _Camphire Posset._ Camphor had a high reputation as an antaphrodisiac. cf. Dryden, _The Spanish Friar_ (1681), Act I, where Gomez says of his wife: 'I'll get a physician that shall prescribe her an ounce of camphire every morning, for her breakfast, to abate incontinency'; also Congreve, _The Way of the World_ (1700), IV, xii: 'You are all camphire and frankincense, all chast.i.ty and odour.'

Cross-References from Critical Notes: _The Amorous Prince_

p. 121 _The Jig and Dance._ cf. note (on p. 43), Vol. III, p. 477: _A Jigg (The Town Fop)_.

_Town Fop_ note:

p. 43 _A Jigg._ There were, in Post-Restoration times, two interpretations of the word Jig. Commonly speaking it was taken to mean exactly what it would now, a simple dance. Nell Gwynne and Moll Davis were noted for the dancing of Jigs. cf. Epilogue to Buckingham's _The Chances_ (1682):--