The Works of Aphra Behn Volume I Part 66

+Dedication+

p. 113 _The Duke._ James, Duke of York, for whom Mrs, Behn, a thorough Tory, entertained sentiments of deepest loyalty. The 'absence', 'voluntary Exile', 'new Exiles', mentioned in the Dedication all refer to James' withdrawal from England in 1679, at the time of the seditious agitation to pa.s.s an illegal Exclusion Bill. The Duke left on 4 March for Amsterdam, afterwards residing at the Hague. In August he came back, Charles being very ill. Upon the King's recovery he retired to Scotland 27 October. In March, 1682, he paid a brief visit to the King, finally returning home June of the same year.

p. 114. _young Cesar in the Field._ During the Commonwealth and his first exile James had joined Turenne's army, 24 April, 1652, and was frequently in the field. He distinguished himself by conspicuous bravery. In 1656, at the wish of Charles, he joined the Spanish army.

p. 114 _Some of Oliver's Commanders at Dunkirk._ During the Flanders campaign of 1657, Reynolds, the commander of the English at Dunkirk, sought and obtained an interview with James, whom he treated with the most marked respect and honour. This was reported to Cromwell, much to the Protector's chagrin and alarm.

p. 115. _City Pope._ An allusion to the exploits of Elkanah Settle, who was so notorious at that time for violent Whiggism that in 1680 he had presided over the senseless city ceremony of 'Pope-burning'

on 17 November. This annual piece of ridiculous pageantry is smartly described by Dryden in his Prologue to Southerne's _The Loyal Brother_ (1682); and in the Epilogue to _Oedipus_, (1679), after enumerating the attractions of the play, he ends--

We know not what you can desire or hope To please you more, but burning of a Pope.

There are many contemporary references to Settle and his 'fireworks'. Otway, in _The Poet's Complaint_ (4to, 1680), speaks of Rebellion c.o.c.kering the silly rabble with 'November squibs and burning pasteboard Popes', canto xi. Duke, in the Epilogue to the same author's _The Atheist_ (1683), says that the poet never 'made one rocket on Queen Bess's night'. In Scott's _Dryden_, Vol. VI (1808) is given a cut representing the tom-fool procession of 1679, in which an effigy of the murdered Sir Edmund Bury G.o.dfrey had a chief place. There were 'ingenious fireworks' and a bonfire.

A scurrilous broadside of the day, with regard to the shouting, says that "twas believed the echo ... reached Scotland [the Duke was then residing in the North], France, and even Rome itself damping them all with a dreadfull astonishment.' The stage at this juncture of fierce political strife had become a veritable battle-ground of parties, and some stir was caused by Settle's blatant, but not ineffective, melodrama on the subject of that mythical dame _The Female Prelate, being the History of the Life and Death of Pope Joan_, produced at the Theatre Royal, 1680. This play itself is often referred to, and there are other allusions to Pope Joan about this time, e.g., in the Epilogue to Lee's _Caesar Borgia_ (1679), where the author says a certain clique could not have been more resolute to d.a.m.n his play

Had he the Pope's Effigies meant to burn, . . . . .

Nay, conjur'd up Pope Joan to please the age, And had her breeches search'd upon the stage.

cf. also Mrs. Behn in her own Epilogue when she speaks of 'fat Cardinals, Pope Joans, and Fryers'; and Lord Falkland's scoff in his Prologue to Otway's _The Soldier's Fortune_ (1680):--

But a more pow'rful Saint enjoys ye now . . . . .

The fairest Prelate of her time, and best.

Lord Falkland of course points at the play.

+Prologue+

p. 116 _lofty Tire._ The Upper Gallery, the price of admission to which was one s.h.i.+lling. It was the cheapest part of the theatre, and is often alluded to in Prologue and Epilogue, but generally with abuse or sarcasm. Dryden, in his Prologue to Tate's _The Loyal General_ (1680), caustically advises:--

Remove your benches, you apostate pit, And take, above, twelve pennyworth of wit; Go back to your dear dancing on the rope, Or see what's worse, the Devil and the Pope.

+Dramatis Personae+

p. 117 _Harlequin, Willmore's Man._ Although no actor's name is printed for Harlequin, the part was undoubtedly played by Shadwell's brother-in-law, Tom Jevon, who, at the age of twenty-one, had joined the company in 1673. Originally a dancing-master (Langbaine notes his 'activity'), he became famous in low comedy and particularly for his lithe and nimble Harlequins. In Otway's _Friends.h.i.+p in Fas.h.i.+on_ (1677) Malagene, a character written for and created by Jevon, says, 'I'm a very good mimick; I can act Punchinello, Scaramuchio, Harlequin, Prince Prettyman, or any thing.'

Harlequin does not appear in Killigrew's _Thomaso._ Mrs. Behn's mime plays pranks and speaks Italian and Spanish. No doubt she derived the character from the Italian comedians who had been at the Royal Theatre, Whitehall, in 1672-3, as Dryden, in an Epilogue (spoken by Hart) to _The Silent Woman_ when acted at Oxford, after a reference to a visit of French comedians, has:--

The Italian Merry-Andrews took their place, And quite debauched the stage with lewd grimace, Instead of wit and humours, your delight Was there to see two hobby-horses fight, Stout Scaramoucha with rush lance rode in, And ran a tilt at centaur Arlequin.

They were acting again in July, 1675, and remained some months in England. cf. Evelyn, 29 September this same year, writes: 'I saw the Italian Scaramuccio act before the King at Whitehall, people giving money to come in, which was very scandalous and never so before at Court-diversions. Having seen him act before in Italy many years past, I was not averse from seeing the most excellent of that kind of folly.' Duffett in his Prologue to _Ev'ry Man out of his Humour_, 'spoken by Mr. Hayns', July, 1675, who refers to this second visit--

The Modish Nymphs now ev'ry heart will win With the surprizing ways of Harlequin O the fine motion and the jaunty mene While you Gallants-- Who for dear Missie ne'er can do too much Make Courts.h.i.+ps a la mode de Scarramouch.

and a little later he writes:--

Religion has its Scarramouchys too Whose hums and has get all the praise and pence.

This Italian troop evidently returned in the following year or in 1677, as we have allusions to Dominique Biancolelli and Fiurelli, 'the Fam'd Harlequin & Scaramouch', in the Prologue to Ravenscroft's _Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a School-Boy, Bravo, Merchant, and Magician_, a Comedy after the Italian Manner, produced at the Theatre Royal in 1677, with the migratory Joe Haines as Harlequin, and again in _Friends.h.i.+p in Fas.h.i.+on_, Act iii, 1, when Lady Squeamish cries: 'Dear Mr. Malagene, won't you let us see you act a little something of Harlequin? I'll swear you do it so naturally, it makes me think I am at the Louvre or Whitehall all the time.'

[Malagene acts.]

p. 117. _Lucia... Mrs. Norris._ In the quarto the name of this actress is spelled Norice. Even if the two characters Lucia and Petronella Elenora were not so entirely different, one being a girl, the second a withered crone, it is obvious that as both appear on the stage at one and the same time Mrs. Norris could not have doubled these roles. The name Mrs. Norice, however, which is cast for Lucia is undoubtedly a misprint for Mrs. Price. This lady may possibly have been the daughter of Joseph Price, an 'Inimitable sprightly Actor', who was dead in 1673. We find Mrs. Price cast for various roles of no great consequence, similar to Lucia in this play. She sustained Camilla in Otway's _Friends.h.i.+p in Fas.h.i.+on_ (1678), Violante in Leanerd's _The Counterfeits_ (1679), Sylvia in _The Soldier's Fortune_ (1683), Hippolita in D'Urfey's _A Commonwealth of Women_ (1685), and many more, all of which belong to the 'second walking-lady'.

Mrs. Norris, who acted Petronella Elenora, was a far more important figure in the theatre. One of those useful and, indeed, indispensable performers, who, without ever attaining any prominent position, contribute more essentially than is often realized to the success of a play, she became well known for her capital personations of old women and dowagers. Wife of the actor Norris, she had been one of the earliest members of Davenant's company, and her son, known as Jubilee d.i.c.ky from his superlative performance in Farquhar's _The Constant Couple_ (1699), was a leading comedian in the reigns of Anne and the first George. Amongst Mrs. Norris' many roles such parts as Lady Dupe, the old lady in Dryden's _Sir Martin Mar-All_ (1667), Goody Rash in Crowne's _The Country Wit_ (1675), Nuarcha, an amorous old maid, in Maidwell's _The Loving Enemies_ (1680), Mother Dunwell, the bawd in Betterton's _The Revenge; or, A Match in Newgate_ (1680), all sufficiently typify her special line, within whose limits she won considerable applause.

+Act I: Scene i+

p. 120 _Crab-Wine._ An inferior tipple brewed from sour apples.

p. 122 _Tantalus better than ever Ovid described him._

Quaerit aquas in aquis, et poma fugacia captat Tantalus: hoc illi garrula lingua dedit.

_Amorum_, ii, 11, 43-4.

Tibi, Tantale, nullae Deprenduntur aquae; quaeque imminet effugit arbos.

_Met_, iv, 457-8.

p. 126 _I ... must be this very Mountebank expected._ One may remember Rochester's unpenetrated masquerade as Alexander Bendo, high above 'the b.a.s.t.a.r.d race of quacks and cheats,' and Grammont's account of all the courtiers and maids of honour flocking for lotions and potions of perpetual youth to the new empiric's lodgings 'in _Tower-Street_, next door to the sign of the _Black Swan_, at a Goldsmith's house.' In the _Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscommon and Dorset_ (2. vols. 1756), there is a rough cut of Rochester as a charlatan delivering a speech to the a.s.sembled crowd.

On the platform also stands his attendant, a figure dressed in the diamonded motley of Harlequin.

p. 126. _in querpo._ A Spanish phrase, _en cuerpo_ = without a cloak; in an undress or disguise.

+Act I: Scene ia+

p. 133 _old Adam's Ale._ A very ancient colloquialism for water. In Scotland 'Adam's wine' and frequently merely 'Adam'. Prynne in his _Sovereign Power of Parliament_ (1648), speaks of prisoners 'allowed only a poor pittance of Adam's ale.' cf. Peter Pindar (John Wolcot), _The Lousiad_, Canto ii, ll. 453-4:--

Old Adam's beverage flows with pride From wide-mouthed pitchers in a plenteous tide.

+Act II: Scene i+

p. 141 _a Pageant._ Here used to signify a platform or low scaffold.

+Act III: Scene i+

p. 157 _the Royal Sovereign._ In a Navy List of 1684 the _Royal Sovereign_ is cla.s.sed as one of the 'Nine First Rate' vessels. 1545 tons, 100 guns at home, 90 guns abroad, 815 men at home, 710 men abroad. In 1672 her commander was Sir Joseph Jorden. An authority on nautical matters whom I have consulted informs me that less men and fewer guns were carried to relieve the top hamper of the s.h.i.+p in a sea-way. Most vessels then were inclined to be top heavy, and although able to carry all their guns in the narrow seas, yet when going foreign were glad to leave ten behind, well knowing they would soon lose by scurvy or disease numbers of their crew apart from losses in battle. Although these s.h.i.+ps were pierced with ports for, say, 100 guns, it did not follow they always carried so many, as a complete broadside could be fired by running the gun carriages across from one side to another before the fight, so she would not be so heavy above and not so liable to roll and spoil the aim of the guns.

p. 159 _Bezolos mano's, Seignior._ Senor, beso las manos. = Sir, I kiss your hands; the usual Spanish salutation.

p. 165 _brown George._ Coa.r.s.e black bread; hard biscuit. cf.

Urquhart's _Rabelais_ (1653), Book IV. Author's prologue: 'The devil of one musty crust of a Brown George the poor boys had to scour their grinders with.' And Dryden, _Persius_ (1693), v. 215:--

Cubb'd in a cabin, on a matra.s.s laid, On a Brown George with lousy swabbers fed.

p. 165 _Spanish Pay._ Slang for fair words; compliments, and nothing more.

+Act IV: Scene ib+

p. 182 _fin'd._ In a somewhat unusual sense of to fine = to pay a composition or consideration for a special privilege.

+Act V: Scene iii+