The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II by Aphra Behn

A >> Aphra Behn >> The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

The 'dull Whiggish Poet' alluded to is Elkanah Settle, with whom at the
beginning of her theatrical career Lady Slingsby was on terms of
considerable intimacy. Scandal further accused her of an intrigue with
Sir Gilbert Gerrard, which is referred to when the knight was attacked in
_A Satyr on Both Whigs and Tories_, (1683, unprinted MS.)

Thou Thing made up of Buttons, Coach, and Show,
The Beasts that draw thee have more sense than thou.
Yet still thou mightst have fool'd behind the Scenes,
Have Comb'd thy Wig and set thy Cravat Strings,
Made love to Slingsby when she played the Queen,
The Coxcomb in the Crowd had passed unseen.

p. 9 _Song_. Poets and critics have been unanimous in their praise of
this exquisite lyric, which, had she written nothing more, would alone
have been amply sufficient to vindicate Aphara Behn's genius and
immortality. It was a great favourite with Swinburne, who terms it 'that
melodious and magnificent song'; Mr. Bullen is warm in its praise, whilst
Professor Saintsbury justly acknowledges it to be 'of quite bewildering
beauty'.

p. 70 _Stout Sceva_. The centurion M. (Valerius Max. iii. ii. 23.)
Cassius Scaeva at the battle of Dyrrachium, B.C. 48, showed heroic valour
and maintained his post although he had lost an eye, was deeply wounded
in shoulder and thigh, and his shield was pierced in 120 places. He
survived, however, and lived until after Cassar's assassination, v.
_Casar B.G_. iii 53. _Suet. Caes_, 68. _Flor_. iv. 2. 40. _Appian_, B.C.
ii. 60. He appears as a character in Fletcher's _The False One_.

p. 98 _little Mrs. Ariell_. This actress doubtless belonged to the
Nursery, a training theatre for boys and girls intended for the stage.
Established under Royal Letters Patent issued 30 March, 1664, it is
frequently alluded to in contemporary literature. There was only one
Nursery, although, as it not infrequently changed its quarters, two are
sometimes stated to have existed simultaneously, an easy and plausible
mistake, The Nursery was originally in Hatton Garden, About 1668 it was
transferred to Vere Street, and thence finally to the Barbican. Mr. W. J.
Lawrence in an able history of _Restoration Stage Nurseries_, shows that
Wilkinson's oft-engraved view of the supposed Fortune Theatre is none
other than this Golden Lane Nursery on the site of the old Fortune
Theatre. Mrs. Ariell, a young girl, probably performed Fanny in _Sir
Patient Fancy_. Occasionally the names of other Nursery actresses occur.
We have a certain Miss Nanny, of whom nothing is known, billed as Clita,
a small part in D'Urfey's _The Commonwealth of Women_, produced August,
1685. The prefix 'Miss' as meaning a young girl occurs here in a bill for
the first time. A decade later we have Miss Allinson as Hengo, a lad, in
an alteration of Fletcher's _Bonduca_, and Miss Cross as Bonvica,
Bonduca's youngest daughter. In 1693 Miss Allison, who took the part of
Jano, a page boy, in Southerne's _The Maid's Last Prayer_, is billed as
Betty Allison. In 1696 again, Miss Cross, with Horden, spoke the prologue
to D'Urfey's _Don Quixote_, Part III. In the cast, however, when she
enacted Altisidora, she is described as Mrs. Cross, A Miss Howard acted
Kitty in Motteux's _Love's a Jest(1696) and, 'in page's habit_,' spoke
the epilogue to Dilke's _The Lover's Luck_ the same year. After that date
'Miss' instead of the heretofore 'Mrs.' became more general.

The name of the child actress, doubtless from the Nursery, who took the
young Princess Elizabeth in Banks' _Virtue Betray'd; or, Anna Bullen_
(1682) has not come down to us. _Wits led by the Nose; or, A Poet's
Revenge_, an alteration of Chamberlaine's unacted _Love's Victory_ (4to
1658), produced at the Theatre Royal in the summer of 1677, has
indifferent performers such as Coysh, Perrin, in the leading roles;
whilst other parts are cast thus: Sir Jasper Sympleton, Stiles; Jack
Drayner, Nathaniel Q.; Heroina, Mrs. Baker, Jun.; Theocrine, Mrs.
F[arlee?]. Stiles, Nathaniel Q., Mrs. Baker, Jun., Mrs. F[arlee?] were
all temporary recruits from the Nursery. In the spring of 1678 the
younger members act again in Leanerd's _The Rambling Justice_. Powre
played Sir John Twiford; Disney, Contentious Surley; Mr. Q., Spywell;
Mrs. Merchant, Petulant Easy; Mrs. Bates, Emilia. The Nursery disappears
about 1686. Certainly in 1690 it was the custom for young aspirants to
the sock and buskin to join the regular theatres without preliminary
training elsewhere.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Her last original rôle was Berenice in Crowne's _The Destruction of
Jerusalem_, a heroic tragedy in two parts.

2. There was a Sir Arthur Slingsby, a younger son of Sir Guildford
Slingsby, Bart. Both Pepys (20 July, 1664) and Evelyn (19 July, 1664)
mention the lottery he held with the King's permission in the Banqueting
House at Whitehall. Evelyn judged him to be 'a mere shark.'

THE YOUNG KING.

p. 107 _Tartarian war_. Brawls and free fights, sometimes of a serious
character, in the pit (Tartarus) of a Restoration theatre were of
frequent occurrence. There is a well-known instance in Langbaine: 'At the
acting of this tragedy [_Macbeth_] on the stage, I saw a real one acted
in the pit; I mean the death of Mr. Scroop, who received his death's
wound from the late Sir Thomas Armstrong, and died presently after he was
remov'd to a house opposite to the Theatre, in Dorset Garden.' This was
in 1679. In April, 1682, in the pit at the Theatre Royal, Charles Dering
and Mr. Vaughan drew on each other and then clambered on to the stage to
finish their duel 'to the greater comfort of the audience'. Dering being
badly wounded, Vaughan was held in custody until he recovered. In
Shadwell's _A True Widow_ (1678) Act iv, i, there is a vivid picture of a
general scuffle and battle royal in the pit. cf. Dryden's Prologue to
_The Spanish Friar_ (1681):--

Now we set up for tilting in the pit,
Where 'tis agreed by bullies chicken-hearted
To fright the ladies first, and then be parted.

p. 107 _Half crown my play_.... There are many allusions to the price of
admission to the pit. Pepys mentions it, and on one occasion notices
'ordinary' prentices and mean people in the pit at 2s 6d a-piece'. cf.
Epilogue to Carye's _The Generous Enemies_:--

There's a nest of devils in the pit,
By whom our plays, like children, just alive,
Pinch'd by the fairies, never after thrive:
'Tis but your half-crown, Sirs: that won't undo.

p. 133 _antick_.--here used in its strict and original sense, 'baroque',
'rococo'. A favourite word with Mrs. Behn.

p. 181 _Life it self's a Dream. This is the very title of Calderon's
comedia, _La Vida es Sueño_.

p. 183 _J. Wright, esq_. James Wright (1643-1713), barrister-at-law and
miscellaneous writer, is now chiefly remembered by his famous pamphlet,
_Historia Histrionica_ (1699), a dialogue on old plays and players,
reprinted in various editions of Dodsley. Wright was a great lover of the
theatre, and 'one of the first collectors of old plays since Cartwright.'

p. 192 _spoken ... at his Royal Highness' second exile_. This note fixes
the date of the play as being between the latter end of March, 1679, and
August of the same year. It was probably produced in April. The Duke of
York sailed for Antwerp on 4 March, 1679. From Antwerp he went to the
Hague and thence to Brussels. In August he was summoned home as Charles
was attacked by a severe fit of ague. He returned to Brussels to escort
the Duchess back, and on 27 October left for Scotland.

THE CITY HEIRESS.

p. 199 _Henry, Earl of Arundel_. Henry Howard, 1655-1701, son of Henry,
sixth Duke of Norfolk, succeeded his father 10 January, 1684. From 1678
to 1684 he was styled Earl of Arundel, although summoned to Parliament on
27 January, 1679 as Lord Mowbray.

p. 200 _Then let the strucken Deer. Hamlet_, Act iii, ii.

p. 201 _to roar_. To be tipsily boisterous, deoauchcd and wantonly
destructive. The word is common.

p. 201 _to glout_. To stare at; to make eyes at. Not here to frown or
scowl, the usual meaning, and the sole explanation given by the _N.E.D_.
For 'glout' in this sense cf. Orrery's _Guzman_ (1679) iv, 'Guzman glouts
at her, sighs, and folds his arms.'

p. 201 _Convenient_. 'Blowing, Natural, Convenient, Tackle. Several names
for a Mistress or rather a Whore.'--'An Explanation of the Cant' prefixed
to Shadwell's _The Squire of Alsatia_ (4to, 1688). The word occurs more
than once in the course of the play. cf. Act iv, where we have

'_Enter_ Margaret _and Mrs_. Hackum _with a Cawdle_.
_Belf. Sen_. Oh my dear _Blowing!_ my _Convenient!_ my _Tackle!_'

p. 201 _In Reverend Shape_. The allusion throughout this prologue is to
Titus Oates. After his abominable perjuries this wretch was lodged at
Whitehall, assigned £1200 a year and a special posse of officers and
attendants.

p. 201 _The Oaths_ ... cf. Dryden's description of Oates as Corah.
_Absalom and Achitophel_, Part I--especially--

Who ever asked the witnesses' high race
Whose oath with martyrdom did Stephen grace?

p. 202 _Pug_. A quasi-proper name for a fox. cf. R.S. Surtees' _Ask
Mamma_ (1857-8), xv. 'Pug ... turns tail and is very soon in the rear of
the hounds.'

p. 202 _silken Doctor_. Oates pretended to have taken the degree of D.D.
at the University of Salamanca.

The spirit caught him up! the Lord knows where,
And gave him his Rabbinical degree
Unknown to foreign university.--_Absalom and Achitopbel_, i.

Silken of course alludes to his black silk Doctor's gown.

p. 202 _Guinea for--no Feast_. This and the following verses refer to a
circumstance much talked of and well laughed at by the Tories. The Duke
of York having been invited to dine with the Artillery Company at
Merchant-Tailors'-Hall, on 21 April, 1682; an opposition dinner was
impudently projected by the Shaftesbury party, to be held at
Haberdashers' Hall, and tickets were forthwith issued at one guinea each;
for the purpose, as it was declared, of commemorating the providential
escape of the nation from the hellish designs of the papists, etc. The
King, however, issued a salutary order forbidding the meeting as an
illegal one. This supplied the loyal party with new matter for ridicule
and satire against the Whigs, who were considerably dejected by their
disappointment.

p. 206 _overtaken_--with liquor. cf. Steele, _Spectator_, No. 420,
Wednesday, 6 August, 1712. 'I do not remember I was ever o'ertaken in
drink.'

p. 206 _wholesom Act_. see _supra_. Vol. I, _The Roundheads_, Act v, II,
p. 457, note: 'p. 414, an act, 24 June.'

p. 207 _Forty one_. The year of the Grand Remonstrance and agitation for
the suppression of Episcopacy.

p. 207 _guttle_. To flatter, to toady. The word is rare in this sense,
generally meaning to guzzle. cf. parasitus.

p. 210 _Porridge_. A contemptuous nickname given by Dissenters to the
_Book of Common Prayer_. On 24 August, 1662, Pepys hears that there has
been 'a disturbance in a church in Friday St.; a great many young
[people] knotting together and crying out _Porridge_ often and
seditiously in the church, and took the Common Prayer Book, they say,
away.' There is a four leaved pamphlet, 4to 1642, by Gyles Calsine,
entitled 'A Messe of Pottage, very well seasoned and crumb'd with bread
of life, and easie to be digested against the contumelious slanderers of
the Divine Service, terming it Poridge.'

p. 214. _Opinion_. Reputation, cf. Shirley, _The Gamester_ (1637), Act
i:--'_Barnacle_. Patience; I mean you have the opinion of a valiant
gentleman.'

p. 218 _watch her like a Witch_. _vide_ Vol I, p. 448, note: _Women must
be watcht as Witches are_.

p. 228 _i' th' Pit, behind the Scenes_. The foremost benches of the pit
were a recognized rendezvous for fops and beaux. The tiring rooms of the
actors and actresses were also a favourite resort of wits and gallants.
Pepys frequently mentions the visits he paid behind the scenes. The
Epilogue to _The Gentleman Dancing Master_ (1671) even invites cits
behind the scenes:--

You good men o' th' Exchange, on whom alone
We must depend when Sparks to sea are gone;
Into the pit already you are come,
'Tis but a step more to our tiring-room
Where none of us but will be wondrous sweet
Upon an able love of Lombard-Street.

p. 228 _flamm'd off_. Cheated, cf. Ford and Dekker's _The Witch of
Edmonton_, ii, II (1621):--'_Susan_. And then flam me off
With an old witch.'

also South's _Sermons_ (1687):--'A God not to be flammed off with lies.'

p. 209 _Lusum_. i.e. Lewisham.

p. 230 _in ure_. In use; practice. cf. John Taylor's _The Pennyles
Pilgrimage_ (4to 1618);--

For in the time that thieving was in ure
The gentle fled to places more secure.

p. 230 _betauder_. The meaning of this word (=to bedizen with tawdry
finery) is plain. As it is only found here, the N.E.D. suggests it may be
a nonce-verb.

p. 230 _Spanish Paint_. Rouge, cf. Lady Wishfort in _The Way of the
World_ (1700);--'I mean the Spanish paper, idiot. Complexion, darling,
paint, paint, paint.'--Act iii, 1.

p. 230 _prew_. Prim, modest. A very rare, affected little word.

p. 230 _rant_. To be boisterously merry, cf. Farquhar, _The Constant
Couple_ (1700), Act iv, 1:--'_Clincher jun_. I'll court, and swear, and
rant, and rake and go to the jubilee with the best of them.'

p. 233 _seditiously petitioning_. In allusion to the vast number of
petitions which Shaftesbury procured from the counties in support of the
Exclusion Bill. The rival factions, 'Petitioners' and 'Abhorrers' were
the nucleus of the two great parties, Whigs and Tories.

p. 236 _Tuberose_. The most fashionable perfume of the day. cf.
Etheredge's _The Man of Mode_ (1676), Act v, 1:--'_Belinda_. I ... told
them I never wore anything but orange-flowers and tuberose.'

p. 245 _hits_. A stroke of luck; an opportunity.

p. 246 _ignoramus_. The partial verdict of the Middlesex Grand Jury
ignoring the bill of the indictment against Shaftesbury, 24 November,
1681. It is frequently alluded to by Dryden, Mrs. Behn, and the Tory
writers.

p. 248 _Albany_. James (II), Duke of York and Albany.

p. 249 _Polanders_. Shaftesbury aspired to be chosen King of Poland in
1675 when John Sobieski was elected to that Throne. This piece of foolish
ambition and a certain physical infirmity, to wit, an abscess that in
order to preserve his life had to be kept continually open by a silver
pipe, got him the nickname of Count Tapsky. In _The Medal_ (March, 1682)
Dryden speaks of 'The Polish Medal', and Otway's Prologue to _Venice
Preserv'd_ (1682) ridicules Shaftesbury's regal covetings thus:--

O Poland, Poland! had it been thy lot
T'have heard in time of this Venetian plot,
Thou surely chosen hadst one king from thence
And honoured them, as thou hast England since.

An elaborate and amusing piece of sarcasm on the same subject appeared in
a pamphlet entitled _A Modest Vindication of the Earl of S----y, _In a
Letter to a Friend concerning his being elected King of Poland_, 1682.
Squibs and pasquinades such as _Scandalum Magnatum, or Potapski's case; A
Satire against Polish Oppression_ (1682), and the versified _Last Will
and Testament of Anthony, King of Poland_ abounded.

p. 251 _Tantivy_. Reckless, dare-devil. Said by Dr. Johnson to be derived
from the sound of a hunting-horn.

p. 251 _Absalom and Achitophel_. The first part of this great poem was
published, folio, on or a little before 17 November, 1681. A second
edition, quarto, followed during December. The work was anonymous, but
the authorship was never a secret. The second part, mainly from the pen
of Tate, appeared in November, 1682.

p. 254 _lookt Babies_. To look babies is to gaze at the reflection of
one's face in another's eyes. cf. Beaumont, _The Woman Hater_ (1606),
iii, 1:--

_Gondarino_. I cannot think I shall become a coxcomb,
To ha' my hair curl'd by an idle finger,
* * * * *
Mine eyes look'd babies in.

p. 257 _an old Reckoning_, 4to 1, 1682, reads 'an odde Reckoning'; 4to 2,
1698, reads 'an odd Reckoning'; but 1724 'old' is doubtless correct.

p. 257 _to give us a Song_. Charlotte Butler, who played Charlot,
'proved', says Cibber, 'not only a good actress, but was allowed in those
days, to sing and dance to great perfection. In the dramatic operas of
_Dioclesian_ and _King Arthur_, she was a capital and admired performer.
In speaking too, she had a sweet-toned voice, which, with her naturally
genteel air and sensible pronunciation, rendered her wholly mistress of
the amiable in many serious characters. In parts of humour, too, she had
a manner of blending her assuasive softness, even with the gay, the
lively, and the alluring.' Fletcher's _The Prophetess_ was brought out as
an opera, _Dioclesian_, at Dorset Garden in 1690. Dryden's _King Arthur_,
'a dramatic opera', music by Purcell, was produced in 1691. In the latter
piece Mrs. Butler acted Philidel, an Airy Spirit.

p. 257 _Charl. and Fop. dance_. Jevon, who acted Foppington, had
originally been a dancing master. He was famous for his grace and
nimbleness.

p. 259 _Mercury_. The first foreign printed periodical circulating in
England was _Mercurius Gallobelgicus_, a bound book printed in Cologne
and written in Latin. The first number, a thick little octavo of 625
pages, was published in March, 1594, and contained a chronicle of events
from 1588. From this 'newsbook' came the Latin title _Mercurius_, used on
so many of our periodicals. In 1625 was issued the first coranto with a
name, 'printed for Mercurius Britannicus'. The earliest number in
existence is 16, dated 7 April, 1625. Butler (_Hudibras_, II, i. 56)
speaks of

Mercuries of furthest regions,
Diurnals writ for regulation
Of lying, to inform the nation.

p. 259 _flam_, humbug. cf. South's Sermons (1737), II, xii, p. 443.
_Conscience_ (1692). 'All pretences to the contrary are nothing but cant
and cheat, flam and delusion.'

p. 260 _Hackney_. A whore. Cotgrave (1611), _Bringuenaudée_,
a common hackney. Stapylton's _Juvenalls Satyrs_ (1647), III, 76:
--'And hackney-wenches that i' th' _Circus_ stand'. _Hudibras_,
III, i, 811-2:--

That is no more than every lover
Does from his hackney-lady suffer.

p. 261 _Twelve was the lucky_. Tom is quoting from _The Happy Night_, a
piece which may be found in Vol. I of the _Works of the Earl of
Rochester_ (1756), and in the early pseudo-Amsterdam editions. The
following note is generally appended: 'The late Duke of Buckinghamshire
was pleased to own himself the Author of this Poem.'

p. 262 _fisking and giggiting. Both these words have practically the same
signification, i.e., to frisk or scamper about heedlessly, cf. _Rules of
Civility_ (1675), in _Antiquary_ (1880):--'Madam ... fisking and
prattling are but ill ways to please.'

To giggit is a very rare verb. _The N.E.D_. only notices it as a modern
U.S.A. colloquialism, quoting _Old Town Folks_ 'While the wagon and uncle
Liakim were heard giggiting away.'

p. 263 _Rakeshame_. A common word for a profligate in the 17th century.
cf. Bishop Montagu, _Diatribae_ (1621), 'Such roysterers and rakeshames
as Mars is manned with.'

p. 269 _whipping Tom_. The use of a whipping boy punished for another's
fault is well known. Barnaby Fitzpatrick served that office for the young
Edward VI, and Mungo Murray for Charles I.

p. 273 _Intelligence_. Newspaper; diurnal. 'Letters of Intelligence' was
an early and common name for a periodical. In 1662 we have _A Monthly
Intelligence Relating the Affaires of the People called Quakers_. No. I,
August--September 1. (The only number.) In 1665, _Publick Intelligence_,
No. i, 28 November, 1665. By Sir Roger L'Estrange. (One number.)

p. 277 _I saw how_. Tom is quoting these four lines from stanza vii of
_The Disappointment_ vide Vol. vi. The same poem, yclept _The
Insensible_, appears in various editions of Rochester's _Works_, and is
attributed to the Earl. _The Disappointment_ is again the title of
another poem which directly precedes _The Insensible_.

p. 278 _Enter Sensure_. cf. Shadwell's _The Miser (1672)_, Act iv, where
Squeeze escaping from Mother Cheatley's house is exposed by being found
to have donned Letrice's red silk stocking in mistake for his own. It is
said that when Shaftesbury's house was searched for incriminating papers
a lady of some little notoriety was found concealed under his bed, p. 281
_the City-Charter_. The Charter of the City of London was broken by the
Crown in 1683. cf. Dryden's _Prologue to the King & Queen ... upon the
Union of the Two Companies _spoken at Drury Lane, 16 November, 1682:--

When men will needlessly their freedom barter
For lawless power, sometimes they catch a Tartar;
(There's a damned word that rhymes to this, call'd Charter.)

p. 282 _Crape-Goivnorums_. Clerics. Bailey (1755) defines crape as a
"sort of thin worsted stuff of which the dress of the clergy is sometimes
made", cf. _Speculum Crape-Gownsorum; or, A Looking-Glass for the young
Academicks (1682)_. An unpublished satire (Harleian MS.), _The
Convocation (1688)_, has:--

Whole Troops of Crape Gowns with Curtains of Lawn
In the Pale of the Church together are drawn.

p. 282 _Association_. When Shaftesbury was apprehended and sent to the
Tower in 1681, the project of an "Association" was discovered amongst his
papers. The satire is very mordant here. There is a caustic pasquil
entitled _Massinello, or a Satyr against the Association and the
Guildhall Plot_. Dedicated to the Salamanca (No) Doctor, 1683. Cf.
Dryden's _Prologue to the King and Qucen_, spoken at the opening of their
Theatre, Drury Lane, upon the Union of the Two Companies, 16 November,
1682:--

How Pennsylvania's air agrees with Quakers,
And Carolina's with Associators:
Both e'en too good for madmen and for traitors.

p. 289 _Chitterling_. Originally the smaller intestines of beasts, as of
the pig, but here used as equalling "catgut". A rare example.

p. 290 _Discoverer_. A name given to those who belonged to Titus Oates'
gang and feigned to have knowledge of and discover the Popish Plot.

p. 294 _mump'd_. tricked. Dutch _mompen_ = to cheat. A very common
expression.

p. 296 _Polish Embassador then incognito_? _A Modest Vindication of the
Earl of S----y (1682)_, banters that nobleman by describing how "Polish
Deputies were immediately sent Post incognito with the Imperial Crown and
Sceptre in a Cloak-Bag".

p. 297 _Salamanca_. The abominable Oates, prince of perjurers, feigned to
have taken his degree D.D, at Salamanca, cf. _Crowne's City Politics
(1683)_, Act v, where Crafty says to Dr. Panchy (Oates), "Where did you
take your degree--in Beargarden?' 'In a learned university, Sir,' thunders
the Doctor, to which Crafty retorts, 'I' the University of Coffee-houses,
the University of Lies."

p. 299 _Trincaloes_. In Davenant and Dryden's version of _The Tempest_,
produced with extraordinary success at the Duke's House, 7 November,
1667: or in Shadwell's operatic alteration of Shakespeare produced at
Dorset Garden, 30 April (or very early in May), 1674. The reference is
applicable to either of these two. No sooner has Trincalo chosen Sycorax,
Caliban's sister, as his spouse, than the treacherous Stephano wins the
she-monster for himself, and a battle royal ensues. Cave Underbill,
a famous Gravedigger in _Hamlet_, excelled as Trincalo. p. 299.
_Fop-corner_. One of the corners of the pit nearest the stage much
affected by the gallants and beau critics. There are frequent allusions
in prologues, epilogues and plays, cf. the ballad epilogue to Davenant's
_The Man's the Master_ (produced 26 March, 1668, 4to, 1669):--

Others are bolder, and never cry, shall I?
For they make our guards quail
And'twixt curtain and rail,
Oft combing their hair, they walk in Fop-Alley.

THE FEIGN'D CURTEZANS.

p. 305 _To Mrs. Ellen Guin_. This adulatory epistle may be paralleled
with that prefixed by Duffet to his rhyming comedy, _The Spanish Rogue_
(410, 1674). The only other known book beside these two plays dedicated
to Nell Gwynne is a very rare little volume entitled Janua Di'vorum: or
The Lives and Histories of the Heathen Gods, Goddesses, & Demi-Gods, by
Robert Whitcombe, published in 1678, and inscribed to 'The Illustrious
Madam Ellen Guin'. Dr. Johnson's pungent remark to the effect that Dryden
has never been equalled in the hyperbole of flattery except by Aphara
Behn in her address to Nell Gwynne is quoted to triteness. But then at
that time it was the fashion to riot in the wildest extravagances of
compliment. Neither the great laureate nor Astrea must be too harshly
taken to task for their vivid verbal colouring.

p. 306 _two noble Branches_. Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St. Albans, born
8 May, 1670; James Beauclerk, born 25 December, 1671, ob, Septemher,
1680, the two sons of Nell Gwynne by Charles II. There is an exquisitely
voluptuous painting by Gascar, engraved by Masson, of Nell Gwynne on a
bed of roses whilst the two boys as winged amorini support flowing
curtains and draperies. Her royal lover appears in the distance. There is
also a well-known and beautiful painting of the mother and children by
Lely, engraved by Richard Tompson.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30