The Works of Aphra Behn Volume Ii Part 49

_Qu_. I will, my _Orsames_; and 'tis the only Present I can make to expiate my Fault.

_Ors_. And I'll receive her as the only thing Can make me both a happy Subject and a King.

Oh, _Geron_, still if this should prove a Dream!

_Ger_. Sir, Dreams of Kings are much less pleasant.

_Enter_ Lysander.

_Lys_. Sir, there are without some Shepherdesses, Who say they wou'd present you [_To_ Ther.

Something that will not be unwelcome to your Highness.

_Ther_. Let them come in--

_They seat themselves. Enter_ Amin. Ura. _maskt, Shepherds, Shepherdesses, followed with Pipes, or Wind-Musick. They dance; after which_ Amin. _kneels to the Prince_, Ura. _to the Princess_.

--My dear _Amintas_, do I find thee live?

Fortune requites my Sufferings With too large a share of Happiness.

_Amin_. Sir, I do live to die again for you.

_Ther_. This, my Divine, is he who had [_To_ Cleo.

The Glory to be bewail'd by you; for him you wept; For him had almost dy'd.

_Amin_. That Balm it was, that like the Weapon-salve Heals at a distance--

_Cleo_. But why, Amintas, did you name _Thersander_, When you were askt who wounded you?

_Amin_. Madam, if loss of Blood had given me leave, I wou'd have told you how I came so habited, And who I was, though not how I was wounded.

_King_. Still I am in a mist, and cannot see the happy path I tread.

_Ther_. Anon we will explain the Mystery, Sir.

_Hon_. Now, great _Orsames_, 'tis but just and fit That you receive the Rites of Coronation, Which are not to be paid you in a Camp; The Court will add more to that joyful Day.

_King_. And there we'll join our Souls as well as Swords, Our Interests as our Families.

_Ors_. I am content that thou should'st give me Laws: Come, my _Vallentio_, it shall ne'er be said I recompense thy Services With any thing less grateful than a Woman: --Here, I will chuse for thee-- And when I know what 'tis I more can do, If there be ought beyond this Gift, 'tis thine.

[_Gives him_ Sem.

_Ther. Scythia_ and _Dacia_ now united are: The G.o.d of Love o'ercomes the G.o.d of War.

_After a Dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses, the Epilogue is spoken by Mrs_. Barry, _as a Nymph; at his Royal Highness's second Exile into_ Flanders.

EPILOGUE.

_After our showing Play of mighty Pains, We here present you humble Nymphs and Swains.

Our rustick Sports sometimes may Princes please, And Courts do oft divert in Cottages, And prize the Joys with some young rural Maid, On Beds of Gra.s.s beneath a lovely Shade, 'Bove all the Pride of City-Jilts, whose Arts Are more to gain your Purses than your Hearts; Whose chiefest Beauty lies in being fine; And Coyness is not Virtue, but Design.

We use no Colours to adorn the Face, No artful Looks, nor no affected Grace, The neighbouring Stream serves for a Looking-gla.s.s.

Ambition is not known within our Groves; Here's no Dispute for Empire, but for Loves; The humble Swain his Birth-right here enjoys, And fears no Danger from the publick Voice; No Wrong nor Insolence from busy Powers, No Rivals here for Crowns, but those of Flowers, His Country and his Flocks enjoy with ease, Ranges his native Fields and Groves in Peace; Nor forc'd by Arbitrary Votes to fly To foreign Sh.o.r.es for his Security.

Our humble Tributes uncompell'd we pay, And cheerful Homage to the Lord of May; No Emulation breaks his soft Repose, Nor do his Wreaths or Virtues gain him Foes: No publick Mischiefs can disturb his Reign, And Malice would be busy here in vain.

Fathers and Sons just Love and Duty pay; This knows to be indulgent, that t'obey.

Here's no Sedition hatcht, no other Plots, But to entrap the Wolf that steals our Flocks.

Who then wou'd be a King, gay Crowns to wear, Restless his Nights, thoughtful his Days with Care; Whose Greatness, or whose Goodness cant secure From Outrages which Knaves and Fools procure?

Greatness, be gone, we banish you from hence, The n.o.blest State is lowly Innocence.

Here honest Wit in Mirth and Triumph reigns, Musick and Love shall ever bless our Swains, And keep the Golden Age within our Woods and Plains_.

THE CITY HEIRESS; OR, SIR TIMOTHY TREAT-ALL.

ARGUMENT.

The scene is London. Sir Timothy Treat-all, an old seditious knight, that keeps open house for Commonwealthsmen and true Blue Protestants, has disinherited his nephew, Tom Wilding, a town gallant and a Tory. Wilding is pursuing an intrigue with Lady Galliard, a wealthy widow, and also with Chariot, heiress to the rich Sir Nicholas Get-all, recently deceased. Lady Galliard is further hotly wooed by Sir Charles Meriwill, a young Tory, but she favours Wilding. Sir Charles is encouraged in his suit by his roystering uncle, Sir Anthony. Wilding introduces his mistress Diana to Sir Timothy as the heiress Charlot; and at an entertainment given by Sir Timothy, Charlot herself appears, disguised as a Northern la.s.s, to watch the progress of Tom's intrigue with the widow, who eventually yields to him. Sir Charles, none the less, backed by Sir Anthony, still persists, and after various pa.s.sionate scenes forces her to consent to become his bride. Meanwhile Sir Timothy has arranged a marriage with Diana, whom he firmly believes to be Charlot. During the progress of the entertainment he is visited by a strange n.o.bleman and his retinue, who offer him the crown of Poland and great honours. That night, however, his house is rifled by thieves and his money and papers stolen.

He himself is pinioned hand and foot, the foreign lord bound fast in his own room, and all his followers secured. Sir Timothy having married Diana discovers that she is none other than his nephew's mistress, and, moreover, the Polish amba.s.sador was Tom in masquerade, the attendants and burglars his friends, who by obtaining his treasonable correspondence are able effectually to silence the old knight. Wilding is united to Charlot, whilst Lady Galliard weds Charles Meriwill.

SOURCE.

The City Heiress is most manifestly borrowed from two main sources. Sir Anthony Meriwill and Charles are Durazzo and Caldoro from Ma.s.singer's _The Guardian_ (licensed 31 October, 1633, 8vo, 1655). Mrs. Behn has transferred to her play even small details and touches. The burglary, that most wonderful of all burglaries, is taken and improved from Middleton's _A Mad World, My Masters_ (4to, 1608), Act ii, where Sir Bounteous Progress is robbed by d.i.c.k Folly-Wit, his grandson, in precisely the same way as Sir Timothy is choused by Tom. On 4 February, 1715, Charles Johnson produced at Drury Lane his _The Country La.s.ses; or, The Custom of the Manor_, a rifacimento of Fletcher's _The Custom of the Country_ and _The City Heiress_. It is a well-written, lively enough comedy, but very weak and anaemic withal when compared to Mrs. Behn. B.

G. Stephenson, in his vivacious libretto to Cellier's tuneful opera, _Dorothy_, produced at the Gaiety Theatre, 25 September, 1886, has made great use of Johnson's play, especially Act i, where the gallants meet the two ladies disguised as country girls; the duel scenes of Act v; and the pseudo-burglary of Act iii. He even gives his comic sheriff's officer the name of Lurcher, who in Johnson is the rackety nephew that tricks his hospitable old uncle, Sir John English. The _Biographia Dramatica_ states that Mrs. Behn 'introduced into this play (_The City Heiress_) a great part of the _Inner Temple Masque_ by Middleton.' This charge is absolutely unfounded, and it would not be uninteresting to know how so complete an error arose. The two have nothing in common. It must be allowed that Mrs. Behn has displayed such wit and humour as amply to justify her plagiarisms. Sir Timothy Treat-all himself is, of course, Shaftesbury almost without disguise. There are a thousand telling hits at the President of the Council and his vices. He was also bitterly satirized in many other plays. In Nevil Payne's _The Siege of Constantinople_ (1675) he appears as The Chancellor; 1680 in Otway's Shakespearean cento c.u.m b.a.s.t.a.r.d cla.s.sicism _Caius Marius_ some very plain traits can be recognized in the grim Marius senior; in Southerne's _The Loyal Brother_ (1682) Ismael, a villainous favourite; in _Venice Preserved_ (1682) the lecherous Antonio; in the same year Banks caricatured him as a quite unhistorical Cardinal Wolsey, _Virtue Betray'd; or, Anna Bullen_; in Crowne's mordant _City Politics_ (1683) the Podesta of a most un-Italian Naples; the following year Arius the heresiarch in Lee's _Constantine the Great_; in the operatic _Albion and Albanius_ (1685), Dryden does not spare even physical infirmities and disease with the crudest yet cruellest exhibition, and five years later he attacked his old enemy once more as Benducar in that great tragedy _Don Sebastian_.

THEATRICAL HISTORY.

_The City Heiress; or, Sir Timothy Treat-all_ was produced at the Duke's House, Dorset Garden, in 1682. Downes specially mentions it as having been 'well acted', and it was indeed an 'all star' cast. It had a tremendous ovation but in spite of its great merit did not become a stock play, probably owing to the intensely political nature of much of its satirical wit, a feature necessarily ephemeral. It seems, however, to have been presented from time to time, and there was a notable revival on 10 July, 1707, at the Haymarket, for the benefit of Husband and Pack. Sir Timothy was played by Cross; Tom Wilding, Mills; Sir Anthony, Bullock; Foppington, Pack; Lady Galliard, Mrs. Bradshaw; Charlot, Mrs. Bicknall; Clacket, Mrs. Powell. It met with a very favourable reception.

To the Right Honourable _Henry_ Earl of _Arundel_, and Lord _Mowbray_.

MY LORD,

'Tis long that I have with great impatience waited some opportunity to declare my infinite Respect to your Lordship, coming, I may say, into the World with a Veneration for your Ill.u.s.trious Family, and being brought up with continual Praises of the Renowned Actions of your glorious Ancestors, both in War and Peace, so famous over the Christian World for their Vertue, Piety, and Learning, their elevated Birth, and greatness of Courage, and of whom all our English History are full of the Wonders of their Lives: A Family of so Ancient n.o.bility, and from whom so many Heroes have proceeded to bless and serve their King and Country, that all Ages and all Nations mention 'em even with Adoration: My self have been in this our Age an Eye and Ear-witness, with what Transports of Joy, with what unusual Respect and Ceremony, above what we pay to Mankind, the very Name of the Great Howards of Norfolk and Arundel, have been celebrated on Foreign Sh.o.r.es! And when any one of your Ill.u.s.trious Family have pa.s.s'd the Streets, the People throng'd to praise and bless him as soon as his Name has been made known to the glad Croud. This I have seen with a Joy that became a true English heart, (who truly venerate its brave Country-men) and joyn'd my dutiful Respects and Praises with the most devout; but never had the happiness yet of any opportunity to express particularly that Admiration I have and ever had for your Lordship and your Great Family. Still, I say, I did admire you, still I wish'd and pray'd for you; 'twas all I cou'd or durst: But, as my Esteem for your Lordship daily increased with my Judgment, so nothing cou'd bring it to a more absolute height and perfection, than to observe in these troublesome times, this Age of Lying, Peaching, and Swearing with what n.o.ble Prudence, what steadiness of Mind, what Loyalty and Conduct you have evaded the Snare, that 'twas to be fear'd was laid for all the Good, the Brave, and Loyal, for all that truly lov'd our best of Kings and this distracted Country. A thousand times I have wept for fear that Impudence and Malice wou'd extend so far as to stain your n.o.ble and ever-Loyal Family with its unavoidable Imputatious; and as often for joy, to see how undauntedly both the Ill.u.s.trions Duke your Father, and your Self, stem'd the raging Torrent that threatned, with yours, the ruin of the King and Kingdom; all which had not power to shake your Constancy or Loyalty: for which, may Heaven and Earth reward and bless you; the n.o.ble Examples to thousands of failing hearts, who from so great a President of Loyalty, became confirm'd. May Heaven and Earth bless you for your pious and resolute bravery of Mind, and Heroick honesty, when you cry'd, _Not Guilty_; that you durst, like your great self, speak Conscientious Truths in a Juncto so vitious, when Truth and Innocence was criminal: and I doubt not but the Soul of that great Sufferer bows down from Heaven in grat.i.tude for that n.o.ble service done it. All these and a thousand marks you give of daily growing Greatness; every day produces to those like me, curious to learn the story of your Life and Actions, something that even adds a l.u.s.tre to your great Name, which one wou'd think you'd be made no more splendid: some new Goodness, some new act of Loyalty or Courage, comes out to cheer the World and those that admire you. Nor wou'd I be the last of those that dayly congratulate and celebrate your rising Glory; nor durst I any other way approach you with it, but this humble one, which carries some Excuse along with it.

Proud of the opportunity then, I most humbly beg your Lordships'

patronage of a Comedy, which has nothing to defend it, but the Honour it begs, and nothing to deserve that Honour, but its being in every part true Tory! Loyal all-over! except one Knave, which I hope no body will take to himself; or if he do, I must e'en say with _Hamlet_,

--Then let the strucken Deer go weep--