The Works of Aphra Behn Volume I Part 34

+Act V: Scene i+

p. 86, l. 12 _Blunt's Chamber._ 4tos 'Chamber'. 1724, 1735, 'Room'.

p. 86, l. 13 _as at his Chamber-door._ 1724, 1735, omit 'as'.

p. 87, l. 20 _and Belvile's Page._ I have added this entrance which 4tos and 1724 omit, as late in the scene an exit is marked for the page.

p. 97, l. 3 _Hah! Angelica!_ 4to 1677 mistakenly marks this speech before the stage direction.

p. 97, l. 4 _What Devil._ 1724, 1735 'What the Devil', which weakens the whole pa.s.sage.

p. 107 _Post-Script._ This is only given in the first 4to (1677).

NOTES: CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

+Prologue+

p. 7 _Rabel's Drops._ Monsieur Rabell, as he is sometimes termed, was a famous empiric of the day. A description of his medicaments may be found in '_Pharmacopoeia Bateana_; or, Bate's Dispensatory.

Edited by William Salmon, London, 1700.' Rabell's name occurs on the t.i.tle-page of this book, and in Section VI of the Preface Rabell's 'Styptick Drops' are alluded to as having been added to the recipes found in the original volume by G. Bate. An account of the manufacture and use of this particular remedy appears in the same volume, Lib. I, chap. x, under 'Sal Styptic.u.m Rabelli'. Salmon, who edited this pharmacopoeia, was himself an irregular pract.i.tioner of some notoriety. He took part in the great controversy with the doctors which raged about 1698 and earlier. He finds a sorry place in Garth's _Dispensary_, canto III, l. 6, wherein his works are alluded to as 'blessed opiates'.

p. 8 _Cits in May-day Coaches._ On May-day it was the custom for all sorts and conditions of persons and pleasure parties to visit Hyde Park in coaches or at least on horse-back, cf. Pepys _Diary_, 1 May, 1663: 'We all took horse, and I ... rode, with some trouble, through the fields, and then Holborn, etc., towards Hyde Park, whither all the world, I think, are going; ... there being people of all sorts in coaches there, to some thousands.... By and by ... I rode home, coaches going in great crowds to the further end of the town almost.'

+Dramatis Personae+

p. 9 _Sancho, Pimp to Lucetta. Mr. John Lee._ There were at this time two actors and two actresses of the name Lee, Leigh, who, especially in view of the eclectic spelling of seventeenth-century proper names, need to be carefully distinguished. John Lee, who appeared in the small role of Sancho and also took the equally unimportant part of Sebastian in _Abdelazer_ this same year, had, according to Downes, joined the Duke's Company about 1670. He never rose above an entirely insignificant line, and we find him cast as Alexas in Pordage's _Herod and Mariamne_, 1673; t.i.tiro in Settle's _Pastor Fido_, 1676; Pedro in Porter's _The French Conjurer_, and Noddy in _The Counterfeit Bridegroom_, 1677. He was, it is almost certain, the husband of the famous Mrs. Mary Lee. Downes' entry runs as follows: '_Note_, About the year 1670, Mrs. _Aldridge_, after Mrs. _Lee_, after Lady _Slingsby_, also Mrs. _Leigh_ Wife, Mr. _John Lee_, Mr. _Crosby_, Mrs. _Johnson_, were entertain'd in the Dukes House.' There is of course some confusion here. Antony Leigh, it may be noted, is not mentioned in the _Roscius Anglica.n.u.s_ for another three years to come (1673), and there can be little doubt that the above pa.s.sage should read 'also Mrs. Leigh's [Lee's] husband, Mr John Lee'. If this were not so, there would be no point in Downes mentioning so minor an actor at this juncture and in such a list.

Crosby and Mrs. Johnson were both performers of great merit, in fact Downes, a page later, has a special warm word of praise for the lady whom we find cast as Carolina in Shadwell's _Epsom Wells_ (1672).

Crosby played such parts as Mr. Cleverwit, Lucia's lover, in Ravenscroft's _Mamamouchi_ (1672), Alonzo in _Abdelazer_ (1677), Leander Fancy in _Sir Patient Fancy_ (1678). John Lee disappears entirely after 1677, and his widow is first billed as Lady Slingsby in 1681. For a full account of this great tragedienne see note on _Abdelazer_, Vol. II.

Mrs. Elizabeth Leigh, Moretta in _The Rover_, Part I, who is so persistently confused with Mrs. Mary Lee, was the wife of Antony Leigh, the celebrated comedian. In Betterton's comedy, _The Revenge_ (1680), when she acted Mrs. Das.h.i.t, she is billed as Mrs. A. Lee.

Her husband died in December, 1692. Their son Michael also gave great promise on the boards. The lad's name occurs in the cast of Shadwell's _The Amorous Bigot_ (1690) as 'young Leigh', when he played Diego, a servant, to his father's Tegue o' Divelly, the Irish friar. Unfortunately he died at an early age, probably in the winter of 1701, but his younger brother Francis attained considerable success. Frank Leigh made his debut at Lincoln's Inn's Fields, 31 December, 1702, as Tristram in the original production of Mrs.

Centlivre's _The Stolen Heiress._ He died in the autumn of 1719.

Mrs. Leigh was herself an actress of no small eminence, her special line being 'affected mothers, aunts, and modest stale maids that had missed their market'. Says Cibber, 'In all these, with many others, she was extremely entertaining'. After 10 June, 1707, when she acted Lady Sly in Carlile's _The Fortune Hunters_, her name is no longer to be found in the bills, and in October, 1707, Mrs. Powell is playing her parts. Mrs. Leigh's repertory was very large, and amongst her roles were Lady Woodvil in Etheredge's _The Man of Mode_ (1676); Lady Plyant in _The Double Dealer_ (1694); the Nurse in _Love for Love_ (1695); the Hostess in Betterton's revival of _Henry IV_, Part I (1699); and Lady Wishfort in _The Way of the World_ (1700). In comedies by Mrs. Behn, Mrs. Leigh only appears twice, Moretta, _The Rover_, Part I (1677); and Mrs. Closet, _The City Heiress_ (1682).

In and about 1702 another Mrs. Leigh, perhaps Frank Leigh's wife, made a brief appearance. She was at first cast for good parts but soon sank into obscurity. Thus on 21 October, 1702, she sustained Mrs. Plotwell in Mrs. Centlivre's _The Beau's Duel_; on 28 April, 1703, Chloris in the Hon. Charles Boyle's insipid _As You Find It._ She may have been the Mrs. Eli. Leigh who with other performers signed a pet.i.tion to Queen Anne in 1709. Of Mrs. Rachel Lee, who took the 'walk-on' part of Judy, a waiting-woman, in Southern's _The Maid's Last Prayer_ (1693), nothing is known.

p. 9 _Angelica Bianca, a famous Curtezan. Mrs. Gwin._ Anne Quin (or Quyn, Gwin, Gwyn as the name is indifferently spelt) was a famous actress of great personal beauty. She is constantly, but most erroneously, confounded with Nell Gwynne, and the mistake is the more unpardonable as both names twice occur in the same cast. When Nelly was acting Florimel in Dryden's _Secret Love_, produced February, 1667, Mrs. Quin played Candiope. Again, in _An Evening's Love_, June, 1668, Nell Gwynne was Jacinta, and Mrs Quin Aurelia, a role a.s.sumed later in the run by Mrs. Marshall. Among Mrs. Quin's more notable parts were Alizia (Alice Perrers) in Orrery's _The Black Prince_, produced 19 October, 1667; 1677, Thalestris in Pordage's _The Siege of Babylon_, and Astrea in _The Constant Nymph_; 1678, Lady Knowell in _Sir Patient Fancy_ and Lady Squeamish in Otway's _Friendship in Fashion_; 1682, Queen Elizabeth in Banks'

_The Unhappy Favourite_, and Sunamire in Southerne's _The Loyal Brother._ Mrs. Quin appears to have retired from the stage towards the close of the year 1682. There exists of this actress an extremely interesting portrait which was offered for sale at Stevens' Auction Rooms, 26 February, 1901, but not reaching the reserve price, withdrawn. It is mistakenly described in the catalogue as 'Miniature Portrait of Nell Gwynn on copper with original case and 30 cover dresses on talc...' An ill.u.s.trated article on it, ent.i.tled, 'Nell Gwynne's Various Guises', appeared in the _Lady's Pictorial_, 23 March, of the same year, p. 470, in the course of which the writer says: 'Accompanying the miniature are some thirty mica covers in different stages of preservation upon which various headdresses and costumes are painted. The place where, in the ordinary course, the face would come is in all cases left blank, the talc being of course transparent, when it is laid upon the original miniature the countenance of the latter becomes visible, and we are enabled to see Nell Gwynne [Anne Quin] as she would appear in various characters.' The old error has been perpetuated here, but the _Lady's Pictorial_ reproduced half-a-dozen of these painted mica covers, and the costumes for the two roles of Queen Elizabeth and Sunamire can be distinctly recognized. Doubtless an examination of the original micas would soon yield an identification of other characters. The miniature, it may be noted, does not in the least resemble Nell Gwynne, so there is bare excuse here for the confusion.

+Act I: Scene i+

p. 11 _Siege of Pampelona._ Pampluna, the strongly fortified capital of Navarra, has from its geographical position very frequently been a centre of military operations. It will be remembered that it was during a siege of Pampluna in 1521 Ignatius Loyola received the wound which indirectly led to the founding of the Jesuits.

p. 13 _King Sancho the First._ Sancho I, 'the Fat', of Castile and Leon, reigned 955-67: Sancho I of Aragon 1067-94. But the phrase is here only in a vague general sense to denote some musty and immemorial antiquity without any exact reference.

p. 14 _Hostel de Dieu._ The first Spanish hospital was erected at Granada by St. Juan de Dios, founder of the Order of Hospitallers.

ob. 1550.

p. 14 _Gambo._ The Gambia in W. Africa has been a British Colony since 1664, when a fort, now Fort James, was founded at the mouth of the river.

+Act I: Scene ii+

p. 17 _Hogoes._ Haut-gout, a relish or savoury.

+Act I: Scene ii+

p. 26 _a Piece of Eight._ A piastre, a coin of varying values in different countries. The Spanish piastre is now synonymous with a dollar and so worth about four shillings. The old Italian piastre was equivalent to 3_s._ 7_d._

+Act II: Scene i+

p. 30 _Balcony... each side of the Door._ With regard to the proscenium doors and balconies of a Restoration theatre, our knowledge of these points has been rendered much more exact since the valuable discovery by that well-known authority in stage matters, Mr. W. J. Lawrence, of Sir Christopher Wren's designs for the second Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 1674. Beyond the proscenium on the ap.r.o.n there are four doors each with its balcony above. The height of these balconies from the stage is considerable, surprisingly so indeed in view of the fact that characters frequently have to climb up into or descend from one of these 'windows', e.g., Shadwell's _The Miser_ (1672), Act. iv, when the drunken bullies 'bounce at the Doors', we have 'Squeeze at the Window in his Cap, and undressed,' who cries: 'I must venture to escape at this Window'; 'he leaps down', and yells, as he falls, 'Death! I have broke my Bones; oh! oh!' whilst the scowrers run up, exclaiming: 'Somebody leaped out of a Window', and he is promptly seized. In Ravenscroft's _The London Cuckolds_ (1682), Act. v: 'Enter Ramble above in the Balcony'. This gallant, escaping from the house hurriedly, decides 'which way shall I get down? I must venture to hang by my hands and then drop from the Balcony'. Next: 'As Ramble is getting down Doodle enters to look for his glove, Ramble drops upon him and beats him down.' This could hardly have been an easy bit of stage business, although Smith, who acted Ramble, was an athletic, tall young fellow.

Normally no doubt only two of the doors (those nearest the proscenium opening on opposite sides) with their balconies were in constant use by the actors as the exigencies of the play might demand, but if required, all four balconies, and more frequently, all four doors could be and were employed. It is noticeable in Wren's design that the balconies are not stage balconies, but side boxes, a permanent part of the general architectural scheme, and there can be no doubt that, save in exceptional circ.u.mstances, the two outermost were occupied by spectators. If the play did not require the use of a balcony at all, spectators would also fill the inner side boxes. In time, indeed, two doors and two balconies only came to be used, but for some decades at least all four were practicable. The present pa.s.sage of _The Rover_ indicates the use of three doors. The bravos hang up two little pictures of Angelica, one at each side of the door of her house, and presently the fair courtezan appears in her balcony above. A little later Don Pedro and Stephano enter by one door at the opposite side, Don Antonio and his page by the second door on the same side as Pedro.

In Etheredge's _She Wou'd if She Cou'd_ (6 February, 1668) Act ii, 1, Courtal and Freeman are seen following up Ariana and Gatty in the Mulberry Garden. Presently 'The Women go out, and go about behind the Scenes to the other Door', then 'Enter the Women [at one door]

and after 'em Courtal at the lower Door, and Freeman at the upper on the contrary side'.

Three balconies are employed in Ravenscroft's _Mamamouchi_ (1672; 4to 1675) Act iv. We have 'Enter Mr. Jorden, musick' obviously in one balcony from the ensuing dialogue. Then 'Cleverwit, in Turk's habit, with Betty Trickmore and Lucia appear in the Balcony' number two. A song is sung and 'Young Jorden and Marina in the Balcony against 'em'. Young Jorden remarks, 'Now, dearest Marina, let us ascend to your Father, he is by this time from his Window convinc'd of the slight is put on you....' 'They retire' and although there has been no exit marked for Mr, Jorden, we find directly, 'Enter Mr.

Jorden and Trickmore,' obviously upon the stage itself, to which Mr.

Jorden has descended. It must be noted, however, that the use of more than two balconies is very rare.

Mr. W. J. Lawrence in _The Elizabethan Playhouse and other Studies_ (First Series) aptly writes: 'No dramatist of the time had a better sense of the theatre than Mrs. Behn, and none made more adroit employment of the balconies.' He then cites the scene of Angelica, her bravos and admirers.

p. 36 _a Patac.o.o.ne._ A Spanish coin in value about 4_s._ 8_d._

+Act II: Scene ii+

p. 38 _a Pistole-worth._ The pistole was a gold coin worth about 16_s._

p. 42 _a shameroon._ A rare word meaning a trickster, a cozening rascal.

+Act III: Scene iia+

p. 54 _bow'd Gold._ Bowed for bent is still used in the North of England: 'A bowed pin.'

+Act III: Scene iii+

p. 57 _disguis'd._ A common phrase for drunk.

+Act IV: Scene ii+

p. 75 _cogging._ To cog = to trick, wheedle or cajole.

+Act V: Scene i+

p. 99 _Tramontana._ Foreign; Italian and Spanish _tramontano_ = from beyond the mountains.

p. 101 _upse._ Op zijn = in the fashion or manner of. _Upse Gipsy_ = like a gipsy, cf. _The Alchemist_, iv, vi: