The Works of Aphra Behn Volume Iii Part 146

p. 278 _shatterhead_. A rare word for shatter-(scatter) brained. cf.

The Countess of Winchilsea, _Miscellany Poems_ (1713), 'Pri'thee shatter-headed Fop'.

p. 278 _Craffey_. Craffy is the foolish son of the Podesta in Crowne's _City Politicks_ (1683). He is described as 'an impudent, amorous, pragmatical fop, that pretends to wit and poetry.' He is engaged in writing _Husbai_ an answer to _Absalom and Achitophel_.

p. 278 _whiffling_. Fickle; unsteady; uncertain. To whiffle = to hesitate; waver; prevaricate. cf. Tillotson, _Sermons_, xiv (1671-94): 'Everyman ought to be stedfast ... and not suffer himself to be whiffled ... by an insignificant noise.' 1724 mistakenly reads 'whistling' in this pa.s.sage.

p. 279 _Bulkers_. Wh.o.r.es. cf. Shadwell, _Amorous Widow_ (1690), Act iii: 'Her mother sells fish and she is little better than a bulker.' A bulker was the lowest cla.s.s of prost.i.tute. cf. Shadwell's _The Scowerers_, Act i, I: 'Every one in a petticoat is thy mistress, from humble bulker to haughty countess.' Bailey (1790) has: 'Bulker, one that would lie down on a bulk to any one. A common Jilt. A wh.o.r.e.' Swift, _A Tale of a Tub_, Section II, has: 'They went to new plays on the first night, haunted the chocolate houses, beat the watch, lay on bulks.'

p. 279 _Tubs_. A patient suffering from the _lues venerea_ was disciplined by long and severe sweating in a heated tub, which combined with strict abstinence was formerly considered an excellent remedy for the disease. cf. _Measure for Measure_, Act iii, sc. II: 'Troth, sir, she has eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub.' Also _Timon of Athens_, iv, III: 'Be a wh.o.r.e still' ...

p. 279 _Jack Ketch_. cf. _Dict. Canting Crew_ (by B.E. _Gent_, 1690): 'Jack Kitch. The Hangman of that Name, but now all his Successors.' He exercised his office circa 1663-87. It was Ketch who bungled the execution of Monmouth. There are innumerable contemporary references to him. cf. Dryden's Epilogue to _The Duke of Guise_ (1682):--

'Jack Ketch', says I, "s an excellent physician.'

THE FORC'D MARRIAGE.

p. 286 _The Nursery_. Vide note, _little Mrs. Ariell_, Vol. II, p. 430-1.

p. 287 _King. Mr. Westwood_. It has been quite mistakenly suggested that Westwood was Otway's theatrical name. Westwood was a professional actor of mediocre though useful attainments. He is cast for such roles as Tom Faithfull in Revet's _The Town Shifts_ (April, 1671); Eumenes in Edward Howard's _The Woman's Conquest_ (1671); and Battista in Crowne's _Juliana_ (1671).

p. 300 _unsuit_. A rare form of 'unsuitable'.

p. 304 _devoir_. Endeavour; effort. This pa.s.sage is quoted in the _N.E.D_.

p. 305 _The Representation of the Wedding_. This curious tableau is a striking example of the Elizabethan 'Dumb Show' lingering on to Restoration days. Somewhat similar, though by no means such complete, examples may be seen in Orrery's _Henry the Fifth_ (1664), at the commencement of Act iv, and again in the same author's _The Black Prince_ (19 October, 1667), Act ii. It must be confessed that Mrs. Behn has made an excellent use of this technical contrivance. In the Restoration theatre it was the usual practice for the curtain to rise at the beginning and fall at the end of the play, so that the close of each intermediate act was only shown by a clear stage. Although I have marked Act ii, sc. I of _The Forc'd Marriage_ 'The Palace', I have little doubt that as the drama was staged Smith and Mrs. Jennings advanced and the curtain fell behind them hiding the rest of the characters, only to rise again upon Scene II, 'The Court Gallery'. Philander and Galatea played upon the ap.r.o.n stage. If they, however, maintained their places in the tableau, they would have immediately after entered on to the ap.r.o.n, before the curtain, by way of the proscenium doors. In any case Scene I must have been acted well forward.

p. 312 _rencounter_. Meet.

p. 322 _Phi. Who's there_. The Duke of Buckingham, in _The Rehearsal_ (1671), Actus ii, scaena V, has a fray burlesquing this pa.s.sage.

p. 325 _Phi. Villain, thou ly'st_. cf. _The Rehearsal_, Actus v, scaena I: _'Lieutenant-General. Villain, thou lyest.'_

p. 330 _Campania_. The operations of an army in the field during a season. cf. Edmund Everard's _Discourses on the Present State of the Protestant Princes of Europe_ (1679): 'Since the last campania the Three ... have entred into the entanglement of a War.'

p. 331 _Pattac.o.o.n_. A Spanish dollar value 4s. 8d; vide supra, Vol. I, _The Rover_ (I), ii, I (p. 36) and note on that pa.s.sage, p. 442.

p. 347 _in a dishabit_. This word is excessively rare, if this be not the unique example. The _N.E.D_. fails to include it. Dishabille had been introduced from France in the reign of Charles II, and (in its various forms) became exceedingly popular. It is noticeable that all other editions, save the first quarto (1671), in this pa.s.sage read 'in an undress'.

p. 352 _or smothers her with a pillow_. This is only in the first quarto. Here in particular, and throughout the whole scene, Mrs. Behn's reminiscences of _Oth.e.l.lo_ are very patent.

p. 358 _Enter Erminia veil'd_. In Sir William Barclay's _The Lost Lady_ (folio 1639), a good, if intricate, tragi-comedy, which was received with applause after the Restoration [Pepys saw it 19 January, 1661, and again, rather more than a week later, on the 28th of the same month], and not forgotten by Buckingham when he penned _The Rehearsal_, Milesia (supposed dead), the wife of Lysicles, appears to her husband as a ghost --Act v, sc. I. It is very possible that Mrs. Behn hence took her hint for the phantom of the living Erminia. It is noticeable that generations after Tobin borrowed not a few incidents from _The Lost Lady_ for _The Curfew_, produced at Drury Lane, 19 February, 1807, a posthumous play.

In Lodowick Carlell's _The Fool Would be a Favourite; or, The Discreet Lover_ (12mo, 1657), we have Philantus confronting Lucinda as his own ghost--(Actus Quintus).

p. 358 _Tiffany_. A kind of thin silk gauze. cf. Philemon Holland's _Plinie_, Bk. XI, ch. xxii: 'The invention of that fine silke, tiffanie, sarcenet, and cypres, which instead of apparell to cover and hide, shew women naked through them.' All subsequent editions to 4to 1671, read 'taffety' in this pa.s.sage.

THE EMPEROR OF THE MOON.

p. 390 _Lord Marquess of Worcester_. Charles, Marquis of Worcester (1661-1698), father of Henry Somerset, second Duke of Beaufort, was the second son [Henry, his elder brother, died young] of Henry Somerset, first Duke of Beaufort (1629-1700), by Mary, eldest daughter of Arthur, first Lord Capel. The first Duke of Beaufort, the staunchest of Tories, was high in favour with Charles I, Charles II, and James II. Charles, the son and heir, was killed through an accident to his coach in Wales, July, 1698, and the shock is said to have hastened the old Duke's end.

p. 391 _acted in France eighty odd times_. The original scenes were produced by the Italian comedians at the Hotel de Bourgogne, 5 March, 1684. Their popularity did not wane for many a decade. In the fifth edition (1721) of Gherardi's _Theatre Italien_ there are far fuller excerpts from the farce than in the first edition (1695).

p. 392 _who now cannot supply one_. The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. If Mrs. Behn's complaint about the public is true, James II was, none the less, himself a good friend to the stage, and many excellent plays were produced during his reign. There is, however, considerable evidence that at this period of strife--religious and political, rebellion and revolt --things theatrical were very badly affected, and the play-house poorly attended.

p. 393 _No Woman without Vizard_. cf. Cibber in his _Apology_ (1740), ch. viii: 'I remember the ladies were then observed to be decently afraid of venturing bare-faced to a new comedy, till they had been a.s.sured they might do it, without the risk of an insult to their modesty: or, if their curiosity were too strong for their patience, they took care, at least, to save appearances, and rarely came upon the first days of acting but in masks (then daily worn, and admitted in the pit, the side-boxes, and gallery) which custom, however, had so many ill consequences attending it, that it has been abolished these many years.'

p. 394 _Sice_. Six. The number six at dice.

p. 394 _it sings Sawny. Saunie's Neglect_. This popular old Scotch song is to be found, with a tune, on p. 317, Vol. I, D'Urfey's _Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to Purge Melancholy_ (1719). It had previously been given in _Wit and Drollery_ (1681). It commences thus:--

Sawney was tall and of n.o.ble race And lov'd me better than any eane But now he ligs by another la.s.s And Sawney will ne'er be my true love agen.

Ravenscroft, in _The London Cuckolds_ (1682), Act iii, introduces a link-boy singing this verse as he pa.s.ses down the street.

p. 394 _There's nothing lasting but the Puppets Show_. About this time there was a famous Puppet Show in Salisbury Change which was so frequented that the actors were reduced to pet.i.tion against it. cf. The Epilogue (spoken by Jevon) to Mountfort's _The Injured Lovers_ (1688), where the actor tells the audience they must be kind to the poet:--

Else to stand by him, every man has swore.

To Salisbury Court we'll hurry you next week Where not for wh.o.r.es, but coaches you may seek; And more to plague you, there shall be no Play, But the Emperor of the Moon for every day.

Philander and Irene are the conventional names of lovers in the novels and puppet plays which were fashionable. It is interesting to note that less than a century after this prologue was first spoken, _The Emperor of the Moon_ was itself being played at the puppet show in Exeter Change.

p. 395 _Doctor Baliardo_. The Doctor was one of the leading masks, stock characters, in Italian impromptu comedy. Doctor Graziano, or Baloardo Grazian, is a pedant, a philosopher, grammarian, rhetorician, astronomer, cabalist, a savant of the first water, boasting of his degree from Bologna, trailing the gown of that august university.

Pompous in phrase and person, his speech is crammed with lawyer's jargon and quibbles, with distorted Latin and ridiculous metaphors. He is dressed in black with bands and a huge shovel hat. He wears a black vizard with wine-stained cheeks. From 1653 until his death at an advanced age in 1694 the representative of Dr. Baloardo was Angelo Augustino Lolli. The Doctor's speeches in _Arlequin Empereur dans la Lune_ (1684), are a mixture of French and Italian.

p. 395 _Scaramouch_. In the original _Arlequin Empereur dans la Lune_ Scaramouch is Pierrot. The make-up and costume of Pierrot (Pedrolino) circa 1673 is thus described: 'La figure blanchie. Serre-tete blanc.

Chapeau blanc. Veste et culotte de toile blanche. Bas blancs. Souliers blancs a rubans blancs.' It will be seen that he differed little from his modern representative. Arlechino appeared in 1671 thus: 'Veste et pantalon a fond jaune clair. Triangles d'etoffes rouges et vertes.

Boutons de cuivre. Bas blancs, Souilers de peau blanche a rubans rouges.

Ceinture de cuir jaune a boucle de cuivre. Masque noir. Serre-tete noir.

Mentonniere noire. Chapeau gris a queue de lievre. Batte. Collerette de mousseline.'

Colombine (Mopsophil) in 1683 wore a traditional costume: 'Casaquin rouge borde de noir. Jupe gris-perle. Souliers rouges bordes de noir.

Manches et collerette de mousseline. Rayon de dentelle et touffe de rubans rose vif. Tablier blanc garni de dentelles.'

p. 397 _your trusty Roger_. cf. John Weever's _Ancient funerall monuments_ (folio, 1631): 'The seruant obeyed and (like a good trusty Roger) performed his Master's commandment.' Roger stands as a generic name.

p. 399 _Lucian's Dialogue_. The famous [Greek: Ikaromenippos hae hypernephelos]--'Icaromenippus; or, up in the Clouds.' Mrs. Behn no doubt used the translation of Lucian by Ferrand Spence. 5 Vols. 1684-5.

'Icaromenippus' is given in Vol. III (1684).

p. 399 _The Man in the Moon. The Man in the Moone_, by Domingo Gonsales (i.e. Francis G.o.dwin, Bishop of Llandaff, and later of Hereford), 8vo, 1638, and 12mo, 1657. This is a highly diverting work. The Second Edition (1657) has various cuts amongst which is a frontispiece, that occurs again at page 29 of the little volume, depicting Gonsales being drawn up to the lunar world in a machine, not unlike a primitive parachute, to which are harnessed his 'gansas ... 25 in number, a covey that carried him along l.u.s.tily.'

p. 399 _A Discourse of the World in the Moon_. Cyrano de Bergerac's [Greek Selaenarchia] _or the Government of the World in the Moon: Done into English by Tho. St. Serf, Gent_. (16mo, 1659), and another version, _The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and Sun, newly Englished by A. Lovell, A.M_. (8vo, 1687).

p. 400 _Plumeys_. Gallants; beaus. So termed, of course, from their feathered hats. cf. Dryden's _An Evening's Love_ (1668), Act i, I, where Jacinta, referring to the two gallants, says: 'I guess 'em to be Feathers of the _English_ Amba.s.sador's train.' cf. Pope's Sir Plume in _The Rape of the Lock_. In one of the French scenes of _La Precaution inutile_, produced 5 March, 1692, by the Italian comedians, Gaufichon (Act i, I) cries to Leandre: 'Je destine ma soeur a Monsieur le Docteur Balouard, et trente Plumets comme vous ne la detourneroient pas d'un aussi bon rencontre.' The French word = a fop is, however, extremely rare. Plumet more often = un jeune militaire. cf. Panard (1694-1765); _Oeuvres_ (1803), Tome III, p. 355:--