Volume I Part 105 (1/2)

Some for setting above ground Whole days and nights, upon their breeches, And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.

cf. again _The City Heiress_, Act i:--

Watch her close, watch her like a witch, Boy, Till she confess the Devil in her,---- Love.

p. 235 _Count d'Olivarez._ Gaspar Guzman d'Olivarez was born at Rome, 1587. For many years all-powerful minister of Philip IV; he was dismissed 1643, and died 20 July, 1645, in banishment at Toro.

p. 235 _a Venice Curtezan._ Venice, the home of Aretine and Casanova, was long famous for the beauty and magnificence of her prost.i.tutes. This circ.u.mstance is alluded to by numberless writers, and Ruskin, indeed, maintains that her decline was owing to this cause, which can hardly be, since as early as 1340, when her power was only rising, the public women were numbered at 11,654. Coryat has some curious matter on this subject, and more may be found in _La Tariffa delle Puttane di Venegia_, a little book often incorrectly ascribed to Lorenzo Venicro.

+Act II: Scene i+

p. 245 _They enter at another Door. _Vide note_ Rover_ I, Act II, I, p. 30.

+Act III: Scene i+

p. 263 _Beso los manos, signor._ = Beso las manos, senor.

p. 265 _Don John._ The famous hero of Lepanto died, not without suspicion of poison, in his camp at Namur, 1578. Otway introduces him in _Don Carlos_ (1676).

+Act III: Scene ii+

p. 271 _Souses._ A slang term for the 'ears'. cf. _The Roundheads_, Act II, I, 'a pair of large sanctify'd Souses.'

p. 271 _b.u.t.ter-hams._ Apparently from Dutch boterham = a slice of bread and b.u.t.ter. The two narrow strips of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g on either side of the cloak.

p. 272 _a Rummer of a Pottle._ A jug or goblet holding one pottle = two quarts.

+Act III: Scene iii+

p. 278 _Snick-a-Sne._ A combat with knives amongst the Dutch. Snik: Dutch = a sharp weapon. Dryden in his _Parallel betwixt Painting and Poetry_ (4to, June, 1695) speaks of 'the brutal sport of snick-or-sne'. Mrs. Behn has happily put several characteristically Dutch phrases in Haunce's mouth.

p. 278 _Pharamond._ A heroic romance in twelve volumes, the seven first of which are by the celebrated la Calprenede, the remainder being the work of Pierre de Vaumoriere. It was translated into English by J. Phillips (London, 1677, folio). Lee has taken the story of Varanes in his tragedy, _Theodosius_ (1680), from this romance.

+Act IV: Scene i+

p. 289 _Bethlehem-Gaber._ Bethlen-Gabor (Gabriel Bethlen), 1580-1629, was a Hungarian n.o.ble who embraced the Protestant religion, and in 1613, with the help of an Ottoman army, succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng himself as King of Transylvania. His reign, although one long period of warfare and truces, proved a most flouris.h.i.+ng epoch for his country. Himself a musician and a man of letters, he was constant in his patronage of art and scholars, cf. Abraham Holland's _Continued Inquisition of Paper Persecutors_ (1626):--

But to behold the walls b.u.t.ter'd with weekly Newes composed in Pauls By some decaied Captaine, or those Rooks Whose hungry brains compile prodigious books Of Bethlem Gabor's preparations and How terms betwixt him and th' Emperor stand.

p. 291 _a Hoy._ A small vessel like a sloop, peculiarly Dutch.

Pepys, 16 June, 1661, speaks of hiring 'a Margate hoy'.

+Act V: Scene ii+

p. 323 _a Lapland Witch._ cf. _Paradise Lost_, Book II, l. 666:--