Volume I Part 105 (2/2)

To dance With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon Eclipses at their charms.

+Act V: Scene iia+

p. 329 _the German Princess._ Mary Morders, alias Stedman, alias Kentish Moll, a notorious imposter of the day, who pretended to be a Princess from Germany. She had been transported to Jamaica in 1671, but returning too soon and stealing a piece of plate, was hanged at Tyburn, 22 January, 1673. Her adventures formed the plot of a play by Tom Porter, _A Witty Combat; or, The Female Victor_ (4to, 1663).

Kirkman's _Counterfeit Lady Unveiled_ (8vo, 1673), contains very ample details of her career. Pepys went to visit her 'at the Gatehouse at Westminster', 29 May, 1663. In talk he was 'high in the defence of her wit and spirit' (7 June, 1663). 15 April, 1664, the diarist further notes: 'To the Duke's house and there saw _The German Princess_ acted by the woman herself ... the whole play ...

is very simple, unless, here and there, a witty sprinkle or two.'

This piece was doubtless identical with Porter's tragi-comedy.

p. 329 _four s.h.i.+llings, or half a Crown._ Four s.h.i.+llings was the price of admission to the boxes on the first tier of the theatre; half a crown to the pit. These sums are very frequently alluded to in prologue and epilogue. Dryden in his second epilogue to _The Duke of Guise_ (1682), after referring to the brawls and rioting of the pit, says:--

This makes our boxes full; for men of sense Pay their four s.h.i.+llings in their own defence.

The epilogue (spoken by Mrs. Bontell) to Corye's _The Generous Enemies_ (1671), has these lines:--

Though there I see-- Propitious Angels sit [_points at the Boxes._ Still 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.

+Epilogue+

p. 330 _Rotas._ The Rota was a political club founded in 1659 by James Harrington. It advocated a system of rotation in filling government offices.

Errors and Irregularities: The Dutch Lover

resolves to poinard his sister _spelling unchanged_ Jacobean and Carolan drama _text unchanged_ but what you do, must be speedily then.

_text reads ”speeedily”_ _Car._ Why, _Olinda_, _Dorice_, _Olinda_, where be these mad Girls?

_text unchanged_

THE ROUNDHEADS; OR,

THE GOOD OLD CAUSE.

[Transcriber's Note:

Entrances and bracketed stage directions were printed in _italics_, with proper names in roman type. The overall _italic_ markup has been omitted for readability.]

ARGUMENT.

The historical state of affairs 1659-60 was briefly as follows:-- the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell expired 22 April, 1659. Hereupon Fleetwood and some other officers recalled the Long Parliament (Rump), which was const.i.tuted the ruling power of England, a select council of state having the executive. Lambert, however, with other dissentients was expelled from Parliament, 12 October, 1659. He and his troops marched to Newcastle; but the soldiers deserted him for General Fairfax, who had declared for a free Parliament, and were garrisoned at York.

<script>