Volume Iii Part 144 (2/2)

p. 187 _Wills Coffee House_. This famous coffee-house was No. 1 Bow Street, Covent Garden, on the west side corner of Russell Street. It derived its name from Will Unwin who kept it. The wits' room was upstairs on the first floor. Some of its reputation was due to the fact that it was a favourite resort of Dryden.

p. 187 _write for a Third day only_. The whole profits of the third day's performance went to the author of the play; and upon these occasions his friends and patrons would naturally rally to support him.

There are numberless allusions to this custom, especially in Prefaces, Prologues and Epilogues.

p. 189 _the Mall_. The Mall, St. James's Park, was formed for Charles II, who was very fond of the game 'pall-mall'. The walk soon became a popular and fas.h.i.+onable resort. There are innumerable references. cf.

Prologue, Dryden's _Marriage a la Mode_ (1672):--

Poor pensive punk now peeps ere plays begin, Sees the bare bench, and dares not venture in; But manages her last half-crown with care, And trudges to the Mall, on foot, for air.

The scene of the first Act of Otway's _The Soldier's Fortune_ (1681) is laid in the Mall, and gives a vivid picture of the motley and not over respectable company that was wont to foregather there.

p. 189 _the Ring_. The Ring, Hyde Park, a favourite ride and promenade was made in the reign of Charles I. It was very fas.h.i.+onable, and is frequently alluded to in poem and play. cf. Etheredge, _The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter: 'Sir Fopling_. All the world will be in the Park to-night; Ladies, 'twere pity to keep so much beauty longer within doors, and rob the Ring of all those charms that should adorn it.'--Act iii sc. II. cf. also Lord Dorset's _Verses on Dorinda_ (1680):--

Wilt thou still sparkle in the Box, Still ogle in the Ring?

p. 193 _Starter_. This slang word usually means a milksop, but here it is equivalent to 'a b.u.t.terfly', 'a weatherc.o.c.k'--a man of changeable disposition. A rare use.

p. 193 _Finsbury Hero_, Finsbury Fields, which Pepys thought 'very pleasant', had been kept open for the citizens to practise archery. An ordinance of 1478 is extant which orders all obstacles to be removed and Finsbury to be 'made a plain field for archers to shoot in'. As late as 1737 there were standing twenty-four 'rovers' or stone pillars for shooting at distances.

p. 196 _Mr. Barnardine_. This allusion must almost certainly be to a recent revival of _Measure for Measure_, which particular play had been amongst those set aside by the regulation of 12 December, 1660, as the special property of Davenant's theatre. After the amalgamation of the two companies in November, 1682, a large number of the older plays were revived or continued to be played (with a new cast and Betterton in the roles which had been Hart's) during the subsequent decade. Downes mentions _Oth.e.l.lo, The Taming of the Shrew_, and several by Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and Brome. On the other hand, it is possible this reference may merely be to _The Law Against Lovers_ (1661, folio, 1673), in which Sir William Davenant has mixed Bened.i.c.k and Beatrice with Angelo, Claudio, Isabella and the rest. It is a curious conglomeration, and the result is very pitiful and disastrous. Bernardine and the prison scenes are retained. _Measure for Measure_ was again profanely altered by Gildon in 1700, mutilated and helped out by 'entertainments of music'.

p. 197 _Snicker Snee_. See note Vol. I, p. 449, _Snick-a-Snee, The Dutch Lover_, iii, III (p, 278).

p. 198 _Spittal Sermon_. The celebrated Spital Sermons were originally preached at a pulpit cross in the churchyard (now Spital Square) of the Priory and Hospital of St. Mary Spital, founded 1197. The cross, broken at the Reformation, was rebuilt during Charles I's reign, but destroyed during the Great Rebellion. The sermons, however, have been continued to the present time and are still preached every Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, at Christ Church, Newgate Street.

P. 201. _Alsatia_. This cant name had been given to the precinct of Whitefriars before 1623, then and for many years a notorious refuge for persons wis.h.i.+ng to avoid bailiffs and creditors. The earliest use of the name is Thomas Towel's quarto tract, _Wheresoever you see meet, Trust unto Yourselfe: or the Mysterie of Lending and Borrowing_ (1623). The second use in point of time is the Prologue to Settle's _Pastor Fido_ (1676):--

And when poor Duns, quite weary, will not stay; The hopeless Squire's into _Alsatia_ driven.

Otway's comedy, _The Soldiers Fortune_ (4to, 1681), where Courtine says: 'I shall be ere long as greasy as an Alsatian bully,' comes third; and Mrs. Behn's reference to Alsatia in this play, which is often ignored, claims fourth place. We then have Shadwell's famous comedy, _The Squire of Alsatia_ (1688), with its well-known vocabulary of Alsatian jargon and slang, its scenes in Whitefriars, the locus cla.s.sicus, a veritable mine of information. The particular portions of Whitefriars forming Alsatia were Ram-Alley, Mitre Court, and a lane called in the local cant Lombard Street. No. 50 of Tempest's _Cries of London_ (drawn and published in James II's reign) is called 'A Squire of Alsatia', and represents a fas.h.i.+onable young gallant. Steele, _Tatler_ (No. 66), 10 September, 1709, speaks of Alsatia 'now in ruins'. It is interesting to note that many authorities, ignoring Settle and Mrs.

Behn's allusions, quote Powel and Otway as the only two places where the word 'Alsatia' is found before Shadwell made it so popular.

p. 202 _Dornex_. Or dornick, a worsted or woollen fabric used for curtains, hangings and the like, so called from Tournai, where chiefly manufactured. cf. Shadwell's _The Miser_ (1672), Act i, I: 'a dornock carpet'. Also _Wit and Drollery_ (1681): Penelope to Ulysses:--

The Stools of _Dornix_ which that you may know well Are certain stuffs Upholsterers use to sell.

p. 202 _Henry the Eighth_. Henry VIII had been put on by Davenant in December, 1663 with a wealth of pomp and expenditure that became long proverbial in the theatrical world. An extra large number of supers were engaged. Downes dilates at quite unusual length upon the magnificence of the new scenery and costumes. The court scene was especially crowded with 'the Lords, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the Doctors, Proctors, Lawyers, Tip-staves.' On New Year's Day, 1664, Pepys went to the Duke's house and saw 'the so much cried up play of Henry VIII; which tho' I went with resolution to like it, is so simple a thing, made up of a great many patches, that, besides the shows and processions in it, there is nothing in the world good or well done.' On 30 December, 1668, however, he saw it again, 'and was mightily pleased, better than ever I expected, with the history and shows of it.' In _The Rehearsal_ (1671), Act v, I, Bayes says: 'I'l shew you the greatest scene that ever England saw: I mean not for words, for those I do not value; but for state, shew, and magnificence. In fine I'll justifie it to be as grand to the eye every whit, I gad, as that great Scene in Harry the Eight.'

p. 203 _Joan Sanderson_. See note Vol. I, p. 456: _Joan Sanderson. The Roundheads_, Act iv, IV (p. 402).

p. 204 _Haunce in Kelder_. Literally Jack-in-the-Cellar, i.e. the unborn babe in the womb. cf. Davenant and Dryden's alteration of _The Tempest_, Act iv, sc. II. '_Stephano_, I long to have a Rowse to her Grace's Health, and to the _Haunse in Kelder_, or rather Haddock in Kelder, for I guess it will be half Fish'; and also Dryden's _Amboyna_ (1673), Act iv, sc. I, where Harman senior remarks at Towerson and Ysabinda's wedding: 'You Englishmen ... cannot stay for ceremonies; a good honest Dutchman would have been plying the gla.s.s all this while, and drunk to the hopes of Hans in Kelder till 'twas bedtime.'

p. 204 an _Apple John_. An apple John is usually explained as being a kind of apple said to keep two years and to be in perfection when shrivelled and withered, cf. 2 _Henry IV_, ii, IV, and the context. If the allusion here is to such a kind of apple Sir Feeble's phrase is singularly inept, as may perhaps be intended to be the case.

p. 204 _St. Martin's Trumpery_. The parish of St. Martin-le-Grand was formerly celebrated for the number of shops vending cheap and imitation jewellery within its purlieus. 'St. Martin's ware' came to mean a forgery.

p. 205 _nick their Inclinations_. To nick = to thwart. A somewhat uncommon use. Generally, to nick (slang), means 'to arrest', 'to waylay and stop'.

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