Volume Iii Part 146 (1/2)

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 s.h.i.+fts_ (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).