Volume Iv Part 66 (1/2)

The Author dreads the strut and meen Of new prais'd Poets, having often seen Some of his Fellows, who have writ before, When Nel has danc'd her Jig, steal to the Door, Hear the Pit clap, and with conceit of that Swell, and believe themselves the Lord knows what.

Thus at the end of Lacy's _The Old Troop_ (31 July, 1668), we have 'a dance of two hobby horses in armour, and a Jig.' Also shortly before the epilogue in Shadwell's _The Sullen Lovers_ (1668) we read, 'Enter a Boy in the habit of Pugenello and traverses the stage, takes his chair and sits down, then dances a Jig.'

But it must be remembered that beside the common meaning there was a gloss upon the word derived from Elizabethan stage practice. In the prologue to _The Fair Maid of the Inn_ (licensed 1626), good plays are spoken of as often scurvily treated, whilst

A Jigge shall be clapt at, and every rhime Prais'd and applauded by a clam'rous chyme.

The Pre-Restoration Jig was little other indeed than a ballad opera in embryo lasting about twenty-five minutes and given as an after-piece.

It was a rhymed farce in which the dialogue was sung or chanted by the characters to popular ballad tunes. But after the Restoration the Jig a.s.sumed a new and more serious complexion, and came eventually to be dovetailed with the play itself, instead of being given at the f.a.g end of the entertainment. Mr. W. J. Lawrence, the well-known theatrical authority to whom I owe much valuable information contained in this note, would (doubtless correctly) attribute the innovation to Stapylton and Edward Howard, both of whom dealt pretty freely in these Jigs. Stapylton has in Act V of _The Slighted Maid_ (1663) a 'Song in Dialogue' between Aurora and Phoebus with a chorus of Cyclops, which met with some terrible parody in _The Rehearsal_ (cf. the present editor's edition of _The Rehearsal_, p. 145). Indeed all extrinsic songs in dialogue, however serious the theme, were considered 'Jigs'.

A striking example would be the Song of the Spirits in Dryden's _Tyrannic Love_, Act IV.

In Post-Restoration days a ballad sung in the streets by two persons was frequently called a Jig, presumably because it was a 'song in dialogue'. Numerous examples are to be found amongst the Roxburgh Ballads.

The Jig introduced in _Sir Timothy Tawdrey_ would seem to have been the simple dance although not improbably an epithalamium was also sung.

Errors and Irregularities: The Amorous Prince

In the Notes, alternation between .' and '. at paragraph-end is as printed. The abbreviation ”cf.” is always lower-case.

_Cur._ Never, I hope. [. missing]

Enter _Curtius_. / _Cur._ How! the Prince! [Enter _Curtuis_.]

_Cur._ I cry you mercy, Sir, pray what are you; [; unchanged]

[Aside to her. / [Ex. _Isab._ [Aside. / [Ex. _Page_ and _Guil._ with Musick.

[_brackets before ”Exit” added for consistency in e-text_]

They set _Ism._ in a Chair [they]

_Cur._ _Guilliam_--the same [Gulliam]

'Tis something cold, I'll go take a Niperkin of Wine, [, as shown]

_Lau._ Forward, dear _Cloris_. [, for .]

[She shakes her Hand, as not understanding him.

[_text unchanged: error for Head?_]

But my Master must first speak with you alone, [, for .]

Notes on Text

p. 180 ... an auspicious kind, e.g. to begin [kind.]