Volume V Part 6 (1/2)

Mother Somelie is, of course, the notorious Mother Mosely.

Henry Payne wrote several loyal pamphlets, and after the Revolution he became, according to Burnet, 'the most active and determined of all King James' agents.' He is said to have been the chief instigator of the Montgomery plot in 1690, and whilst in Scotland was arrested. 10 and 11 December of that year he was severely tortured under a special order of William III, but nothing could be extracted from him. This is the last occasion on which torture was applied in Scotland. After being treated with harshest cruelty by William III, Payne was finally released from prison in December, 1700, or January, 1701, as the Duke of Queensbury, recognizing the serious illegalities of the whole business, urgently advised his liberation. Payne died in 1710. As Macaulay consistently confounds him with a certain Edward Neville, S.J., the statements of this historian with reference to Henry Neville Payne must be entirely disregarded.

p. 72 _The Fair Jilt._ Editio princeps, 'London. Printed by _R. Holt_ for _Will. Canning_, at his Shop in the _Temple-Cloysters_' (1688), 'Licensed 17 April, 1688. _Ric. Poc.o.c.k_', has as t.i.tle: _The Fair Jilt; or, The History of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_. As half-t.i.tle it prints: _The Fair Hypocrite; or, The Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_. All subsequent editions, however, give: _The Fair Jilt; or, The Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_. The Dedication only occurs in the first edition.

p. 73 _Scrutore._ Escritoire, cf. Sir T. Herbert, _Trav._ (1677): 'There they sell . . . Scrutores or Cabinets of Mother of Pearl.'

p. 75 _Canonesses, Begines, Quests, Swart-Sisters and Jesuitesses._ _Canonesses_ are very ancient in history. The most important Congregations are the Sepulchrines or Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Lateran Canonesses. There was an old community of French Hospitaller Canonesses of Saint-Esprit. Thoma.s.sin tells us that the Beguines were canonesses, and that their name is derived from S. Begghe (_ob._ 689), who founded the Canonesses of Andenne. There are also Chapters of secular canonesses, nearly all Benedictine in origin. Many of these only admitted ladies of the highest rank. The French Revolution swept away a great number of these inst.i.tutions, and some were suppressed by Joseph II of Austria. Premonstratensian (white) Canonesses were common in Belgium.

_Begines._ Either founded by S. Begghe, or their name is derived from Lambert de Begue, a priest of Liege, in 1177. Some place their foundation at the beginning of the eleventh century in the Netherlands or Germany. After three years women who are enrolled are ent.i.tled to a little house. No vows are taken, but they a.s.sist in choir thrice daily.

There are several hundreds at Ghent, and the Beguinage (ten Wijngaarde) of Bruges is famous.

_Quests._ Queteuses. Extern Sisters, Poor Clares and Colettines; Lay Sisters, Dominicanesses, who go out and beg for the community. 'To quest' is to go alms-begging. The Sisters of Charity are of later foundation. cf. Translation, D'Emilliane's _Frauds of Romish Monks_ (1691): 'The Farmer [of Purgatory Money] sends some of his Emissaries into the Fields to carry on the Quest there for the said Souls'; and _Earthquake . . . Peru_, iii, 303 (1748): 'If the Friars go into the Country a questing for their Monastery.'

_Swart-Sisters._ Black Nuns. Dominicanesses, a feature of whose dresses is the cappa, a large black cloak and hood, worn from All Saints' Day till the 'Gloria' on Easter Eve, and on all great solemnities.

_Jesuitesses._ A common misnomer for the original Congregation founded by Mary Ward (_ob._ 1645), and named by her 'The Inst.i.tute of Mary'. It was not until 1703 that they were fully approved by Clement XI.

p. 78 _Cordeliers._ Observant Franciscans, who follow the strict Rule of Poverty and observe all the fasts and austerities of the Order. This name was first given them in France, where later they were known as Recollects.

OROONOKO; OR THE ROYAL SLAVE.

INTRODUCTION.

The tale of _Oroonoko, the Royal Slave_ is indisputedly Mrs. Behn's masterpiece in prose. Its originality and power have singled it out for a permanence and popularity none of her other works attained. It is vivid, realistic, pregnant with pathos, beauty, and truth, and not only has it so impressed itself upon the readers of more than two centuries, but further, it surely struck a new note in English literature and one which was re-echoed far and wide. It has been said that '_Oroonoko_ is the first emanc.i.p.ation novel', and there is no little ac.u.men in this remark. Certainly we may absolve Mrs. Behn from having directly written with a purpose such as animated Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_; but none the less her sympathy with the oppressed blacks, her deep emotions of pity for outraged humanity, her anger at the cruelties of the slave-driver aye ready with knout or knife, are manifest in every line. Beyond the intense interest of the pure narrative we have pa.s.sages of a rhythm that is lyric, exquisitely descriptive of the picturesque tropical scenery and exotic vegetations, fragrant and luxuriant; there are intimate accounts of adventuring and primitive life; there are personal touches which lend a colour only personal touches can, as Aphara tells her prose-epic of her Superman, Caesar the slave, Oroonoko the prince.

It is not difficult to trace the influence of _Oroonoko_. We can see it in many an English author; in Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, in Chateaubriand. Her idyllic romance has inspired writers who perhaps but dimly remember even her name and her genius.

It was often reprinted separately from the rest. There is a little 12mo _Oroonoko_, 'the ninth edition corrected', published at Doncaster, 1759, 'for C. Plummer', which is rarely seen save in a torn and well-thumbed state.[1]

In 1777 the sentimental and highly proper Mrs. Elizabeth Griffith included _Oroonoko_ in her three volume _Collection of Novels selected and revised._ _Oroonoko_, 'written originally by Mrs. Behn and revised by Mrs. Griffith'[2], was also issued separately, 'price sixpence'[3], in 1800, frontispieced by a very crude picture of a black-a-moor about to attack a tiger.

As early as 1709 we find _Lebens und Liebes-Geschichte des Koniglichen Sclaven Oroonoko in West-Indien_, a German translation published at Hamburg, with a portrait of 'Die Sinnreiche Engellanderin Mrs. Afra Behn.'

In 1745 _Oroonoko_ was 'traduit de l'Anglois de Madame Behn,' with the motto from Lucan 'Quo fata trahunt virtus secura sequetur.' There is a rhymed dedication 'A Madame La M. P. D'l . . .' (35 lines), signed D. L.****, i.e., Pierre-Antoine de la Place, a fecund but mediocre writer of the eighteenth century (1707-93), who also translated, _Venice Preserv'd_, _The Fatal Marriage_, _Tom Jones_, and other English masterpieces. There is another edition of de la Place's version with fine plates engraved by C. Baron after Marillier, Londres, 1769.

In 1696 Southerne's great tragedy, founded upon Mrs. Behn's novel, was produced at Drury Lane. Oroonoko was created by Verbruggen, Powell acted Aboan, and the beautiful Mrs. Rogers Imoinda. The play has some magnificent pa.s.sages, and long kept the stage. Southerne had further added an excellent comic underplot, full of humour and the truest _vis comica_. It is perhaps worth noting that the intrigues of Lucy and Charlotte and the Lackitt _menage_ were dished up as a short slap-bang farce by themselves with, curiously enough, two or three scenes _in extenso_ from Fletcher's _Monsieur Thomas_ (III, iii, and V, ii). This hotch potch ent.i.tled _The s.e.xes Mis-match'd; or, A New Way to get a Husband_ is printed in _The Strollers' Pacquet open'd_. (12mo, 1741.) On 1 December, 1759, there was brought out at Drury Lane a most insipid alteration of _Oroonoko_ by Dr. Hawkesworth, who omitted all Southerne's lighter fare and inserted serious nonsense of his own. Garrick was the Oroonoko and Mrs. Cibber Imoinda. Although Hawkesworth's version was not tolerated, the underplot was none the less pruned in later productions to such an extent that it perforce lost nearly all its pristine wit and fun. There is another adaption of Southerne: '_Oroonoko_ altered from the original play . . . to which the editor has added near six hundred lines in place of the comic scenes, together with an addition of two new characters, intended for one of the theatres.' (8vo, 1760.) The two new characters are Maria, sister to the Lieutenant-Governor and contracted to Blandford, and one Heartwell; both thoroughly tiresome individuals.

In the same year Frank Gentleman, a provincial actor, produced his idea of _Oroonoko_ 'as it was acted at Edinburgh.' (12mo, 1760.) There is yet a fourth b.a.s.t.a.r.d: _The Prince of Angola_, by one J. Ferriar, 'a tragedy altered from the play of _Oroonoko_ and adapted to the circ.u.mstances of the present times.'[4] (Manchester, 1788.) It must be confessed that all this tinkering with an original, which does not require from any point of view the slightest alteration or omission, is most uncalled for, crude, and unsuccessful.

In 1698 William Walker, a lad nineteen years old, the son of a wealthy Barbadoes planter, wrote in three weeks a tragedy ent.i.tled _Victorious Love_ (4to, 1698), which is confessedly a close imitation of Southerne's theme. It was produced at Drury Lane in June, 1698, with the author himself as Dafila, a youth, and young Mrs. Cross as the heroine Zaraida, 'an European s.h.i.+pwrack'd an Infant at Gualata'. Possibly Verbruggen acted Barnaga.s.so, the captive king who corresponds to Oroonoko. The scene is laid in the Banze, or Palace of Tombut, whose Emperor, Jamoan, is Barnaga.s.so's rival in Zaraida's love. There is a villain, Zanhaga, who after various more or less successful iniquities, poisons the Emperor; whereon hero and heroine are happily united. _Victorious Love_ is far from being entirely a bad play; it is, however, very reminiscent of the heroic tragedies of two decades before.