Volume V Part 10 (1/2)

p. 207 _one Banister_. Sergeant Major James Banister being, after Byam's departure in 1667, 'the only remaining eminent person' became Lieutenant-Governor. It was he who in 1668 made the final surrender of the colony. Later, having quarrelled with the Dutch he was imprisoned by them.

[Footnote 5: Nell Gwynne had no part in the play.]

Cross-Reference from Critical Notes: _Oroonoko_

Note to p. 180: For the elder brother, Henry Marten, (1602-80), see note Vol. I, p. 457.

Vol. I, p. 457 note (referring to _The Roundheads_, V, ii):

p. 414 _Peters the first_, _Martin the Second_. Hugh Peters has been noticed before. Henry Martin was an extreme republican, and at one time even a Leveller. He was a commissioner of the High Court of Justice and a regicide. At the Restoration he was imprisoned for life and died at Chepstow Castle, 1681, aged seventy-eight. He was notorious for profligacy and shamelessness, and kept a very seraglio of mistresses. [[The date ”1681” is in the original.]]

AGNES DE CASTRO.

INTRODUCTION.

The 'sweet sentimental tragedy' of Agnes de Castro was founded by Mrs.

Behn upon a work by Mlle S. B. de Brillac, _Agnes de Castro, nouvelle portugaise_ (1688), and various subsequent editions. In the same year (1688) as Mrs. Behn's _Agnes de Castro; or, The Force of Generous Blood_ was published there appeared 'Two New Novels, i. _The Art of Making Love_.[1] ii. _The Fatal Beauty of Agnes de Castro_: Taken out of the History of Portugal. Translated from the French by P. B. G.[2] For R. Bentley' (12mo). Each has a separate t.i.tle page. Bellon's version does not differ materially from Mrs. Behn, but she far exceeds him in spirit and niceness of style.

So much legend has surrounded the romantic history of the beautiful Ines de Castro that it is impossible fully to elucidate every detail of her life. Born in the early years of the fourteenth century, she was the daughter of Pedro Fernandez de Castro, major domo to Alphonso XI of Castille. She accompanied her relative, Dona Constanca Manuel, daughter to the Duke of Penafiel, to the court of Alphonso IV of Portugal when this lady was to wed the Infante Don Pedro. Here Ines excited the fondest love in Pedro's heart and the pa.s.sion was reciprocated. She bore him several children, and there can be no doubt that Dona Constanca was madly jealous of her husband's amour with her fair friend. 13 November, 1345, Constanca died, and Pedro immediately married his mistress at Braganza in the presence of the Bishop of Guarda. Their nuptials were kept secret, and the old King kept pressing his son to take a wife.

Before long his spies found out the reason of the Infante's constant refusals; and, beside himself with rage, he watched an opportunity whilst Pedro, on a great hunting expedition, was absent from Coimbra where they resided, and had Ines cruelly a.s.sa.s.sinated 7 January, 1355.

The grief of Pedro was terrible, he plunged the country into civil war, and it was only by the tenderest solicitations of his mother and the authority of several holy monks and bishops that he was restrained from taking a terrible revenge upon his father. Alphonso died, his power curtailed, his end unhappy, May, 1357.

A very literature has grown up around the lovely Ines, and many more than a hundred items of interest could be enumerated. The best authority is J. de Araujo, whose monumental _Bibliographia Inesiana_ was published in 1897. Mrs. Behn's novel was immensely popular and is included, with some unnecessary moral observations as preface, in Mrs. Griffith's _A Collection of Novels_ (1777), Vol. III, which has a plate ill.u.s.trating the tale. It was turned into French by Marie-Genevieve-Charlotte Tiroux d' Arconville (1720-1805), wife of a councillor of the Parliament, an aimable blue-stocking who devoted her life wholly to literature, and translated freely from English. This work is to be found in _Romans (les deux premiers . . . tires des Lettres Persanes . . . par M. Littleton et le dernier . . . d'un Recueil de Romans . . . de Madame Behn) traduits de l' Anglois_, (Amsterdam, 1761.) It occurs again in _Melanges de Litterature_ (12mo, 1775, etc.), Vol. VI.

A tragedy, _Agnes de Castro_, written by that philosophical lady, Catherine Trotter (afterwards c.o.c.kburn), at the early age of sixteen, and produced at the Theatre Royal, 1696, with Powell, Verbruggen, Mrs.

Rogers in the princ.i.p.al parts, is directly founded upon Mrs. Behn. It is a mediocre play, and the same can even more truly be said of Mallet's cold _Elvira_ (1763). This was acted, however, with fair success thirteen times. Garrick played Don Pedro, his last original part, and Mrs. Cibber Elvira. Such dull exercises as C. Symmons, _Inez, a tragedy_ (1796), and _Ignez de Castro_, a tragedy in verse, intended for _Hoad's Magazine_ call for no comment.

There is a French play by Lamotte on the subject of Ines de Castro, which was first produced 6 April, 1723. Voltaire found the first four acts execrable and laughed consumedly. The fifth was so tender and true that he melted into tears. In Italian we have, from the pen of Bertoletti, _Inez de Castro_, tragedia, Milano, 1826.

In Spanish and Portuguese there are, of course, innumerable poems, treaties, tragedies, studies, romances. Lope de Vega wrote _Dona Inez de Castro_, and the beautiful episode of Camoens is deservedly famous.

Antonio Ferreira's splendid tragedy is well known. First published in _Comedias Famosas dos Doctores de Sa de Mirande_ (4to, 1622), it can also be read in _Poemas lusitanos_ (2 Vols., 8vo, Lisbon, 1771). Domingo dos Reis Quita wrote a drama, _Ignez de Castro_, a translation of which, by Benjamin Thompson, was published in 1800. There is also a play _Dona Ignez de Castro_, by Nicolas Luiz, which was Englished by John Adamson, whose version was printed at Newcastle, 1808.

[Footnote 1: Mr. Arundell Esdaile in his _Bibliography of Fiction_ (_printed before 1740_) erroneously identifies this amusing little piece with Mrs. Behn's _The Lover's Watch_. It is, however, quite another thing, dealing with a pseudo-Turkish language of love.]

[Footnote 2: i.e., Peter Bellon, Gent. Bellon was an a.s.siduous hackney writer and translator of the day. He has also left one comedy, _The Mock Duellist; or, The French Valet_ (4to, 1675).]

THE HISTORY OF _AGNES de CASTRO_.

Tho' Love, all soft and flattering, promises nothing but Pleasures; yet its Consequences are often sad and fatal. It is not enough to be in love, to be happy; since Fortune, who is capricious, and takes delight to trouble the Repose of the most elevated and virtuous, has very little respect for pa.s.sionate and tender Hearts, when she designs to produce strange Adventures.

Many Examples of past Ages render this Maxim certain; but the Reign of _Don Alphonso_ the IVth, King of _Portugal_, furnishes us with one, the most extraordinary that History can produce.