Volume V Part 13 (2/2)
_Agnes_ lov'd every thing that gave the Prince satisfaction; but a secret Trouble made her apprehend some Misfortune in this unhappy Journey. _Sir_, (said she to him, alarm'd, without knowing the Reason why) _I tremble, seeing you today as it were designed the last of my Life: Preserve your self, my dear Prince; and tho' the Exercise you take be not very dangerous, beware of the least Hazards, and bring me back all that I trust with you. Don Pedro_, who had never found her so handsome and so charming before, embraced her several times, and went out of the Palace with his Followers, with a Design not to return till the next Day.
He was no sooner gone, but the cruel _Don Alvaro_ prepared himself for the Execution he had resolv'd on; he thought it of that importance, that it required more Hands than his own, and so chose for his Companions _Don Lopez Pacheo_, and _Pedro Cuello_, two Monsters like himself, whose Cruelty he was a.s.sur'd of by the Presents he had made 'em.
They waited the coming of the Night, and the lovely _Agnes_ was in her first Sleep, which was the last of her Life, when these a.s.sa.s.sins approach'd her Bed. Nothing made resistance to _Don Alvaro_, who could do every thing, and whom the blackest Furies introduced to _Agnes_; she waken'd, and opening her Curtains, saw, by the Candle burning in her Chamber, the Ponyard with which _Don Alvaro_ was armed; he having his Face not cover'd, she easily knew him, and forgetting herself, to think of nothing but the Prince: _Just Heaven_ (said she, lifting up her fine Eyes) _if you will revenge +Constantia+, satisfy your self with my Blood only, and spare that of_ Don Pedro. The barbarous Man that heard her, gave her not time to say more; and finding he could never (by all he could do by Love) touch the Heart of the fair _Agnes_, he pierc'd it with his Ponyard: his Accomplices gave her several Wounds, tho' there was no necessity of so many to put an end to an innocent Life.
What a sad Spectacle was this for those who approach'd her Bed the next day! And what dismal News was this to the unfortunate Prince of _Portugal_! He returned to _Coimbra_ at the first report of this Adventure, and saw what had certainly cost him his Life, if Men could die of Grief. After having a thousand times embraced the b.l.o.o.d.y Body of _Agnes_, and said all that a just Despair could inspire him with, he ran like a Mad-man into the Palace, demanding the Murderers of his Wife, of things that could not hear him. In fine, he saw the King, and without observing any respect, he gave a loose to his Resentment: after having rail'd a long time, overwhelm'd with Grief, he fell into a Swoon, which continu'd all that day. They carry'd him into his Apartment: and the King, believing that his Misfortune would prove his Cure, repented not of what he had permitted.
_Don Alvaro_, and the two other a.s.sa.s.sins, quitted _Coimbra_. This Absence of theirs made 'em appear guilty of the Crime; for which the afflicted Prince vow'd a speedy Vengeance to the Ghost of his lovely _Agnes_, resolving to pursue them to the uttermost part of the Universe; He got a considerable number of Men together, sufficient to have made resistance, even to the King of _Portugal_ himself, if he should yet take the part of the Murderers: with these he ravaged the whole Country, as far as the _Duero_ Waters, and carry'd on a War, even till the Death of the King, continually mixing Tears with Blood, which he gave to the revenge of his dearest _Agnes_.
Such was the deplorable End of the unfortunate Love of _Don Pedro_ of _Portugal_, and of the fair _Agnes de Castro_, whose Remembrance he faithfully preserv'd in his Heart, even upon the Throne, to which he mounted by the Right of his Birth, after the Death of the King.
THE HISTORY OF THE NUN; OR, THE FAIR VOW-BREAKER.
INTRODUCTION.
In the Epistle Dedicatory to Antony Hammond, Esq., of Somersham-Place, prefacing that pathetic tragedy, _The Fatal Marriage; or, The Innocent Adultery_[1] (4to, 1694), Southerne writes: 'I took the Hint of the Tragical part of this Play from a Novel of Mrs. _Behn's_, call'd _The Fair Vow-Breaker_; you will forgive me for calling it a Hint, when you find I have little more than borrow'd the Question, how far such a Distress was to be carry'd, upon the Misfortune of a Woman's having innocently two Husbands, at the same time'.
In the many collected editions of Mrs. Behn's popular novels and histories, from the first, published under the auspices of Gildon in 1696, to the ninth (2 vols, 12mo, London, 1751), there appears, however, no such novel as _The Fair Vow-Breaker_, but on the other hand all contain _The Nun; or, the Perjur'd Beauty_. For over two hundred years then, critics, theatrical historians, bibliographers alike have laid down that _The Fair Vow-Breaker_ is merely another t.i.tle for _The Nun; or, The Perjur'd Beauty_, and that it is to this romance we must look for the source of Southerne's tragedy. The slight dissimilarity of name was truly of no great account. On the t.i.tle-page of another novel we have _The Fair Jilt; or, The History of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_; on the half-t.i.tle of the same _The Fair Hypocrite; or, The Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_ (12mo, 1688). And so Thomas Evans in the preface to his edition of Southerne (3 vols, 1774), writing the dramatist's life, says: 'the plot by the author's confession is taken from a novel of Mrs.
Behn's called _The Nun; or, The Fair Vow-Breaker_'. All the modern writers have duly, but wrongly, accepted this; and Miss Charlotte E.
Morgan in her monograph, _The English Novel till 1749_, informs us in more than one place that _The Fair Vow-Breaker_ (12mo, 1689) was the name of the editio princeps of _The Nun; or, The Perjur'd Beauty_.
A crux, however, was soon apparent. Upon investigation it is obvious that the plot of _The Fatal Marriage; or, The Innocent Adultery_ has simply nothing in common with _The Nun; or, The Perjur'd Beauty_. Mrs.
Behn's Ardelia is a mere coquette who through her trifling with three different men is responsible for five deaths: her lovers', Elvira's, and her own. Isabella, Southerne's heroine, on the other hand, falls a sad victim to the machinations of Carlos, her wicked brother-in-law. She is virtuous and constant; Ardelia is a jade capable of heartless treachery.
Both novel and play end tragically it is true, but from entirely different motives and in a dissimilar manner. There is no likeness between them.
Whence then did Southerne derive his plot, and what exactly did he mean by the statement that he owed 'the Hint of the Tragical part' of his drama to a novel of Mrs. Behn's?
Professor Paul Hamelius of Liege set out to solve the difficulty, and in a scholarly article (_Modern Language Review_, July, 1909), he marshals the facts and seeks a solution. 'Among her [Mrs. Behn's] collected novels'[2] he writes 'there is one ent.i.tled _The Nun; or, The Perjur'd Beauty_ and Mr. Gosse has kindly informed me that the story is identical with _The Nun; or, The Fair Vow-Breaker_ which appears in the editio princeps of 1689 (inaccessible to me).' Unfortunately he can find no a.n.a.logy and is obliged to draw attention to other sources. He points to _The Virgin Captive_, the fifth story in Roger L'Estrange's _The Spanish Decameron_ (1687). Again: there is the famous legend of the lovers of Teruel as dramatized in 1638 by Juan Perez de Montalvan, _Los Amantes de Teruel_. An earlier comedia exists on the same subject written by A. Rey de Artieda, 1581, and yet another play by Tirso de Molina, 1635, based on Artieda. Hamelius was obviously not satisfied with his researches, and with a half-suggestion that Southerne may have merely intended to pay a compliment to his 'literary friend Mrs. Behn,' his conclusion is that 'the question is naturally still open whether Southerne was not drawing from some more immediate source--possibly even from some lost version of the story by Mrs. Behn herself.'
In the course of my preparing the present edition of Mrs. Behn's complete works, Mr. Gosse, adding yet another to innumerable kindnesses and encouragements, entrusted me with a little volume[3] from his private library: _The History of the Nun; or, The Fair Vow-Breaker_ (12mo, 1689, Licensed 22 October, 1688), and I soon found this to be the immediate source of Southerne's tragedy, a totally different novel from _The Nun; or, The Perjur'd Beauty_, and one, moreover, which has never till now been included in any edition of Mrs. Behn's works or, indeed, reprinted in any form. It were superfluous to compare novel and tragedy detail by detail. Many striking, many minor points are the same in each.
In several instances the nomenclature has been preserved. The chief divergence is, of course, the main catastrophe. Mrs. Behn's execution could ill have been represented on the boards, and Southerne's heroine, the victim of villainies and intrigue, is, it must be confessed, an infinitely more pathetic figure than guilty Isabella in the romance.
The story of a man returning after long absence and finding his spouse (or betrothed) wedded to another, familiarized to the generality of modern readers by Tennyson's _Enoch Arden_, occurs in every shape and tongue. No. 69 of _Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_ is _L'Honneste femme a Deux Maris_.[4] A more famous exemplar we have in the _Decameron_, Day IV, Novella 8, whose rubric runs: 'Girolamo ama la Salvestra: va, costretto da' prieghi della madre, a Parigi: torna, e truovala maritata: entrale di nascoso in casa, e muorle allato; e portato in una chiesa, muore la Salvestra allata a lui.'
Scenes of the amusing underplot of _The Fatal Marriage_ which contain some excellent comedy, Southerne took directly from _The Night Walker; or, The Little Thief_ (printed as Fletcher's in 1640 and 'corrected by s.h.i.+rley' in 1633 according to Herbert's license). The purgatorial farce may be traced to the _Decameron_, Day III, 8. 'Ferondo, mangiata certa polvere, e sotterrato per morto: e dall' abate, chi la moglie di lui si G.o.de, tratto dalla sepoltura, e messo in prigione e fattogli credere, che egli e in purgatoro; e poi risuscitato . . .' It is the _Feronde; ou, le Purgatoire_ of La Fontaine.
_The Fatal Marriage; or, The Innocent Adultery_ long kept the stage.[5]
On 2 December, 1757, Garrick's version, which omitting the comic relief weakens and considerably shortens the play, was produced at Drury Lane with himself as Biron and Mrs. Cibber as Isabella. The actual name of the tragedy, however, was not changed to _Isabella_ till some years after. Mrs. Barry, the original Isabella, was acknowledged supreme in this tragedy, and our greatest actresses, Mrs. Porter, Mrs. Crawford, Miss Young, Mrs. Siddons, Miss O'Neill, have all triumphed in the role.
[Footnote 1: This has nothing to do with Scarron's novel, _L'
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