Chapter 107

p. 329 _the German Princess._ Mary Morders, alias Stedman, alias Kentish Moll, a notorious imposter of the day, who pretended to be a Princess from Germany. She had been transported to Jamaica in 1671, but returning too soon and stealing a piece of plate, was hanged at Tyburn, 22 January, 1673. Her adventures formed the plot of a play by Tom Porter, _A Witty Combat; or, The Female Victor_ (4to, 1663). Kirkman’s _Counterfeit Lady Unveiled_ (8vo, 1673), contains very ample details of her career. Pepys went to visit her ‘at the Gatehouse at Westminster’, 29 May, 1663. In talk he was ‘high in the defence of her wit and spirit’ (7 June, 1663). 15 April, 1664, the diarist further notes: ‘To the Duke’s house and there saw _The German Princess_ acted by the woman herself ... the whole play ... is very simple, unless, here and there, a witty sprinkle or two.’ This piece was doubtless identical with Porter’s tragi-comedy.

p. 329 _four Shillings, or half a Crown._ Four shillings was the price of admission to the boxes on the first tier of the theatre; half a crown to the pit. These sums are very frequently alluded to in prologue and epilogue. Dryden in his second epilogue to _The Duke of Guise_ (1682), after referring to the brawls and rioting of the pit, says:—

This makes our boxes full; for men of sense Pay their four shillings in their own defence.

The epilogue (spoken by Mrs. Bontell) to Corye’s _The Generous Enemies_ (1671), has these lines:—

Though there I see—Propitious Angels sit [points at the Boxes. Still there’s a Nest of Devils in the Pit, By whom our Plays, like Children, just alive, Pinch’d by the Fairies, never after thrive: ’Tis but your Half-crown, Sirs: that won’t undo.

Epilogue

p. 330 _Rotas._ The Rota was a political club founded in 1659 by James Harrington. It advocated a system of rotation in filling government offices.

331

THE ROUNDHEADS; OR, THE GOOD OLD CAUSE.

332

Scenes described in (parentheses) are unnumbered.

Argument.

Source.

Theatrical History. Dedication Prologue Dramatis Personæ.