Chapter 99

p. 322, l. 1 _Carlo’s House._ 4to 1673 ‘House of Carlo’.

p. 322, l. 5 _Dor. As for._ 4to 1673 misreads ‘Dom. As for’.

p. 323, l. 11 _Hau. What a Devil._ 1724 ‘Hau. What the Devil’.

p. 324, l. 7 _Truth. [Goes out._ 1724 ‘Exit.’

p. 324, l. 20 _God-ha’-Mercy._ 1724 ‘God-a-Mercy’.

p. 324, l. 20 _Go in._ 1724 omits.

_448_ Notes: Critical And Explanatory.

The Dutch Lover.

Epistle

p. 221 _An Epistle to the Reader._ This amusing and witty Epistle only appears in the 4to, 1673, finding no place in the various collected editions of Mrs. Behn’s plays. The writer of comedy—‘the most severe of Johnson’s sect’—with his ‘musty rules of Unity’—at whom she glances pretty freely is Shadwell, who had obtained great success with _The Sullen Lovers_ (produced 2 May, 1668; 4to, 1668), and in spite of some mishaps and opposition, made another hit with _The Humourists_ (1671; 4to, 1671). An ardent disciple of Ben Jonson, he had in the two printed prefaces to these plays belauded his model beyond all other writers, insisting upon the Unities and the introduction of at least two or three Humours as points essential to any comedy.

p. 221 _Doctor of Malmsbury._ The famous philosopher, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1670), who was born at Westport, a suburb of Malmesbury (of which town his father was vicar).

p. 222 _unjantee._ —‘Jantee’ obsolete form of ‘jaunty’: see _N.E.D._

p. 222 _the mighty Echard._ That facetious divine, John Eachard, D.D. (1636-97), Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. His chief work, _The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion enquired into. In a Letter to R. L._ (London, 1670), published anonymously, is stuffed full with Attic salt and humour. He has even been censured for a jocosity (at his brethren’s expense) beneath the decorum of the cloth.

p. 224 _English Game which hight long Laurence._ To play at Laurence = to do just nothing at all; to laze. Laurence is the personification of idleness. There are many dialect uses of the name, e.g., N.W. Devon ‘Lazy’s Laurence’, and Cornish ‘He’s as lazy as Lawrence’, vide Wright, _English Dialect Dictionary._