Part 30

Mr. G. Thorn Drury has drawn my attention to the fact that the original of Mrs. Behn’s _The Disappointment_, entitled _Sur une Impuissance_ is to be found in _Recueil de Diverses Poesies Choisies Non encore Imprimées_. A Amsterdam, 1661. A full translation of the French verses (Mrs. Behn’s is only of part), appears in _Wit and Drollery_ (1682), under the title _The Lost Opportunity recovered_. This poem is not given in _Wit and Drollery_ (1661).

p. 182 _Sir R. O._ Either Sir Rowland Okeover, of Okeover, Staffs., knighted by the King, May (April?), 1665; or Sir Richard Osbaldeston of Hunmanby, York, knighted 12 August, 1681.

p. 183 _The Dream_. This song appears in _The Muses Mercury_, May, 1707, as _Cupid in Chains_. For variants see Textual Notes, p. 183.

p. 185 _A Letter to a Brother_. There is nothing to indicate to whom these satirical lines are addressed. [Ravenscroft?] For ‘Sweating-Tub’ cf. the Epilogue to _The Lucky Chance_: ‘Tubs must cure your pain’ (Vol. III, p. 279), and note on that passage (p. 492).

p. 185 _Pusillage_. cf. _The Feign’d Curtezans_, i, ii: ‘Thou shalt part with thy Pusilage’ (Vol. II, p. 320), and note on that passage, (p. 440).

p. 188 _To Pesibles Tune_. James Paisible, flautist and composer, who set this charming song to music, was born about 1656. He came to England _circa_ 1680, and soon found patrons, the chief of whom was the Duchess de Mazarin, who, with the help of St. Evremond, continually gave exquisite but elaborate concerts at Paradise Row, Chelsea. In a little drawing-room scena Paisible is actually mentioned by name. He is said to have won great favour owing to his easy manners and fluent wit. 4 December, 1686, he procured a licence for his marriage with one Mary Davis. About 1691 he began to supply overtures and musical interludes for the theatres, and from 1703 to 1714 he set the tunes to Isaac’s dances performed at court on birthdays and other gala occasions. He lived in the parish of S. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, and died August, 1721. Much of his work has been published and some yet remain in MS. His are the overture and interludes to Southerne’s _Oroonoko_.

p. 189 _Set by Captain Pack_. Captain Pack was an exceedingly popular and prolific musician of the day. The British Museum possesses four songs of his in one volume (MS.). Some of his compositions may be found in Playford’s _Choice Ayres_ (1675); in _The Theatre of Music_ (1685-7); in _The Banquet_ (1688). Amongst other pieces he composed incidental music for D’Urfey’s _Don Quixote, I_ and _II_ (1694), both the first two parts of which play were received with great applause.

p. 191 _Set by Mr. Farmer_. Thomas Farmer, Mus. Bac., was originally one of the Waits of London. He graduated at Cambridge in 1684. He composed much instrumental music for the theatre, and contributed some songs to the second edition of Playford’s _Choice Ayres_ (1675), to _The Theatre of Music_ (1685-7), and to D’Urfey’s _Third Collection of Songs_ (1685). His is the music to Lee’s drama _The Princess of Cleve_ (1682), and various other compositions, including _A Consort of Musick_ (1686), of which work a second part followed a year or two after, bear his name. As Purcell composed an elegy, the words by Nahum Tate, for his funeral, Farmer must have died before 1695.

p. 195 _In Imitation of Horace_. An altered expansion of and no very close parallel to

Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa perfusus liquidis urget odoribus grato, Pyrrha, sub antro? cui flavam religas comam, simplex munditiis?--_Carminum, I_, 5.

p. 198 _A Dialogue_. There is nothing to show when or for what entertainment this little Pastoral was written.

p. 200 _Mr. J. H._ i.e. Mr. John Hoyle.

p. 204 _To the Honourable Edward Howard_. _The Six Days Adventure; or, The New Utopia_ was produced at the Duke’s Theatre in 1671, and printed quarto the same year. Although the best of Edward Howard’s comedies it was received with scant favour, and the author vindicates himself, pretty sharply rebuking both actors and audience, in a long preface.

Sir Grave Solymour, about to enter the bed of the chaste Celinda, finds himself in the embraces of a black-a-moor, whilst his friends rush in and jeer the precise old knight, whose ‘night-hag’ eventually proves to be Celinda’s sooty page. The ‘braver _Heroins_’ of Howard, Serina, Crispina, Eugenia, Petilla, wish to assume and usurp all the privileges of the bolder sex. The scene lies in Utopia. Peacock, created by the low comedian Angel, is a silly fribbling fop.

When the play was printed commendatory verses were prefixed by Ravenscroft and Mrs. Behn, both of whom adopted Pindarics; by J. T.; and by Sam Clyat.

In Mrs. Behn’s _Miscellany_ of 1685 is included ‘_A Pindaric by the Honourable_ Edward Howard _to Mrs._ B. _Occasioned by a Copy she made on his Play, called the New_ Eutopia’. The piece is fluent and not ungraceful, concluding with a pretty compliment.

Mrs. Behn’s Pindarick is reprinted in the _Muses Mercury_, October, 1707, with this note: ‘The following Paper of Verses was written by Mrs. _Behn_, to a Poet, who being damn’d, declar’d he wou’d write no more: However out of Affection to his Brother Poets, he left Rules for them to write; which she seems to judge kinder of than they deserve; since both the Rules and the Critick are already entirely forgot. The Reader will perceive that Mrs. _Behn_ had no Notion of a Pindarick Poem, any farther than it consisted of irregular Numbers, and sav’d the Writer the Trouble of even Measure; which indeed is all our common Pindarick Poets know of the Matter.’

_Shee who late made the Amazons so Great_ refers to Howard’s tragicomedy, _The Women’s Conquest_ (4to 1671), the scene of which lies in Scythia, where we meet with several pseudo-classical Amazons.

For a detailed account of Edward Howard _vide_ the present editor’s edition of _The Rehearsal_ (pp. 76-9).

p. 207 _the Musick-Meeting_. cf. Southerne’s _The Wives Excuse; or, Cuckolds make Themselves_ (1692), Act i, i: ‘the outward Room to the Musick-Meeting,’ which gives a very lively picture of these fashionable assemblies. An Italian and then an English song--(’.hich won’t oblige a Man to tell you he has seen an _Opera_ at _Venice_ to understand’.--are sung.

p. 210 _Song_. This song, with six additional verses (certainly not the work of Mrs. Behn), is found in a broadside, which version is given in Vol. IV. of the _Roxburghe Ballads_ (pp. 656-9), issued by the Ballad Society. In a similar way the song ‘Ah Jenny gen your Eyes do kill’, sung in the _City Heiress_ (_vide_ Vol. II, p. 253), was in another broadside amplified to no less than eighty lines, and dubbed ‘The Loves of Jockey and Jenny’. Ebsworth in his note on this song (_Roxburghe Ballads_, VI, pp. 176-80) refers to Mrs. Behn and says: ‘it is less her handiwork than that of her friend Tom D’Urfey, who considered himself _facile princeps_ in the writing of Anglo-Scotch ditties’. Similar treatment was accorded the ‘Song made by a Gentlemen’ in _Sir Patient Fancy_, iii, i (Vol. IV, p. 44). For the ballad writer’s additions to this _vide_ _Roxburghe Ballads_, VI (46-9). It is noticeable that these four stanzas (’.oung Jemmy was a Lad’. under the title _Jemmey_ appear in _Female Poems on Several Occasions_. ‘Written by Ephelia. The Second Edition, with large Additions’ (1682). They are not in the first edition (1679) of these Poems. Jemmy is, of course, Monmouth, and in the line ‘But oh he dances with a Grace’ we have an allusion to his skill in dancing. Evelyn speaks of him as ‘an excellent dancer’.

p. 211 _Nickey Nackeys_. This song is sung in _The Roundheads_ (_vide_ Vol. I, p. 397). Nickey Nackey is the name which the old senator Antonio (a satire on Shaftesbury) gives to the Greek courtezan Aquilina, _Venice Preserv’d_, iii, i. There may be an allusion to some mistress of that debauched Machiavel.

p. 212 _A Paraphrase on the Eleventh Ode_.

Tu ne quaesieris scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi finem di dederint, Leuconöe, nec Babylonios tentaris numeros--Horatii, _Carminum, I_, xi.

p. 212 _A Translation_. This charming poem,

Lydia, bella puella candida, Quae bene superas lac et lilium, Albamque simul rosam rubidam, Aut expolitum ebur Indicum....

twenty-five lines in length, was often but quite erroneously ascribed to Cornelius Gallus. _vide_ Scaliger _Poëtices_, Lib. VI. It has very frequently been rendered. The versions of Rochester, of Nott, and of Elton are all particularly graceful.

p. 213 _A Paraphrase_. As this is not even claimed to be an exact translation from the Heroides we must not too strictly judge any divergence from the original.

LYCIDUS (1688).

p. 295 _The Earl of Melford, &c. Knight of the most Noble Order of the Thistle_. John Drummond, first Earl and titular Duke of Melford (1649-1714) was the second son of James, third Earl of Perth. He filled various posts of importance in Scotland, for which country he was in 1684 appointed Secretary of State. Converted to Catholicism, with his brother (Lady Anne Gordon, their mother, had been a staunch Catholic), the two are said practically to have ruled Scotland for three years’ space. A firm follower of James II, he accompanied him to exile and supported all his measures. During this period he was busy with many intrigues, and was attainted in 1695. He died at Paris after a long illness in the year 1714.

p. 296 _Thessalian Feilds_. A forced conceit. Lucius travelling through Thessaly traverses ‘ardua montium et lubrica vallium et roscida cespitum et glebosa camporum’.--Apuleius, _Metamorphoseon_ (I, ii). Again, he is ‘anxius alioquin ... reputansque me media Thessaliae loca tenere, quo artis magicae nativa cantamina totius orbis consono ore celebrentur.’--(II, i.)

p. 297 _Sappho_. Ephelia, the authoress of _Female Poems on Several Occasions_. ‘Written by Ephelia.’ 1679. In 1682 appeared ‘The Second Edition, with large Additions’. This contains a poem ‘To Madam _Bhen_’.

p. 297 _of Thirsis and of Strephon_. _vide_ note _supra_ (on p. 166).

p. 298 _Kendrick_. Daniel Kenrick or Kendrick, physician and poet, was born about 1652. 31 March, 1666, he entered Christ Church, Oxon, as a servitor, and proceeded M.A. 1674. He was much esteemed in his native town of Worcester (where he practised as a doctor) as ‘a man of wit and a jolly companion.’ Several poems of his appear in _The Grove, or a Collection of Original Poems_ (1721), before which date, however, he was dead. The preface to this book highly praises him, and he appears to have been on terms of intimacy with the great Purcell as well as with Mrs. Behn. Dr. Kenrick is stated ‘to have taken his degrees both in divinity and physic, and being a person of vivacity and wit, entertain’d his leisure hours in poetical compositions.’ He may be identical with Daniel Kenrick, D.D., who preached the assize sermon at Worcester, in 1688.

p. 313 _any Sir Fopling, or Sir Courtly Nice._ cf. Vol. III, p. 278, Epilogue to _The Lucky Chance_, ‘Nice and Flutter’, and note (p. 492) on that passage.

p. 313 _Galliard_. Lively, cf. Shadwell’s _The Humorists_ (1671), Act iii, where Briske says to Theodosia: ‘Come Madam, let’s be frolick, Galliard, and extraordinary Brisk, fa, la, la, la!’

p. 342 _quillets_. A variation of ‘quip’, a play upon words; or an evasive retort, cf. _Love’s Labour Lost_, iv, 111:--

O! some authority how to proceed; Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil.

p. 343 _On the Honourable Sir Francis Fane._ Sir Francis Fane (died 1690?) was the eldest son of Sir Francis Fane, K.B., F.R.S., of Fulbeck, Lincolnshire, and Aston, Yorkshire. He was created a K.B. at the coronation of Charles II. During the latter part of his life he retired to his country estate at Henbury, Glos., where he died. His will is dated 14 November, 1689, and was proved 15 September, 1691. He is the author of a comedy, a masque, and a tragedy. _Love in the Dark; or The Man of Business_ (4to, 1675), was produced at the Theatre Royal with Lacy, Jo Haines, Mohun, Kynaston and Mrs. Boutel in the cast. The scene is laid at Venice in Carnival time, and Intrigo, a good character, was not forgotten by Mrs. Centlivre when she composed _The Busy Body_. The Masque was written at Rochester’s request for his alteration of _Valentinian_. It may be found in Tate’s _Poems by Several Hands_ (8vo, 1685). _The Sacrifice_ (4to, 1689), was never acted, and would hardly have succeeded on the stage. The scene lies in ’. Revolted Fort in China’. It concludes with numerous deaths including that of Tamerlane the Great. _Irene_ is his daughter belov’d by _Axalla_ ‘General to Tamerlane’. _Despina_ is the wife of the Emperor Bajazet. _Ragalzan_ is pithily designated a Villain, and he well merits the description. There is a copy of prefatory verses ‘To The Author’ by Nahum Tate, but neither prologue nor epilogue. Fane’s plays are not without merit, but yet do not occupy a noteworthy rank in our theatrical library.

p. 348 _To Alexis in Answer_. This poem was written in answer to a copy of verses (which in _Lycidus_, 1688, immediately precede it), entitled ’.A Poem against fruition--written on the reading in_ Mountains Essay: _By_ Alexis’.

p. 350 _A Pastoral Pindarick._ On the Marriage of the Right Hon. the Earle of Dorset and Middlesex to the Lady Mary Compton. Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, sixth Earl of Dorset and Earl of Middlesex (1638-1706), wit, courtier, poet, debauchee, married his second wife Mary, daughter of James Compton, third Earl of Northampton, in 1685. Lady Mary Compton, who became lady of the bedchamber to Queen Mary II, was celebrated for her beauty and understanding. She died 6 August 1691. Walpole says of Sackville that he was the finest gentleman of the voluptuous court of Charles II. It has been well observed that after 1668 we hear little of his debaucheries, much of his munificence to and patronage of men of letters.

p. 359 _Calenture._ A tropical fever and delirium, especially incidental to sailors in torrid climes. Hence used very widely for any glow, passion, ardour, cf. Donne, _Poems_: ‘Knowledge kindles Calenture in some.’ Jeremy Taylor speaks of ‘Calentures of primitive devotion’.

p. 360 _To Amintas._ To Amintas, _upon reading the Lives of some of the_ Romans. The _Muses Mercury_ reprints this poem, April, 1707, as ’.o Mr. H----le, being belov’d by both Sexes. Upon Reading the Lives of the Romans. By Mrs. _A. Behn_.’ In the British Museum copy of this number an old hand has supplied the omitted letters ‘oy’ and we have Mr. Hoyle.

p. 361 _On the first discovery._ This poem appeared in the _Muses Mercury_, March, 1707, with the following note: ‘If it were proper to make publick what we have learnt of the Story of the Author of the following Verses, ‘twould be an unquestionable Proof of their being _genuine_. For they are all Writ with her own Hand in a Person’s Book who was very much her Friend; and from thence are now transcrib’d for the _Mercury_. There are Fifteen or Sixteen Copies of Verse more, which will in due time be printed in this Collection. There’s no Man who knows any thing of Mrs. _Behn’s_ way of Writing, but will presently see, that this Poem was written by her Self; and the rest are of the same Character.’ The _Muses Mercury_, as a fact, gave eleven other poems beside the present verses. Eight of these had already been printed: _On the first discovery of falseness in Amintas_ (p. 361) appears March, 1707, as _The Disoblig’d Love_. _To Amintas_ (p. 360) appears April, 1707, as _To Mr. H----le, being belov’d by both Sexes. Upon reading the Lives of the Romans_. _The Dream_ (p. 183) appears May, 1707, as _Cupid in Chains_. _Of The Return_ (p. 173) the first two stanzas appear August, 1707, as ‘To J. Hoyle, Esq.’ _Song_ (_When Jemmy first_) (p. 165) appears September, 1707, as _On Capt. ---- going to the War in Flanders_. _To the Honourable Edward Howard_ (p. 204) appears October, 1707, as _To the Author of a new Eutopia, A Pindarick_. _The Willing Mistriss_ (p. 163) appears December, 1707, as _A Song for J. H._ _Mr. E. B. and Mrs. F. M._ (p. 159) appears January, 1708, as _The Loves of Mirtillo and Phillis_. From their notice and the reprinting of so many pieces it would seem that the editors of the _Muses Mercury_ were not very well acquainted with Mrs. Behn’s published Poems.

p. 364 _Westminster Drollery._ This song has been here included from _Westminster Drollery_ (1671), on the authority of Ebsworth. It cannot, however, originally be Mrs. Behn’s since it appears in a fuller form as _To his Whore who askt money of him_ (_Wit and Drollery_, 1656). There are other variants. It will be remembered that in _The Rover, II_, v, 1 (Vol. I, p. 195), Willmore jestingly sings the fifth verse to La Nuche.

MISCELLANY, 1685.

p. 365. _Sir William Clifton_. Sir William Clifton, Bart., of Clifton, Notts, the only surviving son of Sir Clifford Clifton, Knight, and Frances his wife, daughter of Sir Heneage Finch, Knight, Recorder of London, succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his uncle Sir Gervase Clifton, 14 January, 1675. Sir William Clifton died unmarried, leaving two sisters, coheirs.

p. 368 _On the Death of the late Earl of Rochester._ John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, libertine, poet, wit, died from a complication of ailments due to his profligacies on 26 July, 1680, at the High Lodge, Woodstock Park, whither he had journeyed in the preceding April. During the last three months of his life he shewed signs of a sincere penitence. He was much comforted by the ministrations of his chaplain, Robert Parsons, and on 25 June he wrote to Gilbert Burnet to come and receive his death-bed repentance. Burnet arrived 20 July, and stayed four days, spending the time in consolatory exhortations and prayer. Parsons’ funeral sermon giving an account of Rochester’s death and penitence is well known, but Burnet’s book, _Some Passages of the Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester_ (1680, 8vo), has been even more constantly re-issued. The Earl was buried in the north aisle of Spelsbury church, Oxfordshire, but without any inscription or monument to mark the grave.

p. 369 _Cyprus._ A fine transparent stuff now called crape, cf. _Winter’s Tale_, iv, iv (first folio):--

Cypresse black as ere was Crow.

Palsgrave, _Lesclarcissement de la Langue Françoyse_, has: ‘Cypres for a woman’s necke--_crespe_’. and Cotgrave, _Fr. Dict._, ‘Crespe: m. Cipres; also Cobweb Lawne’. The etymology of the word has given rise to much discussion. Skinner, _Etymol. Angl._, regards it as a corruption of the French _crepes_, but suggests that it may be derived from the island of Cyprus where it was first manufactured. This is almost certainly the case, cf. arras; cashmere; dimity; dornick; muslin, and many more. Wheatley in his notes on _Every Man in His Humour_ suggests that Cyprus is derived from ‘the plant _Cyperus textilis_, which is still used for the making of ropes and matting.’ One of the English names of this plant was ‘cypress’. Gerarde in his _Herbal_ (1597) says: ’.yperus longus is called ... in English, Cypresse and Galingale.’ Mr. Wheatley’s suggestion is ingenious but impossible. There is, moreover, ample evidence in favour of the derivation from the isle Cyprus.

p. 372 _A Paraphrase on the Lord’s Prayer._ One may compare with this Paraphrase of the Pater by Mrs. Behn that by Poliziano--#Proseuchê pros ton Theon#--written in 1472 when the poet was eighteen years old. Waller has sixteen lines _OF the Paraphrase on the Lord’s Prayer, written by Mrs. Wharton_. cf. also _Some Reflections of his upon the Several Petitions in the Same Prayer_.

p. 378 _To Mr. P. who sings finely_. Perhaps Henry Purcell, whose voice was a counter-tenor, or possibly a relative of the great musician, a bass, who sang in the choir of the Abbey at the coronation of James II.

p. 379 _On the Author of that Excellent Book._ _The Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness_ was published (4to, 1682), as _Health’s Grand Preservative; or, the Women’s Best Doctor_ ... shewing the Ill-Consequences of drinking Distilled Spirits and smoking Tobacco ... with a Rational Discourse on the excellency of Herbs (2nd edition, 1691, 8vo, under the first-named title; 3rd edition 1697). It is the work of Thomas Tryon (1634-1703), ‘Pythagorean’, mystic, economist. This remarkable man, of whom a full account may be found in the _Dic. Nat. Biog._, was long a fervent follower of Jacob Behmen, and forms an interesting link between this enthusiast and the early quakers. In _The Way to Health_ he advocates a vegetable diet, complete abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and indeed all luxuries. This, however, is done without fanaticism, and he has many pages of sound common sense. The manual is in the highest degree interesting, and in spite of much quaint detail his hygiene was excellent. Tryon died at Hackney, 21 August, 1703. This same poem appears prefixed to _The Way to make All People Rich: or Wisdom’s Call to Temperance and Frugality_, by Philotheos Physiologus. [T. Tryon]. 12mo, 1685.

p. 382 _Epilogue to the Jealous Lovers_. _The Jealous Lovers_, which is by many considered Randolph’s best play, was originally acted before the King and Queen at Cambridge by the students of Trinity. It was printed quarto, 1632, with nine copies of English, and seven of Latin, verses. The revival of this comedy at the Duke’s house in 1682 met with extraordinary success, and is mentioned by Langbaine. Nokes, who spoke this epilogue, acted Asotus the prodigal, and _Leigh_, Ballio the pimp. _Jo_ and _Jack_ are Joseph Williams and John Bowman who sustained Tyndarus and Pamphilus.

_Rebell Ward_ is a sharp hit at Sir Patience Ward (1629-1696), the ultra-protestant lord mayor of London, to which office he was elected on Michaelmas day, 1680, entering on to his duties 29 October following. He was a violent upholder of the city against the court, and in 1683 was tried for perjury in connection with the action brought by the Duke of York against Sir Thomas Pilkington for _scandalum magnatum_. On being found guilty he escaped to Holland but returned at the Revolution. He died 10 July, 1696, and is buried in the chancel of St. Mary Abchurch. This fanatic incurred much odium early in his Mayoralty by having an additional inscription engraved on the Monument to the effect that the Great Fire had been caused by the Catholics. A similar inscription was placed on the house in Pudding Lane where the fire began. Tom Ward (1652-1791), in his _England’s Reformation_ (1710, canto iv, p. 100), jeering at Titus Oates and his fictions has the following lines:--

That sniffling whig-mayor, _Patience Ward_, To this damn’d lie had such regard, That he his godly masons sent T’engrave it round the Monument. They did so; but let such things pass: His men were fools, and he an ass.

Roscommon, _The Ghost of the old House of Commons_ ... (1681), dockets ’.he _Bethels_ and the _Wards_’ together as

Anti-Monarchic--Hereticks of State.

_Your Damage is at most but half-a-Crown._ half-a-Crown was the price of admittance to the Pit. _vide_ note, vol. I, p. 450.

p. 383 _A Pastoral to Mr. Stafford._ John Stafford, the translator of the Camilla episode (Dryden’s _Sylvae: or, the Second Part of Poetical Miscellanies_, 1685, p. 481), is the same person who translated other parts of Virgil and Horace in the same Miscellany, Vols. I and II. In the 3rd edition of Vol. II he is called ‘the Honourable Mr. John Stafford.’ Stafford is also the author of the Epilogue (sometimes erroneously printed as Dryden’s) to Southerne’s _The Disappointment; or, The Mother in Fashion_ (1684, and 4to, 1684).

p. 383 _cale._ This excessively rare adjective, which the _N.E.D._ fails to include, is an Irish word = hard.