Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

In 1687 the Duke of Albemarle’s voyage to Jamaica45 to take up the government in the West Indies gave occasion for a Pindaric, but we only have one dramatic piece from Mrs. Behn, _The Emperor of the Moon_, a capital three act farce, Italian in sentiment and origin. For some little time past her health had begun to trouble her.46 Her three years of privation and cares had told upon her physically, and since then, ‘forced to write for bread and not ashamed to own it,’ she had spared neither mind nor bodily strength. Graver symptoms appeared, but yet she found time to translate from Fontenelle his version of Van Dale’s _De Oraculis Ethnicorum_ as _The History of Oracles and the Cheats of the Pagan Priests_, a book of great interest. There was also published in 1687 an edition in stately folio of _Æesop’s Fables with his Life in English, French and Latin_, ‘illustrated with One hundred and twelve Sculptures’ and ‘Thirty One New Figures representing his Life’, by Francis Barlow, the celebrated l draughtsman of birds and animals. Each plate to the Life has a quatrain appended, and each fable with its moral is versified beneath the accompanying picture. In his brief address to the Reader Barlow writes: ‘The Ingenious Mrs. A. Behn has been so obliging as to perform the English Poetry, which in short comprehends the Sense of the Fable and Moral; Whereof to say much were needless, since it may sufficiently recommend it self to all Persons of Understanding.’ To this year we further assign the composition of no fewer than four novels, _The Unfortunate Bride_, _The Dumb Virgin_, _The Wandering Beauty_, _The Unhappy Mistake_. She was working at high pressure, and 1688 still saw a tremendous literary output. Waller had died 21 October, 1687, at the great age of eighty-one, and her Elegiac Ode to his Memory begins:—

How to thy Sacred Memory, shall I bring (Worthy thy Fame) a grateful Offering? I, who by Toils of Sickness, am become Almost as near as thou art to a Tomb? While every soft and every tender strain Is ruffl’d, and ill-natur’d grown with Pain.

This she sent to his daughter-in-law with the following letter47:—

Madam,

At such losses as you have sustain’d in that of yor Glorious ffather in Law Mr. Waller, the whole world must wait on your sighs & mournings, tho’ we must allow yours to be the more sensible by how much more (above your Sex) you are Mistriss of that Generous li Tallent that made him so great & so admird (besids what we will allow as a Relation) tis therfore at your ffeet Madam we ought to lay all those Tributary Garlands, we humbler pretenders to the Muses believe it our Duty to offer at his Tombe—in excuse for mine Madam I can only say I am very ill & have been dying this twelve month, that they want those Graces & that spiritt wch possible I might have drest em in had my health & dulling vapors permitted me, howeuer Madam they are left to your finer judgment to determin whether they are worthy the Honour of the Press among those that cellibrat Mr. Wallers great fame, or of being doomed to the fire & whateuer you decree will extreamly sattisfy

Madam

I humbly beg pardon for my yll writing Madam for tis with a Lame hand scarce able to hold a pen.

yor most Devoted & most Obeadient Seruant A. Behn.

Her weakness, lassitude, and despondency are more than apparent; yet bravely buckling to her work, and encouraged by her success with Fontenelle, she Englished with rare skill his _Theory of the System of Several New Inhabited Worlds_, prefixing thereto a first-rate ‘Essay on Translated Prose.’ She shows herself an admirable critic, broad-minded, with a keen eye for niceties of style. _The Fair Jilt_ (licensed 17 April, 1688),48 _Oroonoko_, and _Agnes de Castro_, followed in swift succession. She also published _Lycidus, a Voyage from the Island of Love_, returning to the Abbé Tallemant’s dainty preciosities. On 10 June, James Francis Edward, lii Prince of Wales, was born at St. James’s Palace, and Mrs. Behn having already written a _Congratulatory Poem_49 to Queen Mary of Modena on her expectation of the Prince, was ready with a Poem on his Happy Birth.

One of the most social and convivial of women, a thorough Tory, well known to Dryden, Creech, Otway and all the leading men of her day, warm helper and ally of every struggling writer, Astrea began to be completely overpowered by the continual strain, the unremittent tax upon both health and time. Overworked and overwrought, in the early months of 1689 she put into English verse the sixth book (_of Trees_) from Cowley’s _Sex Libri Plantarum_ (1668). Nahum Tate undertook Books IV and V and prefaced the translation when printed. As Mrs. Behn knew no Latin no doubt some friend, perhaps Tate himself, must have paraphrased the original for her. She further published _The Lucky Mistake_ and _The History of the Nun; or, The Fair Vow Breaker_,50 licensed 22 October, 1688. On the afternoon of 12 February, Mary, wife of William of Orange, had with great diffidence landed at Whitehall Stairs, and Mrs. Behn congratulated the lady in her Poem _To Her Sacred Majesty Queen Mary on her Arrival in England_. One regrets to find her writing on such an occasion, and that she realized the impropriety of her conduct is clear from the reference to the banished monarch. But she was weary, depressed, liii and ill, and had indeed for months past been racked with incessant pain. An agonizing complication of disorders now gave scant hope of recovery. It is in the highest degree interesting to note that during her last sickness Dr. Burnet, a figure of no little importance at that moment, kindly enquired after the dying woman. The Pindaric in which she thanks him, and which was printed March, 1689, proved the last poem she herself saw through the press. At length exhausted nature failed altogether, and she expired 16 April, 1689, the end hastened by a sad lack of skill in her physician. She is buried in the east cloisters of Westminster Abbey. A black marble slab marks the spot. On it are graven ‘Mrs. Aphra Behn Dyed April, 16, A.D. 1689,’ and two lines, ‘made by a very ingenious Gentleman tho’ no Poet’:—51

Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality.52

’She was of a generous and open Temper, something passionate, very serviceable to her Friends in all that was in her Power; and could sooner forgive an Injury, than do one. She had Wit, Honour, Good-Humour, and Judgment. She was Mistress of all the pleasing Arts of Conversation, liv but us’d ’em not to any but those who love Plain-dealing.’ So she comes before us. A graceful, comely woman,53 merry and buxom, with brown hair and bright eyes, candid, sincere, a brilliant conversationalist in days when conversation was no mere slipshod gabble of slang but cut and thrust of poignant epigram and repartee; warm-hearted, perhaps too warm-hearted, and ready to lend a helping hand even to the most undeserving, a quality which gathered all Grub Street round her door. At a period when any and every writer, mean or great, of whatsoever merit or party, was continually assailed with vehement satire and acrid lampoons, lacking both truth and decency, Aphra Behn does not come off scot-free, nobody did; and upon occasion her name is amply vilified by her foes. There are some eight ungenerous lines with a side reference to the ‘Conquests she had won’ in Buckingham’s _A Trial of the Poets for the Bays_, and a page or two of insipid spiritless rhymes, _The Female Laureat_, find a place in _State Poems_. The same collection contains _A Satyr on the Modern Translators_. ‘Odi Imitatores servum pecus,’ &c. By Mr. P——r,54 1684. It begins rather smartly:—

Since the united Cunning of the Stage, Has balk’d the hireling Drudges of the Age; lv Since _Betterton_ of late so thrifty ’s grown, Revives Old Plays, or wisely acts his own;

the modern poets

Have left Stage-practice, chang’d their old Vocations, Atoning for bad Plays with worse Translations.

In some instances this was true enough, but when the writer attacks Dryden he becomes ridiculous and imprecates

May he still split on some unlucky Coast, And have his Works or Dictionary lost: That he may know what _Roman Authors_ mean, No more than does our blind Translatress _Behn_,55 The Female Wit, who next convicted stands, Not for abusing _Ovid’s_ verse but _Sand’s_: She might have learn’d from the ill-borrow’d Grace, (Which little helps the Ruin of her Face) That Wit, like Beauty, triumphs o’er the Heart When more of Nature’s seen, and less of Art: Nor strive in _Ovid’s_ Letters to have shown As much of Skill, as Lewdness in her own. Then let her from the next inconstant Lover, Take a new Copy for a second Rover. Describe the Cunning of a jilting Whore, From the ill Arts herself has us’d before; Thus let her write, but _Paraphrase_ no more.

These verses are verjuiced, unwarranted, unfair. Tom Brown too in his _Letters from the Dead to the Living_ has a long epistle ‘From worthy Mrs. Behn lvi the Poetess, to the famous Virgin Actress,’ (Mrs. Bracegirdle), in which the Diana of the stage is crudely rallied. ‘The Virgin’s Answer to Mrs. Behn’ contains allusions to Aphra’s intrigue with some well-known dramatic writer, perhaps Ravenscroft, and speaks of many an other amour beside. But then for a groat Brown would have proved Barbara Villiers a virgin, and taxed Torquemada with unorthodoxy. Brown has yet another gird at Mrs. Behn in his _The Late Converts Exposed, or the Reason of Mr. Bays’s Changing his Religion &c._ Considered in a Dialogue (1690, a quarto tract; and reprinted in a Collection of Brown’s _Dialogues_, 8vo, 1704). Says Eugenius: ‘You may remember Mr. Bays, how the famed _Astrea_, once in her Life-time unluckily lighted upon such a Sacred Subject, and in a strange fit of Piety, must needs attempt a Paraphrase on the Lord’s Prayer. But alas poor Gentlewoman! She had scarce travell’d half way, when _Cupid_ served her as the Cut-Purse did the Old Justice in _Bartholmew_ Fair, tickled her with a Straw in her Ear, and then she could not budge one foot further, till she had humbly requested her Maker to grant her a private Act of Toleration for a little Harmless Love, otherwise called Fornication.’ There is a marginal note to this passage: ‘Mrs. _Behn’s_ Miscell. Printed by _Jos. Hindmarsh_.’ In _a Letter from the Dead Thomas Brown to the Living Heraclitus_ (1704), a sixpenny tract, this wag is supposed to meet Mrs. Behn in the underworld, and anon establishes himself on the most familiar terms with his ‘dear _Afra_’; they take, indeed, ‘an extraordinary liking to one lvii another’s Company’ for ‘good Conversation is not so overplentiful in these Parts.’ A bitterer attack yet, _An Epistle to Julian_ (c. 1686-7), paints her as ill, feeble, dying:—

Doth that lewd Harlot, that Poetick Quean, Fam’d through _White Fryars_, you know who I mean, Mend for reproof, others set up in spight, To flux, take glisters, vomits, purge and write. Long with a Sciatica she’s beside lame, Her limbs distortur’d, Nerves shrunk up with pain, And therefore I’ll all sharp reflections shun, Poverty, Poetry, Pox, are plagues enough for one.

In truth, Aphra Behn’s life was not one of mere pleasure, but a hard struggle against overwhelming adversity, a continual round of work. We cannot but admire the courage of this lonely woman, who, poor and friendless, was the first in England to turn to the pen for a livelihood, and not only won herself bread but no mean position in the world of her day and English literature of all time. For years her name to a new book, a comedy, a poem, an essay from the French, was a word to conjure with for the booksellers. There are anecdotes in plenty. Some true, some not so reliable. She is said to have introduced milk-punch into England.56 We are told that she could write lviii a page of a novel or a scene of a play in a room full of people and yet hold her own in talk the while.57 Her popularity was enormous, and edition after edition of her plays and novels was called for.

In 1690, there was brought out on the stage a posthumous comedy, _The Widow Ranter_.58 But without her supervision, it was badly cast, the script was mauled, and it failed. In 1696 Charles Gildon, who posed as her favourite protégé (and edited her writings), gave _The Younger Brother_. He had, however, himself tampered with the text. The actors did it scant justice and it could not win a permanent place in the theatrical repertory. In May, 1738, _The Gentleman’s Magazine_ published _The Apotheosis of Milton_, a paper, full of interest, which ran through several numbers. It is a Vision, in which the writer, having fallen asleep in Westminster Abbey, is conducted by a Genius into a spacious hall, ‘sacred to the Spirits of the Bards, whose Remains are buried, or whose Monuments are erected within this Pile. To night an Assembly of the greatest Importance is held upon the Admission of the Great Milton into this Society.’ The Poets accordingly appear either in the habits which they were wont to wear on earth, or in some suitable attire. We have Chaucer, Drayton, Beaumont, Ben Jonson, lix and others who are well particularized, but when we get to the laureates and critics of a later period there are some really valuable touches. In 1738 there must have been many alive who could well remember Dryden, Shadwell, Otway, Prior, Philips, Sheffield Duke of Buckinghamshire, Dennis, Atterbury, Lee, Congreve, Rowe, Addison, Betterton, Gay. In the course of his remarks the guide exclaims to the visitor: ‘Observe that Lady dressed in the loose _Robe de Chambre_ with her Neck and Breasts bare; how much Fire in her Eye! what a passionate Expression in her Motions; And how much Assurance in her Features! Observe what an Indignant Look she bestows on the President [Chaucer], who is telling her, _that none of her Sex has any Right to a Seat there_. How she throws her Eyes about, to see if she can find out any one of the Assembly who inclines to take her Part. No! not one stirs; they who are enclined in her favour are overawed, and the rest shake their Heads; and now she flings out of the Assembly. That extraordinary Woman is _Afra Behn_.’ The passage is not impertinent, even though but as showing how early condemnatory tradition had begun to incrustate around Astrea. Fielding, however, makes his Man of the World tell a friend that the best way for a man to improve his intellect and commend himself to the ladies is by a course of Mrs. Behn’s novels. With the oncoming of the ponderous and starched decorum of the third George’s reign her vogue waned apace, but she was still read and quoted. On 12 December, 1786, Horace Walpole writes to the Countess of Upper Ossory, ‘I am lx going to Mrs. Cowley’s new play,59 which I suppose is as _instructive_ as the _Marriage of Figaro_, for I am told it approaches to those of Mrs. Behn in Spartan delicacy; but I shall see Miss Farren, who, in my poor opinion is the first of all actresses.’ Sir Walter Scott admired and praised her warmly. But the pinchbeck sobriety of later times was unable to tolerate her freedom. She was condemned in no small still voice as immoral, loose, scandalous; and writer after writer, leaving her unread, reiterated the charge till it passed into a byword of criticism, and her works were practically taboo in literature, a type and summary of all that was worst and foulest in Restoration days. The absurdities and falsity or this extreme are of course patent now, and it was inevitable the recoil should come.

It is a commonplace to say that her novels are a landmark in the history of fiction. Even Macaulay allowed that the best of Defoe was ‘in no respect... beyond the reach of Afra Behn’. Above all _Oroonoko_ can be traced directly and indirectly, perhaps unconsciously, in many a descendant. Without assigning her any direct influence on Wilberforce, much of the feeling of this novel is the same as inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe. She has been claimed to be the literary ancestress of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Chateaubriand; nor is it any exaggeration to find Byron and Rousseau in her train. Her lyrics, it has been well said, are often lxi of ‘quite bewildering beauty’, but her comedies represent her best work and she is worthy to be ranked with the greatest dramatists of her day, with Vanbrugh and Etheredge; not so strong as Wycherley, less polished than Congreve. Such faults as she has are obviously owing to the haste with which circumstances compelled her to write her scenes. That she should ever recover her pristine reputation is of course, owing to the passing of time with its change of manners, fashions, thought and style, impossible. But there is happily every indication that —long neglected and traduced—she will speedily vindicate for herself, as she is already beginning to do, her rightful claim to a high and honourable place in our glorious literature.

lxii The Text.

The text of the dramatic work is primarily based upon the edition of 1724, four volumes, by far the best and most reliable edition of the collected theatre. Each play, however, has been carefully collated with the original quartos, some of which are of excessive rarity, and if, in the case of any divergence, the later reading is preferred, reason why is given in the Textual Notes upon that specific passage. To the Dramatis Personae are in each case added those characters which hitherto were negligently omitted: I have, further, consistently numbered the scenes and supplied (where necessary) the locales. In the order of the plays the 1724 edition has been followed as preserving the traditional and accepted arrangement. The only change herein made is the transferring of _The Emperor of the Moon_ from Vol. IV to Vol. Ill, and the placing of _The Amorous Prince_ before _The Widow Ranter_, so that the two posthumous plays may thus be found in their due order together at the end of Vol. IV.

With regard to metrical division, I have (unless a special note on any one particular line draws attention to the contrary) in this difficult matter followed the first quartos, as at this point 1724 proves not so satisfactory, and prints much as prose which the earlier separate editions give as verse. A notable instance may be found in _The Amorous Prince_. To the above rule I adhere so strictly as even not to divide into lines several scenes in _The Widow Ranter_ and _The Younger Brother_ which are palpably blank verse, but yet which are not so set in the quartos of 1690 and 1696. I felt that the metrical difficulties and kindred questions involved were so capable of almost infinite variations, that to attempt a new and decisive text in this matter would not merely be hazardous but also unproductive of any real benefit or ultimately permanent result.

The valuable Dedications and Prefaces, never before given in the collected editions, are here reprinted for the first time from the originals. With regard to the novels the first separate edition has in every case been collated. When impossible, however, so to do (as in the exception of _Oroonoko_), the earliest accessible text has been taken, and if any difficulty arose, all editions of any value whatsoever were likewise consulted. For _La Montre_ (_The Lover’s Watch_), the original edition of 1686 was used. Any difference in text which has been adopted from later editions is duly noted in the textual apparatus to that piece. The Poems have in every case been printed from the first—which are generally the only—editions. Where they appeared as broadsides, these, when traceable, have been collated.

lxiii The Portraits Of Mrs. Behn.

Of Mrs. Behn there exist three portraits, one by Mary Beale, a second by John Riley, and the third by Sir Peter Lely.

The Beale portrait has been engraved: ‘Aphra Behn. From a Picture by Mary Beale in the collection of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham. Drawn by T. Uwins. Engraved by J. Fittler, A.R.A. London. 1 March, 1822. Published by W. Walker, 8 Grays Inn Square.’ The original oil painting was purchased at the Stow Sale in 1848 (No. 57 in the sale catalogue), by J. S. Caldwell, a literary antiquarian, Linley Wood, Staffordshire. A letter which I wrote to _The Times Literary Supplement_ (26 November, 1914) on the subject of these portraits brought me a most courteous permission from Major-General F. C. Heath Caldwell, the present owner of Linley Wood, to view the picture.

With regard to the well-known and most frequently reproduced portrait by Riley, this, engraved by R. Wise, figures as frontispiece to _The Unfortunate Bride_ (title page, 1700, and second title page, 1698). It is also given before the _Novels_ (1696, 1698, and other editions). Engraved by B. Cole, the same portrait fronts the _Plays_, 4 vols., 1724, and the _Novels_, 2 vols., 1735. It again appears ‘H. R. Cook, Sculp.’, published 1 August, 1813, by I. W. H. Payne, when it was included as an illustration to the _Lady’s Monthly Museum_.

The portrait by Sir Peter Lely, which is reproduced as frontispiece to this edition of Mrs. Behn, was exhibited at the South Kensington Portrait Exhibition of 1866 by Philip Howard, Esq., of Corby Castle, the head of the Corby branch of the Howard family.

The portrait of Mrs. Behn which appears as frontispiece to the _Plays_, 2 vols., 1716, is none other than Christina of Sweden from Sebastian Bourdon’s drawing now in the Louvre.

A so-called portrait of Mrs. Behn, ‘pub. Rob’t Wilkinson’, no date, is of no value, being, at best, a bad pastiche from some very poor engraving.

lxiv

Footnotes

1. _Kalendar of State Papers, Domestic_, 1666-7.—ed. Mrs. M. A. E. Green (1864).

2. This is inaccurate. Mrs. Behn’s first play, _The Forc’d Marriage_, was produced in December, 1670.

3. e.g. to Waller’s daughter-in-law; to Tonson. cf. also the Warrant of 12 August, 1682; the Pindaric to Burnet, &c.

4. Aphra now appears on Mrs. Behn’s gravestone, and is the accepted form. This is, however, in all probability the third inscription. _The Antiquities of Westminster_ (1711), quoting the inscription, gives Aphara. Sometime in the eighteenth century a certain Thomas Waine restored the inscription and added to the two lines two more:—

Great Poetess, O thy stupendous lays The world admires and the Muses praise.

The name was then Aphara. The _Biog. Brit._, whilst insisting on Aphara as correct and citing the stone as evidence, none the less prints Apharra. Her works usually have Mrs. A. Behn. One Quarto misprints ‘Mrs. Anne Behn’. There are, of course, many variants of the name. Afara, and Afra are common. Oldys in his MS. notes on Langbaine writes Aphra or Aphora, whilst the _Muses Mercury_, September, 1707, has a special note upon a poem by Mrs. Behn to say ‘this Poetess’ true Name was Apharra.’ Even Aphaw (Behen, in the 1682 warrant,) and Fyhare (in a petition) occur.

5. He died in 1642.

6. The Vicar of Wye, the Rev. Edgar Lambert, in answer to my inquiries courteously writes: ‘In company with Mr. C. S. Orwin, whose book, _The History of Wye Church and College_, has just been published, I have closely examined the register and find no mention of “Johnson”, nor of the fact that Aphara Amis’ father was a “barber”.’

7. Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1660-1720), sometime Maid of Honour to Queen Mary of Modena. She had true lyric genius. For a generous appreciation see Gosse, _Gossip in a Library_ (1891).

8. Then unprinted but now included in the very voluminous edition of Lady Winchilsea’s _Poems_, ed. M. Reynolds, Chicago, 1903.

9. In ‘Mrs. Behn’s _Oroonoko_’ Dr. Bernbaum elaborately endeavours to show that this story is pure fiction. His arguments, in many cases advanced with no little subtlety and precision, do not appear (to me at least) to be convincing. We have much to weigh in the contrary balance: Mrs. Behn’s manifest first-hand knowledge of, and extraordinary interest in, colonial life; her reiterated asseverations that every experience detailed in this famous novel is substantially true; the assent of all her contemporaries. It must further be remembered that Aphra was writing in 1688, of a girlhood coloured by and seen through the enchanted mists of a quarter of a century. That there are slight discrepancies is patent; the exaggerations, however, are not merely pardonable but perfectly natural. One of Dr. Bernbaum’s most crushing arguments, when sifted, seems to resolve itself into the fact that whilst writing _Oroonoko_ Mrs. Behn evidently had George Warren’s little book, _An Impartial Description of Surinam_ (London, 1667), at hand. Could anything be more reasonable than to suppose she would be intimately acquainted with a volume descriptive of her girlhood’s home? Again, Dr. Bernbaum bases another line of argument on the assumption that Mrs. Behn’s father was a barber. Hence the appointment of such a man to an official position in Surinam was impossible, and, ‘if Mrs. Behn’s father was not sent to Surinam, the only reason she gives for being there disappears’. We know from recent investigation that John Amis did not follow a barber’s trade, but was probably of good old stock. Accordingly, the conclusions drawn by Dr. Bernbaum from this point cannot now be for a moment maintained.

10. Both these incidents are the common property of Italian novelle and our own stage. Although not entirely impossible, they would appear highly suspicious in any connection.

11. He was at Margate 25 July, and at Bruges 7 August.

12. There do not appear to be any grounds for the oft-repeated assertions that Mrs. Behn communicated the intelligence when the Dutch were planning an attack (afterwards carried out) on the Thames and Medway squadrons, and that her warning was scoffed at.

13. Had he been imprisoned for political reasons it is impossible that there should have been so speedy a prospect of release.

14. Baptist May, Esq. (1629-98), Keeper of the Privy Purse.

15. William Chiffinch, confidential attendant and pimp to Charles II.

16. Amintas repeatedly stands for John Hoyle. In _Our Cabal_, however (_vide_ Vol. VI, p. 160), Hoyle is dubbed Lycidas.

17. _The Retrospective Review_, however (Vol. I, November, 1852), has an article, ‘Mrs. Behn’s Dramatic Writings,’ which warmly praises her comedies. The writer very justly observes that ‘they exhibit a brilliance of conversation in the dialogue, and a skill in arranging the plot and producing striking situations, in which she has few equals.’ He frequently insists upon her ‘great skill in conducting the intrigue of her pieces’, and with no little acumen declares that ‘her comedies may be cited as the most perfect models of the drama of the latter half of the seventeenth century.’

18. Which it certainly was not secundum mid-Victorian morals.

19. Mr. Gosse in the Dictionary of National Biography basing upon the preface to _The Young King_, says that after knocking in vain for some time at the doors of the theatres with this tragi-comedy that could find neither manager nor publisher, she put it away and wrote _The Forc’d Marriage_, which proved more successful. Dr. Baker follows this, but I confess I cannot see due grounds for any such hypothesis.

20. The Duke’s Company opened at their new theatre, Dorset Garden, 9 November, 1671.

21. 4to, 1673. Mrs. Behn’s accurate knowledge of the theatre and technicalties theatrical as shown in the preface to this early play is certainly remarkable. It is perhaps worth noting that her allusion to the popularity of 1 _Henry IV_ was not included in _Shakspere Allusion-Book_ (ed. Furnivall and Munro, 1909), where it should have found a place.

22. In view of the extremely harsh treatment Ravenscroft has met with at the hands of the critics it may be worth while emphasizing Genest’s opinion that his ‘merit as a dramatic writer has been vastly underrated’. Ravenscroft has a facility in writing, an ease of dialogue, a knack of evoking laughter and picturing the ludicrous, above all a vitality which many a greater name entirely lacks. As a writer of farce, and farce very nearly akin to comedy, he is capital.

23. _Letters from the Dead to the Living_: The Virgin’s [Mrs. Bracegirdle] Answer to Mrs. Behn. ‘You upbraid me with a great discovery you chanc’d to make by peeping into the breast of an old friend of mine; if you give yourself but the trouble of examining an old poet’s conscience, who went lately off the stage, and now takes up his lodgings in your territories, and I don’t question but you’ll there find Mrs. _Behn_ writ as often in black characters, and stand as thick in some places, as the names of the generation of _Adam_ in the first of _Genesis_.’ How far credence may be given to anything of Brown’s is of course a moot point, but the above passage and much that follows would be witless and dull unless there were some real suggestion of scandal. Moreover, it cannot here be applied to Hoyle, whereas it very well fits Ravenscroft. This letter which speaks of ‘the lash of Mr. C——r’ must have been written no great time after the publication of Jeremy Collier’s _A Short View of the Immorality of the English Stage_ (March, 1698), probably in 1701-2. Ravenscroft’s last play, _The Italian Husband_, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1697, and he is supposed to have died a year or two later, which date exactly suits the detail given by Brown. Ravenscroft’s first play, _Mamamouchi_, had been produced in 1672, and the ‘an old poet’ would be understood.

24. This occurrence is the subject of some lines in _The Rump_ (1662): ‘On the happy Memory of Alderman Hoyle that hang’d himself.’

25. _The Muses Mercury_, December, 1707, refers to verses made on Mrs. Behn ‘and her very good friend, Mr. Hoyle’.

26. My attention was drawn to these lines by Mr. Thorn Drury, who was, indeed, the first to suggest that Hoyle is the person aimed at. I have to thank him, moreover, for much valuable information on this important point.

27. cf. Luttrell’s _Diary_, February, 1686-7, which records that an indictment for misconduct was actually presented against him at the Old Bailey, but the Grand Jury threw out the bill and he was discharged. The person implicated in the charge against Hoyle seems to have been a poulterer, cf. _A Faithful Catalogue of our Most Eminent Ninnies_, said to have been written by the Earl of Dorset in 1683, or (according to another edition of Rochester’s works in which it occurs) 1686. In any case the verses cannot be earlier than 1687.

Which made the wiser Choice is now our Strife, _Hoyle_ his he-mistress, or the Prince his wife: Those traders sure will be beiov’d as well, As all the dainty tender Birds they sell.

The ‘Prince’ is George Fitzroy, son of Charles II by the Duchess of Cleveland, who was created Duke of Northumberland and married Catherine, daughter of Robert Wheatley, a poulterer, of Bracknell, Berks; and relict of Robert Lucy of Charlecote, Warwickshire.

28. _Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, etc._ There are several editions. I have used that of 1718, 2 vols.

29. In his MS. Commonplace Book (now in the possession of G. Thorn Drury, Esq., K.C.), Whitelocke Bulstrode writes:—

’27 May 92.

’Mr Hoyle of y’e Temple, coming this morning about two of ye Clock frõ ye Young Divel Tavern, was killed wth a sword; He died Instantly: It proceeded frõ a quarrell about Drincking a Health; Killed by Mr Pitt of Graies Inne yt Dranck wth them. Mr Hoyle was an Atheist, a Sodomite professed, a corrupter of youth, & a Blasphemer of Christ.’

The Young (or Little) Devil Tavern was in Fleet Street, on the south side, near Temple Bar, adjoining Dick’s Coffee House. It was called Young (or Little) to distinguish it from the more famous house, The Devil (or Old Devil) Tavern, which stood between Temple Bar and the Inner Temple Gate.

30. Betterton’s adaption of Marston’s _The Dutch Courtezan_, which the actor calls _The Revenge; or, A Match in Newgate_, has sometimes been erroneously ascribed to Mrs. Behn by careless writers. She has also been given _The Woman Turn’d Bully_, a capital comedy with some clever characterization, which was produced at Dorset Garden in June, 1675, and printed without author’s name the same year. Both Prologue and Epilogue, two pretty songs, _Oh, the little Delights that a Lover takes_; and _Ah, how charming is the shade_, together with a rollicking catch ‘O _London_, wicked _London_-Town!’ which is ‘to be sung _a l’yvronge_, in a drunken humour’, might all well be Mrs. Behn’s, and the whole conduct of the play is very like her early manner. Beyond this, however, there is no evidence to suggest it is from her pen.

31. The overture, act-tunes, incidental music, were composed by Henry Purcell.

32. _Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, etc._, Vol. I (1718), pp. 31-2.

33. _Ibrahim, the Thirteenth Emperor of the Turks_, produced in 1696 (410, 1696), a commendable tragedy by Mrs. Mary Pix, _née_ Griffiths (1666-1720?). The plot is based on Sir Paul Ricaut’s continuation of the Turkish history.

34. The date is fixed by the Epilogue ‘at his R.H. second exile into Flanders’. The Duke of York sailed for Antwerp 4 March, 1679. He returned in August owing to the King’s illness.

35. This fact sufficiently explodes the quite untenable suggestion that _The Young King_ in earlier days could find neither producer nor publisher. That the quarto did not appear until four years after the play had been seen on the stage is no argument of non-success. Ravenscroft’s _Mamamouchi_ was produced early in 1672, and ‘continu’d Acting 9 Days with a full house’. It specially delighted the King and Court. It was not printed, however, until 1675.

36. Gould in _The Play House, a Satyr_, stung by Mrs. Behn’s success, derides that

clean piece of Wit _The City Heiress_ by chaste _Sappho_ Writ, Where the Lewd Widow comes with Brazen Face, Just seeking from a Stallion’s rank Embrace, T’ acquaint the Audience with her Filthy Case. Where can you find a Scene for juster Praise, In _Shakespear_, _Johnson_, or in _Fletcher’s_ Plays?

37. Publication was delayed. _Brooks’ Impartial Mercury_, Friday, 17 Nov., 1682, advertises: ‘To be published on Monday next, the last new play called _Romulus_.’ The 4to is dated 1683. A broad sheet, 1682, gives both Prologue ‘spoken by Mrs. Butler, written by Mrs. Behn,’ and Epilogue ‘spoken by the Lady Slingsby.’ The 4to gives ‘Prologue, spoken by Mrs. Butler,’ ‘Epilogue, Writ by Mrs. A. Behn. Spoken by Tarpeia.’

38. Curtis’ _Protestant Mercury_, August 12-6, 1682, notices that both Lady Slingsby and Mrs. Behn have been ordered into custody in respect of this Epilogue.

39. Forde, Lord Grey of Werke, Earl of Tankerville, who succeeded to the title in 1675, was married to Lady Mary Berkeley. He eloped, however, with Lady Henrietta Berkley, and great scandal ensued. When he and his minions were brought to trial, 23 November, 1682, his mistress and a number of staunch Whigs boldly accompanied him into court. He was found guilty, but as his friends banded together to resist, something very like a riot ensued. He died 25 June, 1701. Lady Henrietta Berkeley, who never married, survived her lover nine years.

40.

Astrea with her soft gay sighing Swains And rural virgins on the flowery Plains, The lavish Peer’s profuseness may reprove Who gave her Guineas for the _Isle of Love_.

—_Contemporary Satire_,—(Harleian MSS.)

41. This of course cannot be correct, but it is so transcribed. In the transcript of this letter made by Malone, and now in the possession of G. Thorn Drury, Esq., K.C., over the word ‘Garth’s’ is written ‘Q’, and at the foot of the page a note by Mitford says: ‘This name seems to have been doubtful in the MSS.’ I have thought it best not to attempt any emendation.

42. Neither of these was printed until eight years after her death. They first appear, each with its separate title page, 1697, bound up in the Third Edition, ‘with Large Additions,’ of _All the Histories and Novels, Written by the Late Ingenious Mrs. Behn, Entire in One Volume_, 1698. After Nos. vii, viii, ix, _Memoirs of the Court of the King of _Bantam__, _The Nun; or, the Perjured Beauty_, _The Adventure of the Black Lady_ follows a note: ‘These last three never before published.’ Some superficial bibliographers (e.g. Miss Charlotte E. Morgan in her unreliable monograph, _The English Novel till 1749_) have postulated imaginary editions of 1683-4 for _The Little Black Lady_ and _The King of Bantam_. _The Nun; or, the Perjured Beauty_ is universally confounded with _The History of the Nun_ (_vide_ Vol. V, p. 259, Introduction to that novel) and dated 1689.

With reference to _The King of Bantam_ we have in the 1698 collected edition of the Novels the following ’_Advertisement to the _Reader_._ The Stile of the Court of the King of _Bantam_, being so very different from Mrs. _Behn’s_ usual way of Writing, it may perhaps call its being genuine in Question; to obviate which Objection, I must inform the Reader, that it was a Trial of Skill upon a Wager, to shew that she was able to write in the Style of the Celebrated _Scarron_, in Imitation of whom ’tis writ, tho’ the Story be true. I need not say any thing of the other Two, they evidently confessing their admirable Author.’

43. Swift, although he amply fulfilled Dryden’s famous prophecy, ‘Cousin Swift, you will never be a Pindaric poet’, was doubtless thinking of these Pindarics when in _The Battle of the Books_ he wrote: ‘Then _Pindar_ slew ——, and ——, and _Oldham_, and ——, and _Afra_ the _Amazon_ light of foot.’

44. First published in _The Gentleman’s Magazine_, May, 1836.

45. Christopher Monck, second Duke of Albermarle, was appointed Governor-General of Jamaica, 26 November, 1687. He died there early in the following autumn.

46. ’_Sappho_ famous for her Gout and Guilt,’ writes Gould in _The Poetess, a Satyr_.

47. Now published for the first time by the courtesy of G. Thorn Drury, Esq., K.C., who generously obliged me with a transcript of the original.

48. In the original edition of _The Fair Jilt_ (1688), we have advertised: ‘There is now in the Press, _Oroonoko; or, The History of the Royal Slave_. Written by Madam _Behn_.’

49. In the second edition (1688), of this _Congratulatory Poem_ to Queen Mary of Modena we have the following advertisement:—’On Wednesday next will be Published the most Ingenious and long Expected History of _Oroonoko; or, the Royal Slave_. By Mrs. _Behn_.’

50. The title page has 1689, but it was possibly published late in 1688.

51. Traditionally said to be John Hoyle.

52. Sam Briscoe, the publisher, in his Dedicatory Epistle to _Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, etc._ (2 vols., 1718), says: ‘Had the rough Days of K. _Charles_ II _newly recover’d from the Confusion of a Civil War_, or the tempestuous Time of _James_ the Second, had the same _Sence of Wit_ as our _Gentlemen_ now appear to have, the first Impressions of _Milton’s Paradise Lost_ had never been sold for _Waste Paper_; the Inimitable _Hudibras_ had never suffered the Miseries of a Neglected Cavalier; _Tom Brown_ the merriest and most diverting’st man, had never expir’d so neglected; Mr. _Dryden_’s Religion would never have lost him his _Pension_; or Mrs. _Behn_ ever had but _two Lines_ upon her _Grave-stone_.’

53. ‘She was a most beautiful woman, and a more excellent poet’. Col. Colepeper. _Adversaria_, Vol. ii (Harleian MSS.)

54. This piece finds a place in the unauthorised edition of Prior’s Poems, 1707, a volume the poet himself repudiated. In the Cambridge edition of Prior’s _Works_ (1905-7), reason is given, however, to show that the lines are certainly Prior’s, and that he withdrew this and other satires (says Curll, the bookseller), owing to ‘his great Modesty’. The Horatian tag (Epistles i, xiv, 19) is of course ‘O Imitatores servum pecus’.

55. In his _Preface Concerning Ovid’s Epistles_ affixed to the translation of the _Heroides_ (_Ovid’s Epistles_), ‘by Several Hands’ (1680), Dryden writes: ‘The Reader will here find most of the Translations, with some little Latitude or variation from the Author’s Sence: That of _Oenone_ to _Paris_, is in Mr. Cowley’s way of Imitation only. I was desir’d to say that the Author who is of the _Fair Sex_, understood not _Latine_. But if she does not, I am afraid she has given us occasion to be asham’d who do.’

56. ‘Old Mr. John Bowman, the player, told me that Mrs. Behn was the First Person he ever knew or heard of who made the Liquor call’d Milk Punch.’—Oldys; MS. note in Langbaine. In a tattered MS. recipe book, the compilation of a good housewife named Mary Rockett, and dated 1711, the following directions are given how to brew this tipple. ‘To make Milk Punch. Infuse the rinds of 8 Lemons in a Gallon of Brandy 48 hours then add 5 Quarts of Water and 2 pounds of Loaf Sugar then Squize the Juices of all the Lemons to these Ingredients add 2 Quarts of new milk Scald hot stirring the whole till it crudles grate in 2 Nutmegs let the whole infuse 1 Hour then refine through a flannel Bag.’

57. ‘She always Writ with the greatest ease in the world, and that in the midst of Company, and Discourse of other matters. I saw her my self write _Oroonoko_, and keep her own in Discoursing with several then present in the Room.’—Gildon: _An Account of the Life of the Incomparable Mrs. Behn_, prefixed to _The Younger Brother_ (4to 1696). Southerne says, with reference to _Oroonoko_, ‘That she always told his Story, more feelingly than she writ it.’

58. It is ushered in by one ‘G. J. her friend’. This was almost certainly George Jenkins.

59. _The School for Greybeards_, produced at Drury Lane, 25 November, 1786. It owes much of its business to _The Lucky Chance_. See the Theatrical History of that comedy (Vol. iii, p. 180). Miss Farren acted Donna Seraphina, second wife of Don Alexis, one of the Greybeards. She also spoke the epilogue.

427 Explanation of “Notes”

In the printed book, all Notes were grouped at the end of the volume in two sections: “Notes on the Plays” and “Notes: Critical and Explanatory”. Passages cited were identified only by page and line number.

For this e-text, the Notes have been placed after their respective plays, retaining the division between textual notes (generally short, one or two lines) and critical notes (often several paragraphs). The original page numbers are shown in brackets [ ].

References to Acts and Scenes were added by the transcriber. Page and line numbers have been retained for completeness, but all links lead directly to the cited text. Annotated passages are identified in the body text with two kinds of link: dotted underlining for “Notes on the Plays”; solid underlining for “Notes: Critical and Explanatory”. Passages that have both kinds of note are linked to the critical note.

1

THE ROVER; OR, THE BANISH’D CAVALIERS. PART I.

Scenes described in (parentheses) are unnumbered.

Argument.

Source.

Theatrical History. Dramatis Personæ. Prologue Act I. Scene I. _A Chamber._ Scene II. _A Long Street._ Act II. Scene I. _The Long Street._ Scene II. _A Fine Chamber._

Act III. Scene I. _A Street._ Scene II. _Lucetta’s House._

(_Lucetta’s Chamber_)

(_a common Shore_) Scene III. _The Garden, in the Night._ Scene IV. _The Street._ Act IV. Scene I. _A fine Room._ Scene II. _The Molo._ Scene III. _A Street._

(_another Street_)

(_Blunt’s Chamber_)