Chapter XLV: Epilogue: Spoken by Lady Desbro

THE Vizor’s off, and now I dare appear. High for the _Royal Cause_ in Cavalier; Tho once as true a _Whig_ as most of you, Cou’d cant, and lye, preach, and dissemble too: So far you drew me in, but faith I’ll be Reveng’d on you for thus debauching me: Same of your pious Cheats I’ll open lay, That lead your _Ignoramus_ Flock astray: For since I cannot fight, I will not fail To exercise my Talent, that’s to rail. Ye Race of Hypocrites, whose Cloak of Zeal Covers the Knave that cants for _Commonweal_, All Laws, the Church and State to Ruin brings, And impudently sets a Rule on Kings; Ruin, destroy, all’s good that you decree By your Infallible _Presbytery_, Prosperous at first, in Ills you grow so vain, You thought to play the _Old Game_ o’er again: 425 And thus the Cheat was put upon the Nation, First with _Long Parliaments_, next _Reformation_, And now you hop’d to make a new Invasion: And when you can’t prevail by open Force, To cunning tickling Tricks you have recourse, And raise Sedition forth without Remorse. Confound these cursed _Tories_, then they cry, [In a preaching tone. Those Fools, those Pimps to Monarchy, Those that exclude the Saints; yet open th’ Door, To introduce the _Babylonian Whore_. By Sacred _Oliver_ the Nation’s mad; Beloved, ’twas not so when he was Head: But then, as I have said it oft before ye, A _Cavalier_ was but a Type of _Tory_. The Curs durst then not bark, but all the Breed Is much encreas’d since that good Man was dead: Yet then they rail’ d against the _Good Old Cause_, Rail’d foolishly for Loyalty, and Laws; But when the Saints had put them to a stand, We left them Loyalty, and took their Land: Yea, and the pious Work of Reformation Rewarded was with Plunder, Sequestration. Thus cant the Faithful; nay, they’re so uncivil, To pray us harmless Players to the Devil. When this is all th’ Exception they can make, They damn us for our Glorious Master’s sake. But why ’gainst us do you unjustly arm? Our small Religion sure can do no harm; Or if it do, since that’s the only thing, We will reform when you are true to th’ King.

Notes on the Text.

435 The Roundheads.

Dedication

p. 337 _To The Right Noble Henry Fitz-Roy._ The Dedicatory Epistle only appears in the two 4tos, 1682 and 1698.

p. 337, l. 31 _Good Old Couse._ ‘Couse’ to represent a Cockney pronunciation.

p. 338, l. 28 _Ignoramus the 1st and the 2d._ Mrs. Behn deftly compares the verdict of that faction which would have damned her play with the verdict given by the City jury who acquitted Shaftesbury.

Prologue

p. 341, l. 7 _ycleped Hewson._ 4to ‘Eclipsed Huson’.

Dramatis Personæ

p. 343 _Dramatis Personæ._ I have added, ‘Captain of the Prentices, Page to Lady Fleetwood, A Felt-maker, A Joyner, Doorkeeper, Two Clerks, Three Soldiers, Women Servants to Lady Lambert, Petitioners, Servants, Guards.’ The name of Lady Desbro’s Page, Tom, is supplied by Act iv, 1. For _Sanctify’d Mobile_, 1724 reads ‘Sanctify’d Mobility’.

Act I: Scene i

p. 344, l. 21 _Push a Pike._ 1724 ‘Push of Pike’.

p. 347, l. 3 _Go out._ 1724 ‘Goes out’.

p. 347, l. 11 _the rest of the Soldiers._ 1724 ‘the rest of Soldiers’.

p. 350, l. 14 _Love, Wit and Beauty._ 1724 prints these lines as prose.

p. 350, l. 17 _A God! altho his outside._ 4tos and 1724 print this speech as prose.

p. 350, l. 22 _No, methought he grew._ 1724 prints this speech as prose.

p. 351, l. 10 _Ha, he’s yonder._ 1724 prints this speech as prose.

p. 353, l. 16 _Exeunt both._ 1724 ‘exeunt’, 4tos ‘exit both’.

Act I: Scene ii

p. 353, l. 17 _Scene II. A Chamber in Lambert’s House._ 4tos ‘Scene a Chamber.’ 1724 ‘Scene. A Chamber.’ I have added ‘II’ and ‘in Lambert’s House.’

p. 354, l. 19 _how have I show’d._ 1724 misprints ‘how have show’d’.

p. 355, l. 28 _the Lard’s handling._ 1724 ‘the Lord’s’, 4tos ‘Lard’s’.

p. 356, l. 28 _light on yu._ 1724 ‘light on you’.

p. 358, l. 1 _a brave Mon._ 1724 ‘a brave Man’.

p. 358, l. 1 _I may cooncel._ 1724 ‘I may counsel’.

p. 358, l. 10 _he’s a brave Mon, a Mon indeed, gen._ 1724 ‘he’s a brave Mon indeed gen’.