Chapter VIII: Epilogue: ,

Spoken by Mrs. _Gwin_.

I here and there o’erheard a Coxcomb cry, [Looking about.
Ah, Rot it--’tis a Woman’s Comedy,
One, who because she lately chanc’d to please us,
With her damn’d Stuff, will never cease to teeze us.
What has poor Woman done, that she must be
Debar’d from Sense, and sacred Poetry?
Why in this Age has Heaven allow’d you more,
And Women less of Wit than heretofore?
We once were fam’d in story, and could write
Equal to Men; cou’d govern, nay, cou’d fight.
We still have passive Valour, and can show, }
Wou’d Custom give us leave, the active too, }
Since we no Provocations want from you. }
For who but we cou’d your dull Fopperies bear,
Your saucy Love, and your brisk Nonsense hear;
Indure your worse than womanish Affectation,
Which renders you the Nusance of the Nation;
Scorn’d even by all the Misses of the Town,
A Jest to Vizard Mask, the _Pit-Buffoon_;
A Glass by which the admiring Country Fool
May learn to dress himself _en Ridicule:_
Both striving who shall most ingenious grow
In Leudness, Foppery, Nonsense, Noise and Show.
And yet to these fine things we must submit
Our Reason, Arms, our Laurels, and our Wit.
Because we do not laugh at you, when leud,
And scorn and cudgel ye when you are rude.
That we have nobler Souls than you, we prove,
By how much more we’re sensible of Love;
Quickest in finding all the subtlest ways
To make your Joys, why not to make you Plays?
We best can find your Foibles, know our own, }
And Jilts and Cuckolds now best please the Town; }
Your way of Writing’s out of fashion grown. }
Method, and Rule--you only understand;
Pursue that way of Fooling, and be damn’d.
Your learned Cant of Action, Time and Place,
Must all give way to the unlabour’d Farce.
To all the Men of Wit we will subscribe:
But for your half Wits, you unthinking Tribe,
We’ll let you see, whate’er besides we do,
How artfully we copy some of you:
And if you’re drawn to th’ Life, pray tell me then,
Why Women should not write as well as Men.

* * * * *
* * * *

NOTES: Sir Patient Fancy

NOTES ON THE TEXT.

+To the Reader+

p. 7, l. 1 _To the Reader._ Only in 4to 1678.

+Dramatis Personæ+

p. 10 _Dramatis Personæ._ I have added ‘_Abel_ (_Bartholmew_), Clerk
to _Sir Patient Fancy_; _Brunswick_, a friend to _Lodwick Knowell_;
_Antic_, Waiting-woman to _Lucretia_; Nurse; Guests.’ In former
editions the physicians are grouped together as ‘Five Doctors’, and
The Lady _Knowell_ is mistakenly termed ‘Mother to _Lodwick_ and
_Isabella_’, which I have corrected to ‘and _Lucretia_’. I have noted
the confusion of ‘Abel’ and ‘Bartholmew’ in the introduction, pp. 5-6.

+ACT I: Scene i+

p. 11, l. 2 I have added ‘in Lady Knowell’s House.’

p. 13, l. 14 _Foibles._ 4to 1678 ‘feables’.

p. 14, l. 17 _apamibominous ... podas._ 4to 1678 ‘apamibominus ...
Podis’.

p. 15, l. 3 _Mudd._ 1724 ‘mad’.

+ACT I: Scene ia+

p. 16, l. 12 _now, Curry, from._ 1724 omits ‘Curry’.

p. 16, l. 25 _Branford._ 1724 here and _infra_ ‘Brentford’.

p. 16, l. 30 _Cuffet’s._ 1724 ‘Cusset’s’.

p. 22, l. 22 _not._ Erroneously omitted by 4to 1678.

p. 23, l. 2 _a Dog._ 4to 1678 ‘the Dog.’

p. 23, l. 16 _with Page._ I have added the Page’s exit.

p. 25, l. 20 _Ex. severally._ 4to 1678 adds ‘The End of the First
Act.’

+ACT II: Scene i+

p. 25, l. 22 _to Sir Patient Fancy’s House._ I have added these words.

p. 33, l. 27 _Exit with L. Fan._ I have added the necessary ‘with
L. Fan.’ 4to 1678 reads ‘Goes out.’

p. 35, l. 2 _Roger attending._ I have added this entrance of Roger
here.

p. 36, l. 21 _Enter Sir Patient._ 4to 1678 gives this entrance after
‘mercy’, l. 22.

p. 40, l. 25 _Exit Roger._ I have added this exit here, and at p. 43,
l. 2.

+ACT II: Scene ii+

p. 44, l. 6 _Exeunt severally._ 4to 1678 adds ‘The End of the Second
Act.’

+ACT III: Scene i+

p. 44, l. 9 _to a room in Sir Patient Fancy’s house._ I have supplied
this locale.

p. 45, l. 11 _and Maundy._ I have supplied Maundy’s entrance here.

+ACT III: Scene ii+

p. 47, l. 1 _a thousand Faults._ 1724 mistakenly reads ‘a thousand
hidden Faults’.

p. 48, l. 34 _in spite to._ 1724 ‘in spite of’ which makes nonsense
of the passage.

+ACT III: Scene iii+

p. 49, l. 8 _Scene III._ I have numbered this and all the succeeding
scenes of Act III.

+ACT III: Scene vii+

p. 53, l. 32 _Within._ Not in any previous edition.

p. 54, l. 10 _Within._ All previous editions print this stage
direction as part of Sir Patient’s speech.

p. 54, l. 19 _Discovery._ All previous editions here have ‘Enter Sir
Patient’, which is a very patent error. I have supplied ‘Within’ as
stage direction.

+ACT III: Scene viii+

p. 59, l. 6 _Isabella, Fanny._ I have supplied ‘Fanny’ to this stage
direction.

+ACT III: Scene ix+

p. 59, l. 19 _D’on._ 4to 1678 misprints ‘D’on on Flannel’.

p. 60, l. 13 _Enter Roger._ I have supplied the names ‘Roger’ and
‘Abel’ to this stage direction.

p. 61, l. 13 _Exeunt._ 4to 1678 adds ‘The End of the Third Act.’

+ACT IV: Scene i+

p. 71, l. 27 _are._ 4to 1678, not so well, ‘were’.

+ACT IV: Scene ii+

p. 72, l. 19 _A Chamber in Sir Patient Fancy’s House._ I have
supplied this locale.

p. 77, l. 2 _come._ 4to 1678 ‘came’.

p. 77, l. 33 _but for my sending him, Madam, credit me._ 1724 omits
this sentence.

p. 79, l. 13 _sad._ 1724 ‘said’.

p. 79, l. 31 _Exit._ I have supplied this stage direction.

+ACT IV: Scene iii+

p. 81, l. 1 _Exit Roger._ I have supplied this.

p. 81, l. 11 _little._ 1724 misprints ‘letter’.

p. 82, l. 30 _Fanny and Nurse go._ All previous editions have ‘Fanny
goes’.

+ACT IV: Scene iv+

p. 82, l. 31 _Scene IV._ I have numbered this scene.

p. 82, l. 33 _Entering._ I have supplied this necessary stage
direction.

p. 87, l. 15 _Hogsdowne._ 1724 ‘Hogsdon’.

+ACT V: Scene i+

p. 89, l. 3 _leading her._ Omitted in 1724. 4to 1678 here has ‘The End
of the Fourth Act.’

p. 89, l. 5 _Scene I. A Room._ All previous editions have ‘Scene I.
A Table and Six Chairs.’

p. 89, l. 28 _come._ 4to 1678 ‘came’.

p. 95, l. 20 _fatum._ 4to 1678 ‘facum.’

p. 96, l. 2 _and will._ 1724, very erroneously, ‘and I will’.

p. 98, l. 13 _and Bartholomew._ I have added this entrance, unmarked
in former editions, as later in the scene (p. 99, l. 30) he is
addressed.

p. 98, l. 16 _Exit Roger._ I have supplied this.

p. 99, l. 35 _Exit._ I have added this stage direction.

p. 100, l. 4 _Exit Lod._ This is unmarked in previous editions.

p. 100, l. 25 _Medicinæ Professores._ 1724 ‘Medicina Presessores, qui
hic assemblati esti, & vos altra Mesioris’.

p. 101, l. 12 _Deliberation._ 4to 1678 here has ‘[Goes out.’ which
must obviously be a mistake.

p. 102, l. 2 _Whirligigoustiphon._ 1724 ‘Whirligigousticon’.

p. 107, l. 36 _Exeunt Doctors._ All previous editions faultily have
‘Exeunt.’ after ‘whole Family.--’ I have added ‘Doctors.’

p. 108, l. 27 _and Nurse._ I have added these words as she is
addressed later in the scene (p. 109, l. 31.)

p. 110, l. 24 _and Sir Cred._ I have added these words.

p. 111, l. 34 _Consort._ 1724 ‘Comfort’.

NOTES: CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

+To the Reader+

p. 7 _to show their breeding (as Bays sayes)._ cf. _The Rehearsal_,
II, ii:--

_1 King._ You must begin, _Mon foy_.
_2 King._ Sweet, Sir, _Pardonnes moy_.
_Bayes._ Mark that: I makes ‘em both speak _French_ to shew their
breeding.

+ACT I: Scene i+

p. 14 _Armida._ cf. Tasso’s _La Gerusalemme Liberata_, canto xiv, &c.
Armida is called Corcereis owing to the beauty and wonder of her
enchanted garden. Corcyra was the abode of King Alcinous, of whose
court, parks and orchards a famous description is to be found in the
seventh _Odyssey_. Martial (xiii, 37), speaks of ‘Corcyraei horti’,
a proverbial phrase.

+ACT I: Scene ia+

p. 20 _Mum budget._ ‘Mum budget’, meaning ‘hush’, was originally the
name of a children’s game which required silence, cf. _Merry Wives
of Windsor_, V, iv: ‘I ... cried _mum_ and she cried _budget_.’ cf.
also the term ‘Whist’.

p. 22 _Beginning at Eight._ The idea of this little speech is, of
course, from Bonnecorse’s _La Montre_, Mrs. Behn’s translation of
which will be found with an introduction in Vol. VI, p. 1.

p. 22 _the Bergere._ cf. _The Feign’d Curtezans_ (Vol. II, p. 346):
‘The hour of the Berjere’. and the note on that passage (p. 441).

+ACT II: Scene i+

p. 32 _Ay and No Man._ cf. Prologue to _The False Count_ (Vol. III,
p. 100): ‘By Yea and Nay’. and note on that passage (p. 480).

+ACT III: Scene i+

p. 44 _Within a Mile of an Oak._ A proverbial saw. cf. D’Urfey’s _Don
Quixote_ (1696), III, Act V, i, where Teresa cries: ‘The Ass was lost
yesterday, and Master _Carasco_ tells us your Worship can tell within
a mile of an Oak where he is.’

p. 44 _Rustick Antick._ A quaint country dance.

+ACT IV: Scene i+

p. 62 _Hypallages._ A figure of speech by which attributes are
transferred from their proper subjects to others.

p. 62 _Belli fugaces._ Ovid, _Amorum_, I, 9, has ‘Militat omnis amans
et habet sua castra Cupido’, and the idea is common. I have made no
attempt to correct the tags of Latinity in this play. Mrs. Behn
openly confessed she knew no Latin, and she was ill supplied here.
I do not conceive that the words are intentionally faulty and
grotesque. Lady Knowell is a pedant, but not ignorant.

p. 65 _Madame Brenvilliers._ Marie-Marguerite d’.ubray, Marquise de
Brinvilliers, was executed at Paris 16 July, 1676.

p. 66 _Bilbo-Blades!_ Or oftener ‘bilbo-lords’, = swash-bucklers,
cf. _The Pilgrim_ (folio, 1647), V, vi, where Juletta calls the old
angry Alphonso ‘My Bilbo Master’.

p. 70 _whip slap-dash._ These nonsensical bywords, which were very
popular, are continually in the mouth of Sir Samuel Harty, a silly
coxcomb in Shadwell’s _The Virtuoso_ (1676). Nokes, who was acting
Sir Credulous, had created Sir Samuel Harty.

p. 71 _The Bell in Friday-street._ The Bell was an inn of note in
Friday Street, Cheapside. cf. _Cal. State Papers_ (1603-10, p. 455):
‘Sir Thomas Estcourt ... to Thomas Wilson. Is about to leave London
and proffers his services. If he has occasion to write to him he may
have weekly messengers ... at the Bell, Friday Street.’

+ACT IV: Scene ii+

p. 79 _th’ Exercise._ The puritanical term for private worship, cf.
1663 _Flagellum; or, O. Cromwell_ (1672), 21. ‘The Family was called
together to prayers; at which Exercise ... they continued long.’ cf.
_The Roundheads_ (Vol. I), Act II, i: ‘his Prayers; from which
long-winded Exercise I have of late withdrawn my self.’

+ACT IV: Scene iv+

p. 83 _Mirabilis._ Aqua mirabilis, a well-known invigorating cordial,
cf. Dryden’s _Marriage à la Mode_ (1672), III, i: ‘The country
gentlewoman ... who ... opens her dear bottle of Mirabilis beside, for
a gill glass of it at parting.’

p. 84 _Tranghams._ Nick-nacks, toys, trinkets, cf. Arbuthnot, _History
of John Ball_ (1712-3), Pt. II, c. vi: ‘What’s the meaning of all
these trangrams and gimcracks?’

+ACT V: Scene i+

p. 92 _to souse._ cf. _Florio_ (ed. 1611): ‘to leape or seaze greedily
upon, to souze downe as a hauke.’

p. 93 _this Balatroon._ A rogue. The word is very rare. cf. Cockeram
(1623): ‘_Ballatron_, a rascally base knave.’

p. 95 _Rotat omne fatum._ This would be an exceptionally rare use of
rotare = rotari, intransitive. But Mrs. Behn, as Dryden tells us in
his preface to the translation of Ovid’s _Heroides_ (1680) ‘by many
hands’, insisted upon the fact that she knew no Latin.

p. 100 _Medicinæ Professores._ This is from the _Troisième Intermède_
of _Le Malade Imaginaire_ which commences:--

Savantissimi doctores,
Medicinæ professores,
Qui hic assemblati estis;
Et vos, altri messiores,
Sententiarum facultatis.

p. 101 _Vanderbergen._ A well-known empiric of the day.

p. 102 _Haly the Moore, and Rabbi Isaac._ Ali Bey (Bobrowski),
a Polish scholar, died at Constantinople 1675. He wrote, amongst
other treatises, _De Circumcisione_; _De Aegrotorum Visitatione_.
These were published at Oxford in 1691. Isaac Levita or Jean Isaac
Levi was a celebrated rabbi of the sixteenth century. A professor at
Cologne, he practised medicine and astrology.

p. 104 _Stetin._ Stettin, the capital of Pomerania, was one of the
chief towns of the Hanseatic league. Occupied by Sweden 1637-1713,
it was the centre of continual military operations.

p. 105 _A Dutch Butter-ferkin, a Kilderkin._ These terms are common
abuse as applied to a corpulent person. A firkin (Mid. Dut.,
vierdekijn) = a small cask for holding liquids or butter; originally
half-a-kilderkin. _Dictionary of the Canting Crew_ (1700) has ‘Firkin
of foul Stuff; a ... Coarse, Corpulent Woman’. cf. Dryden’s _Mac
Flecknoe_ (1682):--

A Tun of Man in thy large Bulk is writ,
But sure thou’rt but a Kilderkin of wit.

Shadwell was extremely gross in habit and of an unwieldy size.

p. 105 _Toping and Napping._ ‘To top’ and ‘to nap’ are slang terms
signifying to cheat, especially with dice. cf. R. Head, _Canting
Academy_ (1673), ‘What chance of the dye is soonest thrown in topping,
shoring, palming, napping.’ Both words occur very frequently, and are
amply explained in the Slang Dictionaries.

p. 105 _Cater-Tray._ Quatre-trois; a cast at dice.

p. 112 _Good morrow._ Wittmore quotes the opening lines of _Volpone_,