Chapter V (1)

If _Rome_ that kept the lesser World in awe,
Wanted a _Juvenal_ to give them Law,
How much more we who stockt with _Knave_ and _Fool_,
Have turn’d the Nation into _Ridicule_.
The dire Contagion spreads to each degree
Of Wild _Debauchery_.
The mad Infected Youth make haste
To day their _Fortunes_, _Health_, and _Reason_ waste:
The _Fop_, a tamer sort of _Tool_
Who dresses, talks, and loves, by Rule;
Has long for a _Fine Person_ past.
_Blockheads_ will pass for _Wits_, and Write,
And some for _Brave_, who ne’r could Fight.
Women for _Chaste_, whose knack of _Cant_
Boasts of the _Virtues_ that they want:
Cry _Faugh_--at Words and Actions Innocent,
And make that naughty that was never meant:
That vain-affected _Hypocrite_ shall be
In Satyr sham’d to _Honest Sense_ by Thee.
‘Tis Thou, an _English Juvenal_, alone,
To whom all _Vice_, and every _Vertue’s_ known:
Thou that like _Judah’s_ King through all hast past,
And found that all’s but _Vanity_ at last;
‘Tis you alone the _Discipline_ can use,
Who dare at once be _bold_, _severe_, and _kind_;
Soften rough Satyr with thy gentler _Muse_,
And force a _Blush_ at least, where you can’t change the Mind.

_A. Behn._

_On the Death of_ E. Waller, _Esq._;

_By Mrs._ A. Behn.

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.
But, at thy Name, my languisht _Muse_ revives,
And a new _Spark_ in the dull _Ashes_ strives.
I hear thy tuneful _Verse_, thy _Song_ Divine,
And am Inspir’d by every charming Line.
But, Oh!----
What Inspiration, at the second Hand,
Can an _Immortal Elegie_ command?
Unless, like _Pious Offerings_, mine should be
Made Sacred, being Consecrate to thee.
Eternal, as thy own Almighty Verse,
Should be those _Trophies_ that adorn thy _Hearse_.
The _Thought_ Illustrious, and the _Fancy_ young; }
The _Wit_ Sublime, the _Judgment_ Fine and Strong; }
Soft, as thy _Notes_ to _Sacharissa_ sung. }
Whilst mine, like Transitory _Flowers_, decay,
That come to _deck_ thy Tomb a short-liv’d Day.
Such _Tributes_ are, like _Tenures_, only fit
To shew from whom we hold our _Right_ to _Wit_.
Hail, wondrous _Bard_, whose Heav’n-born _Genius_ first
My Infant _Muse_, and Blooming _Fancy_ Nurst.
With thy soft _Food_ of _Love_ I first began,
Then fed on nobler _Panegyrick_ Strain,
Numbers _Seraphic_! and at every View,
My Soul extended, and much larger grew:
Where e’re I Read, new Raptures seiz’d my Blood;
Me thought I heard the Language of a God.
Long did the untun’d World in Ign’rance stray, }
Producing nothing that was Great and Gay, }
Till taught by thee, the true Poetick way. }
Rough were the _Tracts_ before, Dull and Obscure;
Nor Pleasure, nor Instruction could procure.
Their thoughtless Labour could no _Passion_ move;
Sure, in that _Age_, the Poets knew not _Love_:
That Charming _God_, like Apparitions, then,
Was only talk’d on, but ne’re seen by Men:
Darkness was o’re the _Muses_ Land displaid,
And even the _Chosen Tribe_ unguided straid.
‘Till, by thee rescu’d from th’ _Egyptian_ Night, }
They now look up, and view the God of Light, }
That taught them how to _Love_, and how to _Write_; }
And to Enhance the Blessing which Heav’n lent,
When for our great _Instructor_ thou wert sent,
Large was thy Life, but yet thy Glories more; }
And, like the _Sun_, didst still dispense thy Pow’r, }
Producing something wondrous ev’ry hour: }
And in thy _Circulary Course_, didst see
The very _Life_ and _Death_ of _Poetry_.
Thou saw’st the _Generous Nine_ neglected lie,
None listning to their Heav’nly _Harmony_;
The World being grown to that low _Ebb_ of Sense
To disesteem the noblest Excellence;
And no Encouragement to _Prophets_ shown,
Who in past _Ages_ got so great Renown.
Though _Fortune_ Elevated thee above
Its _scanty Gratitude_, or _fickle Love_;
Yet, _sullen_ with the World, untir’d by Age,
Scorning th’ unthinking _Crowd_, thou quit’st the _Stage_.

A PINDARIC POEM _to the Reverend Doctor_ Burnet, _on the Honour he did me of Enquiring after me and my_ MUSE.

_By Mrs._ A. Behn.

(1)

When Old _Rome’s_ Candidates aspir’d to Fame,
And did the Peoples Suffrages obtain
For some great Consul, or a _Cæsar’s_ Name;
The Victor was not half so Pleas’d and Vain,
As I, when given the Honour of your Choice,
And Preference had in that one single Voice;
That Voice, from whence Immortal Wit still flows;
Wit that at once is Solemn all and Sweet,
Where Noblest Eloquence and Judgment shows
The Inspiring Mind Illustrious, Rich, and Great;
A Mind that can inform your wond’rous Pen
In all that’s Perfect and Sublime:
And with an Art beyond the Wit of Men,
On what e’re Theam, on what e’re great Design,
It carries a Commanding Force, like that of Writ Divine.

(2)

With Pow’rful Reasoning drest in finest Sence,
A thousand ways my Soul you can Invade,
And spight of my Opinions weak Defence,
Against my Will, you Conquer and Perswade.
Your Language soft as Love, betrays the Heart,
And at each Period fixes a Resistless Dart,
While the fond list’ner, like a Maid undone,
Inspir’d with Tenderness she fears to own;
In vain essays her Freedom to Regain:
The fine Ideas in her Soul remain,
And Please, and Charm, even while they Grieve and Pain.

(3)

But yet how well this Praise can Recompense
For all the welcome Wounds (before) you’d given!
Scarce any thing but You and Heaven
Such Grateful Bounties can dispense,
As that Eternity of Life can give;
So fam’d by you my Verse Eternally shall live:
Till now, my careless Muse no higher strove
T’inlarge her Glory, and extend her Wings;
Than underneath _Parnassus_ Grove,
To Sing of Shepherds, and their humble Love;
But never durst, like _Cowly_, tune her Strings,
To sing of Heroes and of Kings.
But since by an Authority Divine,
She is allow’d a more exalted Thought;
She will be valu’d now as Currant Coyn;
Whose Stamp alone gives it the Estimate,
Tho’ out of an inferiour Metal wrought.

(4)

But oh! if from your Praise I feel
A Joy that has no Parallel!
What must I suffer when I cannot pay
Your Goodness, your own generous way?
And make my stubborn Muse your Just Commands obey.
My Muse that would endeavour fain to glide
With the fair prosperous Gale, and the full driving Tide,
But Loyalty Commands with Pious Force,
That stops me in the thriving Course,
The Brieze that wafts the Crowding Nations o’re,
Leaves me unpity’d far behind
On the Forsaken Barren Shore,
To Sigh with Echo, and the Murmuring Wind;
While all the Inviting Prospect I survey,
With Melancholy Eyes I view the Plains,
Where all I see is Ravishing and Gay,
And all I hear is Mirth in loudest Strains;
Thus while the Chosen Seed possess the Promis’d Land,
I like the Excluded Prophet stand,
The Fruitful Happy Soil can only see,
But am forbid by Fates Decree
To share the Triumph of the joyful Victory.

(5)

‘Tis to your Pen, Great Sir, the Nation owes
For all the Good this Mighty Change has wrought;
‘Twas that the wondrous Method did dispose,
E’re the vast Work was to Perfection brought.
Oh Strange effect of a Seraphick Quill!
That can by unperceptable degrees
Change every Notion, every Principle
To any Form, its Great Dictator please:
The Sword a Feeble Pow’r, compar’d to That,
And to the Nobler Pen subordinate;
And of less use in _Bravest_ turns of State:
While that to Blood and Slaughter has recourse,
This Conquers Hearts with soft prevailing Force:
So when the wiser _Greeks_ o’recame their Foes,
It was not by the Barbarous Force of Blows.
When a long Ten Years Fatal War had fail’d,
With luckier Wisdom they at last assail’d,
Wisdom and Counsel which alone prevail’d.
Not all their Numbers the Fam’d Town could win,
‘Twas Nobler Stratagem that let the Conquerour in.

(6)

Tho’ I the Wond’rous Change deplore,
That makes me Useless and Forlorn,
Yet I the great Design adore,
Tho’ Ruin’d in the Universal Turn.
Nor can my Indigence and Lost Repose,
Those Meagre Furies that surround me close,
Convert my Sense and Reason more
To this Unpresidented Enterprise,
Than that a Man so Great, so Learn’d, so Wise,
The Brave Achievement Owns and nobly Justifies.
‘Tis you, Great Sir, alone, by Heaven preserv’d,
Whose Conduct has so well the Nation serv’d,
‘Tis you that to Posperity shall give
This Ages Wonders, and its History.
And Great NASSAU shall in your Annals live
To all Futurity.
Your Pen shall more Immortalize his Name,
That even his Own Renown’d and Celebrated Fame.

FINIS.

NOTES.

NOTES ON THE TEXT.

LA MONSTRE (1686).

p. 4, l. 1 _To Peter Weston, Esq._ This Epistle Dedicatory and the five complimentary poems which follow are only in the editio princeps, 1686.

p. 12, l. 1 _La Monstre_. Only in 1686.

p. 12, l. 9 _dare_. 1697 ‘dae’. 1735 ‘do’.

p. 13, l. 14 _you will not_. 1735 ‘will you not’.

p. 15, l. 5 _Worships_. 1735 ‘Worship’.

p. 17, l. 25 _never_. 1735 ‘ever’.

p. 19, l. 30 _To give_. 1735 ‘That give’.

p. 20, l. 11 _dear Object_. 1735 omits ‘dear’.

p. 20, l. 18 _to the Hour_. 1735 omits ‘to’.

p. 21, l. 25 _so much Goodness_. 1686 ‘Goodness enough’, 1697 ‘Goodness enough to write you enough’. I follow 1735 here as the repetition of ’.nough ... enow (enough)’ is very harsh.

p. 22, l. 13 _Evidences_. 1697, 1735 ‘Evidence’.

p. 23, l. 7 _Lover_. 1697, 1735 ‘Lovers’.

p. 24, l. 18 _a Heart_. 1735 ‘the Heart’, and punctuates with no comma after _Heart_ but after _Damon_, comma.

p. 29, l. 9 _sets_. 1735 ‘set’.

p. 29, l. 10 _idle_. 1735 omits.

p. 29, l. 12 _Melinda_. 1686, 1697 ‘Milinda’.

p. 31, l. 8 _shall_. 1697, 1735 ‘should.’

p. 35, l. 26 _Sense and_. 1735 omits.

p. 35, l. 27 _to purchase_. 1686, 1697 omit ‘to’.

p. 37, l. 4 _that_. 1697, 1735 ‘the’.

p. 37, l. 22 _never_. 1735 ‘ever’.

p. 40, l. 29 _such a sort_. 1697, 1735 omit ‘such’.

p. 47, l. 9 _grow_. 1697, 1735 ‘strow’.

p. 49, l. 29 _more_. 1697, 1735 ‘most’.

p. 49, l. 30 _Glist’ring_. 1697, 1735 ‘Glitt’ring’.

p. 50, l. 19 _recollected_. 1735 ‘collected’.

p. 53, l. 2 _Incertainty_. 1735 ‘Uncertainty’.

p. 53, l. 11 _Answers_. 1735 ‘Answer’.

p. 53, l. 19 _impossible_. 1735 ‘possible’, a very patent error.

p. 59, l. 15 _the_. 1735 ‘thy’.

p. 65, l. 3 _won_. 1735 misprints ‘now’.

p. 65, l. 7 _and_. 1735 ‘tho’.

p. 65, l. 16 _unreasonably_. 1697, 1735 ‘unreasonable’.

p. 66, l. 3 _happen you_. 1735 ‘happen that you’.

p. 67, l. 8 _and Mall_. 1735 ‘the Mall’.

p. 68, l. 26 _on me_. 1735 ‘of me’.

p. 70, l. 21 _rack_. 1686, 1697 ‘wreck’.

p. 70, l. 23 _subvert_. 1735 ‘pervert’.

p. 70, l. 24 _To the most tort’ring Jealousy_. 1686, 1697 ‘To tort’ring Jealousie’.

p. 73, l. 4 _vanisht_. 1735 ‘banish’d’.

p. 73, l. 21 _a Peace_. 1735 omits ‘a’.

p. 74, l. 17 _Imaginations_. 1735 ‘Imagination’.

p. 75, l. 27 _unimitable_. 1735 (here and elsewhere) ‘inimitable.’

p. 75, l. 32 _Katharine_. 1735 ‘Catharine’.

p. 75, l. 34 _Heighth_. 1735 ‘Height’.

p. 75, l. 35 _Meads_. 1735 ‘Meadows.’

p. 76, l. 29 _Morland_. 1735 ‘Moreland’.

p. 76, l. 30 _Gorden_. 1735 ‘Gordon’.

p. 81, l. 23 _toucht_. 1735 ‘taught’.

p. 82, l. 34 _to tie_. 1697 ‘to die’.

p. 83, l. 14 _believ’d_. 1735 ‘believe’.

p. 86, l. 11 _it_. 1735 ‘they’.

p. 88, l. 13 _never_. 1735 ‘ever’.

p. 89, l. 3 _Odour_. 1686, 1697 ‘Ardour’.

p. 91, l. 8 _Fundamentals_. 1735 ‘Foundations’.

p. 94, l. 4 _Sent from Damon to Iris_. 1697, 1735 both omit this. 1697 on separate title reads: ‘The Whole Art of Charming.’

p. 95, l. 18 _Iris’s_. 1697, 1735 ‘The Lady’s’.

p. 95, l. 32 _its_. 1735 ‘their’.

p. 98, l. 29 _of it weaves a Chain, not easily_ ... 1697 ‘if it weaves a Chain, not easily ...’ 1735 ‘if it weaves a Chain, ‘tis not easily ...’

p. 100, l. 2 _Monarchs_. 1735 ‘Monarch’, 1697 ‘Monarchs guest’.

p. 105, l. 11 _softest_. 1697, 1735 ‘softer’.

p. 106, l. 25 _Wit and Youth!_ 1735 ‘Wit and Truth!’

p. 106, l. 26 _Love and Truth_. 1735 ‘Love and Youth’.

POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS (1684).

p. 115, l. 3 _Viscount Cramborn and Baron of Islington_. So 1684; but ’.ramborn’ should be ‘Cranborn’, and for ‘Islington’ we should read ’.ssingdon.’ Possibly Mrs. Behn sent the Dedicatory Epistle to press as an afterthought at the last moment and did not see a proof. Though she was frequently careless, such mistakes as ‘Cramborn’ and ‘Islington’ would seem to be chargeable to her printers.

p. 125, l. 32. _Forsake their Kinds_. Query ‘their Kids’.

p. 130, l. 33. _E’er they’re_. 1684 ‘E’er their’.

p. 139, l. 5. _The Gray-Plum’d Natives of the Shades_. So 1684, but we should doubtless read ‘Gay-Plum’d’. cf. l. 2 of sixth stanza: ‘little Gay-wing’d Loves.’

p. 144, l. 11 _The Sun and Spring receive but our short Light_. This, the reading of 1684, is clearly corrupt but can be easily mended by changing ‘receive’ to ‘revive’.

p. 147, l. 8 _the rushing of the wind-blown leaves_. On p. 171, l. 23, we have ‘Whispering Gales Sigh through the Rushing Leaves.’ Mrs. Behn uses ‘rushing’ in the sense of ‘rustling’.

p. 150, l. 17 _From Active Joyes with some they hast_. The words ‘with some’ are meaningless and corrupt. Query ‘eftsoon’.

p. 154, l. 25 _Like Pan, a Majesty_. 1684 ‘Like Panna, Majesty’.

p. 177, l. 15 _Gold and Grain_. Probably a misprint for ‘Golden Grain’.

p. 181, l. 21 _Priapus_. 1684 ‘Priapas’.

p. 182, l. 11 _All that the Gods e’er made, if Fair_. Query ‘e’er made of Fair’.

p. 183, l. 28 _Astrae_. Misprint: the old copy rightly gives ‘Astrea.’

p. 183, l. 30 _I slept. Muses Mercury_ (May, 1707), ‘I saw last night a pretty sight’.

p. 183, l. 32 _Stars_. M.M. ‘Eyes so bright’.

p. 186, l. 5 _are_. Misprint: read, with the old copy, ‘art.’

p. 194, l. 31 _Not add_. Query ‘Not au’ (i.e. Not all).

p. 200, l. 17 _were throng_. Query ‘were throng’d’.

p. 206, l. 20 _decry_. Misprint: read, with 1684, ‘descry’.

p. 207, l. 12 _and Kill_. 1684 ‘a Kill’.

p. 218, l. 1 _we part_. 1684 ‘me part’.

p. 219, l. 14 _thee and I_. The bad grammar has not been changed, as it may be due to Mrs. Behn’s carelessness.

p. 222, l. 2 _Hadst_. 1684 ‘Hads’.

p. 224, l. 25 _That, best instructs_. 1684 ‘instruct’. (The comma after ‘that’ is unnecessary, but Mrs. Behn used it to emphasise the word--here and in the following line.)

p. 225, l. 12 _ne’er to visit more_. 1684 ‘near to visit more’.

p. 227, l. 4 _whether_. i.e. (as frequently) ‘whither’.

p. 230, l. 28 _barely wishing_. Query ‘dearly wishing’.

p. 230, l. 33 _Love gives_. 1684 ‘give’.

p. 231, l. 18 _treads_. 1684 ‘tread’.

p. 232, l. 32 _Kisses_. 1684 ‘Kiss’.

p. 233, l. 13 _Mad_. 1684 ‘Made’.

p. 235, l. 17 _In modest Speech, as might well subdue_. Corrupt. Query ’.odest in Speech, such as might well subdue.’

p. 247, l. 2 _Says_. 1684 ‘Say’.

p. 250, l. 5 _replies_. 1684 ‘reply’.

p. 251, ll. 1-2 _the dumb and silent languishes, Are predic’d, which so well explain the Heart_. The word ‘predic’d’ is very suspicious. Taking ’.anguishes’ as a substantive (and deleting the comma), we might change ’.redic’d’ to ‘produc’d’ (with the accent on the first syllable).

p. 253, l. 3 _Winter_. 1684 ‘Winters’.

p. 253, l. 7 _All bleek and cale_. In a _Pastoral to Mr. Stafford_, (p. 383), we have: ‘In summer let the Boughs be _cale_ and dry.’

p. 258, ll. 1-2 _who’s lovely Face Disdain’d the Beauties of the common race_. So 1684; but ‘Disdain’d’ may be a misprint for ‘Distain’d’ (outshone).

p. 272, l. 28 _And let her Feet weep my neglect away_. Corrupt. We should doubtless read ‘And at her Feet weep my neglect away’.

p. 273, l. 10 _hear_. 1684 ‘here’.

p. 278, l. 5 _hallow’d_. 1684 ‘hollow’d’.

p. 280, l. 10 _wear_. 1684 ‘were’.

p. 284, l. 7 _Inspiring Love, inciting_. 1684 ‘Inspiring my Love inciting.’

p. 285, l. 28 _soft breath’d_. 1684 ‘oft breath’d’.

LYCIDUS (1688).

p. 302, l. 35 _no one place could continue her_. So 1688; but ’.ontinue’ may be a misprint for ‘contain’.

p. 327, l. 4 _Now_. 1688 ‘How’.

p. 344, l. 18 _This there_. 1688, but query ‘’.is there’.

p. 345, l. 19 _wert_. 1688 ‘wers’t’.

p. 352, l. 23 _’.was youth, ‘twas wit, ‘twas Beauty_. 1688 ‘was Beauty’.

p. 360, l. 12 _Amintas_. M.M. (April, 1707), ‘Amyntas,’ and throughout.

p. 360, l. 15 _conquer’d_. M.M. ‘conquer’.

p. 361, l. 5 _stoln_. M.M. ‘stole’.

p. 361, l. 27 _with which_. M.M. ‘wherewith’.

p. 361, l. 29 _That may declare_. M.M. ‘which may disclose’.

p. 362, l. 2 _Lovers_. M.M. ‘shepherds’.

p. 362, l. 4 _softer_. M.M. ‘ruder’.

p. 362, l. 5 _By the sad purling_ ... M.M. ‘There, there, my Soul, by some still Rivulet’.

p. 362, l. 7 _That_. M.M. ‘Which’.

p. 362, l. 8 _melancholy_. M.M. ‘solitary’.

p. 362, l. 10 _stream the shade forsakes_. M.M. ‘Streams the Shades forsake’.

p. 362, l. 12 _Trees_. M.M. ‘Boughs’.

p. 362, l. 13 _Thô_. M.M. ‘But’.

p. 362, l. 20 _ungrateful know, why tis_. M.M. ‘Ingrate know how and why’.

p. 362, l. 22 _Thy_. M.M. ‘The’.

p. 362, l. 27 _what weak resistance_. M.M. ‘no opposition’.

p. 362, l. 28 _every charming word_. M.M. ‘For ev’ry dangerous Smile begot ...’

p. 362, l. 30 _willing ... will_. M.M. ‘weeping ... wouldst’.

p. 362, l. 32 _But stay thy hasty fight_. M.M. ‘But stay, my hasty Soul, Alas! Alas!’

p. 363, l. 5 _Think how the faithless_. M.M. ‘Then think how ill he’.

p. 363, l. 6 _And then my tortur’d soul_. M.M. ‘And in that Sigh, my Soul’.

p. 364, l. 17 (_Westminster Drollery_, 1671.) _if I see they mend_. Query ‘thee mend’.

p. 366, l. 18 (_Miscellany_, 1685.) _Ignorance_. 1685 ‘Igrance’.

p. 375, l. 6 _So fair_. 1685 ‘so far’.

p. 375, l. 27 _be given_. 1685 ‘be gived’.

p. 379, l. 5 _Indian Priests_. 1685 ‘Indian Priest’.

p. 382, l. 28 _intrigues_. Unless we are to pronounce this as a trisyllable a word must have dropped out of this line.

p. 383, l. 18 _Damon false?_ 1685 ‘Damon safe?’ (The use of the long ’.’ led to much misprinting.)

p. 384, l. 31 _soild_. 1685 ‘solid’.

p. 386, l. 5 _tall_. 1685 ‘tale’.

p. 391, l. 3 _wand’ring Fires run_. In _Poems on Affairs of State, II_ (1703), this is: ‘wandring Fire runs.’

p. 402, l. 12 _Deme_. i.e. ‘Demme’ (damn me).

NOTES: CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

LA MONSTRE.

p. 4 _Peter Weston, Esq._ Peter Weston, the second son of a Cheshire clergyman, was born in 1665. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and afterwards proceeding to the Inner Temple (1683) was called to the Bar in 1697. He attained considerable eminence in his profession. Foster, _Alumni Oxon_. has: ‘Weston, Peter s. Tho. of Chester (city) cler. Brasenose Coll. matric. 10 June 1681 aged 16; bar. at law Inner Temple, 1697.’ The Inner Temple _Admission Register_ gives: ‘Petrus Weston. Generosus filius secundus Thome Weston nuper de Christalton in Comitatu Cestrie Sacre Theologie Professoris generaliter Admissus est in Societatem istius Comitive in consideracione Trium librarum Sex solidorum etc. etc. Septimo die Februarii Anno Domini 1683 (i.e. 1683/4).’ In the Inner Temple _Records_, amongst the Bench Table Orders, is noted, 27-9 January, 1696-7: ‘that Peter Weston be called to the bar’, and again 31 January following, we have: ‘Peter Weston’s call to the bar respited.’ Doubtless Weston was a friend of Hoyle, and by him introduced to the circle which surrounded Mrs. Behn.

p. 7 _Charles Cotton_. Charles Cotton was born at Ovingdean (Sussex), 28 April, 1630. Upon coming into his estate he found it heavily encumbered, and probably as much from necessity as from natural inclination turned to literary work. He produced a large number of poems, translations, panegyrics, prominent amongst which is his _Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie_ (1664). He will be remembered by his best lyrics, his Second Part of the _Compleat Angler_, and his version of Montaigne. Cotton, who seems to have been continually harassed with pecuniary difficulties, was a gay liver, albeit an intimate of Isaak Walton. He died 1687.

p. 7 _two Orinda’s_. ‘The matchless Orinda’ was Mrs. Katherine Philips (_née_ Fowler), précieuse and poetess (1631-64). After marriage the lady divided her time between London and her husband’s house at Cardigan, where she was the centre of a circle of admirers and friends who adopted various fanciful names, e.g. Silvander (Sir Edward Dering), Antenor (her husband). Her verses and a translation of Corneille’s _Pompée_ (Dublin, 1663) became famous. At the height of her popularity she died of smallpox at a house in Fleet Street, 22 June, 1664. For an excellent account of her see Gosse, _Seventeenth Century Studies_.

p. 8 _N. Tate_. Nahum Tate, born in Dublin, 1652, was educated at Trinity College. He does not appear to have followed any definite profession. Coming to London he produced much miscellaneous literary work, and was even entrusted by Dryden with a portion of the second part of _Absalom and Achitophel_ (1682), the master himself enriching it with some two hundred lines. Tate succeeded (24 December, 1692) Shadwell in the laureateship which he did not hold till his death (12 August, 1715) as Rowe was appointed to that post, 1 August, 1715. His plays are perhaps not so mediocre as they are often judged to be, but they have been damned by his outrageous mangling of King Lear (1681), which, none the less, persevered on the stage for many a long decade.[6] Perhaps he is chiefly known for this, and a version of the Psalms (the first twenty appeared in 1695) written in conjunction with Nicholas Brady (1696).

[6] The Fool was not restored until the time of Macready, when (25 January, 1838), under his Covent Garden management, the rôle was entrusted to Miss Priscilla Horton (Mrs. German Reed), who, it is recorded, achieved great success.

p. 9 _G. J._ George Jenkins, who, it will be remembered, edited Mrs. Behn’s posthumous play, _The Widow Ranter, vide_ Vol. IV, p. 215, and note p. 415 on G. J. (p. 222).

p. 18 _cock, and comb_. Cock = set his hat jauntily. For comb (his wig), cf. Dryden’s prologue to _The Conquest of Granada, II_ (1670):--

when Vizard Masque appears in Pit,
Straight every Man who thinks himself a Wit
Perks up; and, managing his Comb with grace,
With his white Wigg sets off his Nut-brown Face.

And Shadwell’s _The Humorists_ (1671), Act v, where Briske says: ‘No man appears better upon a Bench in the Play-House; when I stand up to expose my Person between the Acts, I take out my Comb and with a _bonne mien_ comb my Perriwig to the Tune the Fiddles Play: Thus, look you; fa, la, la, la.’ Also Congreve, _The Way of the World_, iii, xii (1700): ‘The gentlemen stay but to comb, madam, and will wait on you.’ The phrase is frequent.

p. 20 _Scrutore_. cf. Vol. V, p. 73, _The Fair Jilt_: ‘Scrutore perpetually employ’d,’ and note on that passage (p. 519).

p. 75 _Varrio_. Antonio Verrio, the celebrated Neapolitan painter, was born at Lecce, in the Terra di Otranto, about 1639. His earliest pictures were done for ecclesiastics--the Jesuits College, Naples, the high altar in the Carmelite Church, Toulouse. His facility of execution and rich colouring gained him fame, and Charles II appointed him to direct the royal tapestry works at Mortlake. Soon, however, Verrio was transferred to Windsor to paint the walls and ceilings. Under Charles II and his successor Verrio was in high favour. At the Revolution he threw up his office of surveyor of the royal gardens (a sinecure) and refused to employ his pencil for William of Orange. He had, however, many commissions from nobles and private persons. His sight failing, Queen Anne bestowed on him a pension of £200 a year. He died 1707. A list of Verrio’s ceilings will be found in Jesse’s _Eton and Windsor_. Pope, _Windsor Forest_, has a couplet (307-8):--

from her roofs when Verrio’s colours fall,
And leave inaminate the naked wall.

p. 75 _Gibbon_. Grinling Gibbons, the celebrated sculptor in wood, was born at Rotterdam, 4 April, 1648. He came to London in 1667. He was first brought into notice by Evelyn, who introduced him to the King. Charles II gave Gibbons a place in the board of works. Besides being employed at Windsor, Gibbons decorated other of the royal palaces in marble sculpture as well as wood. His exquisite carvings are to be found in many noble houses. They are unrivalled for their presentment of foliage, fruit, flowers; of a marvellous delicacy and beauty. In 1714 he was appointed master carver to George I. He died at his house in Bow Street, 3 August, 1721.

p. 76 _noble Clifdon_. Evelyn, 23 July, 1679, writes: ‘To Court: after dinner I visited that excellent painter, Verrio, whose works in _fresco_ in the King’s palace, at Windsor, will celebrate his name as long as those walls last.... I went to Clifden, that stupendous natural rock, wood, and prospect, of the Duke of Buckingham’s, buildings of extraordinary expense. The grots in the chalky rock are pretty: it is a romantic object, and the place altogether answers the most poetical description that can be made of solitude, precipice, prospect, or whatever can contribute to a thing so very like their imaginations. The stand somewhat like Frascati as to its front, and, on the platform, is a circular view to the utmost verge of the horizon which, with the serpenting of the Thames, is admirable. The staircase is for its materials singular; the cloisters, descents, gardens, and avenue through the wood, august and stately; but the land all about wretchedly barren, and producing nothing but fern. Indeed, as I told his Majesty that evening (asking me how I liked Clifden) without flattery, that it did not please me so well as Windsor for the prospect and park, wch is without compare; there being but one only opening and that narrow, wch led one to any variety, whereas, that of Windsor is everywhere great and unconfined.’

Pope’s reference is quoted to triteness:--

Cliveden’s proud alcove
The bow’r of wanton Shrewsbury and love.

--_Moral Essays_, iii, 307-8.

p. 76 _Sir Samuel Morland, or Sir Robert Gorden_. Sir Samuel Morland, the celebrated inventor and projector, was born in 1625. Having served the Commonwealth, he turned royalist, and on Cromwell’s death joined the King at Breda. He was rewarded at the Restoration with a baronetcy, a pension, and the appointment of Master of Mechanics to the King. He devoted himself to practical science, and his house was long the resort of the curious to view his models, inventions, &c. In a MS. (Harleian) treatise he shows an accurate knowledge of steam power and explains how it can be employed to work cylinders in raising water, a subject to which he had paid particular attention, having brought water from a considerable distance to the top of Windsor Castle. He died blind and in penury, 30 December, 1695.

_Sir Robert Gordon_, Bart. was born 7 March, 1647. He became famous for his scientific pursuits, and in the neighbourhood of Gordonstown (Elginshire), his birthplace, he was long known as ‘Sir Robert the Warlock’. A MS. account of the family says: he was ‘particularly skilled in mechanics and chemistry.... He contrived a curious machine or pump for raising water, wch was tried in the Fleet and highly approved of, and found far to exceed anything of that kind then known, both for the facility of working and the quantity of water it discharged.’ Gordon sat in the Scotch parliament, and seems to have been a favourite with James II, who was interested in his experiments. He died 1704.

p. 79 _l’heure du Bergere_. cf. ‘the hour of the Berjere’. _The Feign’d Curtezans_, iii, 1 (Vol. II, p. 346), and note on that passage (p. 441).

POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS (1684).

p. 115 _To the Right Honourable, James_. James Cecil, 4th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranbourn, was the eldest son of James, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, and Margaret, daughter of John Manners, Earl of Rutland. He married Frances, one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Simon Bennet of Beechampton, Bucks, when she was only thirteen years old. A firm Tory, he was in 1688-9 committed to the Tower as a recusant, but the prosecution was waived. His name was forged by Robert Young to a document purporting to be that of an Association to seize the Prince of Orange, and declare for King James. On this account he was a second time committed to the Tower, 7 May, 1692, but as nothing could be proved his bail was soon formally discharged in the Court of King’s Bench. He died 25 October, 1693, leaving an only son, three years old, who succeeded him. He was buried at Hatfield, 29 October.

p. 117 _Ogs and Doegs reign’d_. Shadwell is scarified as Og by Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel, II_ (1682), Elkanah Settle as Doeg.

p. 117 _Baxter’s zeal_. This ardent Presbyterian divine was considerably harassed during the reign of Charles II. He had bidden farewell to the Church of England in the great Blackfriars church, 16 May, 1662, three days before the Act of Uniformity was passed, but he still held forth with unabated zest and vigor in meeting-houses and conventicles whenever opportunity offered. He was imprisoned 28 February, 1684-5 on a charge of libelling the Church in his _Paraphrase of the New Testament_ (1685). His sermons, devotional and other writings amount to nearly two hundred.

p. 119 _J. Cooper, Buckden_. John Cooper (who doubtless wrote the following lines initialled J. C.), was a contributor to Dryden’s _Miscellany_, at the end of which (Vol. I) is advertised: ‘Poems upon Several Occasions; written by Mrs. _Behn_; are now in the Press, and will be published this Term.’ Cooper was also the translator of the _OEnone to Paris_ epistle in the _Heroides_ ‘By Several Hands’ (1680).

Buckden is a village and parish some sixty-one miles from London, and four miles south-west from Huntingdon.

p. 120 _Orinda. vide_ note _supra_ (on p. 7), ‘two _Orinda’s_’.

p. 120 _No dying Swan_. cf. Ovid, _Heroides_, vii, 1-2:--

Sic, ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis,
Ad vada Mæandri concinit albus olor.

and _Metamorphoseon_ v. 386-7:--

non illo plura Caystros
Carmina cycnorum labentibus audit in undis.

p. 121 _J. Adams_. John Adams was a member, and afterwards a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. He proceeded B.A. 1682, M.A. 1686, and is mentioned as a Professor of Theology, whence we infer that he took Orders. In 1712 he was ‘Collegii Regalis Praepositus’. He prefixed a copy of complimentary verses (1 January, 1682), to Creech’s _Lucretius_, and was also a contributor to Dryden’s _Miscellany_.

John Adams, the celebrated topographer, who in 1680 laboriously drew up the _Index Villaris_, a gazetteer dedicated to Charles II, was a barrister of the Inner Temple, and must be carefully distinguished from the Cambridge litterateur.

p. 123 _T. C._ i.e. Thomas Creech, who was born at Blandford, Dorset, 1659. In Lent Term, 1675, he was admitted as a commoner at Wadham College, Oxford. Having studied hard he graduated M.A. 13 June, 1683 (B.D. 18 March, 1696), and was elected a Fellow of All Souls, 1 November, 1683. For two years (1694-6) he was headmaster of Sherborne, and then returned to Oxford. Melancholia, however, grew upon him, and after accepting the college living of Welwyn (where he never resided) he committed suicide, his body being discovered (June, 1700), in a garret in his lodging at the house of an apothecary named Ives. Creech’s translation of _Lucretius_ was printed at Oxford, 1682. It is of value, and Munro in his edition of the poet speaks of his predecessor as ‘a man of sound sense and good taste’, no mean praise from so great a scholar.

p. 125 _her Pen Can be instructed_. An obvious allusion to the rumour that Mrs. Behn was assisted in her work by Hoyle.

p. 127 _the learned Daphnis_. Thomas Creech.

p. 128 _barbarous Getans_. Ovid in exile cries:--

Nec te mirari, si sint vitiosa, decebit
Carmina, quae faciam paene poeta Getes.

--_Ep. ex Ponto_, IV, xiii, 17-8.

p. 129 _Achitophels_. Achitophel==the Earl of Shaftesbury.

p. 129 _murmuring Shimei’s_. Shimei, Slingsby Bethel, by poll chosen one of the sheriffs for the City of London on Midsummer day, 1680, was a factious fanatic, who had formerly been one of the committee of safety. Burnet says that his miserable way of living and extreme miserliness rendered him disagreeable to everybody, even his own party. Dryden very justly lashes him, _Absalom and Achitophel_, I, 585-629.

p. 133 _In an Azure Mantle_. This phrase is very nearly equivalent to Ovid’s ‘purpureus Amor’ (Amorum, ii, I, 38); and Hieronymus Angerianus in his _Erotopaignion_, repeats the same expressive adjective: ’.urpureus lumina pandit Amor.’

p. 137 _H. Watson_. Henry Watson was a member of Christ’s College, Cambridge.

p. 138 _Groves appear’d_. Martinus Scriblerus (Pope) #PERI BATHOUS;# _or, The Art of Sinking in Poetry: written in the Year_ MDCCXXVII, chap. xii, has: ‘1. The Florid Style than which none is more proper to the Bathos, as flowers, which are the lowest of vegetables, are most gaudy, and do many times grow in great plenty at the bottom of ponds and ditches.

A fine writer in this kind presents you with the following posie:

The groves appear all drest with wreaths of flowers,
And from their leaves drop aromatic showers,
Whose fragrant heads in mystic twines above
Exchange their sweets, and mix’d with thousand kisses
As if the willing branches strove
To beautify and shade the grove,--

(which, indeed, most branches do).’ Pope, as often, is not a little unfair in his critique.

p. 144 _Eternal Night_.

Soles occidere, et redire possunt:
Nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux,
Nox est perpetua una dormienda.

--Catullus, _Ad Lesbiam_.

p. 148 _On a Juniper-Tree_. This poem is also to be found in the following editions of Rochester’s Works: _Poems on Several Occasions by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of R----. Printed at Antwerpen_. [London.] 1680? In _The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscommon, Dorset_, 1712; 1718; 1731; 1739 (in which year there were two several and slightly divergent editions); 1752; 1800? It must not, however, be for a moment supposed that the Earl of Rochester has any claim to the authorship of this piece. Unscrupulous booksellers collected songs, poems, satires of every kind under his name and included them amongst his oft-reprinted works without explanation or discrimination. With the opening lines of this poem cf. Horace, _Sermonum_, i, viii:--

Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
cum faber, incertus scammum faceretne Priapum,
maluit esse deum.

p. 148 _Busks_. A Busk is ‘A strip of wood, whalebone, steel, or other rigid material passed down the front of a corset and used to stiffen and support it’. _N.E.D._ which quotes, inter alia, 1688, R. Holme, _Armoury_, in, 94/2: ‘A Busk ... is a strong peece of Wood, or Whalebone thrust down the middle of the Stomacker.’

p. 151 _Mr. Grinhil_. John Greenhill, the famous portrait-painter, was born at Salisbury about 1644. He was the eldest son of the registrar of the diocese of Salisbury. About 1662 he migrated to London and became a pupil of Sir Peter Lely. Almost instant success awaited him, and his progress proved so rapid as to excite the master’s jealousy. He married early, and was at first industrious. After a few years, however, he became a boon companion of the free-living theatrical and literary circles of the day, and fell into irregular habits. 19 May, 1676, whilst returning from the Vine Tavern, Greenhill fell into the gutter in Long Acre, was carried to his lodging in Lincoln’s Inn Fields where he died that same night. He is buried in St. Giles-in-the-Fields. Amongst his portraits, which are highly esteemed, are those of Charles II; James, Duke of York; Shaftesbury; Locke; Davenant; Cowley; William Cartwright, the actor. This Poem on Greenhill’s death has been included amongst _Poems on Several Occasions by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of R---- Printed at Antwerpen_. [London.] 1680? And again, in _Poems on Several Occasions by the R. H. the E. of R. London_. 1712.

p. 153 _Mr. J. H._ i.e. Mr. John Hoyle.

p. 156 _Our Cabal_. Considerable research has unhappily failed to identify most of the personages whose initials appear in this poem. Mr. J. H., however, is John Hoyle, Mrs. Behn’s well-known intimate, to whom so many of her poems are addressed. In _The Muses Mercury_ for January, 1708, the verses for Mr. E. B. and Mrs. F. M. are given with this note: ‘The following poem was written by Mrs. _Behn_ on one Mr. _Edward Butler_ and Mrs. _Masters_, and is a Description of the Success of their Passion, in a little Journey took into the Country, with many more Gentlemen and Ladies of that Time, whom we shall speak of hereafter’. a promise which was never fulfilled.

p. 163 _The Willing Mistriss_. This song was reprinted in _The Muses Mercury_, December, 1707, when it is termed ‘A Song for _J. H._’ with this note prefixed: ‘The following Verses are call’d, _A Song_ by the late Mrs. _Behn_; we have a Copy of them in her own Hand Writing, as well as of many others never printed, except in our Mercuries; and by her putting her _Nom de Guerre_ Astræa to them, we find they were made upon her Self and her very good Friend Mr. _Hoyle_.’ At the end of the third stanza we have: ‘As Amorous as these Verses may be thought, they have been reduc’d to bring them within the Rules of Decency, which all Writers ought to observe, or instead of a _Diversion_ they will become a _Nuisance_.’

p. 165 _Song. When Jemmy_. This was reprinted in _The Muses Mercury_, September, 1707: as ‘On Capt. ---- going to the Wars in Flanders’, _A Song. To a Scotch Tune_, and signed Astræa. _The Muses Mercury_ adds the following note: ‘Tho this Poetess’s true Name was _Apharra_, yet she in her Amours and Poetical Characters, assum’d the _Nomme de Guerre_ of _Astræa_: And thus we find this Song subscrib’d by her self, which shews it came from her Heart, however imperfect it may be otherwise.’ Surely, so dainty and, indeed, pathetic a little song can need no plea for admittance into any poetical collection.

p. 166 _To Mr. Creech_. This poem appears as ‘To The Unknown Daphnis on his Excellent translation of _Lucretius_’, dated ‘_London_. Jan. 25, 1682’, and signed ‘_A. Behn_’ in the second edition of Creech’s translation of _Lucretius_ (Oxford, 1683), there are also commendatory verses prefixed to this edition by Waller, Evelyn, Otway, Tate, Duke and others.

p. 168 _The Learned Thirsis_ is Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), the famous Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, who matriculated from Wadham, 12 November, 1651, and 25 September, 1652, was elected a scholar. He graduated B.A. 25 June, 1654, M.A. three years later. He took his B.D. and D.D. 3 July, 1669. From 30 June, 1657 to 24 March, 1670 (when he resigned), he held a Wadham fellowship. Cowley, in his _Ode to the Royal Society_, had praised Sprat’s _History of the Royal Society of London_ (1667), and when Cowley died, in 1667, Sprat wrote _An Account of the Life of Mr. Abraham Cowley._

p. 169 _Strephon the Great_ is John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-80), who was admitted a fellow commoner at Wadham, 18 January, 1659-60. He was created M.A. 9 September, 1661, when little more than fourteen. The four silver pint pots he presented to his college are still preserved.

p. 171 _To Mrs. W._ i.e. Anne Wharton, born in Oxfordshire about 1632, second daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Lee, third baronet of Ditchley, by Anne, daughter of Sir John Danvers of Cornbury; 16 September, 1673, she married as his first wife Thomas Wharton (afterwards first Marquis of Wharton), to whom she brought £10,000 dowry and £2,500 a year. The match proved childless and unhappy, and it was only owing to Burnet’s persuasions that she did not separate from her husband in 1682. She died at Adderbury, 29 October, 1685, and was buried at Winchendon on 10 November following. Anne Wharton’s _Elegy on the Death of the Earl of Rochester_, which may be found in _Examen Miscellaneum_ (1702), drew a poem from Waller in which he says that she

Shews that still in her he lives.
Her Wit is graceful, great, and good,
Ally’d in Genius, as in Blood.

The earl’s mother was aunt to Mrs. Wharton’s father, Sir Henry Lee. Rochester died 26 July, 1680. On p. 242 of _The Temple of Death_, a miscellany (1695), may be read Mrs. Wharton’s ‘To Mrs. A. Behn, on what she Writ of the Earl of Rochester’. Various other of her poems have appeared in similar collections.

p. 173 _The Return_. The first two stanzas of this poem appear in _The Muses Mercury_, August, 1707, as ‘To _J. Hoyle_, Esq.’

p. 175 _my Lady Morland_. Mrs. Behn is here complimenting her friend Carola, daughter of Sir Roger Harsnett, Knight, and second wife of Sir Samuel Morland, whom she married in Westminster Abbey, 26 October, 1670. Lady Morland died 10 October, 1674, aged twenty-two.

For an account of the Queen’s visit to Tunbridge Wells (’.he place of all Europe the most rural and simple, and yet, at the same time, the most entertaining and agreeable’., see Grammont’s _Memoirs_. Rochester has a famous satire, _Tunbridge Wells_. Burr’s _History of Tunbridge Wells_ will be found to give a very full account of that fashionable watering-place.

p. 177 _Song to Ceres_. _The Wavering Nymph; or, Mad Amyntas_ was the name given to a Restoration revival of Randolph’s beautiful and truly poetic _Amyntas or The Impossible Dowry_. The title of the editio princeps runs thus: _Amyntas or The Impossible Dowry. A Pastoral Acted before the King and Queen at Whitehall. Written by Thomas Randolph_.

_Pastorem, Tityre, pingues_
_Pascat oportet oves, diductum dicere Carmen._

_Oxford, Printed by Leonard Lichfield for Francis Bordman_, 1638.

In the pastoral, Ceres, by an obscure oracle, has announced the dowry to be given to Urania, the daughter of her priest. Amyntas, conceiving it impossible to bestow this required dowry, has lost his wits. The wavering nymph is Laurinda. Eventually the divine riddle is happily solved.

There is no record of the revival for which Mrs. Behn wrote these two songs, but the play was undoubtedly put on at the Duke’s house. It was probably acted in 1682-3, when a large number of the older plays were staged, especially such as gave scope for scenic effects and the introduction of musical interludes. In the spring of 1703, _Amyntas_, reduced to three acts as _The Fickle Shepherdess_, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Mrs. Bracegirdle acted Amyntas, and Mrs. Barry, Clorinda (Laurinda).

p. 178 _The Disappointment_. This poem, which was extremely popular, was sent by Mrs. Behn to John Hoyle, her friend, with a letter in which she anxiously urges him to give the lie to various scandals of a grave nature that were current concerning his private life. The letter and the poem are both to be found in the various editions of _Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, &c._ This poem was also printed in _Poems on Several Occasions by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of R---- Antwerpen._ [London.] 1680(?) And in _Poems on Several Occasion by the R. H. the E. of R._ London. (1712). Under the title _The Insensible_ it is to be found in the following editions of Rochester, 1718; 1731; 1739 (in which year there were two several and slightly divergent editions); 1752; 1800 (?); and in a selected reprint _circa_ 1884. In these editions which contain _The Insensible_, _The Disappointment_ is the title given to a different poem seemingly based on Ovid, _Amorum_, iii, vii. The whole subject has frequently been treated by poets and amorists of all time. Also cf. _supra_ note on a _Juniper-Tree_.

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).