from _Westminster Drollery_ (1671), on the authority of Ebsworth.
It cannot, however, originally be Mrs. Behn’s since it appears in
a fuller form as _To his Whore who askt money of him_ (_Wit and
Drollery_, 1656). There are other variants. It will be remembered that
in _The Rover, II_, v, 1 (Vol. I, p. 195), Willmore jestingly sings the
fifth verse to La Nuche.
MISCELLANY, 1685.
p. 365. _Sir William Clifton_. Sir William Clifton, Bart., of Clifton,
Notts, the only surviving son of Sir Clifford Clifton, Knight, and
Frances his wife, daughter of Sir Heneage Finch, Knight, Recorder
of London, succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his uncle Sir
Gervase Clifton, 14 January, 1675. Sir William Clifton died unmarried,
leaving two sisters, coheirs.
p. 368 _On the Death of the late Earl of Rochester._ John Wilmot,
second Earl of Rochester, libertine, poet, wit, died from a
complication of ailments due to his profligacies on 26 July, 1680,
at the High Lodge, Woodstock Park, whither he had journeyed in
the preceding April. During the last three months of his life he
shewed signs of a sincere penitence. He was much comforted by the
ministrations of his chaplain, Robert Parsons, and on 25 June he wrote
to Gilbert Burnet to come and receive his death-bed repentance. Burnet
arrived 20 July, and stayed four days, spending the time in consolatory
exhortations and prayer. Parsons’ funeral sermon giving an account
of Rochester’s death and penitence is well known, but Burnet’s book,
_Some Passages of the Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester_ (1680,
8vo), has been even more constantly re-issued. The Earl was buried
in the north aisle of Spelsbury church, Oxfordshire, but without any
inscription or monument to mark the grave.
p. 369 _Cyprus._ A fine transparent stuff now called crape, cf.
_Winter’s Tale_, iv, iv (first folio):--
Cypresse black as ere was Crow.
Palsgrave, _Lesclarcissement de la Langue Françoyse_, has: ‘Cypres for
a woman’s necke--_crespe_’. and Cotgrave, _Fr. Dict._, ‘Crespe: m.
Cipres; also Cobweb Lawne’. The etymology of the word has given rise to
much discussion. Skinner, _Etymol. Angl._, regards it as a corruption
of the French _crepes_, but suggests that it may be derived from the
island of Cyprus where it was first manufactured. This is almost
certainly the case, cf. arras; cashmere; dimity; dornick; muslin, and
many more. Wheatley in his notes on _Every Man in His Humour_ suggests
that Cyprus is derived from ‘the plant _Cyperus textilis_, which is
still used for the making of ropes and matting.’ One of the English
names of this plant was ‘cypress’. Gerarde in his _Herbal_ (1597) says:
’.yperus longus is called ... in English, Cypresse and Galingale.’ Mr.
Wheatley’s suggestion is ingenious but impossible. There is, moreover,
ample evidence in favour of the derivation from the isle Cyprus.
p. 372 _A Paraphrase on the Lord’s Prayer._ One may compare with this
Paraphrase of the Pater by Mrs. Behn that by Poliziano--#Proseuchê
pros ton Theon#--written in 1472 when the poet was eighteen years old.
Waller has sixteen lines _OF the Paraphrase on the Lord’s Prayer,
written by Mrs. Wharton_. cf. also _Some Reflections of his upon the
Several Petitions in the Same Prayer_.
p. 378 _To Mr. P. who sings finely_. Perhaps Henry Purcell, whose voice
was a counter-tenor, or possibly a relative of the great musician, a
bass, who sang in the choir of the Abbey at the coronation of James II.
p. 379 _On the Author of that Excellent Book._ _The Way to Health,
Long Life and Happiness_ was published (4to, 1682), as _Health’s
Grand Preservative; or, the Women’s Best Doctor_ ... shewing the
Ill-Consequences of drinking Distilled Spirits and smoking Tobacco ...
with a Rational Discourse on the excellency of Herbs (2nd edition,
1691, 8vo, under the first-named title; 3rd edition 1697). It is the
work of Thomas Tryon (1634-1703), ‘Pythagorean’, mystic, economist.
This remarkable man, of whom a full account may be found in the _Dic.
Nat. Biog._, was long a fervent follower of Jacob Behmen, and forms
an interesting link between this enthusiast and the early quakers. In
_The Way to Health_ he advocates a vegetable diet, complete abstinence
from alcohol, tobacco, and indeed all luxuries. This, however, is
done without fanaticism, and he has many pages of sound common sense.
The manual is in the highest degree interesting, and in spite of much
quaint detail his hygiene was excellent. Tryon died at Hackney, 21
August, 1703. This same poem appears prefixed to _The Way to make
All People Rich: or Wisdom’s Call to Temperance and Frugality_, by
Philotheos Physiologus. [T. Tryon]. 12mo, 1685.
p. 382 _Epilogue to the Jealous Lovers_. _The Jealous Lovers_, which is
by many considered Randolph’s best play, was originally acted before
the King and Queen at Cambridge by the students of Trinity. It was
printed quarto, 1632, with nine copies of English, and seven of Latin,
verses. The revival of this comedy at the Duke’s house in 1682 met
with extraordinary success, and is mentioned by Langbaine. Nokes, who
spoke this epilogue, acted Asotus the prodigal, and _Leigh_, Ballio the
pimp. _Jo_ and _Jack_ are Joseph Williams and John Bowman who sustained
Tyndarus and Pamphilus.
_Rebell Ward_ is a sharp hit at Sir Patience Ward (1629-1696),
the ultra-protestant lord mayor of London, to which office he was
elected on Michaelmas day, 1680, entering on to his duties 29 October
following. He was a violent upholder of the city against the court, and
in 1683 was tried for perjury in connection with the action brought
by the Duke of York against Sir Thomas Pilkington for _scandalum
magnatum_. On being found guilty he escaped to Holland but returned at
the Revolution. He died 10 July, 1696, and is buried in the chancel
of St. Mary Abchurch. This fanatic incurred much odium early in his
Mayoralty by having an additional inscription engraved on the Monument
to the effect that the Great Fire had been caused by the Catholics. A
similar inscription was placed on the house in Pudding Lane where the
fire began. Tom Ward (1652-1791), in his _England’s Reformation_ (1710,
canto iv, p. 100), jeering at Titus Oates and his fictions has the
following lines:--
That sniffling whig-mayor, _Patience Ward_,
To this damn’d lie had such regard,
That he his godly masons sent
T’engrave it round the Monument.
They did so; but let such things pass:
His men were fools, and he an ass.
Roscommon, _The Ghost of the old House of Commons_ ... (1681), dockets
’.he _Bethels_ and the _Wards_’ together as
Anti-Monarchic--Hereticks of State.
_Your Damage is at most but half-a-Crown._ half-a-Crown was the price
of admittance to the Pit. _vide_ note, vol. I, p. 450.
p. 383 _A Pastoral to Mr. Stafford._ John Stafford, the translator of
the Camilla episode (Dryden’s _Sylvae: or, the Second Part of Poetical
Miscellanies_, 1685, p. 481), is the same person who translated other
parts of Virgil and Horace in the same Miscellany, Vols. I and II.
In the 3rd edition of Vol. II he is called ‘the Honourable Mr. John
Stafford.’ Stafford is also the author of the Epilogue (sometimes
erroneously printed as Dryden’s) to Southerne’s _The Disappointment;
or, The Mother in Fashion_ (1684, and 4to, 1684).
p. 383 _cale._ This excessively rare adjective, which the _N.E.D._
fails to include, is an Irish word = hard.
p. 390 _Gildon’s Chorus Poetarum._ ‘Adequately to translate Sappho’
says J. A. Symonds in _The Greek Poets_ ‘was beyond the power of even
Catullus: that love-ode, which Longinus called “not one passion, but a
congress of passions,” and which a Greek physician copied into his book
of diagnoses as a compendium of all the symptoms of corroding emotion,
appears but languid in its Latin dress of “Ille mi par.” Far less has
any modern poet succeeded in the task: Rossetti, who deals so skilfully
with Dante and Villon, is comparatively tame when he approaches
Sappho.’ This rendering of _The Ode to Anactoria_ (as tradition names
it) #Phainetai moi kênos isos theoisin#, first appears under Mrs.
Behn’s name in Gildon’s _Chorus Poetarum_, 1694. In _State Poems_,
Vol. II (1703), it is printed with the title _On Madam_ Behn, a very
different matter. If the lines are Mrs. Behn’s she must have versified
them from a translation given her by Hoyle or some other friend. In
any case they are graceful and far better than the versions of Ambrose
Philips (1711), or Smollett (1748). But, indeed, it is impossible to
translate these lines which are so truly ‘mixed with fire’ as Plutarch
has it. For various attempts and a literal prose version see Wharton’s
_Sappho_.
p. 391 _Complaint of the poor Cavaliers._ The _Muses Mercury_, June
1707, prefixes the following to this poem: ‘All the World knows Mrs.
_Behn_ was no _Whig_, no _Republican_, nor _Fanatick_; her Zeal lay
quite on the other Side: And tho her Manners was no Honour to any,
yet her Wit made her acceptable to that which she espous’d. She was
a _Politician_, as well as a Poet: for we find in the short Account
of her Life, printed with those of other _Poets_, she was employ’d by
_Charles II._ in the Discovery of the Dutch Intrigues in the Dutch War;
which she was the better qualifi’d to do by her knowledge of their
Language, she having liv’d a long time in _Surinam_, a Colony where
there were many Dutch Merchants; and not long after she left it ‘twas
surrendered to that Republic by King _Charles_. ‘Tis well known, that
the Gentlemen she speaks of in the following Poem, had too much reason
to complain; and that the very Men, who had been so much instrumental
in keeping King _Charles_ the II. out of his Dominions, were most
caress’d after his _Restoration_.’
p. 393 _Mrs. Harsenet._ Carola, daughter of Sir Roger Harsnett, knight.
These verses are a variation of ‘_To my Lady_ Morland _at_ Tunbridge.’
_vide_ p. 175.
p. 395 _A letter to the Earl of Kildare._ John FitzGerald, 18th Earl
of Kildare, lived in St. James’ Square, and in 1648 married, as his
second wife, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Charles Jones, 1st Earl of
Ranelagh (’. fortune of £10,000.’. She died in 1758 at the great age of
ninety-three. She was extremely beautiful, and either she or one of her
unmarried sisters was a mistress of the King.
The Lady Mary Howard, sister to the Earl of Carlisle, died in the last
week of October, 1694. She was notorious for her intrigues, and the
satires of the time accuse her of being little better than a procuress
both for King Charles II and the Earl of Dorset. cf. Rochester’s _The
Royal Angler_
My Lady _Mary_ nothing can design
But feed her lust with what she get’s for thine,
and the Earl of Dorset’s _Lamentation for Moll Howard’s absence_
(Harleian MSS.), which ends
Oh Love! Oh Love! Ye Pow’rs above
Intriguing _Moll_ restore,
The best Interpreter of Love,
That ever message bore.
Amongst her lovers were Harry Lumley, Hungerford, Howe. It is
noticeable that the lampoons inevitably refer to her in the grossest
terms.
All the World can’t afford
Such a Bitch as Mall Howard,
writes one versifier, and in _Rochester’s Ghost addressing itself to
the Secretary of the Muses_ she is found bracketed with seven other
ladies of the most dubious repute,
And here, would time permit me, I could tell,
Of Cleveland, Portsmouth, Crofts, and Arundel,
Mol. Howard, Su[sse]x, Lady Grey, and Nell,
Strangers to good, but bosom Friends to ill,
As boundless in their lusts as in their will.
When Lady Mary Howard was received into the Church in 1685, the wits
(as was often the case on these conversions) seized the opportunity to
flood the town with their pasquils, e.g. _The Ladies March_.
p. 397 _an Urban Throng_ (_as Mr._ Bayes _calls it_). cf. _The
Rehearsal_, iii, v, the scene of Prince Volscius ‘going out of Town’.
_Vols._ _Harry_, my Boots; for I’l go rage among
My Blades encamp’d, and quit this _Urban_ throng.
p. 398 _Prologue to Romulus._ _vide_ Vol. I, pp. xlii-iii.
p. 399 _Green-Ribbon-Brother._ The green ribbon was the badge of
Shaftesbury’s party, as a red ribbon was of the Tories. North
(_Examen_) gives the following account of the green ribbon fraternity:
’.his was the club originally called the King’s Head Club. The
gentlemen of that worthy society held their evening sessions
continually at the King’s Head Tavern, over against the Inner Temple
Gate. But upon occasion of the signal of a green ribbon agreed to
be worn in their hats, in the days of street-engagements, like the
coats of arms of valiant knights of old, whereby all the warriors
of that society might be distinguished, and not mistake friends for
enemies; they were called also the Green Ribbon Club. Their seat was
in a sort of car-four at Chancery-lane-end; a centre of business and
company most proper for such anglers of fools. The house was double
balconied in the front, as may be yet seen, for the clubsters to issue
forth in _fresco_, with hats and no perruques; pipes in their mouths,
merry faces, and diluted throats, for the vocal encouragement of the
_canaglia_ below, at bonfires, on usual and unusual occasions.’ The
Green Ribbon is frequently alluded to. cf. Otway, _The Poet’s Complaint
of His Muse_ (4to, 1680), xv:--
He gain’d authority and place:
By many for preferments was thought fit,
For talking treason without fear or wit:
For opening failings in the state: }
For loving noisy and unsound debate, }
And wearing of a mystical green ribband in his hat. }
p. 400 _Mrs. Behn’s Satyr on Dryden._ This acrid attack upon the great
laureate is ungenerous to a degree, and Mrs. Behn’s jibes are the
more surprising, inasmuch as she had always been Tory to the backbone
and a particular partisan of King James II. No doubt continued ill
health and a hard struggle are largely responsible for her bad temper.
There can be no question that Dryden’s conversion was absolutely
conscientious, and his line of action at the Revolution amply proves
his sincerity. Few, if any, critics would to-day venture to echo
Macaulay’s discredited pronouncements, doubly dangerous that they
are from the vigour and charm of their expression. Burnet’s partisan
libels and denunciation of Dryden can be dismissed as impertinent and
groundless. It is not to be supposed that on such an occasion the
whole horde of waspish Lilliputians, who hated the genius of glorious
John, would not pour forth a very torrent of venom and slime. Such
impotent pasquils as _The Renegado Poet_, and _To Mr._ Dryden _upon
his declaring himself a Roman Catholic_ abound. Dryden, so far as we
know, had always shown himself kindly to Mrs. Behn. He included her
paraphrase of Ovid’s _OEnone to Paris_ in the translation of Ovid’s
Epistles ‘by several Hands’ (1680), and took care to pay her a graceful
compliment in the preface. Further, he allowed a prologue of his own to
be used at the production of her posthumous play, _The Widow Ranter_,
in 1690. His letter of advice to Corinna (Mrs. Thomas), which, with
an acknowledgement of the freedom of some of his own scenes, bids her
refrain from following the carelessness of the illustrious Astrea, was
written with reference to the mitigated taste of the last years of the
seventeenth century when Collier had already penned his diatribe of
decorum, rather than as a rebuke of, or a reflection upon Mrs. Behn.
I owe the present copy of this satire, which has never before been
printed, to the kindness of G. Thorn Drury, Esq., K.C., who generously
transcribed the lines, thirty-one in number, from a MS. in his
possession, which he copied from Haslewood, who writes ‘From an old MS.
in my Port Folio’.[7] _The Historical MSS. Commission Third Report_
(1872) _Appendix_ gives amongst the MSS. in the custody of the Bishop
of Southwark, _On Mr. Dryden renegate_, by Mrs. Behn, 1 leaf, 33 lines.
Fr. Cunningham, the Southwark archivist, whom I take this opportunity
of most heartily thanking for the trouble he was put to in the matter,
finds that this leaf was one of a number of MSS. restored by Bishop
Danell in October, 1875, to the two sources whence they had been
borrowed by the Rev. Mark Tierney. These were the Archivium of the late
Cardinal Manning, and the Stonyhurst collection. Fr. Cyril Martindale,
S.J., informs me that the poem is not to be found at Stonyhurst
College. Nor can it be traced at Westminster. The unfortunate
conclusion is that it has been irretrievably lost. A couplet would
appear to have dropped out in the present copy.
[7] In line twenty-four the MS. has ‘constant to worship’, but as Mr.
Thorn Drury pertinently points out, ‘content’ is clearly the right word.
p. 401 _Valentinian._ For Rochester’s _Valentinian_ see Vol. III, _The
Lucky Chance_, Preface (p. 186), and note on that passage (p. 484).
This alteration was printed quarto, 1685, with a vigorous defence of
Rochester, ‘a Preface concerning the Author and his Writings. _By one
of his Friends._’ (i.e. Robert Wolseley, son of Sir Charles Wolseley.)
It is curious to note that two publishers divided the risk of
publication, and on the title pages of different 4tos we have different
names. Mrs. Sarah Cook, who spoke this Prologue the first day, was an
actress of no little eminence and beauty. Her origin was humble (her
mother is said to have kept a tiny shop), and she early joined the
Nursery. In 1677 we find her cast for Gillian, when Leanard’s wholesale
plagiarism of Brewer’s _Country Girl_ entitled _Country Innocence; or,
The Chambermaid turn’d Quaker_, was produced during Lent by the younger
part of the Theatre Royal Company, with help from such experienced
performers as Haynes, Lydal, Goodman, Mrs. Marshall and Mrs. Knipp. The
following year Mrs. Cook acted Flora in _The Rambling Justice_, another
Nursery play, also put on in Lent. Langbaine ascribes this comedy to
Leanard, and much of it is stolen in his style. Amongst Mrs. Cook’s
many rôles after she had joined the King’s Company as a regular actress
were:--1681, Livia, in D’Urfey’s _Sir Barnaby Whig_; 1682, Semanthe, in
Southerne’s _The Loyal Brother_; The Countess of Rutland in Banks’ _The
Unhappy Favourite_. After the Union of the Companies (first performance
16 November, 1682), Mrs. Cook, who had already taken a high place,
acted parts of great importance. We find that she spoke the Epilogue
to Dryden and Lee’s _The Duke of Guise_ (December, 1682), and in 1683
she appears as Spaconia in a notable revival of _A King and No King_.
The same year she possibly acted the Countess in Ravenscroft’s _Dame
Dobson_. In 1684 she played Serena in Lee’s _Constantine the Great_;
Erminia in Southerne’s _The Disappointment_; Portia, in a revival of
_Julius Cæsar_; 1685, Aminta in D’Urfey’s _The Commonwealth of Women_;
Edith, in a revival of _Rollo, Duke of Normandy_; 1686, Lady Lovemore
in Jevon’s farce, _A Devil of A Wife_; Donna Elvira in D’Urfey’s _The
Banditti_; 1687, Letitia in Mrs. Behn’s _The Lucky Chance_; Quisara
in Tate’s poor alteration of _The Island Princess_; Elaria, in Mrs.
Behn’s farcical _The Emperor of the Moon_. Genest who records this as
her last rôle says that she quitted the stage at this time. It has been
stated that she died in the winter of 1687. At any rate her name no
longer appears, and her place was amply filled by the advent of Mrs.
Bracegirdle. Mrs. Cook was celebrated for speaking saucy and political
epilogues, e.g. that to _The Duke of Guise_, and, again, Dryden’s
brilliant epilogue to _Constantine the Great_. A MS. (Harleian) _Satire
on the Players_ (c. 1682-3) coarsely vilipends her thus:--
Impudent _Sarah_ thinks she’s praised by all,
Mistaken Drab, back to thy Mother’s stall,
And let true Savin whom thou hast proved so well; }
‘Tis a rare thing that belly will not swell, }
Though swived and swived and as debauched as hell. }
On the Second Day of _Valentinian_ a second prologue was spoken by Mrs.
Cook. They are clever verses, and with regard to the critics who gird
at Rochester, some ‘for his want of Wit’, and others because ‘he too
obscenely writ’, it is said:--
Like _Falstaffe_ let ‘em conquer Heroes dead,
And praise _Greek_ Poets they cou’d never read.
The third ‘Prologue intended for _Valentinian_, to be spoken by _Mrs.
Barrey_’ contains the famous lines with reference to the dead author:--
Some Beauties here I see--
Though now demure, have felt his pow’rful Charms,
And languish’d in the circle of his Arms.
p. 402 _Jenny._ A well-known orange wench to whom there are allusions
in the satires of the day. ‘Jenny’ is sometimes also a generic name for
a mask.
p. 402 _Blanket Fair._ Evelyn, 6 January, 1684, notes ‘the river quite
frozen’, and on the 9th writes: ‘I went across the Thames on the ice,
now become so thick as to bear not only streets of booths, in which
they roasted meat, and had divers shops of wares, quite across as in a
town, but coaches, carts and horses passed over.’ On subsequent days
he notes the continuance of this frost, and on 24 January has a famous
description of the Thames fair with its ‘sleds, sliding with skates,
a bull-baiting, horse and coach-races, puppet-plays and interludes,
cooks, tippling, and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a
bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water’. A printing press was
even set up and cards printed, one of which is given, dated 5 February,
in a note by Bray, _Evelyn’s Diary_, II (p. 192) (1850).
p. 403 _To Henry Higden._ Henry Higden, to whose translation of
Juvenal’s tenth satire Mrs. Behn prefixed these complimentary verses,
was a well-known wit of the day. A Yorkshireman, a member of the Middle
Temple, he moved in the best and gayest society. In 1686 he published
_A Modern Essay on the Thirteenth Satyr of Juvenal_ (Licensed 11
November, 1685), and in 1687 followed this up by _A Modern Essay on
the Tenth Satyr of Juvenal_. With Mrs. Behn’s Poem are also printed
verses by Dryden and Settle. Higden is the author of a good comedy,
_The Wary Widdow: or, Sir Noisy Parrat_ (4to, 1693). Sir Charles Sedley
wrote the prologue, there are six copies (one by Tom Brown in Latin),
of complimentary verses, and the play is dedicated to the Earl of
Dorset and Middlesex. A legend exists that the author ‘had introduced
so much punch-drinking into it that the actors got intoxicated before
the end of the third act, and the house separated in confusion’. This
seems to me dubious at the least, and if true the actors must have
begun in a singularly mellow condition. Sir Noisy, indeed (Act i),
declares ‘we must banish _Venus_ out of our Calender, Jolly _Bacchus_
shall rejoyce our hearts, and be our Dominical Letter,’ yet in Act ii,
sc. iii, he toasts Clarinda’s health but once and that in ‘Wine and
Colour’d water’. whilst Act iii, sc. vi, ‘_the_ Rose Tavern’ where Sir
Noisy gets drunk with Scaredevil and Fulham is somewhat quiet for a
toping of the period. In Act iv Nantz is quaffed on shipboard, but all
the rest of the play is temperate enough, and the tradition (repeated
ad nauseam), must indubitably be dismissed as pure fiction. Higden in
his Preface ascribes the doom of _The Wary Widdow_ to those ‘Sons of
_Zeruiah_’, the ‘murmuring _Israelites_’ and ‘Pagans of the Pits’ who
’.issing, mimicking, ridiculing, and Cat-calling’ utterly ‘vanquished
the stage’, and dumbfounded the unfortunate performers. No doubt a
braying clique damned the piece. It may be noted that in his Preface
Higden takes occasion to gird at the recent success of Congreve’s _The
Old Bachelor_.
p. 405 _On the Death of E. Waller, Esq._ Edmund Waller died at Hall
Barn, 21 October, 1687, and on 26 October was buried in Beaconsfield
churchyard. This elegy of Mrs. Behn’s was first printed in a collection
entitled _Poems to Memory of that Incomparable Poet Edmund Waller,
Esquire_. ‘By Several Hands.’ 1688. The volume (27 pages), contains
poems by Sir John Cotton, Bart.; Sir Tho. Higgons; T. Rymer; Monsieur
St. Evremon (six lines in French, with an English translation by T.
R.); George Granville; Bevill Higgons; A. Behn; an Anonymous Poem; and
’.o Mr. Riley, Drawing Mr. Waller’s Picture’, signed T. R. The letter
accompanying these lines sent by Mrs. Behn to Waller’s daughter-in-law,
will be found in the Memoir (Vol. I, pp. l-li).