The Works of Aphra Behn Volume I Part 105

Some for setting above ground Whole days and nights, upon their breeches, And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches.

cf. again _The City Heiress_, Act i:--

Watch her close, watch her like a witch, Boy, Till she confess the Devil in her,---- Love.

p. 235 _Count d'Olivarez._ Gaspar Guzman d'Olivarez was born at Rome, 1587. For many years all-powerful minister of Philip IV; he was dismissed 1643, and died 20 July, 1645, in banishment at Toro.

p. 235 _a Venice Curtezan._ Venice, the home of Aretine and Casanova, was long famous for the beauty and magnificence of her prost.i.tutes. This circ.u.mstance is alluded to by numberless writers, and Ruskin, indeed, maintains that her decline was owing to this cause, which can hardly be, since as early as 1340, when her power was only rising, the public women were numbered at 11,654. Coryat has some curious matter on this subject, and more may be found in _La Tariffa delle Puttane di Venegia_, a little book often incorrectly ascribed to Lorenzo Venicro.

+Act II: Scene i+

p. 245 _They enter at another Door. _Vide note_ Rover_ I, Act II, I, p. 30.

+Act III: Scene i+

p. 263 _Beso los manos, signor._ = Beso las manos, senor.

p. 265 _Don John._ The famous hero of Lepanto died, not without suspicion of poison, in his camp at Namur, 1578. Otway introduces him in _Don Carlos_ (1676).

+Act III: Scene ii+

p. 271 _Souses._ A slang term for the 'ears'. cf. _The Roundheads_, Act II, I, 'a pair of large sanctify'd Souses.'

p. 271 _b.u.t.ter-hams._ Apparently from Dutch boterham = a slice of bread and b.u.t.ter. The two narrow strips of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g on either side of the cloak.

p. 272 _a Rummer of a Pottle._ A jug or goblet holding one pottle = two quarts.

+Act III: Scene iii+

p. 278 _Snick-a-Sne._ A combat with knives amongst the Dutch. Snik: Dutch = a sharp weapon. Dryden in his _Parallel betwixt Painting and Poetry_ (4to, June, 1695) speaks of 'the brutal sport of snick-or-sne'. Mrs. Behn has happily put several characteristically Dutch phrases in Haunce's mouth.

p. 278 _Pharamond._ A heroic romance in twelve volumes, the seven first of which are by the celebrated la Calprenede, the remainder being the work of Pierre de Vaumoriere. It was translated into English by J. Phillips (London, 1677, folio). Lee has taken the story of Varanes in his tragedy, _Theodosius_ (1680), from this romance.

+Act IV: Scene i+

p. 289 _Bethlehem-Gaber._ Bethlen-Gabor (Gabriel Bethlen), 1580-1629, was a Hungarian n.o.ble who embraced the Protestant religion, and in 1613, with the help of an Ottoman army, succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng himself as King of Transylvania. His reign, although one long period of warfare and truces, proved a most flouris.h.i.+ng epoch for his country. Himself a musician and a man of letters, he was constant in his patronage of art and scholars, cf. Abraham Holland's _Continued Inquisition of Paper Persecutors_ (1626):--

But to behold the walls b.u.t.ter'd with weekly Newes composed in Pauls By some decaied Captaine, or those Rooks Whose hungry brains compile prodigious books Of Bethlem Gabor's preparations and How terms betwixt him and th' Emperor stand.

p. 291 _a Hoy._ A small vessel like a sloop, peculiarly Dutch.

Pepys, 16 June, 1661, speaks of hiring 'a Margate hoy'.

+Act V: Scene ii+

p. 323 _a Lapland Witch._ cf. _Paradise Lost_, Book II, l. 666:--

To dance With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon Eclipses at their charms.

+Act V: Scene iia+

p. 329 _the German Princess._ Mary Morders, alias Stedman, alias Kentish Moll, a notorious imposter of the day, who pretended to be a Princess from Germany. She had been transported to Jamaica in 1671, but returning too soon and stealing a piece of plate, was hanged at Tyburn, 22 January, 1673. Her adventures formed the plot of a play by Tom Porter, _A Witty Combat; or, The Female Victor_ (4to, 1663).

Kirkman's _Counterfeit Lady Unveiled_ (8vo, 1673), contains very ample details of her career. Pepys went to visit her 'at the Gatehouse at Westminster', 29 May, 1663. In talk he was 'high in the defence of her wit and spirit' (7 June, 1663). 15 April, 1664, the diarist further notes: 'To the Duke's house and there saw _The German Princess_ acted by the woman herself ... the whole play ...

is very simple, unless, here and there, a witty sprinkle or two.'

This piece was doubtless identical with Porter's tragi-comedy.

p. 329 _four s.h.i.+llings, or half a Crown._ Four s.h.i.+llings was the price of admission to the boxes on the first tier of the theatre; half a crown to the pit. These sums are very frequently alluded to in prologue and epilogue. Dryden in his second epilogue to _The Duke of Guise_ (1682), after referring to the brawls and rioting of the pit, says:--

This makes our boxes full; for men of sense Pay their four s.h.i.+llings in their own defence.

The epilogue (spoken by Mrs. Bontell) to Corye's _The Generous Enemies_ (1671), has these lines:--

Though there I see-- Propitious Angels sit [_points at the Boxes._ Still there's a Nest of Devils in the Pit, By whom our Plays, like Children, just alive, Pinch'd by the Fairies, never after thrive: 'Tis but your Half-crown, Sirs: that won't undo.

+Epilogue+

p. 330 _Rotas._ The Rota was a political club founded in 1659 by James Harrington. It advocated a system of rotation in filling government offices.

Errors and Irregularities: The Dutch Lover

resolves to poinard his sister _spelling unchanged_ Jacobean and Carolan drama _text unchanged_ but what you do, must be speedily then.

_text reads "speeedily"_ _Car._ Why, _Olinda_, _Dorice_, _Olinda_, where be these mad Girls?

_text unchanged_

THE ROUNDHEADS; OR,

THE GOOD OLD CAUSE.

[Transcriber's Note:

Entrances and bracketed stage directions were printed in _italics_, with proper names in roman type. The overall _italic_ markup has been omitted for readability.]

ARGUMENT.

The historical state of affairs 1659-60 was briefly as follows:-- the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell expired 22 April, 1659. Hereupon Fleetwood and some other officers recalled the Long Parliament (Rump), which was const.i.tuted the ruling power of England, a select council of state having the executive. Lambert, however, with other dissentients was expelled from Parliament, 12 October, 1659. He and his troops marched to Newcastle; but the soldiers deserted him for General Fairfax, who had declared for a free Parliament, and were garrisoned at York.