Notes on the Text.
The Widow Ranter.
Dedication
p. 221, l. 1 To the much Honoured. This Dedicatory Epistle is only found in the 4to 1690.
Prologue
p. 223, l. 13 Cruse. Misprinted ‘Cause’ in 4to 1690 and in 1724. The True Widow (4to 1679), and the edition of 1720 (Shadwell’s collected works) give ‘Cruse.’ All editions of Dryden until Christie misread ‘Cause’.
p. 223, l. 16 Poll. 4to 1690 Pole. 1724 Pool. The True Widow (4to 1679) and edition of 1720 both give ‘Poll’.
Dramatis Personæ
p. 225 Dramatis Personæ. I have added to the list ‘Cavaro, an Indian, Confidant to the Indian King. Jack, a Sea-Boy. An Officer; Messenger; Seaman; 2nd Seaman; A Highlander. Jenny, Maid to Widow Ranter. Nell, Maid at the Inn. Anaria, Confidante to the Indian Queen. Maid to Madam Surelove. Bailiffs, Rabble, Negroes. I have supplied the name Jeffery to the Coachman from i, III (p. 239), and also designated Mrs. Flirt ‘a Tapstress’. Daring, which name is indifferently spelt in the 4to 1690 Dareing or Daring, I have given consistently throughout. For Chrisante 1724 sometimes has Crisante. To the Scene I have added ‘James-Town, and the surrounding Country.’
Act I: Scene i
p. 226, l. 3 Jack. I have inserted this name from infra l. 20.
p. 226, l. 17 Enter Flirt and Nell. I have supplied this necessary entrance.
p. 227, l. 9 Exit Nell. I have inserted this exit. Nell’s entrance is marked later and she is certainly not on the stage during the ensuing scene.
p. 227, l. 27 I. Omitted in 4to 1690.
p. 227, l. 30 being. ‘was’ 4to 1690.
p. 227, l. 35 Cully in. ‘Cully’ as a verb. 1724 ‘Cully to’. ‘Cully’ as a substantive.
p. 228, l. 10 any thing. 4to 1690 ‘any thing any thing’.
p. 229, l. 1 fail, thou. 4to 1690 ‘fail, there thou’. This insertion of ‘there’ interrupts the sense.
p. 229, l. 26 wherever. 1724 ‘whenever’.
p. 230, l. 1 whom. 4to 1690 ‘which’.
p. 230, l. 34 stand. 4to 1690 ‘stands’.
p. 231, l. 24 Smoke. 1724 ‘Tobacco’.
p. 231, l. 28 Exit Nell. I have supplied this stage direction.
p. 231, l. 34 paulter. 1724 ‘paultry’. Vide critical note on this passage.
p. 232, l. 8 and Nell with drink, pipes, etc. I have supplied these words.
p. 232, l. 19 take. 4to 1690 ‘took’.
p. 232, l. 34 an. 4to 1690 ‘on’.
p. 233, l. 28 the Bob. 1724 ‘a Bob’. Critical note
p. 234, l. 28 Guinea. 4to 1690 ‘Guinia’.
Act I: Scene ii
p. 235, l. 17 The Council-Table. I have supplied this locale.
p. 235, l. 22 give. My own emendation: previous editions ‘be’.
p. 236, l. 12 make. 4to 1690 ‘have’.
p. 237, l. 6 Down. I say. 4to 1690 wrongly gives this speech to Dunce.
p. 238, l. 25 If we wou’d. 1724 ‘If he wou’d’.
Act I: Scene iii
p. 239, l. 25 Jeffery. I have supplied the name here from the following line.
p. 239, l. 31 Exit. Not noted in former editions.
p. 240, l. 2 of a Baboon. 4to 1690 ‘of Baboone’.
p. 240, l. 5 Tumbler. 4to 1690 misprints ‘Fumbler’. Critical note
p. 241, ll. 15, 18 Pound. 1724 ‘Pounds’.
p. 242, l. 32 Sure. reads. 4to 1690 and 1724 ‘she reads’, which is ambiguous.
p. 243, l. 16 de la guerre. 4to 1690 ‘de la gare’.
p. 244, l. 17 They join with Surelove. Only in 4to 1690.
Act II: Scene i
p. 245, l. 21 have Charms. 1724 ‘have those Charms’.
p. 245, l. 28 Mediator. 1724 ‘Meditator’.
p. 245, l. 32 would make me lay the Conqueror. 1724 ‘would lay me a Conqueror’.
p. 248, l. 12 knip. 1724 mis-spells this rare word ‘nip’. Critical note
Act II: Scene ii
p. 252, l. 36 A Scots Dance. 1724 ‘A Scotch Dance.’
p. 253, l. 28 Billet-Douxs. 4to 1690 ‘Billet-Deaxs’.
p. 254, l. 12 Drinking all this while sometimes. Only in 4to 1690.
Act II: Scene iii
p. 255, l. 16 Pulls a Bottle. 4to 1690 ‘Pulls out a Bottle’.
p. 255, l. 28 Drinks. Only in 4to 1690.
p. 256, l. 31 durst. 4to 1690 ‘darst’.
Act II: Scene iv
p. 258, l. 26 Enter Brag. Both 4to 1690 and 1724 have ‘Enter a Messenger’, and give l. 27 speech-prefix ‘Mes.’ Both, however, give the next speech he speaks (l. 33) to Brag and have later ‘Exit Brag.’
p. 259, l. 5 Whimsey. Both 4to 1690 and 1724 here and elsewhere cut the name down to ‘Whim.’
p. 259, l. 9 wish’d that the Plot. 4to 1690 ‘wish’d the Plot’.
p. 261, l. 17 care. 1724 ‘ear’.
p. 262, l. 25 Wellman’s Guards. 4to 1690 ‘Wellman, his Guards’. But Wellman has not left the stage. The comma printed by 1690 is probably a mistake and we should read ‘Wellman his Guards’.
p. 263, l. 24 Exit. 4to 1690 gives no direction. 1724 has ‘Exeunt.’ But Timorous is left alone on the stage.
Act III: Scene i
p. 264, l. 1 hollow. 4to 1690 ‘hallow’.
p. 266, l. 15 That. Omitted in 4to 1690.
p. 270, l. 8 Exeunt. 4to 1690 gives no stage direction here.
Act III: Scene ii
p. 272, l. 28 ’tis a tittle of the D— breed. sic 4to 1690. 1724 ‘’tis little of the D— breed’.
p. 274, l. 1 haste with. 1724 ‘haste you with’.
p. 275, l. 28 stands and stares a while. 1724 ‘stands a while and stares’.
p. 277, l. 28 shall be. 4to 1690 ‘shall not be’.
Act IV: Scene i
p. 279, l. 12 Priests. 4to 1690 ‘Priest.’
Act IV: Scene ii
p. 289. l. 10 draw. 4to 1690 ‘draws’, but not as a stage direction.
p. 289, l. 21 Scene III. I have numbered this scene.
Act IV: Scene iii
p. 290, l. 14 Daring, looks. 4to 1690 ‘Daring, and looks’.
p. 290, l. 31 devote. 1724 ‘divorce’, a bad error.
p. 290, l. 33 the fittest. 1724 ‘a fit’.
Act V: Scene i
p. 295, l. 9 Exeunt. 4to 1690 ‘Ex.’ 1724 ‘Exit’.
p. 296, l. 8 Exeunt. I have supplied this necessary stage direction.
p. 296, l. 11 beat. 4to 1690 ‘beating’.
p. 296, l. 13 fight, lay. 4to 1690 ‘fight, so that they lay’.
p. 296, l. 22 All go out. Previous editions ‘Goes out.’
Act V: Scene ii
p. 296, l. 23 Scene II. I have numbered this scene.
p. 298, l. 26 All Exeunt. I have added this direction.
Act V: Scene iii
p. 298, l. 27 Scene III. I have numbered this scene.
p. 299, l. 12 submission. 1724 ‘Admission’.
p. 299, l. 17 Pauwomungian. 4to 1690 ‘Pauwmungian’.
p. 300, l. 2 After Noise. 1724 omits ‘After’.
p. 303, l. 16 They go out. Previous editions ‘Goes out.’
Act V: Scene iv
p. 303, l. 23 Scene IV. Changes to another part of the Wood. All previous editions ‘Scene changes to a Wood.’
p. 304, l. 21 are. 4to 1690 ‘is’.
p. 305, l. 12 go out. 4to 1690 ‘goes out’.
p. 305, l. 21 Whimsey. In former editions abbreviated to ‘Whim.’
p. 306, l. 9 Exeunt. Former editions ‘Exit Dunce.’
Act V: Scene v
p. 306, l. 10 Scene V. I have numbered this scene.
p. 306, l. 18 Lover’s. 4to 1690 ‘Love’s’.
p. 306, l. 20 more. 1724 omits.
p. 306, l. 32 and the rest. Previous editions ‘and officers’, but plainly all the characters of the preceding scene assemble.
p. 307, l. 21 What has he, Mistress? 4to 1690 omits.
p. 309, l. 1 Epilogue. It will be noted that with some trifling alterations this is the Prologue to Abdelazar. Critical note
Notes: Critical And Explanatory.
The Widow Ranter.
Dedication
p. 221 Madam Welldon. This Dedicatory Epistle only appears in 4to 1690. The lady doubtless belonged to a branch of the famous Weldons, of Swanscombe, Kent, and is probably to be identified with Madam Lucy Weldon, née Necton, the wife of Colonel George Weldon.
p. 222 G. J. Almost certainly George Jenkins, of whom we have two copies of complimentary verse prefixed to La Montre, or The Lover’s Watch. vide Vol. VI, pp. 9-11.
Prologue
p. 223 Prologue. This prologue was first spoken to Shadwell’s comedy, The True Widow, produced at the Duke’s Theatre, Dorset Garden, 21 March, 1678, and it is printed with all copies of that play. It was, no doubt, used on the present occasion by permission of Dryden. It will be noticed that the Epilogue to The Widow Ranter is the Prologue to Abdelazar.
p. 223 Muss. A scramble. cf. Antony and Cleopatra, iii, 13:—
... of late, when I cried ‘Ho!’
Like boys unto a muss, Kings would start forth,
And cry ‘Your will?’
Act I: Scene i
p. 226 a Cogue of Brandy. ‘Cogue’ is a Kentish word. Kent Glossary (1887), has ‘cogue; a dram of brandy’; and Wright, Eng. Dial. Dic., who gives ‘cogue’ as exclusively Kentish, assigns precisely the same meaning. D’Urfey, however, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719), vi, p. 351, has ‘a cogue of good ale’.
p. 227 Groom Porter’s. The Groom Porter was an officer of the Royal Household. This post was abolished in the reign of George III. From the sixteenth century he regulated all matters connected with card playing, gambling, and dicing within the precincts of the court. He even furnished cards and dice, and settled disputes concerning the game.
p. 227 high and low Flats and Bars. i.e. Doctored dice. cf. Chamber’s Cycl. Supp. (1753), ‘Barr Dice, a species of false dice so formed that they will not easily lie on certain sides.’ This cant term is found as early as 1545. cf. Ascham’s Toxophilus. Flats are also cards. —(Grose, and J. H. Vaux, Flash Dic.)
p. 231 shier. Schire = clear; pure. A Gaelic word. cf. Herd, Scotch Songs (2nd ed. 1776), 11, Gloss.—‘We call clear liquor shire’.
p. 231 paulter. Mean; worthless. This rare form is perhaps found only here. The N.E.D. does not give it. But we have ‘paltering’ and ‘palterly’. Text note
p. 232 Hoggerds. A rare word, being obsolete for Hogherd. cf. De Parc’s Francion, iv, 3 (tr. 1655): ‘Our Regent (who had in him no more humanity than a Hoggard).’
p. 233 trusting for old Oliver’s Funeral broke. The obsequies of Oliver Cromwell, originally fixed for 9 November, 1658, owing to the extraordinary magnificence of the preparations were not performed until 23 November. For many days his waxen effigy, dressed in robes of state, was exhibited at Somerset House. The expenses totalled £60,000, and it was a public scandal that a great part of this wanton and wasteful extravagance remained unpaid, to the undoing of the undertakers. On 25 August, 1659, in the Kalendar of State Affairs (Domestic), the following occurs: ‘Report by the Committee appointed by Parliament to examine what is due for mourning for the late General Cromwell, that on perusal of the bills signed by Cromwell’s servants, and of the account of Abr. Barrington, his auditor, it appears that £19,303 0s. 11d. is still due and unpaid for mourning. Also that Nath. Waterhouse, servant to Rich. Cromwell, should be authorized to see the persons in a list [missing] annexed for that mourning. Col. Rich to make this report. Schedule of debts due to 11 mercers and drapers for the funeral of the late General Cromwell. Total £19,303 0s. 11d.’
p. 233 they bear the Bob. i.e. They join in the chorus or refrain. Text note
Act I: Scene iii
p. 240 shoveing the Tumbler. ‘Thieves’ cant for being whipped at the cart’s tail.’ —(Grose). Tumbler, perhaps = tumbril. Text note
p. 240 lifting. Filching. This slang term is very old and common.
p. 240 filing the Cly. ‘Thieves’ cant for picking a pocket.’ —(Grose). ‘Cly,’ a pocket.
p. 240 Regalio. An obsolete and, indeed, erroneous form of ‘regalo’, an elegant repast; choice food or drink. The word is very common, and the spelling, ‘Regalio’, is frequent in the second half of the seventeenth century.
Act II: Scene i
p. 246 Anticks. Quaint fantastic measures. A favourite word with Mrs. Behn.
p. 248 to knip. To clip. (Dutch ‘knippen’, to cut, snip.) N.E.D. neglecting this passage, only gives the meaning as to bite or crop (grass) of cattle. It appends two quotations having this sense—the one from Dunbar’s Poems (1500-20), the second from Douglas, Aeneis (1513). Text note
Act II: Scene ii
p. 252 Mundungus. Shag, or rank tobacco. cf. Sir R. Howard, The Committee (folio, 1665), ii: ‘A Pipe of the worst Mundungus.’ Shadwell, The Humourists (1671), iii, speaks with contempt of ‘bottle ale ... and a pipe of Mundungus.’ Johnson in his Dictionary (1755) has: ‘Mundungus. Stinking tobacco. A cant word.’
Act II: Scene iv
p. 261 a Bob. cf. Prologue, The False Count (Vol. III, p. 100), ‘dry bobs,’ and note on that passage, pp. 479-80. Cross-Reference: The False Count
p. 263 barbicu. Better ‘barbecu’. An Americanism meaning to broil over live coals. Beverley, Virginia, iii, XII (1705), thus explains it: ‘Broyling ... at some distance above the live coals [the Indians] & we from them call Barbecuing.’ cf. Pope, Imitations of Horace, Sat. ii, 25, 26:—
Oldfield with more than Harpy throat endued
Cries, ‘Send me, Gods, a whole hog barbecued!’
Act III: Scene i
p. 264 De-Wit. ‘To De-Wit’ = to lynch. The word often occurs; it is derived from the deaths of John and Cornelius De Wit, opponents of William III (when stadt-holder). They were murdered by a mob in 1672. cf. ‘to godfrey’ = to strangle, from the alleged murder of Sir Edmond Bury Godfrey* in 1678. Crowne, Sir Courtly Nice (1685), ii, II, has: ‘Don’t throttle me, don’t Godfrey me.’ The N.E.D. fails to include ‘to godfrey’.
* It is now pretty certainly established that this melancholist committed suicide.
p. 265 Dalton’s Country-Justice. A well-known work by the celebrated lawyer Michael Dalton (1554-1620). It was long held in great repute and regarded as supremely authoritative. On a page of advertisements (Some Books printed this Year 1677. For John Amery, at the Peacock, against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleet-street) in the Rover I (4to 1677), occurs ‘The Country Justice, Containing the practice of the Justices of the Peace, in and out of their Sessions, with an Abridgment of all Statutes relating thereunto to this present Year 1677. By Michael Dalton Esq; Fol. price bound 12s.’ cf. The Plain Dealer (4to 1676), iii, I:
Widow Blackacre. Let’s see Dalton, Hughs, Shepherd, Wingate.
Bookseller’s Boy. We have no law books.
Return to Younger Brother notes
p. 266 a Cagg. Now corrupted to ‘Keg’, a small cask. cf. Cotgrave (1611), ‘Encacquer’ to put in to a little barrell or cag. N.E.D. quotes this present passage.
Act IV: Scene i
p. 279 Agah Yerkin. The various dictionaries and vocabularies of the Indian languages I have had resource to give none of these words. There is, however, so great a confusion of Indian jargons and dialects that they cannot be pronounced fictitious. Yet Mrs. Behn would hardly, even if she had learned the language, have retained any exact knowledge of such barbaric tongues, and one may almost certainly say that these cries and incantations are her own composition. Amongst other authorities I have consulted The Voyage of Robert Dudley ... to the West Indies, 1594-5, edited by G. F. Warner for the Hakluyt Society (1889). Dr. Brinton’s Arawack Language of Guiana, an exhaustive monograph, (Philadelphia, 1871.) M. M. Crevaux, Sagot, L. Adam, Grammaires et Vocabulaires roucouyenne, arrouague, piapoco, et d’autres Langues de la Région des Guyanes (Paris, 1882). Relation des Missions ... dans les Isles et dans la terre ferme de l’Amerique Meridionale ... avec une introduction à la langue des Gabilis Sauvages (Paris, 1655), by Father Pierre Pelleprat, S.J.
p. 279 Quiocto. Mrs. Behn probably meant to spell this word ‘Quiyoughcto’, the sound being identical. There is in Virginia a river which in the seventeenth century was called the ‘Quiyough’. The inhabitants of the banks of this river had mysterious or supernatural properties ascribed to them. In the Voyages & Discoveries of Capt. John Smith (1606), we have: ‘They thinke that their Werowanees and Priests, which they also esteeme Quiyoughcosughes, when they are dead, doe goe beyond the mountaines towards the setting of the sun.’ No doubt Mrs. Behn knew this passage. I owe the above interesting note to the kindness of my friend Mr. Gosse.
Act IV: Scene ii
p. 284 Cadees. The original form of ‘cadets’ from the French pronunciation. N.E.D. cites this passage as the earliest occurence of the word.
Act V: Scene i
p. 293 Cadeeing. The verb ‘to cadee’ is only found here and may be a nonce phrase. N.E.D. does not include it.
p. 293 to top Tobacco. i.e. to cultivate our tobacco plantations.
p. 295 Flambeaux. Mrs. Behn (or, haply, George Jenkins, the first editor of The Widow Ranter), here uses the ordinary form ‘flambeaux’ as a plural. In The Emperor of the Moon (Vol. III, p. 418), she writes ‘a Flambeaux’. In addition to the example from Herbert which I give in my note (Vol. III, p. 475), I find a plural ‘Flambeaux’s’ used by Mrs. Manley. cf. Secret Memoirs & Manners of Several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes from the New Atalantis (1709, the Second Edition), Vol. I, p. 88: ‘She but thinks of an expensive Funeral, white Flambeaux’s, Chariots, Horses, Streamers, and a Train of Mourners.’
Act V: Scene iii
p. 302 Starters. i.e. cowards. cf. The Double Marriage (Fletcher and Massinger, folio 1647), ii, I:—
Master. We’ll spare her our main-top-sail;
She shall not look us long, we are no starters.
Down with the fore-sail too! we’ll spoom before her.
cf. also The Lucky Chance, i, I: ‘I am no Starter.’ (Vol. III, p. 193), and note on that passage, p. 485. Cross-Reference: The Lucky Chance
p. 302 rubbing off. Very common slang still in use for ‘making off’, ‘clearing out’, cf. Shadwell’s The Virtuoso (1676), Act v, sc. III, the Masquerade, where Sir Samuel Harty says: ‘Who held my sword while I danc’d? ... A curse on him! he’s rubb’d off with it!’
p. 303 Dullman and Timorous. No entrance has been marked for these two characters, and I have not ventured to insert one owing to the fact that this fifth Act has been so cut (e.g. the omission of the Indian King’s ghost, as noted by Jenkins in the Dedication) and mutilated that it would be perilous to make any insertion or alteration here as the copy now stands. We may suppose these two coward justices to have rushed on in one of the many mêlées.
Act V: Scene iv
p. 304 Hannibal. Hannibal, when betrayed by Prusias, King of Bithynia, at whose court he had taken refuge, poisoned himself rather than fall into the hands of the Romans.
Epilogue
p. 309 Epilogue. This Epilogue is, it will be noted, almost precisely the same as the Prologue to Abdelazer. In line 32 we have ‘Basset’ in place of the obsolescent game, ‘Beasts’ (damn’d Beasts). Basset, which resembled Faro, was first played at Venice. cf. Evelyn’s Diary, 1645 (Ascension Week at Venice): ‘We went to the Chetto de San Felice, to see the noblemen and their ladies at basset, a game at cards which is much used.’ It became immensely popular in England. Evelyn, in his famous description of ‘the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all dissoluteness’ on the Sunday se’nnight before the death of Charles II, specially noted that ‘about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a large table, a bank of at least 2000 in gold before them.’ Text note
Cross-References
Note to p. 261: a Bob.
False Count text:
—who will desert me,
Because they find no dry bobs on your Party
False Count note:
dry bobs. A bob was a sarcastic jest or jibe. cf. Sir Giles Goosecappe (1606), Act v, I. ‘Marry him, sweet Lady, to answere his bitter Bob,’ and Buckingham‘s The Rehearsal (1671), Act iii, I, where Bayes cries: ’There‘s a bob for the Court.’ A dry bob (literally = a blow or fillip that does not break the skin) is an intensely bitter taunt, cf. Cotgrave (1611), Ruade seiche, a drie bob, jeast or nip. Bailey (1731) has ‘Dry Bob. a Taunt or Scoff’.
Note to p. 302: Starters.
Lucky Chance note:
Starter. This slang word usually means a milksop, but here it is equivalent to ‘a butterfly’, ‘a weathercock’—a man of changeable disposition. A rare use.
THE YOUNGER BROTHER;
OR, THE AMOROUS JILT.
Scene I. A Chamber.
Scene II. A Chamber.
Scene I. Sir Rowland’s Lodging.
Scene II. A Chamber.
Scene III. Another Chamber.
Scene I. A rich Chamber.
Scene II. A Chamber, and Alcove.
Scene III. A Garden by Night.
Scene I. The Prince’s Lodgings.
Scene II. Mirtilla at her Toylet.
Scene III. Lady Youthly’s.
Scene I. Welborn’s Chamber.
Scene II. The Dressing-Room.
Scene III. A Chamber.
Scene IV. My Lady Youthly’s.
ARGUMENT.
Mirtilla, the Amorous Jilt, who had once been attached to George Marteen, the Younger Brother, married for a convenience the clownish Sir Morgan Blunder. Prince Frederick, who had seen and fallen in love with her during a religious ceremony in a Ghent convent, follows her to England. They meet accidentally and she promises him a private interview. George Marteen had recommended a page to Mirtilla, and the lad is his sister Olivia in disguise. Mirtilla, although she falls in love with her ‘smooth-chin’d boy’, receives Prince Frederick, but the house wherein she lodges catches fire that night, and it is George Marteen who, in spite of the fact that he knows his friend the Prince is with her, procures a ladder and rescues the lady at some danger to himself. The Prince is able to escape by the same way, and he then carries Mirtilla to his own lodgings, where feigning to be ill with fatigue and terror she begs her lover to leave her to repose. This is done with the idea of entertaining her page, and on Frederick’s approach she conceals Olivia, who thus creeps off unseen, beneath the train of her gown, whilst she herself retires with the amorous Prince. None the less, Mirtilla still pursues Olivia, and eventually Frederick discovers she is a wanton jilt, as he surprises her leading the page to her bed. He is, however, reconciled when Mirtilla discovering to her amaze that the lad is a woman reveals this fact to the Prince to confound him, but afterwards avowing her frailty, throws herself on Frederick’s generosity. Olivia has been promised by her old father, Sir Rowland Marteen, to Welborn, whom she has never seen. On meeting Welborn she falls in love with him, without knowing who he is, and he, also, whilst ignorant of her name, is soon enamoured of her in turn. Prince Frederick lodges in the same house as Welborn and it is hither that after the fire she attends Mirtilla. Welborn, supposing her to be Mirtilla’s page, out of kindness offers her half his bed, which for fear of arousing suspicion she is bound to accept. She slips away, however, before daybreak, leaving a letter for her companion, by which he learns that the page is none other than the lady whom he had seen in the Mall. Welborn and Olivia are eventually married. George Marteen’s elder brother, Sir Merlin, a boon companion of Sir Morgan Blunder, is a rakehelly dog, who leads a wild town life to the great anger of old Sir Rowland. George, who whilst secretly leading a gay life under the name of Lejere, appears before his father as a demure and sober young prentice, is designed for Lady Youthly, an ancient, toothless crone, palsied and blind with extreme old age, whose grand-daughter, Teresia, is to be married to Sir Rowland himself. George, however, falls in love with Teresia, who is also pursued by Sir Merlin, and finally weds her in despite of his father, brother and the beldame. But Sir Rowland shortly relents and even forgives his eldest son, who has married Diana, the cast off mistress of a gambler, whilst Lady Youthly is left to the tender consolations of her chaplain.
SOURCE.
The Younger Brother; or, The Amorous Jilt was written (in great part at least) by Mrs. Behn a good many years before her death, after which it was brought on the stage under the auspices of Gildon, in 1696; and in the Epistle Dedicatory he expressly says ‘all the Alterations which I made were in the first Act, in removing that old bustle about Whigg and Tory (which was the subject of most of the Second Scene) and placing the Character of a Rake-hell in its room.’ Mrs. Behn probably wrote the first Act sometime about the years 1681-3, when there was a continual ‘rout with Whigging and with Torying’, and afterwards completed the remainder at her leisure. In his notice of this comedy Langbaine’s editor (Gildon), who finds Mirtilla ‘genteel’, says that Astrea took a portion of the plot ‘from a true story of the brother of Col. Henry Martin, and a Lady that must be nameless. See the Novel call’d Hatige.’ Hattige: or, the Amours of the King of Tamaran. A Novel, by Gabriel de Brémond, was translated in 1680. (12mo. For Simon the African: Amsterdam, [R. Bentley? London.]) A biting satire on Charles II and Lady Castlemaine, the tale is told with considerable spirit and attained great vogue. Another edition was issued in 1683, and under the title The Beautiful Turk it is to be found in A Select Collection of Novels (1720 and 1729), Vol. III. This novel had first appeared anonymously at Cologne in 1676—Hattigé ou la Belle Turque, qui contient ses amours avec le roi Tamaran—and Nodier in his Mélanges d’une petite Bibliothèque describes a ‘clef’. Hattigé is, of course, Lady Castlemaine; Tamaran, Charles II; and the handsome Rajeb with whom the lady deceives the monarch, Jack Churchill. It is a wanton little book, and at the time must have been irresistibly piquant. Beyond the likeness between the characters of Mirtilla and Hattigé the novel has, however, little in common with Mrs. Behn’s play. Gildon’s comment is, of course, founded upon the passage in Oroonoko which says: ‘We met on the river with Colonel Martin, a man of great gallantry, wit and goodness, and whom I have celebrated in a character of my new comedy by his own name in memory of so brave a man.’
In D’Urfey’s The Royalist, an excellent comedy produced at Dorset Garden, 1682 (4to, 1682), the author introduces a certain damsel Philippa, who, disguised as a page, follows the loyal Sir Charles Kinglove with whom she is enamoured. At the end of the second Act her boy’s clothes involve her in the same predicament as befalls Olivia in Act iv of The Younger Brother. Although Genest prefers Mrs. Behn’s treatment of the situation, it must, I think, be allowed that D’Urfey has managed the jest with far greater verve and spirit. Honest Tom D’Urfey is in fact one of the least read and most maligned of all our dramatists. He had the merriest comic gifts, and perhaps when the critics and literary historians deign to read his plays he will attain a higher position in our theatrical libraries.
Some critics have suggested that D’Urfey, in his The Intrigues at Versailles, produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 1697, may have taken a hint from Mrs. Behn’s Mirtilla, and Wycherley’s Olivia (The Plain Dealer) for his ‘Madame de Vandosme a right jilt in all humours’, a rôle created by Mrs. Barry. There is indeed some resemblance between all these three characters, base heartless coquettes; and D’Urfey, in making his jilt prefer Sir Blunder Bosse, ‘a dull sordid brute and mongrel, whose humour is to call everybody by clownish names’, to all her other gallants, seems not to have forgotten Mirtilla’s marriage with Sir Morgan Blunder. The very names call attention to the plagiarism. The Intrigues at Versailles is none the less a clever and witty comedy, but a little overcrowded with incident and business.
THEATRICAL HISTORY.
As sufficiently explained by Gildon, under whose auspices this posthumous play was produced at Drury Lane in 1696, The Younger Brother; or, The Amorous Jilt met with brutal treatment from the audience. There appears to have been a faction, particularly in evidence at its first performance and on the third day, who were steadfastly resolved to damn the comedy, and in spite of fine acting and every advantage it was hissed from the boards. Gildon attributes the failure to ‘the tedious Scenes in Blank Verse betwixt Mirtilla and Prince Frederick’ which he thinks demanded ‘another more easy Dress,’ but, in truth, it can only be attributed to the most verjuiced spite and personal malice. The plot, though somewhat complicated with perhaps a press of crowding incidents, is none the less highly interesting, and the characters are most of them excellently, all well, drawn and sustained. The fact that certain episodes had to be cut in representation in order to bring the comedy within a reasonable time limit, though it may have tended to obscure the connection of the intrigue, could not have insured in spite of its many real merits so absolute a doom for the much maltreated play, a sentence which seems to have wantonly precluded any revival.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY
TO
Collonel Codrington.
The unjust Sentence this Play met with before very partial Judges in the Acting, will, I’m pretty sure, be revers’d by the more unprejudiced Readers, and it’s evident, Merit will exert itself so far, as to justify my Presumption in Dedicating it, notwithstanding its small success, to you, Sir, for whom I must always profess the highest Esteem and Value, sprung from that Nobleness of your Nature that takes a God-like Delight in redressing the Misfortunes of ’em, more than fly to you for their unhappiness; a generous Soul indeed, never gives a greater Proof of her Excellence, than in her Protection of the Unfortunate; for tho suffering Merit challenges a Regard from all, yet it meets with it from none but such as you, Sir, who are so Eminent for that Vertue, which more than all the rest, commands the Esteem and Veneration of the Thinking World, your Generosity I mean, Sir, which gives the most Perfect Touches of that likeness, man can have to his Almighty Original; for those are but scurvey awkard Copies of Him that want it. ’Tis, I may say, the very Essence of God, Who with our Beings, dispenses the grateful Knowledge of Himself in the Benefits He bestows.
The narrow Virtues of the Old Philosophers, [which] were rather Vices, if winnow’d well, form’d to gratify their Proud, Lazy, Superiority, at the Expence of all the Publick Duties incumbent on mankind, whom they pretend to Purge from his Passions, to make him happy, by that means to amuse our Curiosity with Chymera’s, whilst we lost our real Good, will still naturally flow from those Springs of Pleasure, Honour, Glory, and Noble Actions, the Passions given us by Heaven for our common Good. But their own Practice generally shew’d the Vanity of their Emperic Boasts, when they Buried all the Nobler Pleasures of the Mind in Avarice, and Pedantick Pride, as Lucian has pleasantly made out in Hermotimus.
Those Notional Excellencies that divert us from, or weaken a Publick Spirit, are always False and Hypocritical, that under a gaudy out-side conceals a rotten Carcass, full of Infectious Distempers that destroy the noblest end of our Being, The doing good to one another. Vanity has always been the Refuge of little Souls, that place their Value in a False Greatness, Hyppocrisie, and great Titles. What a seeming Holiness does for the Avaritious, Designing Saint; Titles do for the proud Avarice of the meer Man of Quality, cheaply Purchasing a Respect from the many; but ’tis the Generous man only that fixes himself in the Hearts of the most valuable part of mankind, when proper Merit only is esteem’d, and the Man, not his Equipage, and Accidental Appurtenances respected.
The Application of this, I shall leave to all that know you, Sir, who are all sensible what Virtues you make your Darlings, and choice of Virtue shews the Nobleness of our Temper, as much as Choice of Friends, the degrees of our Understandings; and if that be true that most Men choose those Virtues which are nearest a-kin to their Darling Vices, I’m sure ’twill be a strong proof, that ev’n your Failings (for ev’ry Man has his share of them too) are more Beneficial to the world than the Vertues of a numerous part of Mankind. In Collonel Codrington indeed, we find the true Spirit and Bravery of old Rome, that despises all dangers, that in the Race of Glory thou art the Noble Chace. Nor can the manly Roughness of your Martial Temper (Fierce to none but your Countries Foes) destroy that ingaging sweetness your agreeable Conversation abounds with, which heightened with so large a share of Wit, Learning, and Judgment, improves as well as delights; so that to have known you any way, must give us some advantage or other. This it was that encourag’d me to dedicate this Play, Sir, to you, of which I may venture to say more, and with more assurance, than if it had been my own.
Mrs. BEHN was a Woman so Accomplish’d, and of so Established a Fame among the Men of Sense, that I cou’d not suppose a very severe treatment from the Town, which has been very indulgent to the Performances of others; especially when, besides the Reputation of the Author, the Play itself had an Intrinsic Merit; for we find it full of Humour, Wit, and Variety; the Conversation Gay and Genteel, the Love Soft and Pathetic, the incidents Natural, and Easy, and the Conduct of the Plot very Justifiable. So that I may reasonably impute its miscarriage to some Faction that was made against it, which indeed was very Evident on the First day, and more on the endeavours employed, to render the Profits of the Third, as small as could be.
It suffer’d not, I’m sure, in the Action, nor in Mr. Verbruggen’s reading of some of his Part, since he lost nothing of the Force of Elocution, nor Gracefulness of Action; nor indeed can I, with Justice to my self, impute it to any part that I ventur’d to add to the Original; for all the Alterations which I made were in the first Act, in removing that old bustle about Whigg and Tory, (which was the Subject of most of the Second Scene) and placing the Character of a Rake-hell in its room, which was so little, that it could not Influence a more Capricious Audience, to the Damning of the whole. There might indeed be some objections about the Plot, but not very Rational, I think; I’m sure, at least, ’tis the first Play, for some Years, could be quarrell’d at for having too much Plot. In the Edition however I have put in a great deal, which the length of the Play oblig’d me to cut out for the Action.
Here, Sir, if the Play had been my own, I should have complain’d that the Town had its favourite Fools, as well as favourite Wits, and that Comedy or Farce from any other hand wou’d no more go down with them, than their favourites will with true Judges that read, not see ’em. I should have had indignation enough, perhaps, to’ve rail’d at the Criticks of all Degrees, and Denominations of Box and Pit, nay, Galleries too, and told ’em that they were so conceited of their own Wit, that they cou’d take no pleasure in hearing that of another, or that Wit in a Play seeming to affront the Parts of the Audience, they suffer’d their Resentment to destroy their Satisfaction. This, and a great many other Satyrical Reflections, which are natural for a Disappointed Poet to make, I shou’d then have vented; but being satisfy’d, that the Reputation of Mrs. BEHN is not affected by the malicious Endeavours of some of my Enemies, I now present it under your Patronage, Sir, to the more competent Judges; Proud of the Opportunity of Offering you an occasion of so agreeable a Province, as the Protection of the unfortunate, and letting the World know how much I am, Sir,
Your Humble Servant,
CH. GILDON.