VENICE PRESERVED

P. 81. Venice Preserved has yet another prologue, written by Dryden, and another epilogue by Otway, both spoken upon his Royal Highness the Duke of York's coming to the Theatre, Friday, April 21, 1682." These are printed in the Appendix to the "Temple" and to the "Belles Lettres " editions of the play.

witnesses. Titus Oates and other informers against the accused in the "Popish Plot."

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P. 82. Here is a traitor too that's very old. Though the application has been overlooked by all editors, this is an obvious reference to William Howard, Viscount Stafford, who, accused of participation in the Popish Plot," was tried by his peers in December, 1680, found guilty and executed. The sentence to be hanged and quartered" was remitted by the King in spite of much vindictive opposition to this clemency.

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Mother Creswold's. Mother Creswell, a white-slaver of the time-like the Chaffinches in Peveril of the Peak."

Oh Poland, Poland, etc. An obvious reference to the designs of the Earl of Shaftesbury upon the crown of Poland.

P. 83. practised. Plotted. Priuli's speech recalls Brabantio's words to Othello (I, ii, 62), “O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?

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The Adriatic wedded, etc. Otway had found in his source this reference to the Venetian ceremony of Ascension Day :-"Jaffier had the curiosity to witness the ceremony of the Doge espousing the sea." 'We wed thee, O Sea, as token of a true and lasting dominion" was the formula, accompanied by the casting of a gold ring into the depths. See below. still. Constantly, always, as in Shakspere.

P. 84. weeds. Garments, dress, as in "widow's weeds.".

P. 85. that filthy cuckoo. The cuckoo's habit of depositing its eggs in the nest of some other bird, which is ultimately destroyed by its nestling, has been the theme of writers from Aristotle to Chaucer and Shakspere. See The Way of the World, Prologue, 8-9.

Hirco. From Latin, hircus, a goat.

privilege. Doubtless the special right or immunity of Antonio as a senator (i.e., of Anthony Ashley Cooper as a peer).

public good. Commonwealth. See three lines below, common good. massy. Massive.

P. 87. suage. Assuage, soothe.

P. 88. out-act. Excel, outdo. hearse. Coffin, bier.

The Ephesian matron. This story of the widow who mutilates her dead husband for the love of a knight is "perhaps the most popular of all stories (Joseph Jacobs). Upon its earliest version, that of Petronius, Chapman founded his Widow's Tears. It was well known to the Middle Ages in a variant appearing in The Seven Sages of Rome.

green-sickness girls. Young girls morbid with love.

P. 90. dull. Slow in action.

sea-coal. Usually explained as "coal brought to London by sea."

"Pos

sibly in early times, the chief source of coal supply may have been the beds exposed by marine denudation on the coasts of Northumberland and South Wales (N. E. D.).

P. 93. rump. Romp, frolic.

P. 94. sixty-one years. Antonio's age, as well as his name, is made to conform to that of the Earl of Shaftesbury.

P. 95. censurest. Judgest.

P. 96. Cato's daughter. The story of "Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia (Merchant of Venice, I, i, 166), was as popular among the Elizabethans (cf. Julius Cæsar) as that of Lucrece and Tarquin (cited earlier in this scene). bone. Boon, boon companion.

P. 98. foil. Track of a hunted animal.

caudles. Warm drinks sweetened and spiced.

watering at. Longing for, lusting after.

towzed. Tousle, pull about, handle roughly.

monster. Beast with horns, cuckold.

mortifying. Practising self-denial, ascetic. A common Shaksperean use of the word.

P. 99. battalia. Body of men in battle array.

P. 108. gall. Early quartos read, call.

P. 110. Hey then, up go we. The refrain of many songs of the period. P. 114. baited. Worried, tormented.

P. 115. smuggle. Snuggle, fondle.

P. 116. Rose Alley cudgel-ambuscade. A reference to the cowardly attack upon Dryden, at the end of 1679, by the hired ruffians of the Earl of Rochester, who was also Otway's enemy.

picture-mangler at Guild-hall. The rascal that cut the Duke of York's

picture.

THE WAY OF THE WORLD

P. 122. Audire est... It is worth your while, ye that do not wish well to adulterers, to hear how they are hampered on all sides.

metuat... The woman fears for her dowry, if she should be caught. In her own nest... The cuckoo lays her eggs in the nest of another bird, which hatches them out. Cf. Venice Preserved, I, i, p. 85.

buttered still... Always flattered lavishly.

P. 124. vapors. Depression, hypochondria.

one man of the community. Made up of Witwoud and Petulant.

ratafia. A cordial or liqueur flavored with certain fruits or their kernels, usually almonds or peach-, apricot-, and cherry-kernels. (N. E. D.) continued in the state of nature. Proceeded naturally.

the last canonical hour. The canonical hours were certain times of the day appointed by the canons for prayer and devotion. (N. E. D.)

tedious. Slow.

Pancras. The Church of St. Pancras in the Fields.

Duke's-place. St. James's Church, Duke's Place, Aldgate, where Fleet marriages were performed.

P. 125. Dame Partlet. The proper name of a hen, so used in Chaucer's Nonne Preestes Tale.

Rosamond's Pond. Situated in the southwest corner of St. James's Park and famous as a lovers' meeting-place.

the monster in The Tempest. Caliban.

P. 126. commonplace of comparisons. A commonplace book or collection of comparisons for use in conversation.

P. 127. cinnamon-water. A drink composed of sugar, water, and spirit flavored with cinnamon. (Archer.)

Roxolanas. Roxolana is the queen of Solyman the Magnificent in D'Avenant's Siege of Rhodes.

P. 128. pearl of orient. A pearl from the Indian seas of greater beauty than that found in European waters.

a quaker hates a parrot. Because the parrot is so talkative. (Archer.) a fishmonger hates a hard frost. Because the cold makes his work very unpleasant.

the Mall. Once part of St. James's Park, now Pall Mall.

P. 129. Penthesilea. Queen of the Amazons.

P. 131. you have a mask. Masks were as generally worn at this time as veils are to-day.

Mosca in The Fox.

Mosca in Jonson's Volpone made what terms he pleased with his dupes by declaring each of them to be the sole heir of Volpone, who was falsely represented as on the point of death.

P. 132. with her fan spread. A play on fan, meaning wing, sail.

tift and tift. To tiff is to dress, deck out, trick out (one's person, hair, etc.).

crips. Crisp, curly.

P. 134. Mopus. A dull, stupid person.

Spanish paper. A cosmetic.

bit of nutmeg in your pocket. Cf. Swift, Polite Conversation, 97: “If you carry a nutmeg in your pocket, you'll certainly be marry'd to an old man." (Quoted in N. E. D.)

P. 135. Maritornes. A chambermaid with whom Don Quixote is in love. Quarles and Prynne. Francis Quarles (1592-1644), a sacred poet, whose most famous work is Divine Emblems. William Prynne (1600-1669), Puritan lawyer, whose Histriomastix, a huge work of eleven hundred pages, was a violent attack upon the stage.

a

The Short View of the Stage. Jeremy Collier (1650-1726) in 1698 severely arraigned the stage in his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage.

Robin from Locket's. A drawer or waiter from Locket's Ordinary, a wellknown tavern.

Long-lane. From West Smithfield to Barbican; it was given over to the sale of second-hand clothes.

P. 136. the million lottery. A lottery with a million pounds in prizes.

the whole court upon a birthday. Because of the presents given a royal personage upon his birthday.

Ludgate. A prison for debtors of the better class. It was in the precinct of Blackfriars.

has a month's mind. Has an inclination or liking, in this case to Mirabell. passe-partout. A master-key.

P. 137. the day of projection. Projection in alchemy was the casting of the powder of philosopher's stone upon a metal in fusion to effect its transmutation into gold or silver. (N. E. D.)

drap de Berri. A kind of woollen cloth coming from Berry in France. (N. E. D.)

Rhenish wine tea. Taken to reduce flesh. (Archer.)

burnishes. Increases in breadth.

P. 138. the ordinary's paid for setting the psalm. The ordinary was the

chaplain of Newgate prison, whose duty it was to prepare condemned prisoners for death. (N. E. D.) See The Beggar's Opera, p. 279.

P. 139. Bartlemew and his fair. In August every year from 1133 to 1855 a fair was held at West Smithfield at which all kinds of wares were sold and shows exhibited. See Ben Jonson's account of this in his Bartholomew Fair.

smoke. Make fun of.

by the Wrekin. A solitary hill near Shrewsbury. Cf. Farquhar's address "To all friends round the Wrekin" prefixed to his Recruiting Officer.

flap-dragon. From signifying a play in which a raisin burning in brandy is caught in the mouth and then eaten, the word comes to mean a raisin thus caught and eaten, till at last it denotes anything worthless, as here. a hare's scut. A hare's short, erect tail, hence anything worthless. P. 140. Salop. Shropshire, of which the county seat is Shrewsbury.

a call of sergeants. When a sergeant-at-law or lawyer was called to the bar.

out of your time. While you were still indentured to an attorney. (Archer.)

Furnival's Inn. In Holborn, one of the inns of Chancery, attached to Lincoln's Inn.

Dawks's Letter. The news-letter founded by Ichabod Dawks in 1696. Weekly Bill. The Weekly Bills of Mortality for London, issued from 1538 until 1837, are mentioned by Farquhar, The Beaux' Stratagem, II, i (this edition, p. 167).

to choose. By choice, in preference.

P. 141. deputy-lieutenant's hall. Because decorated with antlers.

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cap of maintenance. A kind of cap, with two points like horns behind, borne in the arms of certain families. . . is described by heralds as a cap of maintenance." (N. E. D.) The word maintenance" is to be taken in its usual meaning, since Mrs. Marwood says that his horns (the sign of the cuckold) may maintain him if he can endure ("away with ") his wife. set his hand in. Enter him in the game.

P. 142. pulvilled. Perfumed with powder.

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"There never yet..." From Poems on Several Occasions," p. 20, ed. 1719, of Suckling's Works. Sir John Suckling (1609-1642) was a lyric and dramatic poet.

Thyrsis, a youth..." From Waller's The Story of Phabus and Daphne Applied. Edmund Waller (1606-1687) was a lyric poet.

I prithee spare me.. These and the following verses are also from Suckling's "Poems on Several Occasions," p. 24.

P. 143. all a case. All one.

وو

Like Phabus sung..." From Waller's poem mentioned above. instant. Urgent.

douceurs, ye sommeils du matin. Sweetnesses, ye morning naps. (Archer.) P. 144. Barbadoes waters. A cordial flavored with orange- and lemon-peel. (N. E. D.)

clary. A sweet liquor consisting of a mixture of wine, clarified honey, and various spices, as pepper and ginger. (N. E. D.)

P. 145. unsized camlet. A kind of stuff originally made of silk and camel's hair. (Johnson.) Hence very soft and delicate stuff. Unsized" means without size or stiffening.

noli prosequi. Notice of unwillingness to prosecute. Lacedemonian. One who speaks with laconic brevity.

Baldwin. The name of the ass in the medieval story of Reynard the Fox.

Gemini. The twin stars, Castor and Pollux; hence loosely used for a pair. Borachio. The Spanish word borachio means a leather wine bottle; hence it is applied to a drunkard. Cf. Borachio in Shakspere's Much Ado. P. 146. a good pimple. A boon companion.

Salopian. An inhabitant of Salop or Shropshire.

thou shalt be my Tantony... The hog is one of the symbols of St. Anthony. "The monks of the Order of St. Anthony kept herds of consecrated pigs, which were allowed to feed at the public charge, and which it was a profanation to steal or kill; hence the proverb about the fatness of a Tantony pig.' (Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, ii, 733.)

P. 147. save-all. A pan with spike for burning up candle-ends.

P. 148. bulk. A framework projecting from the front of a shop; a stall. (N. E.D.)

Frisoneer gorget. A kerchief made of woollen stuff and worn by women over their bosoms.

colbertine. A kind of open lace with a square ground.

put upon his clergy. Forced to plead benefit of clergy, thereby escaping punishment at the hands of the law.

Abigails and Andrews. Ladies' maids and gentlemen's valets.
Philander. Lover.

P. 149. Duke's-place. See above, I, i.

Bridewell-bride. Bridewell was a house of correction for prisoners. Cf. Tom Thumb, p. 303.

P. 150. O yes. The Old French Oyez, hear ye. A call by a court officer to command silence; hence here as an introduction to a scandalous case to be tried at court.

quoif. A white cap formerly worn by lawyers as a distinctive mark of their profession. (N. E. D.)

cantharides. Used internally as a stimulant to the genito-urinary organs. (N. E. D.)

cow-itch. Cowage, the hairs of the pod of a tropical plant, which cause intolerable itching.

P. 151. Czarish Majesty's retinue. Peter the First paid a visit to England in 1697, three years before the production of this play.

P. 152. Pylades and Orestes. Orestes, who was offered life by the priestess Iphigeneia provided he carry a message to Greece, persuades Pylades to take his place while he undergoes death. The discovery that Iphigeneia is his sister saves his life.

quorum. Certain justices of the peace, usually of eminent learning and ability, whose presence was necessary to constitute a bench. (N. E. D.) an old fox. A sword.

mittimus. A command in writing to a jailer to keep the person in custody in close confinement; here the vellum upon which such an order might be written. (Archer.)

P. 153. Messalina's poems. Messalina was the shameless wife of Tiberius Claudius (10 B.C.-54 A.D.), emperor of Rome.

THE BEAUX' STRATAGEM

P. 161. the Plain-Dealer. A reference to Wycherley, under the name of his last and perhaps greatest comedy, which appeared in the year of Farquhar's birth (1677).

P. 162. Union. The Treaty of Union between England and Scotland