Row. If my efforts to serve you had not succeeded, you would have been in my debt Sir Oliv. Well, sir, and what have you to for the attempt;-but deserve to be happysay now? and you over-repay me. Surf. Sir, I am so confounded, to find that Lady Sneerwell could be guilty of suborning Mr. Snake in this manner to impose on us all that I know not what to say. However, lest her revengeful spirit should prompt her to injure my brother, I had certainly better follow her directly. [Exit. Sir Pet. Sir Oliv. Aye, and marry her, Joseph, if you can.-Oil and vinegar egad:-you'll do very well together. Moral to the last drop! Row. I believe we have no more occasion for Mr. Snake at present. Snake. Before I go, I beg pardon once for all for whatever uneasiness I have been the humble instrument of causing to the parties present. Sir Pet. Well, well, you have made atonement by a good deed at last. Snake. But I must request of the company that it shall never be known. Sir Pet. Hey!-what the plague-are you ashamed of having done a right thing once in your life? Snake. Ah, sir, consider I live by the badness of my character!-I have nothing but my infamy to depend on!—and, if it were once known that I had been betrayed into an honest action, I should lose every friend I have in the world. Sir Oliv. Well, well, we'll not traduce you by saying anything to your praise, never fear. [Exit SNAKE. Sir Pet. There's a precious rogue.-Yet that fellow is a writer and a critic. Lady Teaz. See, Sir Oliver, there needs no persuasion now to reconcile your nephew and Maria. Sir Oliv. Aye, aye, that's as it should be, and egad, we'll have the wedding to-morrow morning Chas. Thank you, dear uncle! Sir Pet. Aye, honest Rowley always said you would reform. Chas. Why, as to reforming, Sir Peter, I'll make no promises-and that I take to be a proof that I intend to set about it.— But here shall be my monitor, my gentle guide.-Ah! can I leave the virtuous path those eyes illumine? Tho' thou, dear maid, should'st waive thy -Thou still must rule-because I will obey: EPILOGUE BY MR. COLMAN SPOKEN BY LADY TEAZLE. I, who was late so volatile and gay, Bend all my cares, my studies, and my Vows, To one dull rusty weathercock-my spouse! Of crying epilogues and laughing plays! London will prove the very source of honor. Sir Pet. What! you rogue, don't you ask That the gay dream of dissipation's o'er. the girl's consent first? Chas. Oh, I have done that a long timeabove a minute ago-and she has looked yes And say, ye fair! was ever lively wife, Born with a genius for the highest life, Like me untimely blasted in her bloom, Like me condemned to such a dismal doom? Mar. For shame, Charles! I protest, Sir Save money-when I just knew how to waste Peter, there has not been a word Sir Oliv. Well, then, the fewer the better -may your love for each other never know abatement. Sir Pet. And may you live as happily together as Lady Teazle and I-intend to do. Chas. Rowley, my old friend, I am sure you congratulate me and I suspect too that I owe you much. Sir Oliv. You do, indeed, Charles. it! Leave London-just as I began to taste it! With humble curate can I now retire, And at backgammon mortify my soul, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious town! Farewell! your revels I partake no more, I ought to play deep tragedy next year. Meanwhile he drew wise morals from his play, And in these solemn periods stalk'd away:"Blessed were the fair like you; her faults who stopped, And closed her follies when the curtain dropped! No more in vice or error to engage, Or play the fool at large on life's great stage." NOTES THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA P. 10. Mrs. Ellen Gwyn. Nell Gwyn, who so captivated Charles II by her delivery of the Epilogue to Tyrannic Love that he immediately made her his mistress. She bore him a son on May 8, 1670, shortly before she acted the part of the virtuous Almahide in The Conquest of Granada. It'other house's. The two theatrical companies were the King's at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, where The Conquest of Granada was acted, and the Duke's at the Dorset Garden Theatre. Nokes was a comedian in the latter company, and it is said that during the visit of the Duchess of Orleans and her suite to England in May, 1670, he caricatured French dress by means of a broad-brimmed hat. two the best comedians. Nokes and Nell Gwyn, who, as actors of such comic parts, are mere "blocks" for hats. P. 11. To like. As to like. The flying skirmish of the darted cane. A game in which horsemen galloping from all sides throw at one another a wooden javelin about five feet long, called the jerid. P. 12. launched. Pierced. attend. Await, as often. mirador. A turret or belvedere on the top of a Spanish house. escapade. A fit of plunging and rearing. ventanna. A window. prevents. Anticipate, as often. atabals. Kettle-drums. P. 13. ought. Owed. villain-blood. Low origin. P. 14. Xeriff. The still reigning royal family of Morocco. P. 16. zambra. A Moorish festival or feast, attended with dancing and music. Here it is the dance alone. lost the tale, and took 'em by the great. Lost count and treated them as a whole. bands. Bonds. P. 17. our triumphs. Triumphs over us. P. 19. while. Noyes suggests "till" as an emendation to meet the sense. P. 21. upon liking. On approval or trial. P. 24. "The quotation marks in the quartos and folio before these lines [near the top of first column] are evidently meant to emphasize them, or to point them out as suitable for quotation." (Noyes.) P. 26. Age sets to fortune. Age gives a challenge to fortune, that is, will play only when it has a fortune on which it can risk the game, while youth will risk all, no matter what it has. expect. Await. P. 31. out. Without, outside. Cf. Timon of Athens, IV, i, 38, within and out that wall." equal. Impartial. P. 32. benefit. Gift, favor. P. 33. retrenchment. An inner line of defence within a large fortification. P. 35. deludes. Eludes. P. 36. still. Always, as often. hardly. With difficulty. your sight. The sight of you. on another's hand. For another's advantage. still. Continually. (Saintsbury.) P. 38. this year's delay. Elapsed since the production of Tyrannic Love, Dryden's last play. Nell Gwyn was one of the women who were away for the reason indicated in the note to the Prologue. ALL FOR LOVE P. 43. bate. Abate. Tonies. Fools, simpletons. 66 Hectors. Ruffians, later called Scowerers" and "Mohocks." (See New English Dictionary.) P. 44. rivelled. Wrinkled, shrivelled. phoca. Seals. sea-horses. Hippopotami. P. 45. can. "The absolute use of can is probably an affectation of archaism on Dryden's part." (Noyes.) O, she dotes, etc. A reminiscence of Midsummer Night's Dream, I, i, 108-110. P. 46. eagerly. Keenly, impatiently. influence. Flowing from stars of ethereal fluid, affecting character and destiny of man." (N. E. D.) Frequent in Shakspere. vulgar fate. "If this be the phonetic spelling of fête, it is a far earlier example than any given in the New English Dictionary." (Furness, Antony and Cleopatra.) Enter a second Gentleman of M. Antony." Noyes' reading for “Reenter the Gentleman of M. Antony." It is justified "by the following speech headings and by the fact that the Gentleman mentioned [a hundred lines above] has never left the stage." This passage is suggested by As You P. 47. I'm now turned wild, etc. 66 Art thou Ventidius? The distinction between thou" and "you" seems to be preserved here as in Shakspere. See elsewhere in the play. P. 48. marches. Boundaries, frontiers. used. Accustomed. P. 49. O that thou wert my equal! Antony's standard of honor, like that prevailing in the "heroic" plays, is made to accord with the sentiment of Dryden's own time. P. 50. May taste fate to them. "May act as their tasters in fortune." A reference to the officer who guarded the great from poison by tasting all dishes at a feast. The riming close of the act recalls the tags of scenes in Shakspere's plays. P. 51. fearful. "Timid," as often in Shakspere. close. Secret. The fable of the wren, who mounted to heaven concealed in the eagle's feathers and thus outstripped the king of birds in his flight, had already been used by Dryden in 2 Conquest of Granada, V, ii, 126. The story is |