The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume III

by Aphra Behn

THE LUCKY CHANCE.

p. 183 Laurence, Lord Hyde. This celebrated statesman (1641-1711) was second son of Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon. The Dedication must have been written in 1686 when, wavering between the Catholic Faith and Protestantism, he was still high in favour with the King. 4 January, 1687, he was dismissed from court owing to his persistent refusals to be received into the Church.

p. 183 The Abbot of Aubignac. François Hédelin, Abbé D’Aubignac, a famous critic and champion of the theatre, was born at Paris, 4 August, 1604. Amongst his best known works are: Térence justifié (4to, 1646, Paris), an attack on Ménage; La Practique du théâtre (4to, 1669, Paris); and Dissertations concernant le poëme dramatique en forme de remarques sur les deux tragédies de M. Corneille, intitulées Sophonisbe et Sertorious (12mo, 1663, Paris). He died at Nemours, 27 July, 1676.

p. 185 Dr. Davenant. Charles Davenant, LL.D, (1656-1714), eldest son of Sir William Davenant. He sat for St. Ives, Cornwall, in the first parliament of James II, and was appointed, along with the Master of the Revels, to license plays.

p. 185 Sir Roger L’Estrange. The celebrated Tory journalist, pamphleteer and censor was born in 1616. He had ever been a warm defender of James II, and upon this monarch’s accession was liberally rewarded. 21 May, 1685, a warrant was issued directing him to enforce most strictly the regulations concerning treasonable and seditious and scandalous publications. After the Revolution he suffered imprisonment. He died 11 December, 1704.

p. 185 Mr. Killigrew. Charles Killigrew (1655-1725), Master of the Revels, was son of Thomas Killigrew by his second wife Charlotte de Hesse. He had been appointed Master of the Revels in 1680, patentee of Drury Lane Theatre in 1682. He was buried in the Savoy, 8 January, 1724-5.

p. 186 Mr. Leigh. Antony Leigh, the famous comedian, who created Sir Feeble Fainwood. The scene referred to is Act iii, sc. II, where it must be confessed that, in spite of her protestation, Mrs. Behn gives the stage direction—Sir Feeble ‘throws open his Gown, they run all away, he locks the Door.’

p. 186 Oedipus. Dryden and Lee’s excellent tragedy was produced at Dorset Garden in 1679. Betterton created Oedipus and his wife Jocasta. It was extraordinarily popular, as, indeed, were all the plays Mrs. Behn marshalls forth in this preface. The scene particularly referred to is Act ii, I: ‘Oedipus enters, walking asleep in his Shirt, with a Dagger in his Right-Hand and a Taper in his Left.’ A little after ‘Enter Jocasta, attended with Lights, in a Night-Gown.’

p. 186 City Politicks. This comedy by Crowne is a mordant satire upon the Whigs. It was produced with great success at the Theatre Royal and printed quarto 1683. A certain Florio feigns to be dying in order to prevent the Podesta suspecting an intrigue between his wife, Rosaura, ’.he Lady Mayoress’, and so impotent an invalid. Artall is in love with Lucinda, who is married to a toothless old lawyer, Bartoline. Says Genest: ‘The Podesta and Bartoline are as well cuckolded as any Tory could wish.’ cf. The conclusion of Act ii and the commencement of Act iii; also the discovery of Florio and Rosaura in Act v.

p. 186 London Cuckolds. This immensely popular play, five merry side-splitting acts which kept the stage for a century, was produced in 1682 at Dorset Garden. Ravenscroft has no less than three cuckolds in his Dramatis Personae: Doodle, Dashwell, and Wiseacre. The intrigues and counter-intrigues are innumerable. At the end the cuckolds all jeer one another.

p. 186 Sir Courtly Nice. This witty comedy, Crowne’s masterpiece, was produced at the Theatre Royal in 1685. Mrs. Behn’s allusion is to Act ii, II, where Crack, disguised as a tailor, visits Leonora. The language is often cleverly suggestive.

p. 186 Sir Fopling. Etheredge’s third comedy, The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter was produced at the Duke’s Theatre in 1676. It met ’.ith extraordinary success’. Mrs. Behn points at Act iv, II.

p. 186 Valentinian. The reference is to the Earl of Rochester’s Valentinian, altered from Fletcher, which was produced with great applause at the Theatre Royal in 1684. The Court Bawds, Balbus, Proculus, Chylax, Lycinius, with the ‘lewd women belonging to the court’, Ardelia and Phorba, are important characters in the tragedy. The direct allusion is, perhaps, to Act ii, I. The scene after the rape, Act iv, sc. III, ‘opens, discovers th’.mperor’s Chamber. Lucina newly unbound by th’.mperor’. The ‘Prologue spoken by Mrs. Cook the first day’ is by Mrs. Behn (vide Vol. VI). It is certain that an audience which found no offence in Rochester’s Valentinian could ill have taken umbrage at the freedoms of The Lucky Chance.

p. 186 The Moor of Venice. Othello was one of the first plays to be revived at the Restoration, and was, perhaps, the most frequently seen of all Shakespeare. On 11 October, 1660, Burt acted Othello at the Cockpit. Downes gives Mohun as Iago; Hart, Cassio; Cartwright, Brabantio; Beeston, Roderigo; Mrs. Hughes, Desdemona; Mrs. Rutter, Emilia. But it is certain Clun had also acted Iago—(Pepys, 6 February, 1668). Hart soon gave up Cassio to Kynaston for the title rôle in which he is said to have excelled. After his retirement in 1683 it fell to Betterton, of whose greatness in the part Cibber gives a lively picture. The Tatler also highly commends this actor’s Othello.

p. 186 The Maids Tragedy. Mrs. Behn refers to Act ii, I, and Act iii, I. Hart acted Amintor; Mohun, Melantius; Wintershall, the King; Mrs. Marshall, Evadne. Rymer particularly praises Hart and Mohun in this tragedy, saying: ‘There we have our Roscius and Aesopus both on the stage together.’ After 1683 it was differently cast. It will be remembered that Melantius was Betterton’s last rôle, in which he appeared for his benefit 13 April, 1710, to the Amintor of Wilks and the Evadne of Mrs. Barry. He died 28 April, a fortnight after.

p. 187 Wills Coffee House. This famous coffee-house was No. 1 Bow Street, Covent Garden, on the west side corner of Russell Street. It derived its name from Will Unwin who kept it. The wits’ room was upstairs on the first floor. Some of its reputation was due to the fact that it was a favourite resort of Dryden.

p. 187 write for a Third day only. The whole profits of the third day’s performance went to the author of the play; and upon these occasions his friends and patrons would naturally rally to support him. There are numberless allusions to this custom, especially in Prefaces, Prologues and Epilogues.

p. 189 the Mall. The Mall, St. James’s Park, was formed for Charles II, who was very fond of the game ‘pall-mall’. The walk soon became a popular and fashionable resort. There are innumerable references. cf. Prologue, Dryden’s Marriage à la Mode (1672):—

Poor pensive punk now peeps ere plays begin,
Sees the bare bench, and dares not venture in;
But manages her last half-crown with care,
And trudges to the Mall, on foot, for air.

The scene of the first Act of Otway’s The Soldier’s Fortune (1681) is laid in the Mall, and gives a vivid picture of the motley and not over respectable company that was wont to foregather there.

p. 189 the Ring. The Ring, Hyde Park, a favourite ride and promenade was made in the reign of Charles I. It was very fashionable, and is frequently alluded to in poem and play. cf. Etheredge, The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter: ‘Sir Fopling. All the world will be in the Park to-night; Ladies, ‘twere pity to keep so much beauty longer within doors, and rob the Ring of all those charms that should adorn it.’—Act iii sc. II. cf. also Lord Dorset’s Verses on Dorinda (1680):—

Wilt thou still sparkle in the Box,
Still ogle in the Ring?

p. 193 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.

p. 193 Finsbury Hero, Finsbury Fields, which Pepys thought ‘very pleasant’, had been kept open for the citizens to practise archery. An ordinance of 1478 is extant which orders all obstacles to be removed and Finsbury to be ‘made a plain field for archers to shoot in’. As late as 1737 there were standing twenty-four ‘rovers’ or stone pillars for shooting at distances.

p. 196 Mr. Barnardine. This allusion must almost certainly be to a recent revival of Measure for Measure, which particular play had been amongst those set aside by the regulation of 12 December, 1660, as the special property of Davenant’s theatre. After the amalgamation of the two companies in November, 1682, a large number of the older plays were revived or continued to be played (with a new cast and Betterton in the rôles which had been Hart’s) during the subsequent decade. Downes mentions Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, and several by Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, and Brome. On the other hand, it is possible this reference may merely be to The Law Against Lovers (1661, folio, 1673), in which Sir William Davenant has mixed Benedick and Beatrice with Angelo, Claudio, Isabella and the rest. It is a curious conglomeration, and the result is very pitiful and disastrous. Bernardine and the prison scenes are retained. Measure for Measure was again profanely altered by Gildon in 1700, mutilated and helped out by ‘entertainments of music’.

p. 197 Snicker Snee. See note Vol. I, p. 449, Snick-a-Snee, The Dutch Lover, iii, III (p, 278).

p. 198 Spittal Sermon. The celebrated Spital Sermons were originally preached at a pulpit cross in the churchyard (now Spital Square) of the Priory and Hospital of St. Mary Spital, founded 1197. The cross, broken at the Reformation, was rebuilt during Charles I’s reign, but destroyed during the Great Rebellion. The sermons, however, have been continued to the present time and are still preached every Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, at Christ Church, Newgate Street.

P. 201. Alsatia. This cant name had been given to the precinct of Whitefriars before 1623, then and for many years a notorious refuge for persons wishing to avoid bailiffs and creditors. The earliest use of the name is Thomas Towel’s quarto tract, Wheresoever you see meet, Trust unto Yourselfe: or the Mysterie of Lending and Borrowing (1623). The second use in point of time is the Prologue to Settle’s Pastor Fido (1676):—

And when poor Duns, quite weary, will not stay;
The hopeless Squire’s into Alsatia driven.

Otway’s comedy, The Soldiers Fortune (4to, 1681), where Courtine says: ‘I shall be ere long as greasy as an Alsatian bully,’ comes third; and Mrs. Behn’s reference to Alsatia in this play, which is often ignored, claims fourth place. We then have Shadwell’s famous comedy, The Squire of Alsatia (1688), with its well-known vocabulary of Alsatian jargon and slang, its scenes in Whitefriars, the locus classicus, a veritable mine of information. The particular portions of Whitefriars forming Alsatia were Ram-Alley, Mitre Court, and a lane called in the local cant Lombard Street. No. 50 of Tempest’s Cries of London (drawn and published in James II’s reign) is called ‘A Squire of Alsatia’, and represents a fashionable young gallant. Steele, Tatler (No. 66), 10 September, 1709, speaks of Alsatia ‘now in ruins’. It is interesting to note that many authorities, ignoring Settle and Mrs. Behn’s allusions, quote Powel and Otway as the only two places where the word ‘Alsatia’ is found before Shadwell made it so popular.

p. 202 Dornex. Or dornick, a worsted or woollen fabric used for curtains, hangings and the like, so called from Tournai, where chiefly manufactured. cf. Shadwell’s The Miser (1672), Act i, I: ‘a dornock carpet’. Also Wit and Drollery (1681): Penelope to Ulysses:—

The Stools of Dornix which that you may know well
Are certain stuffs Upholsterers use to sell.

p. 202 Henry the Eighth. Henry VIII had been put on by Davenant in December, 1663 with a wealth of pomp and expenditure that became long proverbial in the theatrical world. An extra large number of supers were engaged. Downes dilates at quite unusual length upon the magnificence of the new scenery and costumes. The court scene was especially crowded with ‘the Lords, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the Doctors, Proctors, Lawyers, Tip-staves.’ On New Year’s Day, 1664, Pepys went to the Duke’s house and saw ‘the so much cried up play of Henry VIII; which tho’ I went with resolution to like it, is so simple a thing, made up of a great many patches, that, besides the shows and processions in it, there is nothing in the world good or well done.’ On 30 December, 1668, however, he saw it again, ‘and was mightily pleased, better than ever I expected, with the history and shows of it.’ In The Rehearsal (1671), Act v, I, Bayes says: ‘I’l shew you the greatest scene that ever England saw: I mean not for words, for those I do not value; but for state, shew, and magnificence. In fine I’ll justifie it to be as grand to the eye every whit, I gad, as that great Scene in Harry the Eight.’

p. 203 Joan Sanderson. See note Vol. I, p. 456: Joan Sanderson. The Roundheads, Act iv, IV (p. 402).

p. 204 Haunce in Kelder. Literally Jack-in-the-Cellar, i.e. the unborn babe in the womb. cf. Davenant and Dryden’s alteration of The Tempest, Act iv, sc. II. ‘Stephano, I long to have a Rowse to her Grace’s Health, and to the Haunse in Kelder, or rather Haddock in Kelder, for I guess it will be half Fish’. and also Dryden’s Amboyna (1673), Act iv, sc. I, where Harman senior remarks at Towerson and Ysabinda’s wedding: ‘You Englishmen … cannot stay for ceremonies; a good honest Dutchman would have been plying the glass all this while, and drunk to the hopes of Hans in Kelder till ‘twas bedtime.’

p. 204 an Apple John. An apple John is usually explained as being a kind of apple said to keep two years and to be in perfection when shrivelled and withered, cf. 2 Henry IV, ii, IV, and the context. If the allusion here is to such a kind of apple Sir Feeble’s phrase is singularly inept, as may perhaps be intended to be the case.

p. 204 St. Martin’s Trumpery. The parish of St. Martin-le-Grand was formerly celebrated for the number of shops vending cheap and imitation jewellery within its purlieus. ‘St. Martin’s ware’ came to mean a forgery.

p. 205 nick their Inclinations. To nick = to thwart. A somewhat uncommon use. Generally, to nick (slang), means ‘to arrest’, ‘to waylay and stop’.

p. 207 the wonderful Salamanca Doctor. cf. Notes, Vol. II, p. 433. silken Doctor. The City Heiress. Prologue (p. 202); and Vol. II, p. 437. Salamanca. The City Heiress, v, V (p. 297).

p. 208 the Twire. cf. Note, Vol. II, p. 440. Amorous Twire. The Feign’d Curtezans, i, II (p. 319).

p. 210 gutling. Guzzling, cf. supra, p. 479.

p. 210 Docity. cf. Note, Vol. II, p. 441. Docity. The Feign’d Curtezans. ii, I (p. 340).

p. 210 laid in Lavender. An old and common phrase for ‘to pawn’. cf. Florio, Worlds of Wordes (1593): ‘To lay to pawne, as we say, to lay in Lavender.’ Ben Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, Act iii, sc. III: ‘And a black sattin suit of his own to go before her in; which suit (for the more sweet’ning) now lies in Lavender.’

p. 210 Enter Rag and Landlady. Mrs. Behn remembered how Don John treated Dame Gillian, his landlady. The Chances, i, IX.

p. 211 Judas. cf. Note, Vol. I, p. 457. The Roundheads. v, II (p. 413).

p. 211 flabber. Fat; puffed out. A very rare adjective, perhaps only here. The N.E.D. quotes this passage with a reference to the adjective ’.laberkin’ = puffed out, puffy, and a suggestion that it is akin to the substantive ‘flab’ = something thick, broad, fat.

p. 212 this old Sir Guy of Warwick. Sir Guy of Warwick is an old slang name for a sword; a rapier. The name is taken from the romance (of which there were many versions) and which proved extraordinarily popular. It was first licensed ‘in prose by Martyn Parker’ to Oulton, 24 November, 1640. Smithson’s version was first printed in black letter, and a second edition appeared in 1686. John Shurley’s version was published 4to, 1681 and again 1685. Esdalle, English Tales and Romances, enumerates sixteen versions, editions and abridgements, concluding with ‘The Seventh Edition’ 12mo, 1733.

p. 214 Enter Bredwel. Lady Fulbank supplying Gayman with money through the medium of Bredwel ‘drest like a Devil’ is reminiscent of incidents in Dryden’s first comedy, The Wild Gallant (1663, and revised version, 1667; 4to, 1667), where Lady Constance employs Setstone, a jeweller, to accomodate Loveby with ready cash. Loveby is benefited to the tune of two hundred and fifty pounds, which are filched from the study of old Lord Nonsuch, who complains in much the same way as Sir Cautious. Loveby declares it must be the devil who has enriched him, and forthwith rescues his ‘Suit with the Gold Lace at Sleeves from Tribulation.’ Owing to his poverty he has been unable to visit Constance, and when he appears before her in his gay clothes he excuses his fortnight’s absence by saying, I have been ‘out of Town to see a little thing that’s fallen to me upon the Death of a Grandmother.’ In Act i of The Wild Gallant Loveby gives Bibber a humorous description of a garret, which may be paralleled with Bredwel’s ‘lewd’ picture of Cayman’s chamber—The Lucky Chance, Act i, II. It must be allowed that Mrs. Behn bears away the palm in this witty passage. The Wild Gallant is, by Dryden’s own confession (cf. the First Prologue), founded on a Spanish plot. In the Preface he says: ‘The Plot was not Originally my own: But so alter’d by me, (whether for better or worse, I know not) that, whoever the Author was, he could not have challeng’d a Scene of it.’ So vast, indeed, is the library of the Spanish Theatre that it has not as yet been identified, a task which in view of the author’s own statement may well be deemed nigh impossible. Recent critics have pertinently suggested that the device of furnishing Loveby with money was the chief hint for which Dryden is indebted to Spain. The conduct of the amour between Lady Fulbank and Gayman, founded as it is on Shirley’s The Lady of Pleasure, has nothing in common with Otway’s intrigue between Beaugard and Portia—The Atheist (1683)—which owes itself to Scarron’s novel, The Invisible Mistress.

p. 222 the Gad-Bee’s in his Quonundrum. Gad-Bee, vide supra. The False Count, Act ii, II (p. 129), note, p. 481. Quonundrum or Conundrum. A whim; crotchet; maggot; conceit. The N.E.D. quotes this passage, cf. Jonson’s Volpone, Act v, sc. II: ‘I must ha’ my crotchets! And my conundrums!’ Dic. Cant. Crew (1700) has: ’.Conundrums_. Whimms, Maggots and such like.’

p. 222 jiggiting. To jigget = to jig, hop or skip; to jump about, and to fidget, cf. T. Barker, The Female Tatler (1709), No. 15: ‘She has a languishing Eye, a delicious soft Hand, and two pretty jiggetting Feet.’ cf. to giggit. Note, Vol. II, p. 436. fisking and giggiting. The City Heiress, ii, II (p. 262).

p. 223 we’ll toss the Stocking. This merry old matrimonial custom in use at the bedding of the happy pair is often alluded to. cf. Pepys, 8 February, 1663: ‘Another story was how Lady Castlemaine, a few days since, had Mrs. Stewart to an entertainment, and at night begun a frolique that they two must be married; and married they were, with ring and all other ceremonies of church service, and ribbands, and a sack posset in bed and flinging the stocking; but in the close it is said my Lady Castlemaine, who was the bridegroom, rose, and the King come and take her place.’

p. 224 the Entry. In the Restoration theatre it was the usual practice for the curtain to rise at the commencement and fall at the end of the play, so that the close of each intermediate act was only marked by a clear stage. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, more particularly when some elaborate set or Tableau began a new act. A striking example is Act ii, The Forc’d Marriage.

p. 224 Mr. Cheek. Thomas Cheek was a well-known wit and songwriter of the day. His name not infrequently occurs to the graceful lyrics with which he supplied the theatre. There are some pretty lines of his, ’.orinna, I excuse thy face’, in Act v of Southerne’s The Wives Excuse; or, Cuckolds make Themselves (1692); and a still better song, ‘Bright Cynthia’s pow’r divinely great,’ which was sung by Leveridge in the second act of Southerne’s Oroonoko (1699), came from his prolific pen.

p. 225 Bandstrings. Strings for fastening his bands or collar which were in the seventeenth century frequently ornamented with tassels, cf. Selden, Table-Talk (1689): ‘If a man twirls his Bandstrings’. and Wood, Ath. Oxon. (1691): ‘He [wore] snakebone bandstrings (or bandstrings with huge tassels).’

p. 225 yare. Eager; ready; prepared from A.-S. geáro. cf. Measure for Measure, iv, II: ‘You shall find me yare’. and The Tempest, i, I: ’.heerly, my hearts! yare, yare!’. also Act v, sc. I: ‘Our ship … is tight and yare.’ Also Antony and Cleopatra, v, II: ‘yare, yare, good Iras; quick.’ Ray gives it as a Suffolk word, and the ‘hear, hear’ of Lowestoft boatmen of to-day is probably a disguised ‘yare, yare’.

p. 226 Livery and Seisin. A very common error for the legal term ’.ivery of seisin’ which signifies the delivery of property into the corporal possession of a person.

p. 251 Song. Oh! Love. Mr. Bullen, who includes this ‘impassioned song’ in his Musa Proterva: Love-Poems of the Restoration (1889), has the following note: ‘Did Mrs. Behn write these fine verses?… Henry Playford, a well-known publisher of music, issued in the same year [1687] the Fourth Book of The Theatre of Music, where “O Love, that stronger art” appeared with the heading “The Song in Madam Bhen’s last New Play, sung by Mr. Bowman, set by Dr. John Blow.” At the end of the song Playford adds, “These words by Mr. Ousley.” … Mrs. Behn usually acknowledged her obligations; but she may have been neglectful on the present occasion. Ousley’s claim cannot be lightly set aside.’ There is nothing to add to this, and we can only say that Aphra Behn had such true lyric genius that ‘Oh! Love that stronger art’ is in no way beyond her. A statement which neither disposes of nor invalidates Ousley’s claim based, as this is, upon such strong and definite evidence.

John Bowman (or Boman) who acted Bredwel had ‘as a boy’ joined the Duke’s Company about 1673. He was, says Cibber, in the days of Charles II ‘a Youth fam’d for his Voice’, and he often sang before the King, no indifferent judge of music. Bowman’s name appears as Peter Santlow in The Counterfeit Bridegroom; or, the Defeated Widow (1677). He soon became an actor of considerable merit, and created Tattle in Love for Love (1695). He is said to have remained on the stage for the extraordinary period of sixty-five years, and to have played within a few months of his death. Davies speaks highly of his acting, even in extreme old age. Oldys (MS. note on Langbaine) refers to him as ‘old Mr. John Bowman’. Cibber, in his Apology (1740), speaks of ‘Boman the late Actor of venerable Memory’.

p. 234 half Pike. ‘Now Hist. A small pike having a shaft of one half the length of the full-sized one. There were two kinds; one, also called a spontoon, formerly carried by infantry officers; the other, used on ships for repelling boarders, a boarding-pike,’—N.E.D. which quotes (inter alia) Massinger, &c., Old Law (4to, 1656), Act iii, II: ’.ere’s a half-pike’. and Froger, Voyages (1698): ‘Their ordinary Arms are the Hanger, the Sagary (assagai), which is a very light Half-Pike.’

p. 245 Geometry. A colloquial term for magic.

p. 247 a Sirreverence under your Girdle. ‘To have an M under (or by) the Girdle’ was a proverbial expression = to have a courteous address by using the titles Mr., Mrs., Miss, &c. cf. Halliwell, Dictionary Archaic and Proverhial Words; ‘M. … to keep the term “Master” out of sight, to be wanting in proper respect.’ cf. Eastward Hoe (1605), Jonson, Chapman, and Marston, iv, I: ‘You might carry an M under your Girdle’. and not infrequently. Sir- (or Save-) Reverence is an old and very common colloquialism. It was the most usual form of apology when mentioning anything likely to offend, or naming a word for which excuse was thought proper or necessary. Wherefore it came to stand in place of various words of obscene sound or meaning. There are innumerable instances from Mandeville (1356); down to recent times, and even Devonshire dialect to-day.

p. 248 the George in White-Fryers. The George tavern was situated in Dogwell Court, and some little time after the abolition of the vicious privileges of Alsatia by the Act 8 and 9 William III, c. 27 (1697), it was converted into the printing office of William Bowyer, the elder. These premises were destroyed by fire, 30 January, 1713. Scene II, Act i of Shadwell’s The Squire of Alsatia (1688), is laid ‘at the George in Whitefriars’.

p. 249 he cullies. To cully = to cheat; trick. Although the verb, which came into use circa 1670, and persisted for a full century, is rare, the substantive ‘a cully’ (= a fool) is very common. For the verb, cf. Pomfret, Poems (1699), Divine Attributes: ‘Tricks to cully fools.’

p. 249 he pads. The substantive ‘pad’ = a path or highway. Bailey (1730-6) has ‘to Pad … to rob on the road on foot.’ cf. Ford’s The Lady’s Trial (1639), v, I: ‘One can … pick a pocket, Pad for a cloak or hat’. and also Cotton Mather’s Discourse on Witchcraft (1689), chap, vii: ‘As if you or I should say: We never met with any robbers on the road, therefore there never was any Padding there.’

p. 250 sport a Dye. To play at dice. ‘To sport’, generic for ‘to parade’ or ‘display’ was, and is a very common phrase. It is especially found in public school and university slang. This is a very early example.

p. 250 Teaster. i.e. a tester—sixpence, cf. Farquhar’s Love and a Bottle, (1698), i, I, where Brush says: ‘Who throws away a Tester and a mistress loses sixpence.’

p. 251 to top upon him. To cheat him; to trick him; especially to cheat with dice. cf. Dictionary of the Canting Crew (by B.E. gent., 1696): ‘Top. What do you Top upon me? c. do you stick a little Wax to the Dice to keep them together, to get the Chance, you wou’d have? He thought to have Topt upon me. c. he design’d to have Put upon me, Sharpt me, Bullied me, or Affronted me.’

p. 251 we are not half in kelter. Kelter (or kilter) = order; condition; spirits. cf. Barrow, Sermons, I, Ser. 6: ‘If the organs of prayer are out of Kelter, or out of time, how can we pray?’ Dictionary Canting Crew (1690), has: ‘Out of Kelter, out of sorts.’ The phrase is by no means rare.

p. 251 as Trincolo says. Lady Fulbank mistakes. The remark is made by Stephano, not Trincalo. Dryden and Davenant’s The Tempest (1667), Act ii, I: ‘Ventoso. My wife’s a good old jade … … Stephano. Would you were both hanged, for putting me in thought of mine!’

p. 252 Ladies of Quality in the Middle Gallery. The jest lies in the fact that the middle gallery or eighteenpenny place in a Restoration theatre was greatly frequented by, if not almost entirely set aside for, women of the town. cf. Dryden’s Epilogue on the Union (1682):—

But stay; me thinks some Vizard-Mask I see
Cast out her Lure from the mid Gallery:
About her all the fluttering Sparks are rang’d;
The Noise continues, though the Scene is chang’d:
Now growling, sputt’ring, wauling, such a clutter!
‘Tis just like Puss defendant in a Gutter.

And again, in his Prologue to Southerne’s The Disappointment (1684), he has:—

Last there are some, who take their first degrees
Of lewdness in our middle galleries:
The doughty bullies enter bloody drunk,
Invade and grabble one another’s punk.

p. 257 Hortensius. Cato Uticensis is said in 56 B.C. to have ceded his wife Marcia to Q. Hortensius, and at the death of Hortensius in 50 B.C. to have taken her back again—Plutarch, Cato Min., 25.

p. 258 he has a Fly. A fly = a familiar. From the common old belief that an attendant demon waited on warlocks and witches in the shape of a fly, or some similar insect. cf. Jonson’s The Alchemist, I (1610):—

You are mistaken, doctor,
Why he does ask one but for cups and horses,
A rifling fly, none of your great familiars.

Also Massinger’s The Virgin Martyr, ii, II:—

Courtiers have flies
That buzz all news unto them.

p. 271 Snow-hill. The old Snow Hill, a very narrow and steep highway between Holborn Bridge and Newgate, was cleared away when Holborn Viaduct was made in 1867. In the days of Charles II it was famous for its chapmen, vendors of ballads with rough woodcuts atop. Dorset, lampooning Edward Howard, has the following lines:

Whence
Does all this mighty mass of dullness spring,
Which in such loads thou to the stage dost bring?
Is’t all thine own? Or hast thou from Snow Hill
The assistance of some ballad-making quill?

p. 271 Cuckolds Haven. This was the name given to a well-known point in the Thames. It is depicted by Hogarth, Industry and Idleness, No. 6. Nahum Tate has a farce, borrowed from Eastward Hoe and The Devil’s an Ass, entitled Cuckold’s Haven; or, An Alderman no Conjuror (1685).

p. 278 Nice and Flutter. The two typical Fops of the day. Sir Courtly Nice, created by Mountford, is the hero of Crowne’s excellent comedy, Sir Courtly Nice (1685). In Act v he sings a little song he has made on his Mistress: ‘As I gaz’d unaware, On a face so fair—.’ Sir Fopling Flutter is the hero of Etheredge’s masterpiece, The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter (1676). Sir Fopling, a portrait of Beau Hewitt, became proverbial. The rôle was created by Smith.

p. 278 shatterhead. A rare word for shatter-(scatter) brained. cf. The Countess of Winchilsea, Miscellany Poems (1713), ‘Pri’thee shatter-headed Fop’.

p. 278 Craffey. Craffy is the foolish son of the Podesta in Crowne’s City Politicks (1683). He is described as ‘an impudent, amorous, pragmatical fop, that pretends to wit and poetry.’ He is engaged in writing Husbai an answer to Absalom and Achitophel.

p. 278 whiffling. Fickle; unsteady; uncertain. To whiffle = to hesitate; waver; prevaricate. cf. Tillotson, Sermons, xiv (1671-94): ’.veryman ought to be stedfast … and not suffer himself to be whiffled … by an insignificant noise.’ 1724 mistakenly reads ‘whistling’ in this passage.

p. 279 Bulkers. Whores. cf. Shadwell, Amorous Widow (1690), Act iii: ’.er mother sells fish and she is little better than a bulker.’ A bulker was the lowest class of prostitute. cf. Shadwell’s The Scowerers, Act i, I: ‘Every one in a petticoat is thy mistress, from humble bulker to haughty countess.’ Bailey (1790) has: ‘Bulker, one that would lie down on a bulk to any one. A common Jilt. A whore.’ Swift, A Tale of a Tub, Section II, has: ‘They went to new plays on the first night, haunted the chocolate houses, beat the watch, lay on bulks.’

p. 279 Tubs. A patient suffering from the lues venerea was disciplined by long and severe sweating in a heated tub, which combined with strict abstinence was formerly considered an excellent remedy for the disease. cf. Measure for Measure, Act iii, sc. II: ‘Troth, sir, she has eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub.’ Also Timon of Athens, iv, III: ‘Be a whore still’ …

p. 279 Jack Ketch. cf. Dict. Canting Crew (by B.E. Gent, 1690): ’.ack Kitch. The Hangman of that Name, but now all his Successors.’ He exercised his office circa 1663-87. It was Ketch who bungled the execution of Monmouth. There are innumerable contemporary references to him. cf. Dryden’s Epilogue to The Duke of Guise (1682):—

‘Jack Ketch’, says I, ‘’. an excellent physician.’