Notes: Critical and Explanatory.
La Monstre.
p. [4] Peter Weston, Esq. Peter Weston, the second son of a Cheshire clergyman, was born in 1665. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and afterwards proceeding to the Inner Temple (1683) was called to the Bar in 1697. He attained considerable eminence in his profession. Foster, Alumni Oxon. has: 'Weston, Peter s. Tho. of Chester (city) cler. Brasenose Coll. matric. 10 June 1681 aged 16; bar. at law Inner Temple, 1697.' The Inner Temple Admission Register gives: 'Petrus Weston. Generosus filius secundus Thome Weston nuper de Christalton in Comitatu Cestrie Sacre Theologie Professoris generaliter Admissus est in Societatem istius Comitive in consideracione Trium librarum Sex solidorum etc. etc. Septimo die Februarii Anno Domini 1683 (i.e. 1683/4).' In the Inner Temple Records, amongst the Bench Table Orders, is noted, 27-9 January, 1696-7: 'that Peter Weston be called to the bar', and again 31 January following, we have: 'Peter Weston's call to the bar respited.' Doubtless Weston was a friend of Hoyle, and by him introduced to the circle which surrounded Mrs. Behn.
p. [7] Charles Cotton. Charles Cotton was born at Ovingdean (Sussex), 28 April, 1630. Upon coming into his estate he found it heavily encumbered, and probably as much from necessity as from natural inclination turned to literary work. He produced a large number of poems, translations, panegyrics, prominent amongst which is his Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie (1664). He will be remembered by his best lyrics, his Second Part of the Compleat Angler, and his version of Montaigne. Cotton, who seems to have been continually harassed with pecuniary difficulties, was a gay liver, albeit an intimate of Isaak Walton. He died 1687.
p. [7] two Orinda's. 'The matchless Orinda' was Mrs. Katherine Philips (née Fowler), précieuse and poetess (1631-64). After marriage the lady divided her time between London and her husband's house at Cardigan, where she was the centre of a circle of admirers and friends who adopted various fanciful names, e.g. Silvander (Sir Edward Dering), Antenor (her husband). Her verses and a translation of Corneille's Pompée (Dublin, 1663) became famous. At the height of her popularity she died of smallpox at a house in Fleet Street, 22 June, 1664. For an excellent account of her see Gosse, Seventeenth Century Studies.
p. [8] N. Tate. Nahum Tate, born in Dublin, 1652, was educated at Trinity College. He does not appear to have followed any definite profession. Coming to London he produced much miscellaneous literary work, and was even entrusted by Dryden with a portion of the second part of Absalom and Achitophel (1682), the master himself enriching it with some two hundred lines. Tate succeeded (24 December, 1692) Shadwell in the laureateship which he did not hold till his death (12 August, 1715) as Rowe was appointed to that post, 1 August, 1715. His plays are perhaps not so mediocre as they are often judged to be, but they have been damned by his outrageous mangling of King Lear (1681), which, none the less, persevered on the stage for many a long decade.[6] Perhaps he is chiefly known for this, and a version of the Psalms (the first twenty appeared in 1695) written in conjunction with Nicholas Brady (1696).
[6] The Fool was not restored until the time of Macready, when (25 January, 1838), under his Covent Garden management, the rôle was entrusted to Miss Priscilla Horton (Mrs. German Reed), who, it is recorded, achieved great success.
p. [9] G. J. George Jenkins, who, it will be remembered, edited Mrs. Behn's posthumous play, The Widow Ranter, vide Vol. IV, p. 215, and note p. 415 on G. J. (p. 222).
p. [18] cock, and comb. Cock = set his hat jauntily. For comb (his wig), cf. Dryden's prologue to The Conquest of Granada, II (1670):—
when Vizard Masque appears in Pit,
Straight every Man who thinks himself a Wit
Perks up; and, managing his Comb with grace,
With his white Wigg sets off his Nut-brown Face.
And Shadwell's The Humorists (1671), Act v, where Briske says: 'No man appears better upon a Bench in the Play-House; when I stand up to expose my Person between the Acts, I take out my Comb and with a bonne mien comb my Perriwig to the Tune the Fiddles Play: Thus, look you; fa, la, la, la.' Also Congreve, The Way of the World, iii, xii (1700): 'The gentlemen stay but to comb, madam, and will wait on you.' The phrase is frequent.
p. [20] Scrutore. cf. Vol. V, p. 73, The Fair Jilt: 'Scrutore perpetually employ'd,' and note on that passage (p. 519).
p. [75] Varrio. Antonio Verrio, the celebrated Neapolitan painter, was born at Lecce, in the Terra di Otranto, about 1639. His earliest pictures were done for ecclesiastics—the Jesuits College, Naples, the high altar in the Carmelite Church, Toulouse. His facility of execution and rich colouring gained him fame, and Charles II appointed him to direct the royal tapestry works at Mortlake. Soon, however, Verrio was transferred to Windsor to paint the walls and ceilings. Under Charles II and his successor Verrio was in high favour. At the Revolution he threw up his office of surveyor of the royal gardens (a sinecure) and refused to employ his pencil for William of Orange. He had, however, many commissions from nobles and private persons. His sight failing, Queen Anne bestowed on him a pension of £200 a year. He died 1707. A list of Verrio's ceilings will be found in Jesse's Eton and Windsor. Pope, Windsor Forest, has a couplet (307-8):—
from her roofs when Verrio's colours fall,
And leave inaminate the naked wall.
p. [75] Gibbon. Grinling Gibbons, the celebrated sculptor in wood, was born at Rotterdam, 4 April, 1648. He came to London in 1667. He was first brought into notice by Evelyn, who introduced him to the King. Charles II gave Gibbons a place in the board of works. Besides being employed at Windsor, Gibbons decorated other of the royal palaces in marble sculpture as well as wood. His exquisite carvings are to be found in many noble houses. They are unrivalled for their presentment of foliage, fruit, flowers; of a marvellous delicacy and beauty. In 1714 he was appointed master carver to George I. He died at his house in Bow Street, 3 August, 1721.
p. [76] noble Clifdon. Evelyn, 23 July, 1679, writes: 'To Court: after dinner I visited that excellent painter, Verrio, whose works in fresco in the King's palace, at Windsor, will celebrate his name as long as those walls last.... I went to Clifden, that stupendous natural rock, wood, and prospect, of the Duke of Buckingham's, buildings of extraordinary expense. The grots in the chalky rock are pretty: it is a romantic object, and the place altogether answers the most poetical description that can be made of solitude, precipice, prospect, or whatever can contribute to a thing so very like their imaginations. The stand somewhat like Frascati as to its front, and, on the platform, is a circular view to the utmost verge of the horizon which, with the serpenting of the Thames, is admirable. The staircase is for its materials singular; the cloisters, descents, gardens, and avenue through the wood, august and stately; but the land all about wretchedly barren, and producing nothing but fern. Indeed, as I told his Majesty that evening (asking me how I liked Clifden) without flattery, that it did not please me so well as Windsor for the prospect and park, wch is without compare; there being but one only opening and that narrow, wch led one to any variety, whereas, that of Windsor is everywhere great and unconfined.'
Pope's reference is quoted to triteness:—
Cliveden's proud alcove
The bow'r of wanton Shrewsbury and love.
—Moral Essays, iii, 307-8.
p. [76] Sir Samuel Morland, or Sir Robert Gorden. Sir Samuel Morland, the celebrated inventor and projector, was born in 1625. Having served the Commonwealth, he turned royalist, and on Cromwell's death joined the King at Breda. He was rewarded at the Restoration with a baronetcy, a pension, and the appointment of Master of Mechanics to the King. He devoted himself to practical science, and his house was long the resort of the curious to view his models, inventions, &c. In a MS. (Harleian) treatise he shows an accurate knowledge of steam power and explains how it can be employed to work cylinders in raising water, a subject to which he had paid particular attention, having brought water from a considerable distance to the top of Windsor Castle. He died blind and in penury, 30 December, 1695.
Sir Robert Gordon, Bart. was born 7 March, 1647. He became famous for his scientific pursuits, and in the neighbourhood of Gordonstown (Elginshire), his birthplace, he was long known as 'Sir Robert the Warlock'. A MS. account of the family says: he was 'particularly skilled in mechanics and chemistry.... He contrived a curious machine or pump for raising water, wch was tried in the Fleet and highly approved of, and found far to exceed anything of that kind then known, both for the facility of working and the quantity of water it discharged.' Gordon sat in the Scotch parliament, and seems to have been a favourite with James II, who was interested in his experiments. He died 1704.
p. [79] l'heure du Bergere. cf. 'the hour of the Berjere'. The Feign'd Curtezans, iii, 1 (Vol. II, p. 346), and note on that passage (p. 441).