Act III: Scene iii
[p. 278] Snick-a-Sne. A combat with knives amongst the Dutch. Snik: Dutch = a sharp weapon. Dryden in his Parallel betwixt Painting and Poetry (4to, June, 1695) speaks of ‘the brutal sport of snick-or-sne’. Mrs. Behn has happily put several characteristically Dutch phrases in Haunce’s mouth.
[p. 278] Pharamond. A heroic romance in twelve volumes, the seven first of which are by the celebrated la Calprenède, the remainder being the work of Pierre de Vaumorière. It was translated into English by J. Phillips (London, 1677, folio). Lee has taken the story of Varanes in his tragedy, Theodosius (1680), from this romance.
Act IV: Scene i
[p. 289] Bethlehem-Gaber. Bethlen-Gabor (Gabriel Bethlen), 1580-1629, was a Hungarian noble who embraced the Protestant religion, and in 1613, with the help of an Ottoman army, succeeded in establishing himself as King of Transylvania. His reign, although one long period of warfare and truces, proved a most flourishing epoch for his country. Himself a musician and a man of letters, he was constant in his patronage of art and scholars, cf. Abraham Holland’s Continued Inquisition of Paper Persecutors (1626):—
But to behold the walls
Butter’d with weekly Newes composed in Pauls
By some decaied Captaine, or those Rooks
Whose hungry brains compile prodigious books
Of Bethlem Gabor’s preparations and