p. 406, l. 31 And here I vow. I have arranged this speech metrically. Former editions print as prose.
NOTES: CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.
ABDELAZER.
p. 6 Montero-Caps. Spanish montero = a hunter. A Spanish hunting-cap with two flaps for the cars. Pepys, 20 March, 1660, sees ‘two monteeres for me to take my choice of’.
p. 7 Beasts. 17th century French beste = an obsolete card game said to have resembled Nap; also certain penalties at Ombre and Quadrille. The word most frequently occurs in connection with Ombre, which is derived from the Spanish hombre=man. The one who undertakes the game has to beat each of the other two; if he fails he is said to have been beasted and pays a forfeit to the pool. It has been suggested that ‘unable to sustain himself as a man, Hombre, he becomes beast.’ c.f. The Feign’d Astrologer, iii, I (4to 1668), where Lewis speaks of
A kind of Lady-ordinary
Where they were beasting it, for that game’s in
Fashion still, though Hombre be more courtly.
Butler, Hudibras (1678), iii, 1, l. 1007, has—
These at Beste and Ombre woo
And play for love and money too.
Lestrange, Quovedo (1708), talks of spending ‘whole nights at Beste or
Ombre with my Lady Pen-Tweezel.’
p. 8 Isabella, Queen of Spain. Mrs. Lee. ‘About the year 1670, Mrs. Aldridge, after Mrs. Lee, after Lady Slinsgby’ was ‘entertain’d in the Duke’s House.’ Her husband, John Lee, joined the company at the same time. But whilst his wife became the leading tragedienne of the day, he himself never rose above the most minor and insignificant roles. A woman of superb and Junoesque beauty, haughty mein and imperious manners, Mrs. Mary Lee soon won a prominent place in the theatre. Although effective in comedy, especially in its higher flights, it was as tragedy queen she obtained her greatest triumphs. In December, 1670, she made her debut at Lincoln’s Inn Fields as Olinda, a small part in Mrs. Behn’s maiden effort, The Forc’d Marriage, and early the following year acted Daranthe, Chief Commandress of the Amazons, in Edward Howard’s dull drama, The Women’s Conquest. A few months later, in April, she played Leticia in Revet’s The Town Shifts. In 1672, at Dorset Gardens, she was Aemelia in Arrowsmith’s amusing The Reformation; 1673, Mariamne in Settle’s heroic tragedy, The Empress of Morocco, a role she acted with such excellence that it gave every token of her future greatness and advanced her to the very front rank. 1674, ahe was Amavanga in Settle’s The Conquest of China; Salome, Herod’s sister, in Pordage’s bombastic Herod and Mariamne. 1675, Chlotilda, disguised as Nigrello, in Settle’s Love and Revenge; Deidamia, Queen of Sparta, in Otway’s first and feeblest tragedy, Alcibiades, of which play she also spoke the epilogue. 1676, Roxolana in Settle’s Ibrahim, produced in May; and late the same month or very early in June the Queen of Spain in Otway’s magnificent Don Carlos, a powerful play which, supported by Betterton as Philip II, Smith as Carlos, Harris as Don John of Austria, and our great tragedienne ‘succeeded much better than either Venice Preserved or The Orphan, and was infinitely more applauded and followed for many years.’ In November she played Madam Fickle in D’Urfey’s comedy of the same name; in December Corisca in Settle’s Pastor Fido. In 1677 Mrs. Lee’s only rival, Mrs. Marshall, the leading lady of the King’s House, retired.[1] Mrs. Barry’s star was but just faintly rising on the theatrical horizon; and it is noticeable that even when this famous actress was at the height of her great reputation, we still find Mrs. Lee cast for those rôles she made so peculiarly her own, and in which no one could approach her. In February, 1677, she acted Berenice in Otway’s Titus and Berenice, a rather tame adaption of Racine. Mrs. Barry is named for the small character of the queen’s confident, Phoenice, and was also Lucia in a farce from Molière, The Cheats of Scapin, which followed the drama. Mrs. Lee naturally took no part in this afterpiece, but there is a smart epilogue, ‘spoken by Mrs. Mary Lee, when she was out of Humour,’ which commences:—