p. 192 spoken … at his Royal Highness’ second exile. This note fixes the date of the play as being between the latter end of March, 1679, and August of the same year. It was probably produced in April. The Duke of York sailed for Antwerp on 4 March, 1679. From Antwerp he went to the Hague and thence to Brussels. In August he was summoned home as Charles was attacked by a severe fit of ague. He returned to Brussels to escort the Duchess back, and on 27 October left for Scotland.
THE CITY HEIRESS.
p. 199 Henry, Earl of Arundel. Henry Howard, 1655-1701, son of Henry, sixth Duke of Norfolk, succeeded his father 10 January, 1684. From 1678 to 1684 he was styled Earl of Arundel, although summoned to Parliament on 27 January, 1679 as Lord Mowbray.
p. 200 Then let the strucken Deer. Hamlet, Act iii, ii.
p. 201 to roar. To be tipsily boisterous, deoauchcd and wantonly destructive. The word is common.
p. 201 to glout. To stare at; to make eyes at. Not here to frown or scowl, the usual meaning, and the sole explanation given by the N.E.D. For ‘glout’ in this sense cf. Orrery’s Guzman (1679) iv, ‘Guzman glouts at her, sighs, and folds his arms.’
p. 201 Convenient. ‘Blowing, Natural, Convenient, Tackle. Several names for a Mistress or rather a Whore.’—’An Explanation of the Cant’ prefixed to Shadwell’s The Squire of Alsatia (4to, 1688). The word occurs more than once in the course of the play. cf. Act iv, where we have
‘Enter Margaret and Mrs. Hackum with a Cawdle. Belf. Sen. Oh my dear Blowing! my Convenient! my Tackle!’
p. 201 In Reverend Shape. The allusion throughout this prologue is to Titus Oates. After his abominable perjuries this wretch was lodged at Whitehall, assigned £1200 a year and a special posse of officers and attendants.
p. 201 The Oaths … cf. Dryden’s description of Oates as Corah. Absalom and Achitophel, Part I—especially—