p. [153] Mr. J. H. i.e. Mr. John Hoyle.
p. [156] Our Cabal. Considerable research has unhappily failed to identify most of the personages whose initials appear in this poem. Mr. J. H., however, is John Hoyle, Mrs. Behn's well-known intimate, to whom so many of her poems are addressed. In The Muses Mercury for January, 1708, the verses for Mr. E. B. and Mrs. F. M. are given with this note: 'The following poem was written by Mrs. Behn on one Mr. Edward Butler and Mrs. Masters, and is a Description of the Success of their Passion, in a little Journey took into the Country, with many more Gentlemen and Ladies of that Time, whom we shall speak of hereafter': a promise which was never fulfilled.
p. [163] The Willing Mistriss. This song was reprinted in The Muses Mercury, December, 1707, when it is termed 'A Song for J. H.' with this note prefixed: 'The following Verses are call'd, A Song by the late Mrs. Behn; we have a Copy of them in her own Hand Writing, as well as of many others never printed, except in our Mercuries; and by her putting her Nom de Guerre Astræa to them, we find they were made upon her Self and her very good Friend Mr. Hoyle.' At the end of the third stanza we have: 'As Amorous as these Verses may be thought, they have been reduc'd to bring them within the Rules of Decency, which all Writers ought to observe, or instead of a Diversion they will become a Nuisance.'
p. [165] Song. When Jemmy. This was reprinted in The Muses Mercury, September, 1707: as 'On Capt. —— going to the Wars in Flanders', A Song. To a Scotch Tune, and signed Astræa. The Muses Mercury adds the following note: 'Tho this Poetess's true Name was Apharra, yet she in her Amours and Poetical Characters, assum'd the Nomme de Guerre of Astræa: And thus we find this Song subscrib'd by her self, which shews it came from her Heart, however imperfect it may be otherwise.' Surely, so dainty and, indeed, pathetic a little song can need no plea for admittance into any poetical collection.
p. [166] To Mr. Creech. This poem appears as 'To The Unknown Daphnis on his Excellent translation of Lucretius', dated 'London. Jan. 25, 1682', and signed 'A. Behn' in the second edition of Creech's translation of Lucretius (Oxford, 1683), there are also commendatory verses prefixed to this edition by Waller, Evelyn, Otway, Tate, Duke and others.
p. [168] The Learned Thirsis is Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), the famous Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, who matriculated from Wadham, 12 November, 1651, and 25 September, 1652, was elected a scholar. He graduated B.A. 25 June, 1654, M.A. three years later. He took his B.D. and D.D. 3 July, 1669. From 30 June, 1657 to 24 March, 1670 (when he resigned), he held a Wadham fellowship. Cowley, in his Ode to the Royal Society, had praised Sprat's History of the Royal Society of London (1667), and when Cowley died, in 1667, Sprat wrote An Account of the Life of Mr. Abraham Cowley.
p. [169] Strephon the Great is John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-80), who was admitted a fellow commoner at Wadham, 18 January, 1659-60. He was created M.A. 9 September, 1661, when little more than fourteen. The four silver pint pots he presented to his college are still preserved.
p. [171] To Mrs. W. i.e. Anne Wharton, born in Oxfordshire about 1632, second daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Lee, third baronet of Ditchley, by Anne, daughter of Sir John Danvers of Cornbury; 16 September, 1673, she married as his first wife Thomas Wharton (afterwards first Marquis of Wharton), to whom she brought £10,000 dowry and £2,500 a year. The match proved childless and unhappy, and it was only owing to Burnet's persuasions that she did not separate from her husband in 1682. She died at Adderbury, 29 October, 1685, and was buried at Winchendon on 10 November following. Anne Wharton's Elegy on the Death of the Earl of Rochester, which may be found in Examen Miscellaneum (1702), drew a poem from Waller in which he says that she
Shews that still in her he lives.
Her Wit is graceful, great, and good,
Ally'd in Genius, as in Blood.
The earl's mother was aunt to Mrs. Wharton's father, Sir Henry Lee. Rochester died 26 July, 1680. On p. 242 of The Temple of Death, a miscellany (1695), may be read Mrs. Wharton's 'To Mrs. A. Behn, on what she Writ of the Earl of Rochester'. Various other of her poems have appeared in similar collections.