Mr. G. Thorn Drury has drawn my attention to the fact that the original of Mrs. Behn's The Disappointment, entitled Sur une Impuissance is to be found in Recueil de Diverses Poesies Choisies Non encore Imprimées. A Amsterdam, 1661. A full translation of the French verses (Mrs. Behn's is only of part), appears in Wit and Drollery (1682), under the title The Lost Opportunity recovered. This poem is not given in Wit and Drollery (1661).
p. [182] Sir R. O. Either Sir Rowland Okeover, of Okeover, Staffs., knighted by the King, May (April?), 1665; or Sir Richard Osbaldeston of Hunmanby, York, knighted 12 August, 1681.
p. [183] The Dream. This song appears in The Muses Mercury, May, 1707, as Cupid in Chains. For variants see Textual Notes, p. 183.
p. [185] A Letter to a Brother. There is nothing to indicate to whom these satirical lines are addressed. [Ravenscroft?] For 'Sweating-Tub' cf. the Epilogue to The Lucky Chance: 'Tubs must cure your pain' (Vol. III, p. 279), and note on that passage (p. 492).
p. [185] Pusillage. cf. The Feign'd Curtezans, i, ii: 'Thou shalt part with thy Pusilage' (Vol. II, p. 320), and note on that passage, (p. 440).
p. [188] To Pesibles Tune. James Paisible, flautist and composer, who set this charming song to music, was born about 1656. He came to England circa 1680, and soon found patrons, the chief of whom was the Duchess de Mazarin, who, with the help of St. Evremond, continually gave exquisite but elaborate concerts at Paradise Row, Chelsea. In a little drawing-room scena Paisible is actually mentioned by name. He is said to have won great favour owing to his easy manners and fluent wit. 4 December, 1686, he procured a licence for his marriage with one Mary Davis. About 1691 he began to supply overtures and musical interludes for the theatres, and from 1703 to 1714 he set the tunes to Isaac's dances performed at court on birthdays and other gala occasions. He lived in the parish of S. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and died August, 1721. Much of his work has been published and some yet remain in MS. His are the overture and interludes to Southerne's Oroonoko.
p. [189] Set by Captain Pack. Captain Pack was an exceedingly popular and prolific musician of the day. The British Museum possesses four songs of his in one volume (MS.). Some of his compositions may be found in Playford's Choice Ayres (1675); in The Theatre of Music (1685-7); in The Banquet (1688). Amongst other pieces he composed incidental music for D'Urfey's Don Quixote, I and II (1694), both the first two parts of which play were received with great applause.
p. [191] Set by Mr. Farmer. Thomas Farmer, Mus. Bac., was originally one of the Waits of London. He graduated at Cambridge in 1684. He composed much instrumental music for the theatre, and contributed some songs to the second edition of Playford's Choice Ayres (1675), to The Theatre of Music (1685-7), and to D'Urfey's Third Collection of Songs (1685). His is the music to Lee's drama The Princess of Cleve (1682), and various other compositions, including A Consort of Musick (1686), of which work a second part followed a year or two after, bear his name. As Purcell composed an elegy, the words by Nahum Tate, for his funeral, Farmer must have died before 1695.
p. [195] In Imitation of Horace. An altered expansion of and no very close parallel to
Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?
cui flavam religas comam,
simplex munditiis?—Carminum, I, 5.