"O Charlotte! who thy character can read,
But soon must languish, sigh, and secret bleed?
* * * * *
To wealth, to power, I every wish resign,
If only that dear Charlotte might be mine."
[35] A favourite word with Steele. In the first scene of the play Sable says: "There's a what d'ye call, a crisis." In 1714, Steele wrote a famous pamphlet called The Crisis. "Plebian Britons," five lines below, reminds us of his four pamphlets, The Plebeian, on the Peerage Bill of 1719.
[36] Steele always maintained in his own political career the honest independent attitude here recommended.
[37] Daniel Purcell, brother of the great musician, Henry Purcell, was appointed organist of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1686, and of St. Andrew's, Holborn, in 1713. He composed the music for an opera by George Powell, and died in 1717.
[38] "To have known these things is safety to the young."
[39] James, second Duke of Ormond, was in command of the expedition against Spain in 1702, when there were successes at Cadiz, Vigo, etc.; great booty was taken, and many galleons were sunk. Steele alludes below to this "wealth of the Indies." On February 4, 1703, the Duke was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
[40] James Butler, first Duke of Ormond. Steele's uncle and guardian, Henry Gascoigne, was the Duke's secretary, and had obtained, through his employer, a place upon the foundation of the Charterhouse for Steele. Four years later (1688) the Duke died, and was succeeded by his grandson.
[41] On the 13th of January, 1704, one week before the publication of this play, the Queen issued an Order for the regulation of the playhouses, prohibiting them from acting anything contrary to religion and good manners (Salmon's Chronological Historian).
[42] This line is repeated from Steele's Procession, 1695.