Part I

, and vice versa. Correcting, pruning, augmenting, enlivening, rewriting, she may indeed (pace the memory of the merry jester of Charles II) be well said to have clothed dry bones with flesh, and to have given her creation a witty and supple tongue.

* There is a strange commixture here. The character is familiarly addressed as ‘Hal’, the scene is Madrid, and he rejoices in the Milanese (not Italian) nomenclature Arrigo = Henry in that dialect.

THEATRICAL HISTORY.

The first part of _The Rover_ was produced at the Duke’s House, Dorset Gardens, in the summer of 1677, and licensed for printing on 2 July of the same year. It met, as it fully deserved, with complete success, and remained one of the stock plays of the company. Smith, the original Willmore, and the low comedian Underhill as Blunt were especially renowned in their respective rôles. Another famous Willmore was Will Mountford, of whom Dibdin relates, ‘When he played Mrs. Behn’s dissolute character of The Rover, it was remarked by many, and

## particularly by Queen Mary, that it was dangerous to see him act, he

made vice so alluring.’

Amongst the more notable representations of the eighteenth century we find:— _Drury Lane; 18 February, 1703._ Willmore by Wilks; Hellena, Mrs. Oldfield; repeated on 15 October of the same year. _Haymarket; 20 January, 1707._ Willmore by Verbruggen; Blunt, Underhill; Hellena, Mrs. Bracegirdle; Angelica, Mrs. Barry; Florinda, Mrs. Bowman. _Drury Lane; 22 April, 1708._ Willmore by Wilks; Blunt, Estcourt; Frederick, Cibber; Hellena, Mrs. Oldfield; Angelica, Mrs. Barry; Florinda, Mrs. Porter. _Drury Lane; 30 December, 1715._ Willmore, Wilks; Blunt, Johnson; Hellena, Mrs. Mountfort; Angelica, Mrs. Porter. _Drury Lane; 6 March, 6 1716._ Don Pedro, Quin; Frederick, Ryan; Florinda, Mrs. Horton. _Lincoln’s Inn Fields; 5 April, 1725._ ‘Never acted there.’ Performed for Ryan’s benefit. Willmore, Ryan; Belvile, Quin; Blunt, Spiller; Hellena, Mrs. Bullock; Angelica, Mrs. Parker. _Covent Garden; 9 November, 1748._ Willmore, Ryan; Blunt, Bridgewater; Hellena, Mrs. Woffington; Angelica, Mrs. Horton. To make this performance more attractive there was also presented ‘a musical entertainment’, entitled, _Apollo and Daphne_, which had been originally produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1726. _Covent Garden; 19 February, 1757._ ‘Not acted twenty years.’ Willmore, Smith; Belvile, Ridout; Frederick, Clarke; Don Antonio, Dyer; Blunt, Shuter; Hellena, Mrs. Woffington; Angelica, Mrs. Hamilton; Florinda, Mrs. Elmy. This, the latest revival, was performed with considerable expense, and proved successful, being repeated no less than ten times during the season. Wilkinson says that Shuter acted Blunt very realistically, and, as the stage directions of

## Act iii require, stripped to his very drawers.

On 8 March, 1790, J. P. Kemble presented at Drury Lane a pudibond alteration of _The Rover_, which he dubbed _Love in Many Masks_ (8vo, 1790). It was well received, and acted eight times; in the following season once. Willmore was played by Kemble himself; Belvile, Wroughton; Blunt, Jack Bannister; Stephano, Suett; Hellena, Mrs. Jordan; Angelica, Mrs. Ward; Florinda, Mrs. Powell; Valeria, Mrs. Kemble; Lucetta, Miss Tidswell. It is not entirely worthless from a purely technical point of view, but yet very modest and mediocre. As might well be surmised, the raciness and spirit of _The Rover_ entirely evaporate in the insipidity of emasculation. This is the last recorded performance of Mrs. Behn’s brilliant comedy in any shape.

7

THE ROVER; or, the Banish’d Cavaliers.

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