Chapter 9 of 14 · 1822 words · ~9 min read

Part I

(1677); and Mrs. Closet, _The City Heiress_ (1682).

In and about 1702 another Mrs. Leigh, perhaps Frank Leigh’s wife, made a brief appearance. She was at first cast for good parts but soon sank into obscurity. Thus on 21 October, 1702, she sustained Mrs. Plotwell in Mrs. Centlivre’s _The Beau’s Duel_; on 28 April, 1703, Chloris in the Hon. Charles Boyle’s insipid _As You Find It._ She may have been the Mrs. Eli. Leigh who with other performers signed a petition to Queen Anne in 1709. Of Mrs. Rachel Lee, who took the ‘walk-on’ part of Judy, a waiting-woman, in Southern’s _The Maid’s Last Prayer_ (1693), nothing is known.

p. 9 _Angelica Bianca, a famous Curtezan. Mrs. Gwin._ Anne Quin (or Quyn, Gwin, Gwyn as the name is indifferently spelt) was a famous actress of great personal beauty. She is constantly, but most erroneously, confounded with Nell Gwynne, and the mistake is the more unpardonable as both names twice occur in the same cast. When Nelly was 440 acting Florimel in Dryden’s _Secret Love_, produced February, 1667, Mrs. Quin played Candiope. Again, in _An Evening’s Love_, June, 1668, Nell Gwynne was Jacinta, and Mrs Quin Aurelia, a role assumed later in the run by Mrs. Marshall. Among Mrs. Quin’s more notable parts were Alizia (Alice Perrers) in Orrery’s _The Black Prince_, produced 19 October, 1667; 1677, Thalestris in Pordage’s _The Siege of Babylon_, and Astrea in _The Constant Nymph_; 1678, Lady Knowell in _Sir Patient Fancy_ and Lady Squeamish in Otway’s _Friendship in Fashion_; 1682, Queen Elizabeth in Banks’ _The Unhappy Favourite_, and Sunamire in Southerne’s _The Loyal Brother._ Mrs. Quin appears to have retired from the stage towards the close of the year 1682. There exists of this actress an extremely interesting portrait which was offered for sale at Stevens’ Auction Rooms, 26 February, 1901, but not reaching the reserve price, withdrawn. It is mistakenly described in the catalogue as ‘Miniature Portrait of Nell Gwynn on copper with original case and 30 cover dresses on talc...’ An illustrated article on it, entitled, ‘Nell Gwynne’s Various Guises’, appeared in the _Lady’s Pictorial_, 23 March, of the same year, p. 470, in the course of which the writer says: ‘Accompanying the miniature are some thirty mica covers in different stages of preservation upon which various headdresses and costumes are painted. The place where, in the ordinary course, the face would come is in all cases left blank, the talc being of course transparent, when it is laid upon the original miniature the countenance of the latter becomes visible, and we are enabled to see Nell Gwynne [Anne Quin] as she would appear in various characters.’ The old error has been perpetuated here, but the _Lady’s Pictorial_ reproduced half-a-dozen of these painted mica covers, and the costumes for the two roles of Queen Elizabeth and Sunamire can be distinctly recognized. Doubtless an examination of the original micas would soon yield an identification of other characters. The miniature, it may be noted, does not in the least resemble Nell Gwynne, so there is bare excuse here for the confusion.

## Act I: Scene i

p. 11 _Siege of Pampelona._ Pampluna, the strongly fortified capital of Navarra, has from its geographical position very frequently been a centre of military operations. It will be remembered that it was during a siege of Pampluna in 1521 Ignatius Loyola received the wound which indirectly led to the founding of the Jesuits.

p. 13 _King Sancho the First._ Sancho I, ‘the Fat’, of Castile and Leon, reigned 955-67: Sancho I of Aragon 1067-94. But the phrase is here only in a vague general sense to denote some musty and immemorial antiquity without any exact reference.

p. 14 _Hostel de Dieu._ The first Spanish hospital was erected at Granada by St. Juan de Dios, founder of the Order of Hospitallers. ob. 1550.

p. 14 _Gambo._ The Gambia in W. Africa has been a British Colony since 1664, when a fort, now Fort James, was founded at the mouth of the river.

## Act I: Scene ii

p. 17 _Hogoes._ Haut-goût, a relish or savoury.

## Act I: Scene ii

p. 26 _a Piece of Eight._ A piastre, a coin of varying values in different countries. The Spanish piastre is now synonymous with a dollar and so worth about four shillings. The old Italian piastre was equivalent to 3_s._ 7_d._

441 Act II: Scene i

p. 30 _Balcony... each side of the Door._ With regard to the proscenium doors and balconies of a Restoration theatre, our knowledge of these points has been rendered much more exact since the valuable discovery by that well-known authority in stage matters, Mr. W. J. Lawrence, of Sir Christopher Wren’s designs for the second Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 1674. Beyond the proscenium on the apron there are four doors each with its balcony above. The height of these balconies from the stage is considerable, surprisingly so indeed in view of the fact that characters frequently have to climb up into or descend from one of these ‘windows’, e.g., Shadwell’s _The Miser_ (1672), Act. iv, when the drunken bullies ‘bounce at the Doors’, we have ‘Squeeze at the Window in his Cap, and undressed,’ who cries: ‘I must venture to escape at this Window’; ‘he leaps down’, and yells, as he falls, ‘Death! I have broke my Bones; oh! oh!’ whilst the scowrers run up, exclaiming: ‘Somebody leaped out of a Window’, and he is promptly seized. In Ravenscroft’s _The London Cuckolds_ (1682), Act. v: ‘Enter Ramble above in the Balcony’. This gallant, escaping from the house hurriedly, decides ‘which way shall I get down? I must venture to hang by my hands and then drop from the Balcony’. Next: ‘As Ramble is getting down Doodle enters to look for his glove, Ramble drops upon him and beats him down.’ This could hardly have been an easy bit of stage business, although Smith, who acted Ramble, was an athletic, tall young fellow.

Normally no doubt only two of the doors (those nearest the proscenium opening on opposite sides) with their balconies were in constant use by the actors as the exigencies of the play might demand, but if required, all four balconies, and more frequently, all four doors could be and were employed. It is noticeable in Wren’s design that the balconies are not stage balconies, but side boxes, a permanent part of the general architectural scheme, and there can be no doubt that, save in exceptional circumstances, the two outermost were occupied by spectators. If the play did not require the use of a balcony at all, spectators would also fill the inner side boxes. In time, indeed, two doors and two balconies only came to be used, but for some decades at least all four were practicable. The present passage of _The Rover_ indicates the use of three doors. The bravos hang up two little pictures of Angelica, one at each side of the door of her house, and presently the fair courtezan appears in her balcony above. A little later Don Pedro and Stephano enter by one door at the opposite side, Don Antonio and his page by the second door on the same side as Pedro.

In Etheredge’s _She Wou’d if She Cou’d_ (6 February, 1668) Act ii, 1, Courtal and Freeman are seen following up Ariana and Gatty in the Mulberry Garden. Presently ‘The Women go out, and go about behind the Scenes to the other Door’, then ‘Enter the Women [at one door] and after ’em Courtal at the lower Door, and Freeman at the upper on the contrary side’.

Three balconies are employed in Ravenscroft’s _Mamamouchi_ (1672; 4to 1675) Act iv. We have ‘Enter Mr. Jorden, musick’ obviously in one balcony from the ensuing dialogue. Then ‘Cleverwit, in Turk’s 442 habit, with Betty Trickmore and Lucia appear in the Balcony’ number two. A song is sung and ‘Young Jorden and Marina in the Balcony against ’em’. Young Jorden remarks, ‘Now, dearest Marina, let us ascend to your Father, he is by this time from his Window convinc’d of the slight is put on you....’ ‘They retire’ and although there has been no exit marked for Mr, Jorden, we find directly, ‘Enter Mr. Jorden and Trickmore,’ obviously upon the stage itself, to which Mr. Jorden has descended. It must be noted, however, that the use of more than two balconies is very rare.

Mr. W. J. Lawrence in _The Elizabethan Playhouse and other Studies_ (First Series) aptly writes: ‘No dramatist of the time had a better sense of the theatre than Mrs. Behn, and none made more adroit employment of the balconies.’ He then cites the scene of Angelica, her bravos and admirers.

p. 36 _a Patacoone._ A Spanish coin in value about 4_s._ 8_d._

## Act II: Scene ii

p. 38 _a Pistole-worth._ The pistole was a gold coin worth about 16_s._

p. 42 _a shameroon._ A rare word meaning a trickster, a cozening rascal.

## Act III: Scene iia

p. 54 _bow’d Gold._ Bowed for bent is still used in the North of England: ‘A bowed pin.’

## Act III: Scene iii

p. 57 _disguis’d._ A common phrase for drunk.

## Act IV: Scene ii

p. 75 _cogging._ To cog = to trick, wheedle or cajole.

## Act V: Scene i

p. 99 _Tramontana._ Foreign; Italian and Spanish _tramontano_ = from beyond the mountains.

p. 101 _upse._ Op zijn = in the fashion or manner of. _Upse Gipsy_ = like a gipsy, cf. _The Alchemist_, iv, vi:

I do not like the dulness of your eye: It hath a heavy cast, ’tis upsee Dutch.

p. 101 _Incle._ Linen thread or yarn which was woven into a tape once very much in use.

Epilogue

p. 106 _Nokes, or Tony Lee._ James Nokes and Antony Leigh, the two famous actors, were the leading low comedians of the day.

p. 107 _Play of the Novella._ _Novella_ is a good, though intricate, comedy by Brome. 8vo, 1653, but acted 1632.

p. 107 _The famous Virgil._ There is a tale, reported by Donatus, that Vergil once anonymously wrote up on the palace gates a distich in praise of Augustus, which, when nobody was found to own it, was claimed by a certain versifier Bathyllus, whom Cæsar duly rewarded, A few days later, however, Virgil again set in the same place a quatrain each line of which commenced ‘sic vos non vobis...’ but was unfinished, and preceeded these by the one hexameter

Hos ego versiculos feci; tulit alter honores.

All were unable to complete the lines satisfactorily save the great poet himself, and by this means the true author of the eulogy was revealed.

A, B. A portion of the facing inner margins is missing:

image of facing pages 30-31

Reconstruction, page 30:

## partial image of page 30

Reconstruction, page 31:

## partial image of page 31

109

THE ROVER; OR, THE BANISH’D CAVALIERS.

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