300 They have killed my squirrel in his cage! PUFF. There, do you ever desire to see anybody madder than that? SNEER. Never, while I live! 307 SNEER. And pray, what becomes of her? PUFF. She is gone to throw herself into the sea, to be sure-and that brings us at once to the scene of action, and so to my catastrophe-my sea fight, I mean. 318 SNEER. What, you bring that in at last? PUFF. Yes, yes-you know my play is called the Spanish Armada; otherwise, egad, I have no occasion for the battle at all.Now then for my magnificence!-my battle! -my noise!-and my procession! - You are all ready? PROMPTER. (Within) Yes, sir. Enter THAMES, with two Attendants THAMES. Here I am, sir. 325 PUFF. Very well indeed.-See, gentlemen, there's a river for you!-This is blending a little of the masque with my tragedy a new PUFF. Yes, one crowned with alders, and the other with a villa!-you take the allusions? But hey! what the plague! you have got both your banks on one side-Here, sir, come round-Ever while you live, Thames, go between your banks. (Bell rings) There, soh! now for't. Stand aside, my dear friends! -away, Thames! 348 Exit THAMES between his banks (Flourish of drums, trumpets, cannon, etc. etc. Scene changes to the seathe fleets engage-the music plays "Britons strike home."-Spanish fleet destroyed by fireships, etc.-English fleet advances—music plays Rule, Britannia."-The procession of all the English rivers, and their tributaries, with their emblems, etc. begins with Händel's water music; ends with a chorus, to the march in "Judas Maccabæus."-During this scene PUFF directs and applauds everything—then) PUFF. Well, pretty well-but not quite perfect; so, ladies and gentlemen, if you please, we'll rehearse this piece again to THE REHEARSAL NOTES The Rehearsal was written as a satire on contemporary theatrical extravagances, particularly upon those of heroic drama. It also attacks certain personal enemies of the Duke of Buckingham. The first intent was to ridicule D'Avenant and the Howards. The United Kingdoms, a heroic play by Colonel Henry Howard, had been produced in 1663 amid the riotous interruptions of the Duke's followers, but many alterations were needed before the initial production of The Rehearsal at the Theatre Royal on December 7, 1671. Thomas Sprat, Martin Clifford, and probably the poets Waller and Cowley, aided Buckingham; there is also good contemporary evidence for adding Samuel Butler to the list of collaborators. Naturally the number of authors and the long period of composition made The Rehearsal a general satire of literary importance. The Knight of the Burning Pestle influenced the structural form of the play, and Buckingham's stage satire in turn afforded Sheridan material for The Critic, by far the most famous of the three. Seventeen plays have been named as being burlesqued in The Rehearsal. Six of these are by Dryden, The Conquest of Granada and Marriage à la Mode being most clearly parodied. In 1671 the former of these two had just been produced very successfully and the latter was well known in manuscript form. In the original version Buckingham's play was ready for the stage early in the summer of 1665, but on June 5 all London theatres had been closed by the Lord Chamberlain for the duration of the plague. When the playhouses were reopened, this form was inept; moreover the death of D'Avenant made the satire upon The Siege of Rhodes (1656) merely of historical interest.. Meanwhile the growth of Dryden's reputation was giving new material for satiric parody of a still more extravagant sort of heroic drama. Though the central figure of Bayes possesses some marks of the original characterization of Sir Robert Howard and D'Avenant, in most respects it is a satirical representation of Dryden. No one else so fully embodied the dramatic extravagances of the age, and the personal ridicule in no way hindered the use of passages directed against the writings of other dramatists. If the positive merits of heroic drama are to be found best in Dryden's Aureng-Zebe, its defects as seen in The Conquest of Granada are made very much more prominent through the lines of The Rehearsal. Tedious love-and-honor debates, melodramatic war settings, and the abrupt, unmotivated shifts of action made too great demand upon the patience of an audience. Elaborate similes and wordy arguments delayed the action intolerably at times, and in the final scenes all plausibility was frequently lost through a servile obedience to the rule of poetic justice. Under its laws the neo-classic rules were made of more importance than the commonest traits of human nature. In this pressure of critical standards upon original taste Restoration drama of the serious sort lost completely the 'profound, sententious characterization of the greatest Elizabethans. The Rehearsal was first printed in 1672, by Thomas Dring. Mr. Summers has found a total of thirty-two editions, of which the next in importance is dated 1675. This revised version, "with amendments and long additions by the author," contains still more intensive satire upon Dryden. Of almost equal historical importance is the Key, printed with Samuel Briscoe's edition of 1704. It is the most valuable commentary upon Buckingham's allusions and parodies. A second key is preserved in the British Museum as a part of Bishop Percy's incomplete edition of all the writings of Buckingham. Both sources of information were used by Edward Arber when preparing his replica of the first edition of The Rehearsal. This was published in 1868, and until recently has been the most useful form of the play obtainable. Excellent critical editions have recently been published by Professor George R. Noyes with his "Selected Dramas of John Dryden" (1910) and by Mr. Montague Summers (1916).1 1 Data will be acknowledged in the notes by initials of these editors and by K for the Key. PAGE 3, LINE 27 John Lacy: the actor who played the part of Bayes. 481 thy last play. Dryden's Conquest of Granada. In the following speeches the allusions may be to Marriage à la Mode, first acted in May, 1672, but shown by the Preface to have been passed about in manuscript. Compare especially the subplot with the Prince Pretty man episodes of the present play. (N.) 5 125 the rule of transversion. A satire on Dryden's use of the same material in both prose and verse. 5 146 table-book: a pocket notebook with "tablets" for memoranda. 6 218 Amaryllis. The Key states: "The part of Amaryllis was acted by Mrs. Anne Reeves, who, at that time, was kept by Mr. Bayes." The rôle was undoubtedly an 'impersonation. Many contemporary satires on the same topic still exist. Modern readers of this quotation may need a reminder that in the period covered by these plays the abbreviation "Mrs." was equivalent to the present-day "Miss" for an unmarried woman, and also to "Mrs.," our distinguishing term for a married woman. The text of the plays in this volume contains many examples of the peculiarity. 7323 I have printed. Dryden thus announced The Indian Emperor as a sequel of The Indian Queen. (K.) 7363 certain ties upon me. In 1668 Dryden agreed, according to Malone, to write three plays yearly for the King's Company, in return for a share and a quarter. He never fulfilled the contract. 8 400 Cf. Conquest of Granada, Part II, I, ii, 128 ff.: So two kind turtles, when a storm is nigh, Look up and see it gathering in the sky; Each calls his mate to shelter in the groves, Leaving, in murmurs, their unfinished loves; Perched on some drooping branch, they sit alone, And coo and hearken to each other's moan. (K.) 8 414 Cf. Stapylton's The Slighted Maid, III, for original of this "song in dialogue." (K.) 8 452 Mr. Ivory. Abraham Ivory had once acted women's rôles, but through drinking heavily had come to be merely a messenger about the theatre. (K.) 86 I begin . . . with a whisper. As in Mrs. Behn's Amorous Prince (1671), and in many other plays. See Summers's edition. 9 101 Mr. Wintershall: an old actor who had appeared in many minor rôles with Killigrew's company. 10 63 the Nursery. In 1664 Charles II granted a patent for the erection of a theatre for training young actors who were later to be taken into the king's or the duke's company. The house stood in Golding Lane near the Barbican. 11 22 Cf. Conquest of Granada, Part I, V, iii, 129 ff.: As some fair tulip, by a storm oppressed, 12 49 Enter Shirley: a popular actor, evidently brought on here without being cast for any part except his dance at the end. 12 32 I have broke my nose. Sir William D'Avenant was often satirized because of his extremely snub nose. 1334 Failer and Bibber, his tailor, in The Wild Gallant, have a similar dialogue. (K.) 14 78 an angel for the king's evil. Having been touched by the king as a cure for scrofula, the patient had a gold angel hung about his neck. It was not coined after 1634, but a token was thereafter used in the ceremony. In 1627 an angel was worth ten shillings. 15 65 Cf. Marriage à la Mode, I, 328-342. 17 185 Enter Prince Volscius. Following is a close parody of The English Monsieur (IV, ii), by the Honorable James Howard. Pepys saw the play on December 8, 1666. 17 250 a combat. Cf. An Essay of Heroic Plays: ". . . an heroic play ought to be an imitation, in little, of an heroic poem; and consequently Love and Valor ought to be the subject of it. Both these Sir William D'Avenant had begun to shadow." Dryden referred to Love and Honour (4to, 1649). 184 to begin with a funeral. Howard's The United Kingdoms was so written. (K.) 18 31 the rule of romance. The speech shows understanding of Dryden's sources. It also ridicules the practice of writing plays in two parts 19 112 Drawcansir: a burlesque of Almanzor in the Conquest of Granada. 20 181 Cf. Tyrannic Love, III: I'll come all soul and spirit to your love, etc. (K.) 21 248 Lo, from this conquering lance. The following is a parody of a scene in The Villain (1663), a tragedy by Thomas Porter. There the host furnishes a collation out of his clothes. (K.) 21 255 Cf. Conquest of Granada, Part II, IV, iii, 158-159: He who dares love, and for that love must die, And, knowing this, dares yet love on, am I. (K.) 22 298 Roman clothes. Reminiscent of an extravagant revival of Jonson's Catiline in December, 1668. (S.) 22 19 reasoning in verse: one of Dryden's evident tendencies. 237 Harry the Eight. In December, 1663, Henry VIII was revived at the Duke's Theatre with elaborate accessories. Its stage vogue evidently continued, but no quartos seem to have been issued. 23 10 The Curtain is drawn up. Evidently Bayes and the gentlemen were on the apron. At the end of Act IV the curtain had been dropped, contrary to custom, in order to give opportunity for this setting. 23 36 what sound is this invades our ears: a heroic-play metaphor. 24 52 Cf. Tyrannic Love, IV, iii : Hark, my Damilcar, we are called below, etc. (K.) 26 203 I sum up my whole battle. In The Siege of Rhodes seven characters "sum up" a battle to recitative music. (K.) The description of the fight satirizes Dryden's manner. 26 245 the Chelsea cuirassiers. This phrase parodies the use of foreign proper names. 27 304 The Slighted Maid (1663): a comedy by Sir Robert Stapylton. The Key indicates a long passage from Act V as source of the following masque. 27 328 sell the earth a bargain: a trick of answering innocent questions with vulgarity. 28 416 gone to dinner. As dinner was at twelve, The Rehearsal was supposedly in the morning. Plays were usually begun about three o'clock, though the hour gradually became later. Pepys refers to leaving the playhouse as late as midnight, but in his day performances ordinarily began at five o'clock or earlier. 1676. Although its stage history has been creditable, the play has more importance through its share in the, development of modern high comedy. The title character has the foppish mannerisms of Molière's Mascarille, particularly as that figure appears in Les Précieuses Ridicules. Wycherley had presented a similar character in The Gentleman Dancing Master, as had a half dozen other English dramatists in as many plays, but Etherege's Sir Fopling Flutter made the stage fop an accepted character on the London stage. Other evident borrowings from Molière are the themes of urban satire upon country life, the device of delaying the entry of a leading character in order to arouse expectation, and the use of familiar native characters and settings. In spite of its continental origin the play is not merely imitative. The scenes are from fashionable London life of the period, and the central group of characters shows men and women of Etherege's own circle. Tradition has it that Dorimant is a portrayal of Lord Rochester; Medley, of Sir Charles Sedley; and Sir Fopling Flutter, of "Beau" Hewitt. Spence believed Dorimant to be a sketch of Etherege himself. Though these assertions may have little fact behind them, they imply that the rôles were conceived in the atmosphere of contemporary London court life. Even the country figures, stock subjects of stage satire, have more reality than in later comedies of this school. The other characters of the play-chairmen, tradesmen, and venders have unusual value in the finished representations of St. James Street and Pall Mall. Firm plot structure is not looked for in plays of this type, and The Man of Mode is no better in that respect than its kind. It shares with them all a uniformity of animation in its dialogue and heartlessness in its intrigues. Etherege was active at a time when such qualities became standard in seventeenth-century comedy and with Wycherley represents the early achievements in a new form. 30 Dedication. The friendship of Mary of Modena, the young Duchess of York, amply repaid Etherege for this tribute. As queen of James II she was able to assist the dramatist in his appeal for official employment. 30 Sir Car Scroope: versifier and man about town. He was often involved in the satirical contests of wit at the court of Charles II. His song is a translation of a French elegy. (Biog. Brit.) 31 15 Nature . . . and wit. The seventeenthcentury literature of England is marked by many comments on this old theme of the respective merits of natural genius and art. 32 47 Totnam (or Tottenham): a northern suburb of Old London, now a shopping center in the north-central district. 32 78 Change: the trading center of London. The place is often confused with the financial district, called the "Exchange." 34 277 a fit o' the mother. A very old expression, in which "mother" is synonymous with "hysteria." 36 442 Bethlem (or Bethlehem): a hospital for the insane, in Bishopsgate. 38 648 Long's or Locket's: two famous London coffeehouses, one of them in the Haymarket, the other near Charing Cross. 40 105 Go! You're a rogue. Other passages show the next two sentences to be addressed to Emilia, not to Young Bellair. 40 126 ombre: a card game for three persons, played without the eights, nines, or tens. The game of gleek was also for three players. 41 215 the Bear Garden. Bear baiting was a popular amusement of London as late as 1747. Hockley Hole was the scene of these spectacles. 42 81 St. Winifred's. The sanative power still credited to St. Winifred's spring at Holywell, Flint, had its origin in a legend. The spring was a popular shrine for pilgrims. 46 68 haughty Merab. Saul promised Merab to David as reward for his valor, but then gave her to Adriel (1 Sam., xviii). The allusion is inept here unless there be some contemporary addition. 47 110 an eye like Bart'lomew. A reference to the rolling eyes of puppets in the many shows exhibited at the annual Bartholomew Fair, in Smithfield. Established in 1120, this fair was held yearly until 1855 with the exception of lapses on account of the plague, as in 1665-1666. From 1691 to 1694 the fair lasted fourteen days, but three was the usual term. 47 112 keep your gingerbread. Originally a "fairing" was any present brought home; usually, however, it was an image of the saint. Gingerbread figures were at length substituted for other types. 47 166 Exchange women. Such as frequented the "Old," or Royal, Exchange. 48 217 th' Circle: the fashionable drive in Hyde Park. 48 15 Muddiman. Henry Muddiman was the most favored journalist of the seventeenth century. He began as a Parliamentary journalist in 1659, then under Charles II had such special favors as free post with all correspondents and almost a monopoly of state news. He was interested in giving news-letter service to country readers but also promoted for the government the London Gazette, started in 1665 as the official journal and now the oldest active English publication. 49 121 the Mall. Pall Mall, still the name of the promenade in St. James Park, was so called from the game of mall, which was played on the grassy alley with balls and mallets. Charles II was the one to change the open meadow into a formal driveway and promenade. 51 261 calèche (now "calash"): a light carriage with low wheels. 51 265 Inns of Court man: a resident in one of four groups of buildings (the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn) belonging to the legal societies having exclusive right to admit to bar practice. The last two were named after family estates once lying west of the city. 52 353 stums: originally signifies to give wine an artificial fermentation by means of admixture or repression. 54 145 high Mall: the most fashionable hour for promenading. 61 294 coq-à-l'âne (Fr., a cock on an ass"): a silly, disconnected account. Compare our "cock-and-bull story." 61 319 Bussy. Historically, Bussy d'Ambois (1549-1579) was an active agent in the St. Bartholomew and following religious troubles, on the Catholic side. See Dumas's Dame de Montsereau, and Chapman's plays Bussy d'Ambois (1604; printed, 1607) and The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois (1613). 61 323 Rabutin (1618-1693): French gentleman-at-arms, author of a Histoire amoureuse des Gaules (1665), a satire on current scandals at the French court that led to the composition of many such fictitious memoirs in both France and England. 62 414 basque: the short skirt of a doublet, extending slightly below the waist. 62 436 a mumming: acting in disguise, usually with strolling players, as for a Christmas entertainment. 66 141 Duke of Candale (1627-1658): grandson to Henry IV of France. He had high place |