187 In the London Gazette, No. 3557, Thursday, December 14, 1699, it is mentioned, that a proclamation for preventing and punishing immorality and profaneness, had been issued out on the 11th instant. We know, by the experience of our own time, the justice of Dryden’s observation.
188 Not at St James’ Church, but at the Chapel Royal. The pews, it seems, were raised to prevent the devotions of the maids of honour from any distractions in time of service. But the ballad maliciously supposes, that the intention was to confine the sun-beams of their eyes to the preacher, Bishop Burnet. The ballad itself may be found Vol. X. p. 270.
189
This poem is a banter upon the interest which the nobility
took in the disputes between the Dury-Lane theatre, where
Skipwith was manager, and that in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, of which
Betterton was sovereign. The “Island Princess” of Fletcher had
been converted into a sort of opera, by Peter Motteux, and acted
at Drury-Lane in 1699. The peculiar taste of Rich for every
thing that respected show and machinery is well known.
190 Sir Thomas Skipwith, joint patentee and manager with Charles Rich of the Drury-Lane theatre.
191 Mary Tudor, natural daughter of Charles the Second, and lady of Lord Ratcliff, (now Earl of Derwentwater,) to whom Dryden dedicated his Third Miscellany. See Vol. XII. p. 47.
192 Arabella, daughter of Sir Edward Allen, Bart. She first married Francis Thompson, Esq. and was at this time the wife of Lord George Howard, (eldest son of Henry, the sixth duke of Norfolk, by his second wife,) who died in March 1720-21. Malone.
193 Elizabeth, daughter of Digby, Lord Gerard, and second wife of James, Duke of Hamilton, who was killed in a duel by Lord Mohun, in November 1712. Malone.
194 Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Bertie of Uffington, in the county of Lincoln, Esq. a younger son of Montague, the second earl of Lindsey. She was at this time the wife of Charles Mildmay, the second Lord Fitzwalter of that family. Malone.
195 Margaret, daughter of George, Lord Chandos, and relict of William Brownlow of Humby, in Lincolnshire.
196 Richard Norton of Southwick, in Hampshire, Esq. Cibber’s comedy, entitled, “Love’s last Shift,” was dedicated to this gentleman, in February 1696-7. Mr Norton died December 10, 1732, in his sixty-ninth year.
197 Anthony Henley, of the Grange, in Hampshire, Esq., a man of parts and learning, and a correspondent of Swift, who died in 1711.
198 Perhaps General Webbe, whose “firm platoon” was afterwards celebrated by Tickell. Of the prowess of Mr Beereton no memorials have been discovered. Malone.
199 Lord Henry Scott, second surviving son of James, Duke of Monmouth, who was born in 1676. In 1706 he was created Earl of Deloraine; and died about 1730.
200 The Earl of Derwentwater’s poetry, which, according to Dryden, was none of the best.
201 The famous Betterton, who, in 1695, again divided the two companies, and headed that in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
202 Robert, third Earl of Scarsdale, a protector of Betterton’s company.
203 Alluding to the statutes imposing the oath of allegiance and supremacy on all Catholics, under the penalty of incapacity to hold landed property. 11 and 12 William III. cap. 4.
204 The excellent comedy entitled the “Way of the World.” It had cost Congreve much pains, and he was so much disgusted with the cold reception alluded to in the text, that he never again wrote for the stage.
205 His Fables.
206 King William had made large grants of land out of the forfeited estates in Ireland, to his foreign servants, Portland, Albemarle, Rochford, Galway, and Athlone, and to his favourite, Lady Orkney. The Commons, who now watched every step of their deliverer with bitter jealousy, appointed a commission to enquire into the value of these grants; and followed it with a bill for resuming and applying them to the payment of public debt; “and; in order to prevent the bill from being defeated in the House of Lords, they, by a form seldom used, and which very seldom should be used, tacked it to their bill of supply; so that the Lords could not refuse the one, without disappointing the other. The Lords, to secure themselves from that insignificancy, to which the form of the bill tended to reduce them, disputed, in some conferences with the Commons, the form of it with warmth; but the resumption which it contained with indifference. And in both Houses, even the servants of the Crown gave themselves little trouble to defeat it; partly to gain popularity, but more from national antipathy to foreigners, and envy at gifts in which themselves were no sharers. The King, making allowances for national weaknesses, and for those of human nature, passed the bill without any complaint in public, but with a generous indignation in private, which perhaps made the blow fall more heavy on his friends, when, in order to soften it, he said to them, that it was for his sake, and not for their own, they were suffering,”—Dalrymple’s Annals. William felt so deeply the unkindness offered to him, that he prorogued the Parliament without the usual ceremony of a speech from the throne.
207 Mr Steward.
208 More commonly called Vanbrugh. In Dryden’s age, the spelling of proper names was not punctiliously adhered to.
209 Dryden died on the 1st of May, and this letter was written on the 11th of the preceding month. The prologue and epilogue were therefore composed within less than a month of his death.
210 The Hall of the College of Physicians.
211 Mr Malone doubts his being Doctor.
212 Thomas.
213 Sir Richard Philipps, according to Collins.
214 Sir Edward Hartop, says Collins.
215 Susanna, the wife of Sir John Pickering, according to Collins, was the eldest daughter of Sir Erasmus Driden.
216 Erasmus Driden, the poet’s father, was the writer’s great uncle. All these corrections are made by Mr Malone.
217 Ego sum Preceptor Amoris. Art. Am. Lib.
218 His Ode on St Cecilia’s Day, entitled, Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music.
219 Mrs Philips.
220 Mrs Behn.