Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The Part of Amaryllis was acted by Mrs. Ann Reeves, who, at that Time, was kept by Mr. Bayes. Key 1704.

The licentiousness of Dryden's plays admits of no palliation or defence. He wrote for a licentious stage in a profligate age, and supplied, much to his own disgrace, the kind of material the vicious taste of his audiences demanded. Nor will it serve his reputation to contrast his productions in this way with those of others. Shadwell alone transcended him in depravity. But there is some compensation for all his grossness in turning from his plays to his life, and marking the contrast. The morality of his life-the practical test of his heart and his understanding- was unimpeachable. The ingenuity of slander was exhausted in assailing his principles, and exposing his person to obloquy -but the morality of his life comes pure out of the furnace. The only hint of personal indiscretion ascribed to him is that of having eaten tarts with Mrs. Reeve the actress, in the Mulberry garden, which, iftrue, amounts to nothing, but which, trivial as it is, must be regarded as apocryphal. To cat tarts with an actress did not necessarily involve any grave delinquency in a poet who was writing for the theatre; yet upon this slight foundation, for I have not been able to discover that it rests upon any other, a suspicion has been raised, that Mrs. Reeve was his mistress. By way, however, of mitigating the odium of this unwarrantable imputation, it is added, that after his marriage Dryder renounced all such associations. But his relations with Mrs. Reeve, if he ever had any, must have been formed after his marriage, as a reference to dates will show, so that the suppositious scandal, as it has been transmitted to us, conveys its own refutation.

R. BELL. Life of Dryden, i. 91. Ed. 1854

Two Kings of Brentford, fuppofed to be the two Brothers, the King and the Duke. [See note at p. 90.].

Key 1704

Enter BAYES, JOHNSON and SMITH.

BAYES. Come, come in, Gentlemen. Y'are very welcome Mr.-a- -Ha' you your Part ready? 1 Play. Yes, Sir.

BAYES. But do you understand the true humour of it? 1 Play. I, Sir, pretty well.

BAYES. And Amarillis, how does the do? Does not her Armor become her?

3 Play. O, admirably!

BAYES. I'l tell you, now, a pretty conceipt. What do you think I'l make 'em call her anon, in this Play? SMI. What, I pray?

BAYES. Why I'l make 'em call her Armarillis, because of her Armor: ha, ha, ha.

JOHNS. That will be very well, indeed.

BAYES, I, it's a pretty little rogue; fhe is my Miftrefs.' I knew her face would fet off Armor extreamly: and, to tell you true, I writ that Part only for her. Well, Gentlemen, I dare be bold to fay, without vanity, I' fhew you fomething, here, that's very ridiculous, I gad. [Exeunt Players.

JOHNS. Sir, that we do not doubt of. BAYES. Pray, Sir, let's fit down. Look you, Sir, the chief hindge of this Play, upon which the whole Plot moves and turns, and that caufes the variety of all the feveral accidents, which, you know, are the thing in Nature that make up the grand refinement of a Play, is, that I fuppofe two Kings' to be of the fame place: as, for example, at Brentford; for I love to write familiarly. Now the people having the fame relations to 'em both, the fame affections, the fame duty, the fame obedience, and all that; are divided among themselves in point of devoir and interest, how to behave themselves equally between 'em: these Kings differing fometimes in particular; though, in the main, they agree. (I know not whether I make my felf well understood.)

Continued from page 32.

1. To give the reader an account of the writer of this farce. 2. The motives which induced him to compose it.

I can stay no longer now, said he; but if you desire any furthor direction in this matter, meet me here to-morrow night, and I will discourse more particularly on those two heads, and then take my leave of you wishing you good success with your preface, and that your KEY may prove a GOLDEN ONE.

:

Now, kind reader, having received all the instructions I could gain from my resolute spark at our several meetings, I must stand on my own legs, and turn Prefacer, tho' against my will. And thus I set out,

1. To tell thee what all persons, who are anything acquainted with the stage, know already: viz. That this farce was wrote by the most noble GEORGE VILLIERS, late Duke of BUCKINGHAM, &c. a person of a great deal of natural wit and ingenuity, and of excellent judgement, particularly in matters of this nature; his forward genius was improved by a liberal education, and the conversation of the greatest persons in his time; and all these cultivated and improved by study and travel.

By the former, he became well acquainted with the writings of the most celebrated Poets of the late age; viz. Shakespear, Beaumont, and Johnson, (the last of whom he knew personally, being thirteen years old when he died) as also with the famous company of actors at Black-Fryars, whom he always admired. He was likewise very intimate with the poets of his time; as Sir John Denham, Sir John Suckling, the Lord Falkland, Mr. Sidney Godolphin, (a near relation to the Lord High Treasurer of England that now is, the glory of that ancient family) Mr. Waller, and Mr. Cowley; on the last of whom he bestowed a genteel Annuity during his life, and a noble monument in Westminster-Abbey after his decease.

By travel he had the opportunity of observing the decorum of foreign theatres; especially the French, under the regulation of Monsieur Corneille, before it was so far Italianated, and over-run with opera and farce, as now it is; and before the venom thereof had crossed the narrow seas, and poisoned the English stage; We being naturally prone to imitate the French in their fashions, manners, and customs, let them be never so vicious, fantastick, or ridiculous.

By what has been said on this head, I hope thou art fully satisfied who was the author of this piece, which the learned and judicious Dr. Burnet (Now Bishop of Sarum) calls 'a correction,' and 'an unmerciful exposing;' and I believe thou hast as little cause to doubt of his being able to perform it. Had this great person been endued with constancy and steadiness of mind, equal to his other abilities both natural and acquired, he had been the most complete gentleman in his time.

I shall proceed to shew,

2. The motives which induced him to undertake it.

The civil war silenced the stage for almost twenty years, tho' not near so lewd then, as it is since grown; and it had been happy for England, if this had been the worst effect of that war. The many changes of government, that succeeded the dissolution of the ancient constitution, made the people very uneasy, and unanimously desirous of its restitution which was effected by a free Parliament, in the year 1660.

This sudden revolution, which is best known by the name of THE RESTORATION, brought with it many ill customs, from the several countries, to which the King and the cavaliers were retired, during their exile, which proved very pernicious to our English constitution, by corrupting our morals; and to which the reviving the stage, and bringing women on't, and encouraging and applauding the many lewd, senseless, and unnatural plays, that ensued upon this great change, did very much contribute.

This is a mistake.

The Duke of Buckingham was born Jan, 30, 1629 Ben Johnson died Aug. 6, 1637. Ep. Percy.

Continued at page 46.

JOHNS. I did not observe you, Sir: pray say that again.

BAYES. Why, look you, Sir, (nay, I beseech you, be a little curious in taking notice of this, or else you'l never under and my notion of the thing) the people being embarraft by their equal tyes to both, and the Soveraigns concern'd in a reciprocal regard, as well to their own intereft, as the good of the people; may make a certain kind of a- -you understand me

-upon which, there does arife feveral difputes, turmoils, heart-burnings, and all that—In fine, you'l apprehend it better when you fee it.

[Exit, to call the Players. SMI. I find the Author will be very much oblig'd to the Players, if they can make any fence of this.

Enter BAYES.

BAYES. NOW, Gentlemen, I would fain ask your opinion of one thing. I have made a Prologue and an Epilogue, which may both ferve for either: (do you mark?) nay, they may both ferve too, I gad, for any other Play as well as this.

SMI. Very well. That's, indeed, Artificial.

BAYES. And I would fain ask your judgements, now, which of them would do best for the Prologue? For, you must know, there is, in nature, but two ways of making very good Prologues. The one is by civility, by infinuation, good language, and all that, to a

-in a manner, fteal your plaudit from the courtefie of the Auditors: the other, by making use of some certain personal things, which may keep a hank upon fuch cenfuring perfons, as cannot otherways, A gad, in nature, be hindred from being too free with their tongues. To which end, my first Prologue is, that I come out in a long black Veil, and a great huge Hang-man behind me, with a Furr'd-cap, and his Sword drawn ; and there tell 'em plainly, That if, out of good nature, they will not like my Play, why I gad,

There were printed Papers given the Audience before the Acting of the Indian Emperor, telling them, that it was the sequel of the Indian Queen, Part of which Play was written by Mr. Bayes, &c. Key 1704.

The text of these papers is prefixed to the Play It runs thus. Connexion of the Indian Emperour, to the Indian Queen.

[ocr errors]

HE Conclusion of the Indian Queen, (part of which Poem was writ by me) left little matter for another Story to be built on, there remaining but two of the considerable Characters alive, (viz.) Montezuma and Orazia; thereupon the Author of this, thought it necessary to produce new perfons from the old ones; and confidering the late Indian Queen, before she lov'd Montezuma, liv'd in clandestine Marriage with her General Traxalla; from those two, he has rais'd a Son and two Daugh ters, fuppofed to be left young Orphans at their Death: On the other fide, he has given to Montezuma and Orazia, two Sons and a Daughter; all now supposed to be grown up to Mens and Womens Estate; and their Mother Orazia (for whom there was no further ufe in the ftory) lately dead.

So that you are to imagine about Twenty years elapfed fince the Coronation of Montezuma; who, in the Truth of the Hiftory, was a great and glorious Prince; and in whofe time happened the Discovery and Invafion of Mexico by the Spaniards; under the conduct of Hernando Cortez, who, joyning with the Taxallan-Indians, the invetrate Enemies of Montezuma, wholly Subverted that flourishing Empire; the Conquest of which, is the Subject of this Dramatique Poem.

I have neither wholly followed the ftory nor varied from it; and, as near as I could, have traced the Native fimplicity and ignorance of the Indians, in relation to European Cuftomes: The Shipping, Armour, Horfes, Swords, and Guns of the Spaniards, being as new to them as their Habits, and their Language.

The difference of their Religion from ours, I have taken from the Story it felf; and that which you find of it in the first and fifth Acts, touching the fufferings and conftancy of Montezuma in his Opinions, I have only illuftrated, not alter'd from those who have written of it,

2 "Perfons, egad, I vow to gad, and all that' is the conftant ftyle of Failer, in the Wild Gallant; for which take this fhort speech, inftead of many. Key 1704.

Failer. Really Madam, I look upon you as a person of fuch worth and all that, that I Vow to gad I honour you of all perfons in the World; and though I am a perfon that am inconfiderable in the World, and all that Madam, yet for a person of your worth and excellency, I would

J. DRYDEN. Wild Gallant. Act ii, Scene ii. p. 23. Ed. 1669.

« AnteriorContinuar »