[49] Boswell’s _Johnson_, edited by G. Birkbeck Hill, London, 1891; I, 201. [50] Preface to _The Double Gallant_. [51] II, 173. [52] _Apology_, I, 243. [53] III, 209. See also Thomes Whincop’s _Scanderbeg_, (1747), p. 195. An account of the lives and writings of the English dramatists is annexed to this play. [54] Following the Scottish rebellion in 1715, Lord Derwentwater and Lord Kenmure were executed, February 24, 1716. The king’s pardon, which excepted forty-seven classes of offenders, appears in _The Historical Register_ for 1717, II, 247; so that the excitement caused by the rebellion continued for some time. Doran’s _London in Jacobite Times_ discusses this period in a most interesting manner. [55] The second title of _The Female Virtuosoes_. [56] _Apology_, II, 58. [57] _Preface_ to _The Good Natured Man_. [58] See, for example, _Steele and The Sentimental Comedy_, by M. E. Hare, in _Eighteenth Century Literature, An Oxford Miscellany_, Oxford, 1909. This speaks of “Sentimental Comedy invented by the great essayist Sir Richard Steele.” [59] Macaulay, _History of England_, Chapter VII. [60] During the reign of Charles not every one had been in entire sympathy with the state of the theatre. Evelyn, in a letter to Viscount Carnbury, February 9, 1664-1665, in speaking of the acting of plays on Saturday evenings says: “Plays are now with us become a licentious excess, and a vice, and need severe censors that should look as well to their morality as to their lines and numbers.” [61] Traill, _Social England_, IV. 593. [62] _The Laureat_, p. 53. “I can remember, that soon after the publication of Collier’s book, several informations were brought against the players, at the instance and at the expense of the Society for the Reformation of Manners, for immoral words and expressions, _contra bonos mores_, uttered on the stage. Several informers were placed in the pit, and other parts of the house, to note down the words spoke, and by whom, to be able to swear to them and many of them would have been ruined by these troublesome prosecutions, had not Queen Anne, well satisfied that these informers lived upon their oaths, and that what they did, proceeded not from conscience, but from interest, by a timely _nolle prosequi_, put an end to the inquisition.” [63] The “Joan Sanderson” was a dance in which each one of the company takes part. It began by the first dancer’s choosing a partner, who in turn chose another, the chain continuing until each one had danced alone and with a partner. See G. C. M. Smith, _Fucus Histriomastix_, _Introduction_, p. xviii. [64] _Apology_, I, 85. [65] _Ibid._, I, 194-5. [66] _Dramatic Miscellanies_, III, 432. [67] See Miles, _The Influence of Moliere on Restoration Comedy_, 1910: published after this paper was written. [68] Celadon, in Dryden’s _Marriage a la Mode_, enters marriage with the distinct expectation that his wife will be untrue to him.