Whereas the Lady Slingsby Comoedian and Mrs. Aphaw Behen have by acting and writeing at his Royall Highnesse Theatre committed severall Misdemeanors and made abusive reflections upon persons of Quality, and have written and spoken scandalous speeches without any xliii License or Approbation of those that ought to peruse and authorize the same, These are therefore to require you to take into yo’r Custody the said Lady Slingsby and Mrs. Aphaw Behen and bring them before mee to answere the said Offence, And for soe doeing this shalbe yo’r sufficient Warr’t. Given und’r my hand and seale this 12’th day of August, 1682. To Henry Legatt Messenger of His Mat’ties Chamber, etc. The lines particularly complained of ran as follows: of all Treasons, mine was most accurst; Rebelling ’gainst a KING and FATHER first. A Sin, which Heav’n nor Man can e’re forgive; Nor could I _Act_ it with the face to live. ....... There’s nothing can my Reputation save With all the _True_, the _Loyal_ and the _Brave_; Not my Remorse or death can Expiate With them a Treason ’gainst the KING and State. Coming from the mouth of the perjured Tarpeia they were of course winged with point unmistakable. It is not probable, however, that either authoress or actress was visited with anything more than censure and a fright. In any case their detention38 (if brought about) must have been very shortliv’d, for the partizans of Monmouth, although noisy and unquiet, were not really strong, and they met with the most effective opposition at every turn. In this same year the Whigs in spite of their utmost efforts signally failed to suppress, and could xliv only retard the production of Dryden and Lee’s excellent tragedy _The Duke of Guise_, first performed 4 December. The play created a furore, and its political purport as a picture of the baffled intrigues of Shaftesbury in favour of Lucy Walter’s overweening son is obvious, nor is it rendered less so by Dryden’s clever and caustic _Vindication of the Duke of Guise_ (1683). It is interesting to note that Lady Slingsby, who played the Queen Mother, Catherine de’ Medici, in this play, has some very sardonic speeches put in her mouth; indeed, as Henri III aptly remarks,’she has a cruel wit’. In 1684 were published the famous _Love Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister_. The letters, supposed to have passed between Forde, Lord Grey,39 and his sister-in-law Lady Henrietta Berkeley, fifth daughter of the Earl, are certainly the work of Mrs. Behn. Romantic and sentimental, with now and again a pretty touch that is almost lyrical in its sweet cadence, they enjoyed the same extraordinary popularity which very similar productions have attained at a recent date. A third edition was called for in 1707.