1. Her last original rôle was Berenice in Crowne’s _The Destruction of
Jerusalem_, a heroic tragedy in two parts.
2. There was a Sir Arthur Slingsby, a younger son of Sir Guildford
Slingsby, Bart. Both Pepys (20 July, 1664) and Evelyn (19 July, 1664)
mention the lottery he held with the King’s permission in the Banqueting
House at Whitehall. Evelyn judged him to be ‘a mere shark.’
THE YOUNG KING.
p. 107 _Tartarian war_. Brawls and free fights, sometimes of a serious
character, in the pit (Tartarus) of a Restoration theatre were of
frequent occurrence. There is a well-known instance in Langbaine: ‘At the
acting of this tragedy [_Macbeth_] on the stage, I saw a real one acted
in the pit; I mean the death of Mr. Scroop, who received his death’s
wound from the late Sir Thomas Armstrong, and died presently after he was
remov’d to a house opposite to the Theatre, in Dorset Garden.’ This was
in 1679. In April, 1682, in the pit at the Theatre Royal, Charles Dering
and Mr. Vaughan drew on each other and then clambered on to the stage to
finish their duel ‘to the greater comfort of the audience’. Dering being
badly wounded, Vaughan was held in custody until he recovered. In
Shadwell’s _A True Widow_ (1678) Act iv, i, there is a vivid picture of a
general scuffle and battle royal in the pit. cf. Dryden’s Prologue to
_The Spanish Friar_ (1681):--
Now we set up for tilting in the pit,
Where ‘tis agreed by bullies chicken-hearted
To fright the ladies first, and then be parted.
p. 107 _Half crown my play_.... There are many allusions to the price of
admission to the pit. Pepys mentions it, and on one occasion notices
’.rdinary’ prentices and mean people in the pit at 2s 6d a-piece’. cf.
Epilogue to Carye’s _The Generous Enemies_:--
There’s a nest of devils in the pit,
By whom our plays, like children, just alive,
Pinch’d by the fairies, never after thrive:
‘Tis but your half-crown, Sirs: that won’t undo.
p. 133 _antick_.--here used in its strict and original sense, ‘baroque’,
’.ococo’. A favourite word with Mrs. Behn.
p. 181 _Life it self’s a Dream. This is the very title of Calderon’s
comedia, _La Vida es Sueño_.
p. 183 _J. Wright, esq_. James Wright (1643-1713), barrister-at-law and
miscellaneous writer, is now chiefly remembered by his famous pamphlet,
_Historia Histrionica_ (1699), a dialogue on old plays and players,
reprinted in various editions of Dodsley. Wright was a great lover of the
theatre, and ‘one of the first collectors of old plays since Cartwright.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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