Horton Aquilina, the house, in spite of the high patronage, thought fit to demonstrate their pudicity in a very audible manner.[1] The critics too, in a somewhat ductile herd, have modestly decried these same episodes. Otway’s comic and satiric powers have been thoroughly underrated. Taine, however, boldly confessed that Otway ‘like Shakespeare ... found at least once the grand bitter buffoonery, the harsh sentiment of human baseness’, and he demonstrates that, however odious and painful the episodes of senator and whore may be, they are true to the uttermost. Even the great nineteenth-century realist Zola did not disdain to take a hint thence for his chapters in _Nana_ of the masochist Count Muffat and the ‘rampant courtezan’. [Footnote 1: There was a notable performance of _Venice Preserv’d_ at Drury Lane, 19 November, 1721, which is perhaps the occasion referred to; but, as Genest says, after the original performances the role of Aquilina is not to be found in the play bills. 2 December, 1721, Spiller acted Antonio at Lincoln’s Inn Fields.] In 1684 Mrs. Currer created Mrs. Featly In Ravenscroft’s ‘recantation play’, _Dame Dobson_; she was also Sylvia in Otway’s last comedy, _The Atheist_, and Lady Medlar in _The Factious Citizen_. In 1685 she played Isabella in Tate’s farcical _A Duke and no Duke_, and five years later she is billed as the roystering Widow Ranter in Mrs. Behn’s posthumous comedy of the same name. Her name does not appear after 1690, latterly her appearances were few, and she seems to have been one of those ‘crept the stage by love’. An unprinted MS. _Satire on the Players_ (1682-3) has a sharp reference to Betty Currer and cries:-- Currer ‘tis time thou wert to Ireland gone Thy utmost Rate is here but Half-a-Crown Ask Turner if thou art not fulsome grown. p. 309 _Silvio, Page to Laura Lucretia_. (Dramatis Personae.) I have added ‘Silvio’ to the list of actors as he enters according to the stage directions, Act i, 1, and elsewhere. Julio in the same scene refers to him, and Laura Lucretia several times addresses him during the play. Act ii, 1, &c. In Act v, however, he is manifestly confused with Sabina. Laura gives Silvio certain instructions, he approaches Galliard, and his lines have speech-prefix ‘Sab.’ In the following scene the direction is ’.nter Silvio’ and his speech is given to Sabina, Laura moreover addressing him as Sabina. I have no doubt that this confusion existed in Mrs. Behn’s MS. p. 315 _Medices Villa_. The Villa Medici was erected in 1540 by Annibale Lippi. The gardens are famous for their beauty. From the avenue of evergreen-oaks with a fountain before the Villa can be obtained a celebrated view of St. Peter’s.