[2] See Appendix.

[3] This is not true. The second edition was corrected and enlarged.

[4] See Appendix.

[5] AthenÆum, Sep. 20, 1884, article by the present writer.

[6] Public Record Office, Chancery Decrees, 1709 B. p. 320, "Steele v. Rich."

[7] See a paper by the present writer in the AthenÆum for Dec. 27, 1890, and the Life of Steele, ii. 72-3.

[8] Tonson paid for the copyright £40, "and other valuable considerations"; and he had to institute proceedings to prevent the play being pirated (AthenÆum, Dec. 5, 1891). As early as March 1, 1772, Lintot has agreed to give Tonson £70 for a half share of Steele's comedy that was to be published.

[9]

"Hired mourners at a funeral say and do
A little more than they whose grief is true;
'Tis just so here: false flattery displays
More show of sympathy than honest praise."
Conington.

[10] Isabella, second daughter of the Lord of St. Gravemoer, General of the Forces to the States General, and wife of Arnold Joost van Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, and Colonel of the first troop of Horse Guards.

[11] William Cavendish, fourth Earl of Devonshire; created in 1694 Marquis of Hartington and Duke of Devonshire. The Duke was a Knight of the Garter, and Lord Steward of the Household. He married Mary, second daughter of the first Duke of Ormond, and he died in 1707.

[12] Perhaps the reference is to Charles Montagu, Lord Halifax, who, as Pope says, was "fed with dedications."

[13]

"Whether he trains for pleading, or essays
To practice law, or frame some graceful lays."

(Conington's Horace, Ep. I. iii. 23-4, adapted to suit Steele's modification of the original.)

[14] Wilks was Campley. In the Tatler (No. 182), Steele says: "To beseech gracefully, to approach respectfully, to pity, to mourn, to love, are the places wherein Wilks may be said to shine with the utmost beauty!" He had "a singular talent in representing the graces of nature" and "the easy frankness of a gentleman."

[15] Contemporary writers loudly complained of the neglect of ordinary plays at this time, owing to the importation of French tumblers and rope-dancers, performing animals, and Italian singers. "The town ran mad," says Gildon (Comparison between the two Stages), after some of these entertainments. The theatres in Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields tried to outdo each other in every new attempt made by either of them. The "Celebrated Virgin," in a machine, shining in a full zodiac, and "Harlequin and Scaramouch," with plenty of grimaces and table-jumping, were favourite amusements. The cleverest plays would rarely secure a reasonable audience unless they were accompanied by dances, songs, and clowns. Colley Cibber (Apology, chap. x), says that Rich paid "extraordinary prices to singers, dancers, and other exotic performers, which were as constantly deducted out of the sinking salaries of his actors." The majority of the people "could more easily apprehend anything they saw, than the daintiest things that could be said to them." Rich was only prevented bringing an elephant on to the stage by "the jealousy which so formidable a rival had raised in his dancers," and by the bricklayers assuring him that the safety of the building would be imperilled. The complaint that what pleases is "the skill of carpenter, not player," is exactly what we hear continually at the present day.

[16] An Order of the Lord Chamberlain to the Managers of the Haymarket and Drury Lane Theatres, dated 24 Dec., 1709, directed that all agreements with actors, &c., were to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain; that all players were to be sworn in; that all new plays, &c., were to be re-licensed by the Master of the Revels; and "that from and after the first day of January next no new Representations be brought upon the Stage which are not Necessary to the better performance of Comedy or Opera, such as ladder-dancing, antic postures, &c., without my leave and approbation first had." (Lord Chamberlain's Records, Warrant Book No. 22, end). See Tatler, Nos. 12, 99. The author of a book called The Antient and Modern Stages surveyed (1699), attributed to Dr. James Drake, and written in reply to Collier's Short View, says (p. 99): "As for the dancing, which he calls bold, it may in one sense be allowed him; for it must be granted that he that ventures his neck to dance upon the top of a ladder is a very bold fellow."

[17] Pother.

[18] In a letter written in August, 1710, to her future husband, Mr. E. Wortley Montagu, Lady Mary Pierrepoint says: "People talk of being in love just as widows do of affliction. Mr. Steele has observed in one of his plays, 'the most passionate among them have always calmness enough to drive a hard bargain with the upholders.' I never knew a lover that would not willingly secure his interest as well as his mistress; or, if one must be abandoned, had not the prudence (among all his distractions) to consider that a woman was but a woman, and money was a thing of more real merit than the whole sex put together."

[19] See note 35.

[20] In the first edition this speech reads, "Oh that Harriot! To fold these arms about the waist of that beauteous struggling—and at last yielding fair!" In the Spectator (No. 51), Steele condemned the passage as an offence to delicacy and modesty.

[21] Tom's Coffee House, 17, Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, on the north side, over against Button's. See Guardian, No. 71.

[22] Richard Lucas, D.D. (1648-1715), wrote, among other things, The Enquiry after Happiness, and Practical Christianity. The latter, published in 1700, was afterwards referred to in the Guardian, No. 63, and there are quotations from both works in Steele's Ladies' Library, 1714.

[23] Daniel Purcell composed music for these verses.

[24] Henry Lawes, the friend of Milton, and his associate in the production of Comus, died in 1662.

[25] Slippers.

[26] Gildon suggests that this should be "premises"; but the word was not altered in later editions of the play.

[27] It is interesting to compare the ensuing dialogue with similar scenes in Sheridan's School for Scandal.

[28] Budgell refers to this scene in a paper in the Spectator (No. 506), on happiness in the married state.

[29] Daniel Purcell composed music for this song.

[30] In the Lay Monastery, No. 9 (December 4th, 1713), Blackmore dwelt on the fine touches of humanity in the part of Trusty in this play. He said this passage was too well known on the stage to need transcribing: "This is not only nature, but nature of the most beautiful kind; or, to borrow Plautus's own remark, by the representation of such plays even good men may be made better."

[31] These lines are in the spirit of, but are not a quotation from Lee's Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great.

[32] The object of the Act of 1678 (30 Charles II. c. 3), which obliged the dead to be buried in woollen, was to protect homespun goods against foreign linen.

"'Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke,'
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke;
'No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead—
And—Betty—give this cheek a little red.'"
(Pope, Moral Essays, i. 246-251.)

Pope here alludes, says Carruthers, to Mrs. Oldfield, who acted Narcissa in Cibber's Love's Last Shift. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, the corpse being decorated with "a Brussels lace head-dress, a Holland shift, with tucker and double ruffles of the same lace, and a pair of new kid gloves."—See, too, Tatler, No. 118.

It is evident that by making a certain payment persons of position could evade the Act; in the Overseers' Rate Books for the Parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, one or two persons in the year are often mentioned as being buried in linen: Thus in the volume for 1702 (p. 147) I found—

"Received for persons buried in linen, contrary to Act of Parliament:

Mr. Austin Dobson has pointed out that if Anne Oldfield really gave the orders alleged by Pope she was only elaborating the words of Steele's widow, which she must have often heard on the stage, as she acted the part of Lady Sharlot in this play.

[33] Genest (Account of the English Stage) suggests that the idea of Lady Sharlot's escape was taken from Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, Act V., Sc. III.

[34] Eusden, in a complimentary poem "To the Author of the Tatler," printed in Nichols' Collection of Poems, iv. 152-4, thus expressed himself:—

"O Charlotte! who thy character can read,
But soon must languish, sigh, and secret bleed?
* * * * *
To wealth, to power, I every wish resign,
If only that dear Charlotte might be mine."

[35] A favourite word with Steele. In the first scene of the play Sable says: "There's a what d'ye call, a crisis." In 1714, Steele wrote a famous pamphlet called The Crisis. "Plebian Britons," five lines below, reminds us of his four pamphlets, The Plebeian, on the Peerage Bill of 1719.

[36] Steele always maintained in his own political career the honest independent attitude here recommended.

[37] Daniel Purcell, brother of the great musician, Henry Purcell, was appointed organist of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1686, and of St. Andrew's, Holborn, in 1713. He composed the music for an opera by George Powell, and died in 1717.

[38] "To have known these things is safety to the young."

[39] James, second Duke of Ormond, was in command of the expedition against Spain in 1702, when there were successes at Cadiz, Vigo, etc.; great booty was taken, and many galleons were sunk. Steele alludes below to this "wealth of the Indies." On February 4, 1703, the Duke was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

[40] James Butler, first Duke of Ormond. Steele's uncle and guardian, Henry Gascoigne, was the Duke's secretary, and had obtained, through his employer, a place upon the foundation of the Charterhouse for Steele. Four years later (1688) the Duke died, and was succeeded by his grandson.

[41] On the 13th of January, 1704, one week before the publication of this play, the Queen issued an Order for the regulation of the playhouses, prohibiting them from acting anything contrary to religion and good manners (Salmon's Chronological Historian).

[42] This line is repeated from Steele's Procession, 1695.

[43]

Cliton. Qu'a de propre la guerre À montrer votre flamme?

Dorante. O le beau compliment À charmer une dame,
De lui dire d'abord: "J'apporte À vos beautÉs
Un coeur nouveau-venu des universitÉs;
Si vous avez besoin de lois et de rubriques,
Je sais le Code entier avec les Authentiques,
Le Digeste nouveau, le vieux, l'Infortiat,
Ce qu'en a dit Jason, Balde, Accurse, Alciat!"
Qu'un si riche discours nous rend considerables!
Qu'on amollit par lÀ de coeurs inexorables!
Qu'un homme À paragraphe est un joli galant!
On s'introduit bien mieux À titre de vaillant:
Tout le secret ne gÎt qu'en un peu de grimace,
A mentir À propos, jurer de bonne grÂce,
Étaler force mots qu'elles n'entendent pas;
Faire sonner Lamboy, Jean de Vert, et Galas;
Nommer quelques chÂteaux de qui les noms barbares,
Plus ils blessent l'oreille, et plus leur semblent rares;
Avoir toujours en bouche angles, lignes, fossÉs,
Vedette, contrescarpe, et travaux avancÉs:
Sans ordre et sans raison, n'importe, on les Étonne;
On leur fait admirer les baies qu'on leur donne:
Et tel À la faveur d'un semblable dÉbit,
Passe pour homme illustre, et se met en crÉdit.
Le Menteur, Act I. Scene VI.

[44] This dialogue, down to the exit of Latine, is based upon Le Menteur, I. i.

[45] The four following speeches are a free translation from Le Menteur, I. ii.

[46] From Le Menteur, I. ii.

[47] The general idea of the ensuing dialogue, down to the exit of the ladies, is taken from Le Menteur, I. iii.

[48] The dialogue thus far closely follows Le Menteur, I. iv.

[49] This passage, down to the end of Young Bookwit's description of the feast—"twelve dishes to a course"—is a literal translation from Le Menteur, I. v. The whole scene appears again in slightly varied form in Foote's Liar.

[50] The rest of the scene with Lovemore and Frederick is from Le Menteur, I. v.

[51] The ensuing dialogue is an adaptation from Le Menteur, i, vi., down to Latine's mention of lying. The rest is Steele's.

[52] Pontack's was a French eating-house in Abchurch Lane, where the Royal Society held its annual dinners until 1746. Pontack was son of the President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and gave the name to a famous French claret. Evelyn refers to him in his diary, 13 July, 1683, and 30 Nov., 1694, and Swift, in his Journal, 16 Aug., 1711: "Pontack told us, although his wine was so good, he sold it cheaper than others; he took but seven shillings a flask. Are not these pretty rates?" See, too, the prologue to Love's Contrivances, 1703, by Mrs. Centlivre:—

"At Locket's, Brown's, and at Pontack's enquire,
What modish kickshaws the nice beaus desire,
What famed ragouts, what new-invented salad,
Has best pretensions to regale the palate.
If we present you with a medley here,
A hodge-podge dish served up in china-ware,
We hope 'twill please, 'cause like your bills of fare."

Pontack put up a picture of his father's head as a sign (Burn's Descriptive Catalogue of the London Traders' Tavern, and Coffee-House Tokens, 1855, p. 13). From a tract called The Metamorphoses of the Town, dated 1730, we learn that Pontack's was then the resort of extravagant epicures; in the bill of fare of a "guinea ordinary" are "a ragout of fatted snails," and "chickens not two hours from the shell."

[53]

Geronte. Il vint hier de Poitiers, mais il sent peu l'École;
Et, si l'on pouvait croire un pÈre À sa parole,
Quelque Écolier qu'il soit, je dirais qu'aujourd'hui
Peu de nos gens de cour sont mieux taillÉs que lui.
(Le Menteur, II. ii.)

[54] Presents to servants.

[55]

Clarice. Ah! bon Dieu! si Dorante avait autant d'appas,
Que d'Alcippe aisÉment il obtiendrait la place!
(Le Menteur, II. ii.)

[56]

Alcippe. Ah, Clarice! ah, Clarice! inconstante, volage!
(Le Menteur, II. iii.)

The idea of the servant remaining in the room is Steele's.

[57] Most of this scene, down to Lovemore's exit, is adapted from Le Menteur, II. iii., iv.

[58] Want of merit. See the Tatler, No. 69.

[59] There is a similar speech in Le Menteur, II. ii.

[60] The New Exchange was on the south side of the Strand, partly on the site of the present Adelphi. It was a very favourite place of resort in Charles II.'s time, and the restoration plays are full of allusions to it. There were four walks, two above and two below stairs. Steele refers to the New Exchange again in the Spectator, Nos. 96, 155. It was pulled down in 1737. With the scene here described we may compare Etherege's She would if she could, III. i.:—

"Mrs. Trinckit. What d'ye buy? what d'ye lack, gentlemen? Gloves, ribbons, and essences; ribbons, gloves, and essences?...

"Courtall. Walk a turn or two above, or fool awhile with pretty Mistress Anvil, and scent your eye-brows and periwig with a little essence of oranges, or jessamine."

Similarly in Otway's Atheist: or the Second Part of the Soldier's Fortune, II. i., Courtine remarks:—

"Methinks, this place looks as if it were made for lovings. The lights on each hand of the walk look stately; and then the rustling of silk petticoats, the din and the clatter of the pretty little parti-coloured parrots, that hop and flutter from one side to t'other, puts every sense upon its proper office, and sets the wheels of nature finely moving."

[61] Green silk stockings seem to have been introduced by Elizabeth, Countess of Chesterfield. On this matter the curious may consult Grammont (Memoirs, 1846, pp. 177-8, 180).

[62] The ensuing dialogue between father and son is adapted from one in Le Menteur, II. v. The story is also followed closely by Foote, in the Liar, II. iii.

[63] The next four speeches are from Le Menteur, II. vi.

[64] In the Duke of Buckingham's Rehearsal (1671), III. ii.

[65] You teach the woods to re-echo the name of the fair Amaryllis (Virgil, Buc. I. v).

[66] Richard Leveridge had a deep and powerful bass voice, and he also composed much song music. He died in 1758, aged 88.

[67]

LucrÈce. Mais parle sous mon nom, c'est À moi de me taire.
(Le Menteur, III. v.)

[68] This speech is adapted from one in Le Menteur, III. v.

[69] The ensuing dialogue, down to the exit of the ladies, follows generally that in Le Menteur, III. v.

[70] The story will be found in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. The tale of Argalus and Parthenia was put into verse by Francis Quarles.

[71] Leveridge composed the music for this song.

[72] It is interesting to compare this constable with the Dogberry and Verges of Much Ado about Nothing, especially Act IV. Scene ii.

[73] The following dialogue is adapted from Le Menteur, V. i. Cf. Foote's Liar, II. iv.

[74] Steele himself made experiments in alchemy.

[75] There is a similar scene in Fielding's Amelia, Book I., chap. iii., and particulars of the system of garnish may be found in the works of John Howard.

[76] This condemnation of duelling is the first of a long series in Steele's works.

[77] The hearer should ponder over more things than he sees.

[78] When this dedication was written, Addison had recently (December, 1704) published his successful poem, The Campaign, and was preparing his Remarks on Italy for the press.

[79] Wilks was Captain Clerimont.

[80] "The next place of resort wherein the servile world are let loose, is at the entrance of Hyde Park, where the gentry are at the Ring" (Spectator, No. 88). This favourite drive and promenade was partly destroyed when the Serpentine was formed. The servants gathered round the gate, while their masters and mistresses stared at or ogled each other in the Ring.

[81] White's Chocolate-house, on the west side of St. James's Street, was founded about 1698, and the original building was burnt down in 1733. In the first number of the Tatler, Steele announced that "all accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under the article of White's Chocolate-house." See, too, Spectator, No. 88, and Hogarth's Rake's Progress, Pt. IV. There was much gambling at White's, and Swift calls it "the common rendezvous of infamous sharpers and noble cullies."

[82] AstrÆa was a French romance by HonorÉ d'UrfÉ, translated for the second time in 1657. Clelia was by Madame de Scudery, who lived until 1701. Cassandra, by Gautier de Costes, Seigneur de la CalprenÈde, was translated in 1652. These translations were all in folio; and they are all in the list of a lady's library given by Addison in the Spectator, No. 37, together with Steele's Christian Hero. Oroondates, in Cassandra, was the only son of a Scythian king.

[83] This and another reference to the battle of Blenheim, fought in August, 1704, ought to have been sufficient to prevent writers constantly repeating the statement that the Tender Husband was produced in 1703.

[84] "The corant is a melody or air consisting of three crotchets in a bar, but moving by quavers, in the measure of ¾, with two strains or reprises, each beginning with an odd quaver. Of dance tunes it is said to be the most solemn." "The bouree is supposed to come from Auvergne, in France; it seldom occurs but in compositions of French masters." (Hawkins's History of Music, IV. 387-8, 390).

[85] Tony Lumpkin, like Humphry, "boggled a little" at marrying his cousin. See She Stoops to Conquer, Act I., Scene II.:—

"Tony. What do you follow me for, cousin Con? I wonder you're not ashamed to be so very engaging.

"Miss Neville. I hope, cousin, one may speak to one's own relations, and not be to blame.

"Tony. Ay, but I know what sort of a relation you want to make me, though; but it won't do. I tell you, cousin Con, it won't do; so I beg you'll keep your distance; I want no nearer relationship."

[86] Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in a letter dated Feb. 26, 1711, to her future husband, proposing that their engagement should cease, says that she had foolishly despised women who looked for their happiness in trifles, and thought, as Dryden puts it, that true happiness was to be found in privacy and love. "These notions had corrupted my judgment as much as that of Mrs. Biddy Tipkin's."

[87] Urganda was an enchantress in the Amadis and Palmeria romances.

[88] Musidorus, in Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia, is the Prince of Thessaly, and in love with Pamela.

[89] Parthenissa was the heroine of at romance of that name by Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, the first two parts of which appeared in 1651.

[90] Statira, in Cassandra, was the widow of Alexander the Great, and the daughter of Darius. She married Oroondates after many difficulties had been overcome.

[91] Garraway's coffee house, in Change Alley. Thomas Garraway, tobacconist and coffee-man, was the first to retail tea, which he recommended for the cure of all disorders. See Tatler, No. 147; Spectator, Nos. 403, 457. Garraway's was the resort of merchants.

[92] Prior has several poems on this subject:—

"From her own native France, as old Alison passed,
She reproached English Nell with neglect or with malice,
That the slattern had left in the hurry and haste
Her lady's complexion and eyebrows at Calais."

And, again,

"Helen was just slipped into bed,
Her eyebrows on the toilette lay,
Away the kitten with them fled,
As fees belonging to her prey.
For this misfortune careless Jane,
Assure yourself, was loudly rated,
And madam getting up again,
With her own hand the mouse-trap baited.
On little things as sages write,
Depends our human joy or sorrow;
If we don't catch a mouse to-night,
Alas! no eyebrows for to-morrow."

And on another occasion, when her eyebrow box was lost, Helen says:

"I can behold no mortal now,
For what's an eye without a brow?"

[93] A coupee is a motion in dancing, when one leg is a little bent, and raised from the ground, while a forward motion is made with the the other leg.

[94] Valentine and Orson, the two twin sons of Alexander, Emperor of Constantinople, in the old romance, were born in a wood.

[95] Cf. MoliÈre's Le Sicilien, scene xiii.:—"Si votre pinceau flatte autant que votre langue, vous allez me faire un portrait qui ne me resemblera point."

[96] See the Vicar of Wakefield, Chap. XVI.:—"As for our neighbour's family, there were seven of them, and they were drawn with seven oranges, a thing quite out of taste, no variety in life, no composition in the world." The vicar's wife was painted as Venus, with two Cupids; the vicar, in gown and band, presenting her with his books on the Whistonian controversy. Olivia was an amazon, Sophia a shepherdess, "with as many sheep as the painter could put in for nothing."

[97] Compare Le Sicilien, scene xiii.:—"Adraste. Levez-vous un peu, s'il vous plaÎt. Un peu plus de la cÔtÉ-lÀ. Le corps tournÉ ainsi. La tÊte un peu levÉe, afin que la beautÉ du cou paraisse. Ceci un peu plus dÉcouvert. (Il dÉcouvre un peu plus sa gorge). Bon. LÀ, un peu davantage; encore tant soit peu.... Vos yeux toujours tournÉs vers moi, je vous en prie; vos regards attachÉs aux miens."