Endnotes
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The original MS. of this Preface is among the papers at Blenheim, where there are also some rough notes for a Preface, e.g., “The fourth act was the business of the play. The case of duelling. I have fought, nor shall I ever fight again. … Addison told me I had a faculty of drawing tears. … Be that as it will, I shall endeavour to do what I can to promote noble things, which I will do as well as I can.” ↩
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“The stupid and diabolical custom of duelling” (MS. erased). ↩
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The Hon. Brigadier-General Charles Churchill, who lived with Mrs. Oldfield after Maynwaring’s death (Egerton’s Memoirs of Mrs. Anne Oldfield, 1731, pp. 67, 121). ↩
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“To enquire what should not which does please.” (MS.) ↩
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Carbonelli, a violinist, who had then not long been in England, had a benefit in 1722 at Drury Lane Theatre. He published twelve solos, dedicated to the Duke of Rutland. Afterwards he became a wine-merchant. ↩
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“Played admirably well.” (MS.) ↩
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“Some great critics.” (MS.) ↩
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Wags in the newspapers of the day pointed out that these words might be read as meaning that Steele was surprised at finding to be true anything that Cibber said. ↩
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“The imitation of Pamphilus.” (MS.) ↩
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“By him.” (MS.) ↩
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The kind of narrative which is presented on the stage ought to be marked by gaiety of dialogue, diversity of character, seriousness, tenderness, hope, fear, suspicion, desire, pity, variety of events, changes of fortune, unexpected disaster, sudden joy, and a happy ending. ↩
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Leonard Welsted, a protégé of Steele’s, wrote also the Epilogue. He was a clerk in the office of one of the Secretaries of State, and wrote a play and various poems, some of which were addressed to Steele. Pope gave him a place in The Dunciad, and Swift attacked him in his “On Poetry: A Rhapsody.” ↩
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Pinkethman. ↩
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The reference is to Bartholomew Fair, which was held in Smithfield. ↩
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Here and throughout this dialogue Steele closely follows the conversation of Simo and Sosia in Terence’s Andria, Act I scene i. ↩
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This and the two following speeches by Sir John Bevil are borrowed from Terence. ↩
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In the old Royal Palace at Westminster, the House of Lords was formed out of the ancient Court of Requests, and the old Painted Chamber separated the Lords from the Commons. Steele has described (Spectator, No. 88) how servants, waiting for their masters at an alehouse at Westminster, debated upon public affairs, addressing each other by their employers’ names. ↩
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At the ridotto there was music, followed by dancing, the company passing, when the music was over, from the pit to the stage. Burney says that this Italian entertainment was first introduced into England in 1722, the year in which Steele produced The Conscious Lovers. ↩
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Belsize House was the forerunner of Ranelagh and Vauxhall. There were gardens, in which refreshments could be obtained, and hunting, races, etc., were provided to amuse the visitors, for whose protection twelve stout men, well armed, patrolled the road to London. A poetical satire, Belsize House, appeared in 1722, the year of this play. In the same year unlawful gaming at Belsize was forbidden (Park’s Hampstead, 246–9). ↩
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Among the Blenheim papers is a fragment, in Steele’s writing, of a dialogue between two servants, Parmeno and Pythias—names taken, no doubt, from Terence’s Eunuchus. The pair discuss the charm of the soft moments of servants in love, free from their usual restraints. Why should any man usurp more than his share of the atmosphere? The whole art of a serving-man is “to be here and there, and everywhere, unheard and unseen till you are wanted, and never absent when you are. This gives our masters and mistresses the free room and scope to do and act as they please—they are to make all the bustle, all the show—we are like convenient demons or apparitions about ’em, never to take up space or fill the air nor be heard of or seen but when commanded.” Pythias remarks how much she learns from Parmeno’s conversation, and produces a little collation from the last night’s supper which she has prepared for him. Parmeno eats the eggs, gorges, sings a song, and says kind things between whiles to Pythias. ↩
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Leer, throw glances. ↩
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In the “Vision of Mirza” (Spectator, No. 159), Addison pictured the Happy Islands which were the abode of good men after death. “Does life appear miserable, that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward?” ↩
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In Terence, Glycerium comes to Athens with Chrysis, a courtesan, her supposed sister, and Pamphilus makes her acquaintance at Chrysis’s house. ↩
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This character has no prototype in Terence’s Andria. ↩
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These two operas, by G. B. Bononcini, were produced in 1722, with words by Rolli. In Griselda, Anastasia Robinson took the part of the heroine, and it is said that she thus completed her conquest of the Earl of Peterborough, who married her many years later. ↩
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There is nothing in Terence’s Andria to correspond to the incidents in this act; and throughout the remainder of the play there is no resemblance except the general idea of the story. ↩
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Steele had already described this scene in the Guardian for June 20, 1713:—“I happened the other day to pass by a gentleman’s house, and saw the most flippant scene of low love that I have ever observed. The maid was rubbing the windows within side of the house, and her humble servant the footman, was so happy a man as to be employed in cleaning the same glass on the side towards the street. The wench began with the greatest severity of aspect imaginable, and breathing on the glass, followed it with a dry cloth; her opposite observed her, and fetching a deep sigh, as if it were his last, with a very disconsolate air did the same on his side of the window. He still worked on and languished, until at last his fair one smiled, but covered herself, and spreading the napkin in her hand, concealed herself from her admirer, while he took pains, as it were, to work through all that intercepted their meeting. This pretty contest held for four or five large panes of glass, until at last the waggery was turned into an humorous way of breathing in each other’s faces, and catching the impression. The gay creatures were thus loving and pleasing their imaginations with their nearness and distance, until the windows were so transparent that the beauty of the female made the manservant impatient of beholding it, and the whole house besides being abroad, he ran in, and they romped out of my sight.” ↩
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Steele’s monetary troubles made him personally familiar about the time he wrote this play with indentures tripartite, quadrupartite, and otherwise (See Life of Steele, 1889, II., 291, 299, etc.). ↩
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This scene is, of course, entirely original. ↩
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Patron of cockfighting. ↩