95 13 The best Plays, etc.: Otway's Orphan and his Venice Preserved, Lee's Alexander the Great, and Dryden and Lee's Oedipus are mentioned in a note on the previous essay; Lee's Theodosius, or the Force of Love (1680) was drawn from La Calprenède's romance Pharamond (1661); Dryden's All for Love or the World Well Lost (1678) was his version of Shakspere's Antony and Cleopatra; Oroonoko (1696), by Thomas Southerne (1660–1746), was founded on Mrs. Behn's Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave (1668). On these plays in general, see Ward's English Dramatic Poetry, vol. III, chap. 9. Acted at the Duke's Theatre. 95 15-17 King Lear . . . as it is reformed: The History of King Lear. Reviv'd with Alterations. By N. Tate. London,. 1681. In Tate's version there is no Fool, and Cordelia lives to marry Edgar; there is a summary of the plot, with extracts, in the Appendix (pp. 467 ff.) of Dr. Furness's Variorum Lear, Philadelphia, 1880. Tate also adapted Richard II in The Sicilian Usurper, 1681, and Coriolanus in The Ingratitude of a Common-Wealth, 1682. The controversy between Addison and Dennis over Tate's version of King Lear is conveniently summarized in Lounsbury's Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, pp. 405 ff. 95 23 The Mourning Bride, etc.: The Mourning Bride, 1697, was by William Congreve (1670-1729); Tamerlane, 1702, by Nicholas Rowe (1674–1718); Ulysses, 1706, also by Rowe; Phædra and Hippolytus, acted 1707, was by Edmund ("Rag ") Smith (1672-1710). There are good brief accounts of all these plays except the last in Ward's ninth chapter. Addison's commendation of Phædra and Hippolytus here and in Spect. 18 may have been partly a perfunctory return of a compliment in the dedication of Smith's play, where Addison's poem on the peace of Ryswick is called "the best Latin poem since the Æneid." There are notices of Smith in Dr. Johnson's Lives and in the Dict. Nat. Biog. 95 32 Tragi-comedy: see Ward, English Dramatic Poetry, III, 314 ff.; Lounsbury, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, chapter iv (“The Intermingling of the Comic and the Tragic "). Dryden, among the many who discussed this matter, seems to have been most in Addison's mind; Dryden's dramatic theories are conveniently summarized in G. S. Collins's Dryden's Dramatic Theory and Praxis, Leipzig, 1892. 96 6-15 A double Plot. . . an Under-plot: On these matters nearly all dramatic critics from Aristotle to Dennis had declared themselves. For Dryden's opinions, see the Essay of Dramatic Poesy (ed. ScottSaintsbury, XV, 298 ff., 332 ff.); Preface to Love Triumphant (VIII, 375-376): "For my action, it is evidently double; and in that I have the most of the ancients for my examples. Yet I dare not defend this way by reason, much less by their authority; for their actions, though double, were of the same species; that is to say, in their comedies, two amours; and their persons were better linked in interest than mine. Yet even this is a fault which I should often practise, if I were to write again, because it is agreeable to the English genius." 96 28 Powell: George Powell (1658?-1714), the actor who played Portius in Addison's Cato. He is to be distinguished from the Martin Powell, puppet-showman, who is satirized in Spectator 14 and in Tatler 44, 50, etc. 97 18 Oedipus: The first edition differs slightly from the version of the Spectator: in 1. 2 the first edition has " Crime"; in l. 3 it has "If wandring in the maze of Fate I run"; in the second passage, 1. 4, it has "The pond'rous Earth." 98 Motto: Juvenal, Sat., xiv, 321: "Good taste and nature always speak the same." The historical development of the method of satire used in this paper, the converse of the method in " Gulliver's Travels," would furnish matter for a considerable essay. This would include at least: Marana, The Turkish Spy (1684, or earlier), said to have been written in Italian, thence translated into English, and finally done into French; William King's A Journey to London in the Year 1698... Written originally in French ...; and newly translated into English (King's Works, London, 1776, II, 187 ff.); Swift's hint at the method, noted above (1704); Antoine Galland's Les mille et une Nuits, contes arabes traduits en français (1704); Du Fresny's Amusements sérieux et comiques d'un Siamois (1707); the present essay (1711); Montesquieu's Lettres persanes (1721); Lord Lyttelton's Persian Letters (1735); J. B. de Boyer (Marquis d'Argens), Lettres juives, chinoises, et cabalistiques (1738-1769); Mme. de Graffigny, Lettres d'une péruvienne (1747); Dr. Dodd's The African Prince, in England, to Zara at his Father's Court (1749); Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques (Asiatic) (1752); Lettres iroquoises (1752); Horace Walpole's Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his Friend Lien Chi, at Peking (1757); Goldsmith's Citizen of the World (1760-61); The Algerine Spy (17601761); Letters of Shahcoolen, a Hindu Philosopher, residing in Philadelphia; to his Friend El Hassan, an Inhabitant of Delhi (1802); William Wirt, The Letters of a British Spy, Richmond, Virginia, 1803; Southey's Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (1807); Ingersoll's Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters (1810). The subject is lightly touched in chap. vii of Whittuck's The "Good Man" of the XVIIIth Century, London, 1901. Swift wrote to Stella (Letter xxi, London, April 28, 1711): "The Spectator is written by Steele with Addison's help; 't is often very pretty. Yesterday it was made of a noble hint I gave him long ago for his Tatlers, about an Indian supposed to write his travels into England. I repent he ever had it. I intended to have written a book on that subject. I believe he has spent it all in one paper, and all the under hints there are mine too; but I never see him or Addison." Often as this letter has been quoted, it has never been quite fully explained. It is to be read in connection with the second edition of Swift's Tale of a Tub, 1704. Opposite the title-page of that edition, among other "Treatises writ by the same Author, most of them mentioned in the following Discourses; which will be speedily published," is "A Voyage into England, by a Person of Quality in Terra Australia incognita, translated from the Original." By "long ago " in his note to Stella, Swift could hardly have meant 1704, at which time the Tatler had probably never been thought of; he very likely meant about the time of the actual visit of the Indian chiefs, or shortly after, when they figured in Tatler 171. And yet the visit of the Indian kings need not have changed any "under hints" which may have been intended six years before to be spoken by an Australian, for an Indian king who alludes familiarly to the elephant and the rhinoceros is more or less a citizen of the world. 98 14 The four Indian Kings: The Indian Kings, whose names according to Parkman were Tee Yee Neen Ho Gar Row, Emperor of the Six Nations; Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas; Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, King of the Generethgarich; and Etow Oh Koam, King of the River Nations, visited London in April, 1710, to be assured of the power of the English queen and her people, and of their independence from France and Rome. The Mohawk chiefs were entertained at the public expense, taken to the theatre, given audience by the Queen, and so on. For a good short account and many bibliographical references, see Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, V, 107. Cf. Tatler 171. 98 19 Their Landlord the Upholsterer: cf. Tat. 171. This upholsterer is supposed to be one Thomas Arne, of King Street, Covent Garden (see Dict. Nat. Biog., II, 104 ff.). The weight of authority seems to distinguish him from the Edward Arne who is supposed to be the original of the political upholsterer of Tat. 155, 160, 178. Mr. Austin Dobson, however (Eighteenth Century Vignettes, Third Series, p. 328), makes the two upholsterers identical. 99 9-10 A huge house: St. Paul's. way by reason, much less by their authority; for their actions, though double, were of the same species; that is to say, in their comedies, two amours; and their persons were better linked in interest than mine. Yet even this is a fault which I should often practise, if I were to write again, because it is agreeable to the English genius." 96 28 Powell: George Powell (1658?-1714), the actor who played Portius in Addison's Cato. He is to be distinguished from the Martin Powell, puppet-showman, who is satirized in Spectator 14 and in Tatler 44, 50, etc. 97 18 Oedipus: The first edition differs slightly from the version of the Spectator: in 1. 2 the first edition has "Crime"; in 1. it has 3 If wandring in the maze of Fate I run"; in the second passage, 1. 4, it has "The pond'rous Earth." 98 Motto: Juvenal, Sat., xiv, 321: "Good taste and nature always speak the same." ... The historical development of the method of satire used in this paper, the converse of the method in "Gulliver's Travels," would furnish matter for a considerable essay. This would include at least: Marana, The Turkish Spy (1684, or earlier), said to have been written in Italian, thence translated into English, and finally done into French; William King's A Journey to London in the Year 1698.. Written originally in French ...; and newly translated into English (King's Works, London, 1776, II, 187 ff.); Swift's hint at the method, noted above (1704); Antoine Galland's Les mille et une Nuits, contes arabes traduits en français (1704); Du Fresny's Amusements sérieux et comiques d'un Siamois (1707); the present essay (1711); Montesquieu's Lettres persanes (1721); Lord Lyttelton's Persian Letters (1735); J. B. de Boyer (Marquis d'Argens), Lettres juives, chinoises, et cabalistiques (1738-1769); Mme. de Graffigny, Lettres d'une péruvienne (1747); Dr. Dodd's The African Prince, in England, to Zara at his Father's Court (1749); Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques (Asiatic) (1752); Lettres iroquoises (1752); Horace Walpole's Letter from Xo Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at London, to his Friend Lien Chi, at Peking (1757); Goldsmith's Citizen of the World (1760-61); The Algerine Spy (17601761); Letters of Shahcoolen, a Hindu Philosopher, residing in Philadelphia; to his Friend El Hassan, an Inhabitant of Delhi (1802); William Wirt, The Letters of a British Spy, Richmond, Virginia, 1803; Southey's Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (1807); Ingersoll's Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters (1810). The subject is lightly touched in chap. vii of Whittuck's The "Good Man" of the XVIIIth Century, London, 1901. Swift wrote to Stella (Letter xxi, London, April 28, 1711): "The Spectator is written by Steele with Addison's help; 't is often very pretty. Yesterday it was made of a noble hint I gave him long ago for his Tatlers, about an Indian supposed to write his travels into England. I repent he ever had it. I intended to have written a book on that subject. I believe he has spent it all in one paper, and all the under hints there are mine too; but I never see him or Addison." Often as this letter has been quoted, it has never been quite fully explained. It is to be read in connection with the second edition of Swift's Tale of a Tub, 1704. Opposite the title-page of that edition, among other "Treatises writ by the same Author, most of them mentioned in the following Discourses; which will be speedily published," is "A Voyage into England, by a Person of Quality in Terra Australia incognita, translated from the Original." By "long ago" in his note to Stella, Swift could hardly have meant 1704, at which time the Tatler had probably never been thought of; he very likely meant about the time of the actual visit of the Indian chiefs, or shortly after, when they figured in Tatler 171. And yet the visit of the Indian kings need not have changed any “under hints" which may have been intended six years before to be spoken by an Australian, for an Indian king who alludes familiarly to the elephant and the rhinoceros is more or less a citizen of the world. 98 14 The four Indian Kings: The Indian Kings, whose names according to Parkman were Tee Yee Neen Ho Gar Row, Emperor of the Six Nations; Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas; Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, King of the Generethgarich; and Etow Oh Koam, King of the River Nations, visited London in April, 1710, to be assured of the power of the English queen and her people, and of their independence from France and Rome. The Mohawk chiefs were entertained at the public expense, taken to the theatre, given audience by the Queen, and so on. For a good short account and many bibliographical references, see Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, V, 107. Cf. Tatler 171. 98 19 Their Landlord the Upholsterer: cf. Tat. 171. This upholsterer is supposed to be one Thomas Ame, of King Street, Covent Garden (see Dict. Nat. Biog., II, 104 ff.). The weight of authority seems to distinguish him from the Edward Arne who is supposed to be the original of the political upholsterer of Tat. 155, 160, 178. Mr. Austin Dobson, however (Eighteenth Century Vignettes, Third Series, p. 328), makes the two upholsterers identical. 99 9-10 A huge house: St. Paul's. |