EPILOGUE SPOKEN BY Mrs. Bracegirdle, WHO PLAY'D You see the tripping dame cou'd find no favour, There's dreadful dealing with eloping wives; Have learn'd at least this modern way of wit: Epilogue. In the original, the 1703, edition, this immediately follows the Prologue. I tripping. 1732, trippling. 14 own. 1732 omits. 5 ΤΟ 15 Each ill-bred, senseless rogue, tho' ne'er so dull, 31 charms. 1732, charm. 20 25 30 35 Notes to the Fair Penitent 3. The Duchess of Ormond. She was eldest surviving daughter of Duke of Beaufort, and married the Duke of Ormond as his second wife in 1685. She died in Avignon (in 1733), where Lady Mary Wortley Montague saw her. Her husband was most prominently connected with Ireland, was Lord Lieutenant, and helped Swift to his preferment to the deanery of St. Patrick's. He was one of the most popular men of his age. His support of the Jacobite cause forced him to live an exile during the last part of his life. The Fair Penitent opens roughly at the close of the second act of Massinger's Fatal Dowry. Vid. Introduction, p. xi. II, 45. yet... didst. Cf. Fatal Dowry, 1, sc. 2, II, sc. 2. 15, 125. with a loose. Cf. "Give a loose to love"; Ambitious Stepmother, III, Sc. 2. "Give a loose to war ; Tamerlane, 1, 8c. I. "Give a loose to rage"; Ibid. 11. "Give a loose to tears Ibid. IV. ; Here the phrase seems to mean with abandonment, with a free rein she loves. 15, 126. Lothario is the equivalent of Young Novall in The Fatal Dowry. 98, 176. Forgot the temper of Italian husbands. Rowe is not probably thinking of any special persons, but of the Italian husband as seen in the Italian novelle and in the English drama founded on these novels. THE TEXT The first edition, 1714 A, is the basis of this text. Variants other than mere changes in spelling and punctuation in the second, 1714 B, edition, in the fifth edition (1733), the eighth edition (Dublin, 1735), the 1746 edition, and in French's acting version of the play (F) have been recorded in the footnotes. These editions are, in sequence, the earliest of which the editor has found trace. There is an imperfect copy, lacking the title-page, ascribed by the British Museum Catalogue to "Dublin? 1720?" The collation shows that the original text has suffered practically no change in succeeding editions. French's acting version cuts many of the long speeches, as indicated. The 1733 edition supplies a half-dozen or so extremely minor variants; the 1735 edition is, like many of the Dublin editions of that day, a poor reprint with a new crop of typographical errors. In general, the punctuation of the first edition has been retained, except in the instances noted in the text of The Fair Penitent. When the punctuation here used changes in the slightest degree the sense of the first edition, the original punctuation is given in a footnote. Variants are to be credited to the edition in which they first appear following the first edition. Additions to the stage-directions of the first edition are in brackets. Changes in the divisions of scenes in later editions or in stage-directions appear in footnotes. |