CHARLES LAMB'S EXTRACTS FROM THE GARRICK PLAYS NOT PRINTED BY HONE COUNTRY HOUSEWIFE'S RECEIPT ELFHEAL, woodbit, honeysuckle buds, &c., &c. SE Then there's devil's bit, the best of all. They say the devil bit off half the first that grew, to prevent the good design'd by it to the world. [D'Urfey. The Old Mode and the New, Act i., Sc. 1.] CONTEMPT I'll make 'em by a sullen gloomy air Believe that is contempt which is despair. A melancholy retirement, where Content & I were often quarrelling about a slender fortune. [D'Urfey. Preface. Epistle ded. to Madame Fickle, 1677.] FROM PREFACE TO MRS. BEHN'S "DUTCH LOVER" Indiscerpibility and essential Spissitudes; words which tho' I am no competent judge of for want of languages, yet I fancy strongly ought to mean just nothing. [1st ed., 1673. Preface.] A late learned Doctor, who tho' himself no great asserter of a deity (as you'll believe by that which follows), yet was observed to be continually persuading this sort of men [the rakehelly blockheaded Infidels about Town] of the necessity and truth of our religion; and being ask'd how he came to bestir himself so much this way, made answer, that it was because their ignorance and indiscreit debauch made them a scandal to the Profession of Atheism. [Ibid.] She further speaks of the above Infidels-" their Linkboys' ribaldry, larded with unseasonable oaths, and impudent defiance of God & all things serious & that at such a senseless damn'd unthinking_rate," &c. [Mrs. Behn. Dutch Lover. Preface.] ONE WHO DAMN'D HER PLAY Indeed that day 'twas acted first, there comes one into the Pit a long, lither, phlegmatic, white, ill favored, wretched fop-a thing, reader, but no more of such a smelt! This thing, I tell you, opening that which served it for a mouth, out issued such a noise as this to those that sate about it, that "they were to expect a woeful play, God damn him, for it was a Woman's." HER NOTION OF PLAYS [Ibid.] "That they were intended for the exercising of men's passions, not their understandings, & he is infinitely far from wise that will bestow one moment's private meditation upon such things." She "takes it that Comedy was never meant either for a converting or confirming ordinance." [Ibid.] ADMIRERS OF BEN ABOVE SHAKSPEAR: AFFECTATION I have seen a man, the most severe of Jonson's sect, sit with his hat removed less than a hair's breadth from one sullen posture for almost three hours at the Alchemist, who at that excellent Play of Harry the Fourth (which yet I hope is far enough from farce) hath very hardly kept his doublet whole. [Ibid.] She "has been informed that Benjamin was no such Rabbi neither, his learning was but grammar high, sufficient indeed to rob poor Sallust of his best orations." [Ibíd.] NO REASON WHY WOMEN SHOULD NOT WRITE PLAYS AS WELL AS MEN "Plays have no great room for that which is men's great advantage over women, Learning," & she instances unlearned Shakspear having better pleased the world than Jonson's works (this in 1673), & yet Benjamin, &c. (see above) and proceeds-"if Comedy should be the picture of ridiculous mankind, I wonder any one should think it such a sturdy task whilst we are furnish'd with such precious originals.” "And for our modern playwrights, except our most unimitable Laureat, I dare to say I know of none that write at such a formidable rate, but that a woman may well hope to reach their greatest height." [Ibid.] "DUTCH LOVER:" MRS. BEHN Marcel: divided between his design upon the honor of Clarinda, and his revenge upon another for dishonouring his Sister; he inclines to the latter But stay-O Conscience, when I look within, And lay my anger by, I find that sin, [Ibid., Act ii., Sc. 1.] DEFINITION OF FARCE A play is not called a Farce from any number of acts but from the lowness of the subject & characters; which are not true characters in nature, nor just representations of human characters (as Comedy is or should be) but from the oddness & extravagances of the characters & subject: who, tho' not natural, yet not always against nature; and tho' not true, yet diverting and foolishly delightful. A Farce is like a Dutch piece of painting, or a grotesque figure extravagant & pleasant. [Ravenscroft. The Italian Husband. TRAGEDY Pre -the great characters and subjects of serious Plays are the past glories of the world. E. Settle. [Dedicatory Epistle prefixed to Cam- EXCUSATORY PROLOGUE TO TATE'S "LEAR" [Prologue.] He apologises for having "used less quaintness of style" in the added scenes, which was "partly to comply with my Author's style." [Dedication.] |