I, WHO was late so volatile and gay,

Like a trade-wind must now blow all one way,
Bend all my cares, my studies, and my vows,
To one dull rusty weathercock-my spouse!
So wills our virtuous bard-the motley Bayes 55
Of crying epilogues and laughing plays!
Old bachelors, who marry smart young wives,
Learn from our play to regulate your lives:
Each bring his dear to town, all faults upon her-
London will prove the very source of honour.
Plunged fairly in, like a cold bath it serves,
When principles relax, to brace the nerves:
Such is my case; and yet I must deplore
That the gay dream of dissipation's o'er.
And say, ye fair! was ever lively wife,
Born with a genius for the highest life,
Like me untimely blasted in her bloom,

Like me condemn'd to such a dismal doom?

Save money-when I just knew how to waste it!
Leave London-just as I began to taste it!

Must I then watch the early crowing cock,

The melancholy ticking of a clock;

In a lone rustic hall for ever pounded,56

With dogs, cats, rats, and squalling brats surrounded? With humble curate can I now retire,

(While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire,)

And at backgammon mortify my soul,

That pants for loo," or flutters at a vole.58

Seven's the main! 59 Dear sound that must expire,
Lost at hot cockles 60 round a Christmas fire;
The transient hour of fashion too soon spent,
Farewell the tranquil mind, farewell content! 61
Farewell the plumèd head, the cushion'd tête,
That takes the cushion from its proper seat!
That spirit-stirring drum!-card drums 62 I mean,
Spadille-odd trick-pam-basto-63 king and queen!
And you, ye knockers, that, with brazen throat,
The welcome visitors' approach denote;
Farewell all quality of high renown,

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious town!
Farewell! your revels I partake no more,

And Lady Teazle's occupation's o'er!

All this I told our bard; he smiled, and said 'twas clear, I ought to play deep tragedy next year.

Meanwhile he drew wise morals from his play,

And in these solemn periods stalk'd away:

"Bless'd were the fair like you; her faults who stopp'd, And closed her follies when the curtain dropp'd!

No more in vice or error to engage,

Or play the fool at large on life's great stage."

NOTES "THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL”

DEDICATION

I (p. 195) A Portrait; addressed to Mrs. Crewe: The verses were circulated in manuscript among Sheridan's friends. Mrs. Crewe was the daughter of Fulke Greville and his very versatile wife. She was both very beautiful and very clever. Her salon had a political as well as an artistic bias. She corresponded with Burke up to the year of his death and won the admiration of Fox. At this time Sheridan was completely under her sway.

2 (p. 195) Amoret: By_this name, given her in some fulsome verses by Fox, she was known to her friends. Amoret appears in Book III, Canto VI, of Spenser's Faerie Queene. She and her sister, Belphœbe, were pure lovers who had received all the gifts of "grace and chastitee."

3 (p. 195) 4 (p. 196)

5 (p. 196)

6 (p. 197)

7 (p. 198)

Worthier verse: This is a reference to Fox's poem. Granby: The Marchioness of Granby. Her husband was later Duke of Rutland.

Devon's eyes: Duchess of Devonshire. Of her
grace Horace Walpole said, "She effaces all with-
out being a beauty." (See Introduction, p. xix).
Greville: Mrs. Greville, the mother of Mrs. Crewe.
To her Sheridan dedicated The Critic.

Millar: Lady Millar held a kind of literary court
every Thursday at her salon in Bath.
She con-
ducted poetic contests in which all her guests par-
ticipated. The poems, once written, were ceremoni-
ously deposited in a garlanded Roman vase.
judges chose the best compositions and the winners
were crowned with myrtle by the romantic Lady
herself.

Six

8 (p. 199) Vapours: A very fashionable affliction in the eighteenth century. The modern equivalent is melancholy or the blues.

9 (p. 199)

10 (p. 199)

Poz: Slang for positive.

Dash and Star: In retailing scandal, the papers printed only the initials of the persons involved, followed by a dash or a row of asterisks.

II (p. 199) Grosvenor Square: A fashionable residence district

in London.

ACT I, SCENE I

12 (p. 201) Town and Country Magazine: The first number of this magazine appeared in January, 1769. Each month there appeared a tête-à-tête, or insinuating sketch of some intrigue among persons of fashion. The purpose of this publication of scandal was professedly a moral one.

13 (p. 209) Conversazione: A social gathering primarily for the purpose of conversation on literary and artistic subjects.

14 (p. 209) Petrarch's Laura: Petrarch was a fourteenth century Italian poet, who addressed a quantity of sonnets to an idealized, half-imaginary lady called Laura.

15 (p. 209) Waller's Saccharissa:_ Waller, a courtly poet of seventeenth century England, addressed some of his verses to Lady Dorothy Sidney, whom he called by the above sweet name.

16 (p. 210)

17 (p. 211)

18 (p. 211)

19 (p. 216)

20 (p. 216)

21 (p. 216)

22 (p. 216)

23 (p. 217)

24 (p. 218)

Tunbridge: Tunbridge Wells was a famous Eng-
lish watering place.
Old Jewry: A street in London inhabited by Jewish
money-lenders.

Irish Tontine: An Italian banker, Lorenzo Tonti,
devised for Cardinal Mazarin in 1653 a new scheme
for promoting a public loan. It was a form of
life annuity brought by various classes of sub-
scribers. The annual fund of each class was di-
vided among the survivors of the class. On the
death of the last individual the capital reverted to
the state. The tontines of Great Britain of the years
1773, 1775 and 1777 were called Irish, because the
money was borrowed under acts of the Irish Par-
liament.

ACT II, SCENE I

Pantheon: A fashionable London concert hall.
fête champêtre: An open-air festival.

Tambour: Embroidery frame.

Pope Joan: An old-fashioned card game.

White cats: Slang for horses. What Sheridan wrote was "white cobs."

Rid on a hurdle: The hurdle was a cart or sledge on which criminals condemned to the gallows were carried to execution.

25 (p. 218) Utterers of forged tales, coiners of scandal, and clippers of reputation: The figures are all drawn from the counterfeiting of money. Clipping de

26 (p. 219)

27 (p. 219)

28 (p. 219)
29 (p. 221)

30 (p. 221)

31 (p. 221)

32 (p. 223)
33 (p. 226)

34 (p. 229)
35 (p. 230)

36 (p. 231)

37 (p. 232)

38 (p. 238)

39 (p. 239)

scribes the practice of clipping the edges of coins.
Scandalmongers, Sir Peter thinks, deserve hanging
more than counterfeiters.

ACT II, SCENE II

Taking the dust in Hyde Park: The London Park
in which was the fashionable drive of the city.
Duodecimo phaëton: "Duodecimo" is a name given
to books of the smallest size. Here it merely means
"very small."

Macaronies: See She Stoops to Conquer, Note 42.
Small whey: Whey is water drawn off from curdled
milk. "Small" means "diluted."

Hair
like a drummer's: The drummers in
the army wore their hair in queues.
The Ring: A circle laid out in Hyde Park for riding
and driving, broad enough for one set of coaches or
horses to be driven in one direction while another
set was driven in the opposite direction. The po-
lite world could thus behold and greet one another.
Spa: A watering place in Belgium.

Cicisbeo: An Italian word meaning "gallant." It
came to mean the recognized lover of a married

woman.

ACT III, SCENE I

Jet: Gist or principal point.
"Open as day, for melting charity": Lines from
Shakespeare's II Henry IV, IV, iv, 31-32, inaccu-
rately quoted. The original line is:"

66

"He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity."

Sheridan wrote the line correctly, except for a
"the" before "day"; the error appears in current
texts.
Crutched Friars: A London street named from a
Convent of Crossed or Crouched Friars.
The annuity bill: An act of Parliament passed in
May, 1777, for the protection of minors in contracts
made with them for annuities.

ACT III, SCENE II

Bags: Small silken pouches made to hold the back-
hair of wigs.

Post-obit: A bond given for the payment of a debt
by an expectant heir; payable on or after the death
of the person from whom he has expectations.