NOTES "SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER"

PROLOGUE

I (p. 3) Your partiality to this performance: See Introduction, p. ix.

2 (p. 4) Mr. Woodward: As a result of Colman's sneering at the play during rehearsals, several actors, including Woodward, who had played the part of Lofty in The Good-Natured Man only indifferently well, refused to play their parts. Woodward consented to speak Garrick's lines.

3 (p. 4) I've that within: The lines in Hamlet, I, ii, 77-86, read as follows:

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,

But I have that within which passeth show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

4 (p. 4) Poor Ned: Edward Shuter, who played the part of Hardcastle.

Аст I

5 (p. 9) The very basket: A large wicker receptacle fastened to the hind axle-tree, for the conveyance of luggage and in emergencies of passengers, too. 6 (p. 10) Darby and Joan: The names of a married couple who became proverbial for their long and perfect married felicity.

7 (p. 10) Mrs. Frizzle's face: Lord Clare's daughter played this trick on Goldsmith during the time in which he was writing this play.-Forster's Life of Goldsmith, IV, XV, Note 4.

8 (p. 11)

9 (p. 15)

10 (p. 16)

II (p. 17)

Music box: Barrel organ or hurdy-gurdy.

All were well: Falstaff on the eve of the battle of
Shrewsbury says this, I Henry IV, V, i, 126.
Low: A thrust at the partisans of sentimental
comedy. See Introduction, p. vi.

Water parted: A song from Arne's Artaxerxes, an
opera produced first in 1762.

12 (p. 17)

13 (p. 17) 14 (p. 18)

Ariadne: An opera by Handel. The minuet came
at the end of the overture.

Woundely: A slang term meaning "excessively."
No ghost to tell us that: Hamlet, I, v, 125 ff.

"There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave

To tell us this."

15 (p. 19) Trapesing, trolloping: To trapes (German trappen) is to trail about idly; to trollope is to walk in a slovenly manner.

16 (p. 19) Find out the longitude: In 1713 Parliament offered a reward of £20,000 to the discoverer of an adequate means of determining longitude at sea. A certain John Harrison fulfilled the conditions, but had difficulty in collecting the money. In 1773,

through the interposition of the King, he received his reward.

17 (p. 20) Father's as an Inn: See Introducton, p. xiii.

18 (p. 22)

19 (p. 25)

20 (p. 25)

21 (p. 27)

22 (p. 28)

23 (p. 28)

24 (p. 30)

25 (p. 31)

Аст II

Wauns: Diggory's corruption of swounds, i.e., "By
God's wounds."
Prepossessing: Used here in the unusual sense of
giving an unfavorable impression.
Ďuchess of Drury Lane: Refers to a flashily
dressed woman, not to an actress.
Heyder Ally, Ally Cawn-Ally Croaker: Heyder
Ally (1717-1782), a Mohammedan adventurer,
usurped the throne of Mysore, a native state of
southern India, and became a great military power.
Ally Cawn or Ally Khan was Subah of Bengal, at
about the same time. Ally Croaker the title of an
Irish song beginning:

"There lived a man in Ballinacracy."

Westminster Hall: The scene at that time of the courts of law.

Battle of Belgrade: Here the Turks were defeated on August 16, 1717.

A Florentine: A dish made of minced meat, eggs, currants, spice, etc.

Laws of marriage are respected: Reference to the Royal Marriage Act of 1772, which was passed on account of the marriages of two of George III's brothers, the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester. It provided that no descendant of George II might

marry without the previous consent of his Majesty. The audience was in sympathy with Gloucester's marriage with Lady Waldegrave and applauded vigorously this allusion to his difficulties.

26 (p. 37) Ranelagh, St. James's or Tower Wharf: Ranelagh Gardens and St. James's Park were fashionable places for concerts and masquerades. Tower Wharf was by no means fashionable. Hastings is playing upon Mrs. Hardcastle's ignorance, as he does in a similar fashion in his juxtaposition of The Borough and The Pantheon and the Grotto Gardens.

27 (p. 37) Scandalous Magazine: The Town and Country Magazine was so called because of its Tête-à-Têtes, a series of bust portraits with satirical biographies. 28 (p. 37) Since inoculation began: Since 1721, when inoculation from smallpox had been introduced from Turkey by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, few women had been disfigured by the smallpox. Complete housewife: A well-known eighteenth century handbook of medicine for the household. Quincy: A doctor, John Quincy (d. 1723), compiled a very popular Complete English Dispensary, a fourteenth edition of which was issued in 1772. 31 (p. 41) Anon: Used frequently by servants meaning "In a moment" or "Coming, sir.". Here it is equivalent to "What's that?" or "Say it again."

29 (p. 39) 30 (p. 39)

ACT III

32 (p. 42) Bully Dawson: A notorious thug of London. In Spectator, No. 2, Sir Roger de Coverley is said to have kicked him out of a coffee house.

33 (p. 45) Morrice, Prance: Morrice suggests the morris-dance. dance. The expression means "waltz off" or "clear

out."

34 (p. 45) Marcasites: A metal much used in the eighteenth century as an imitation for gold or silver in all sorts of personal ornaments.

35 (p. 45)

36 (p. 47) 37 (p. 48)

Table-cut: Certain precious stones are cut with a large table or point face, only the sides are cut in angles.

Catherine wheel: Rotating firework or pin wheel. Cherry in "The Beaux's Stratagem": The pla, one of Farquhar's best comedies, was first produced in 1707. (See Introduction, p. vii). Cherry is the daughter of Boniface, landlord of the Inn, the scene of the action.

38 (p. 51) The Ladies' Club in Town: This club is described in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1770 as the "Female Coterie." The membership consisted of both

ladies and gentlemen, among whom were Horace Walpole, Fox, and George Selwyn.

39 (p. 51) Biddy Buckskin: On the first nights of the play this name was "Miss Rachel B.," which was resented as an allusion to an elderly maiden lady named Miss Rachel Lloyd who was a member of the club.

40 (p. 52) Ames-ace!: This is a cast of double ace. If one has "nicked seven," that is, hazarded on that number, it is bad luck to throw "ames-ace" three times running.

41 (p. 58)

42 (p. 59)

43 (p. 61)

44 (p. 62)

45 (p. 63)

46 (p. 65)

ACT IV

The Rake's Progress: A famous set of engravings by Hogarth, published in 1735.

Dullissimo Macaroni: A macaroni was a gay and extravagantly dressed young fop. The print shops of Goldsmith's day were filled with engravings satirizing individuals and having titles of this sort; for example, Mr. Thrale was satirized as "The Southwark Macaroni."

Whistlejacket: A famous race-horse.

Haspicholls: A popular mispronunciation or vulgarism for "harpsichord."

Dick Ginger, the feeder: A feeder and trainer of fighting-cocks.

Baskets: Single-sticks with basket hilts.

Аст V

Basket of a stage coach: See Note 5.

Rabbit me: Meaning evidently derived from the French rabattre, meaning to "beat down" or "to humiliate."

EPILOGUE

49 (p. 82)

50 (p. 82)

51 (p. 82) 52 (p. 82)

Spoken by Mrs. Bulkley, who played the part of
Miss Hardcastle.

"We have our exits and our entrances": The pas-
sage which follows is a humorous variation of
Jacques's speech beginning "All the world's a
stage" in As You Like It (II, vii, 139 ff.).
Nancy Dawson: A popular song of the day.
Che Faro: The opening words of the most famous
aria in Glück's opera Orfeo (1764) "Che faro senza
Euridice."

53 (p. 82) Heinel: Mlle. Anna Frederica Heinel, a French danseuse, who was at this time very popular at the Opera House in London.

54 (p. 83)

55 (p. 83)

56 (p. 84)

57 (p. 84)

Spadille: The ace of spades, the first trump in the
popular game of ombre.

Pleads for Bayes: A character in the Duke of Buck-
ingham's play The Rehearsal (1671), intended for a
caricature of Dryden. A crown of bay-leaves used
to be given in antiquity to the winner of a poetic
contest. Here the word signifies merely the poet.
J. Cradock, Esq.: A gentleman of family and for-
tune who became acquainted with Goldsmith in
1772. He made a translation of Voltaire's Zobeide,
for which Goldsmith wrote a prologue. In return
for this, Cradock composed this epilogue.
Sadler's Wells: A well-known pleasure garden.