I ought to play deep tragedy next year.
Meanwhile he drew wise morals from his play,
And in these solemn periods stalked away: -

Blessed were the fair like you; her faults who stopped

And closed her follies when the curtain dropped!
No more in vice or error to engage,

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

5

NOTES

THE RIVALS

Withdrawing of the piece. See Introduction.

Mr. Harris, proprietor and manager of the Covent Garden

Theatre.

Covent Garden Theatre, built in 1731 by John Rich,
has been the scene of many first night plays. Garrick,
Kemble, and other famous actors have played there.

2:3. Sons of Phoebus. Phoebus, another name for
Apollo, god of poetry, hence poets.

2:4. The Fleet. A prison nearly eight hundred years old
when it was destroyed in 1846. As early as 1290 it became
a debtors' prison, for which purpose it was entirely reserved
after 1641.

2:6. Sprig of bays. Bay, berry, especially of the laurel,
hence a garland or crown bestowed as a prize for excellence,
usually literary excellence.

2:23. Drury Lane Theatre was one of the principal theatres
of London. It was opened in 1663, rebuilt in 1674 by Sir
Christopher Wren, and reopened in 1794 and 1812. Many
of the great actors of the eighteenth and nineteenth cen-
turies have played in this theatre.

6:3. Odd's life. A large variety of oaths in this play.

NOTES

20:15. Controvertible, incontrovertible.

21:15. Intricate, obstinate (?).

21:20. Black art, necromancy. See Century Dictionary. 21:23. Misanthropy, misanthropist.

22:11. Laconically, ironically.

22 16. Progeny, prodigy.

22:25. Ingenuity, ingenuousness.
22:26. Supercilious, superficial.
233. Contagious, contiguous.
23:4. Orthodoxy, orthography.
237. Reprehend, comprehend.
239. Superstitious, superfluous.
24 16. Illegible, ineligible.

25: 1. Intuition, tuition, i.e. keeping or instruction.
25:21. Malevolence, benevolence.

25:23. Locality, loquacity.

26: 16. Paduasoy.

A silk stuff named from Padua and the French word soie, meaning silk.

28:18. Chairmen, bearers of the sedan chairs. Minority waiters, "waiters out of employment, in humorous allusion to a political minority, as being out of office." Century Dictionary. 30:22. Reversion, " a right or hope of future possession or enjoyment.”

34:6. Mall. The broad promenade, usually refers to the Mall in St. James Park, London.

34:24. German Spa. Originally a watering-place in Belgium, then any watering-place.

37 18. Catches. "An unaccompanied round for three

or more voices, written as a continuous melody." Glees. 'A composition for three or more solo voices, without accompaniment."

Century Dictionary.

39:25. Looby, obsolete for lubber.

Tambours,

40:20. Frogs, ornamented embroidered loops to secure the coat or cloak. a circular frame on which silk or other stuff is stretched for the purpose of being embroidered, so-called from the resemblance to a drum." Century Dictionary.

46:19. Cox's Museum. Popular exhibition of curiosities of the day. See Frances Burney's novel, Evelina, letter 23.

48:22. Turnspit. "A kind of dog of small size, formerly used to work a kind of treadmill-wheel, by means of which a spit was turned." Century Dictionary.

50-15 South Parade. At Bath. The Parade Coffee-house mentioned a few lines farther on was the North Parade. 66:18-19. Accommodation, recommendation. Ingenuity, ingenuousness.

6710. Ineffectual, intellectual.

67:23. Pine-apple of politeness, pink of perfection. 68:7-17. Exploded, exposed (?). Conjunctions, injunctions. Preposition, proposition. Particle, article. Hydrostatics, hysterics. Persisted, desisted. Interceded, intercepted.

70: 4-6. Reprehend, apprehend (?). Oracular, vernacular. Derangement, arrangement. Epitaphs, epi

thets.

76 10. Allegory, alligator.