Whate’er the generous mind itself denies,
The secret care of Providence supplies.
Epilogue
By Mr. Welsted.
Intended to be spoken by Indiana.
Our author, whom entreaties cannot move,
Spite of the dear coquetry that you love,
Swears he’ll not frustrate (so he plainly means)
By a loose Epilogue, his decent scenes.
Is it not, sirs, hard fate I meet today,
To keep me rigid still beyond the play?
And yet I’m saved a world of pains that way.
I now can look, I now can move at ease,
Nor need I torture these poor limbs to please;
Nor with the hand or foot attempt surprise,
Nor wrest my features, nor fatigue my eyes:
Bless me! what freakish gambols have I played!
What motions tried, and wanton looks betrayed!
Out of pure kindness all! to overrule
The threatened hiss, and screen some scribbling fool.
With more respect I’m entertained tonight:
Our author thinks I can with ease delight.
My artless looks while modest graces arm,
He says, I need but to appear, and charm.
A wife so formed, by these examples bred,
Pours joy and gladness round the marriage bed;
Soft source of comfort, kind relief from care,
And ’tis her least perfection to be fair.
The nymph with Indiana’s worth who vies,
A nation will behold with Bevil’s eyes.
Endnotes
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The original MS. of this Preface is among the papers at Blenheim, where there are also some rough notes for a Preface, e.g., “The fourth act was the business of the play. The case of duelling. I have fought, nor shall I ever fight again. … Addison told me I had a faculty of drawing tears. … Be that as it will, I shall endeavour to do what I can to promote noble things, which I will do as well as I can.” ↩
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“The stupid and diabolical custom of duelling” (MS. erased). ↩
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The Hon. Brigadier-General Charles Churchill, who lived with Mrs. Oldfield after Maynwaring’s death (Egerton’s Memoirs of Mrs. Anne Oldfield, 1731, pp. 67, 121). ↩
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“To enquire what should not which does please.” (MS.) ↩
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Carbonelli, a violinist, who had then not long been in England, had a benefit in 1722 at Drury Lane Theatre. He published twelve solos, dedicated to the Duke of Rutland. Afterwards he became a wine-merchant. ↩
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“Played admirably well.” (MS.) ↩
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“Some great critics.” (MS.) ↩
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Wags in the newspapers of the day pointed out that these words might be read as meaning that Steele was surprised at finding to be true anything that Cibber said. ↩
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“The imitation of Pamphilus.” (MS.) ↩
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“By him.” (MS.) ↩
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The kind of narrative which is presented on the stage ought to be marked by gaiety of dialogue, diversity of character, seriousness, tenderness, hope, fear, suspicion, desire, pity, variety of events, changes of fortune, unexpected disaster, sudden joy, and a happy ending. ↩
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Leonard Welsted, a protégé of Steele’s, wrote also the Epilogue. He was a clerk in the office of one of the Secretaries of State, and wrote a play and various poems, some of which were addressed to Steele. Pope gave him a place in The Dunciad, and Swift attacked him in his “On Poetry: A Rhapsody.” ↩
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Pinkethman. ↩
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The reference is to Bartholomew Fair, which was held in Smithfield. ↩
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Here and throughout this dialogue Steele closely follows the conversation of Simo and Sosia in Terence’s Andria, Act I scene i. ↩
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This and the two following speeches by Sir John Bevil are borrowed from Terence. ↩
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In the old Royal Palace at Westminster, the House of Lords was formed out of the ancient Court of Requests, and the old Painted Chamber separated the Lords from the Commons. Steele has described (Spectator, No. 88) how servants, waiting for their masters at an alehouse at Westminster, debated upon public affairs, addressing each other by their employers’ names. ↩
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At the ridotto there was music, followed by dancing, the company passing, when the music was over, from the pit to the stage. Burney says that this Italian entertainment was first introduced into England in 1722, the year in which Steele produced The Conscious Lovers. ↩
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Belsize House was the forerunner of Ranelagh and Vauxhall. There were gardens, in which refreshments could be obtained, and hunting, races, etc., were provided to amuse the visitors, for whose protection twelve stout men, well armed, patrolled the road to London. A poetical satire, Belsize House, appeared in 1722, the year of this play. In the same year unlawful gaming at Belsize was forbidden (Park’s Hampstead, 246–9). ↩
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Among the Blenheim papers is a fragment, in Steele’s writing, of a dialogue between two servants, Parmeno and Pythias—names taken, no doubt, from Terence’s Eunuchus. The pair discuss the charm of the soft moments of servants in love, free from their usual restraints. Why should any man usurp more than his share of the atmosphere? The whole art of a serving-man is “to be here and there, and everywhere, unheard and unseen till you are wanted, and never absent when you are. This gives our masters and mistresses the free room and scope to do and act as they please—they are to make all the bustle, all the show—we are like convenient demons or apparitions about ’em, never to take up space or fill the air nor be heard of or
