Leer, throw glances. ↩
In the “Vision of Mirza” (Spectator, No. 159), Addison pictured the Happy Islands which were the abode of good men after death. “Does life appear miserable, that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward?” ↩
In Terence, Glycerium comes to Athens with Chrysis, a courtesan, her supposed sister, and Pamphilus makes her acquaintance at Chrysis’s house. ↩
This character has no prototype in Terence’s Andria. ↩
These two operas, by G. B. Bononcini, were produced in 1722, with words by Rolli. In Griselda, Anastasia Robinson took the part of the heroine, and it is said that she thus completed her conquest of the Earl of Peterborough, who married her many years later. ↩
There is nothing in Terence’s Andria to correspond to the incidents in this act; and throughout the remainder of the play there is no resemblance except the general idea of the story. ↩
Steele had already described this scene in the Guardian for June 20, 1713:—“I happened the other day to pass by a gentleman’s house, and saw the most flippant scene of low love that I have ever observed. The maid was rubbing the windows within side of the house, and her humble servant the footman, was so happy a man as to be employed in cleaning the same glass on the side towards the street. The wench began with the greatest severity of aspect imaginable, and breathing on the glass, followed it with a dry cloth; her opposite observed her, and fetching a deep sigh, as if it were his last, with a very disconsolate air did the same on his side of the window. He still worked on and languished, until at last his fair one smiled, but covered herself, and spreading the napkin in her hand, concealed herself from her admirer, while he took pains, as it were, to work through all that intercepted their meeting. This pretty contest held for four or five large panes of glass, until at last the waggery was turned into an humorous way of breathing in each other’s faces, and catching the impression. The gay creatures were thus loving and pleasing their imaginations with their nearness and distance, until the windows were so transparent that the beauty of the female made the manservant impatient of beholding it, and the whole house besides being abroad, he ran in, and they romped out of my sight.” ↩
Steele’s monetary troubles made him personally familiar about the time he wrote this play with indentures tripartite, quadrupartite, and otherwise (See Life of Steele, 1889, II., 291, 299, etc.). ↩
This scene is, of course, entirely original. ↩
Patron of cockfighting. ↩
Colophon
The Conscious Lovers
was published in 1722 by
Richard Steele.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
B. Timothy Keith,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2017 by
Clare Graham and Marc D’Hooghe
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
The Declaration of Love,
a painting completed in 1724 by
Jean François de Troy.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
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The first edition of this ebook was released on
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Uncopyright
May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
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