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SOME ACCOUNT

OF THE

English Stage from the Restoration

IN 1660 TO 1830.

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T. R. 1691.

Treacherous Brothers.

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Menaphon and Orgillus

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(the treacherous brothers) = Mountfort and Hodgson: King of Cyprus Powell: Ithocles and Meleander (in love with Marcelia) = Williams and Alexander: Semanthe, Queen of Cyprus Mrs. Bowtel: Marcelia (in love with Ithocles) Mrs. Bracegirdle: Statilia (disguised as Lattinius, and in love with Meleander) Mrs. Butler: Armena Mrs. Jourden :--Menaphon makes love to the Queen, and being repulsed by her, he determines on revenge-he contrives to have a sleeping potion administered to Ithocles and the Queen-Orgillus conveys Ithocles to the Queen's apartment and Menaphon brings the King--Ithocles and the Queen are found asleep on a couch, arm in arm-the King sentences them both to death-in the 5th act Orgillus is seized with remorse-Menaphon

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stabs him to prevent a discovery-Orgillus survives so as to declare the Queen's innocence-Menaphon is executed-Ithocles is united to Marcelia and Meleander to Statilia-this is a moderate T. by Powell the actor-it came out in Hilary Term 1690 O. S. that is in 1691 according to our present computation -the Editors of the B. D. state it as printed in 1696 -they consider it, as Powell's third play-Mrs. Knight begins the Prologue with

"New plays is still the cry of the whole town,
"Therefore to day, young Powell gives you one;
"The fellow never writ before this time."

Mrs. Butler in the Epilogue speaking of the author,

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Faith, Gentlemen, be kind to his first born."

The first edition of the Treacherous Brothers is dated 1690-Langbaine says that the main incident -the soporifick potion-is borrowed from a romance called the Wall Flower-it is introduced again in Brutus of Alba 1696-and in the Unnatural Mother 1698.

Distressed Innocence, or the Princess of Persia. Isdigerdes (King of Persia) = Bowman: Hormidas (his general and nephew-a Christian) = Mountford: Theodosius (son to the Emperour Arcadius) = Powell: Otrantes (formerly general) = Kynaston: Rugildas (his friend—a villain) = Sandford: Audas (a Christian Bishop) = Hodgson: Orundana (supposed daughter of Isdigerdes) = Mrs. Barry: Cleomira (wife to Hormidas-a Christian) Mrs. Bracegirdle:-the temple of the Sun is burnt-the Christians are falsely accused

of having set fire to it-Isdigerdes orders a general persecution Hormidas and Cleomira are reduced to slavery-Cleomira is “ Cleomira is "poisoned by philters,” that is, reduced to a state of insensibility by drugs-Otrantes takes that opportunity to gratify his passion for her -in the last act Otrantes is going to kill the king, but is killed himself-Rugildas drags in Cleomira with a dagger in his hand-Hormidas enters -the stage effect produced at this moment is precisely the same as that in the last act of Braganza-the scene however ends differently-Rugildas kills Cleomira-a struggle ensues between him and Hormidas-they are both mortally wounded---Orundana kills herself from disappointment-it being made to appear, that she is really the daughter of Otrantes, and that Cleomira is the king's daughter-Isdigerdes puts a stop to the persecution.

Settle in his dedication says "whatever fiction I "have elsewhere interwoven, the distresses of Hor"midas and Cleomira are true history"—this play is founded on the 39th chapter of the 5th book of Theodoritus-Settle has warpt the story in favour of the Christians, for Abdas, from a mistaken zeal, did pull down a temple-Hormidas (properly Hormisdas) was forced to lead the camels of the army, (as mentioned in the play)-it was not however his wife, but the wife of another person, who was taken from her husband and given to a slave-all the other circumstances relating to Hormidas and Cleomira are fiction-Settle makes his Persians talk of Minerva, Edipus, Tarquin &c.von the whole this is far from a bad play.

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Settle says in the dedication" I grew weary of little talent in Dramatics, and forsooth must be rambling into politics: and much I have got by it,

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"for, I thank 'em, they have undone me"-when Dryden wrote his Absalom and Achitophel, and his Medal, Settle answered them both-he was at that time the poet of the Whigs--he afterwards became so staunch a Tory, that he wrote a Heroick Poem on the Coronation of James the 2d, and even a Panegyrick upon Judge Jefferies-but before he could derive any solid advantage from his change of party, the Revolution took place, and from that period he lived poor and despised till 1723-4--(Dr. Johnson and B. D.)-political apostacy is so common, that it rarely meets with the treatment, which it meritsSettle had however prostituted his pen in so gross a manner, that the contempt excited by his political writings was even extended to his dramatic labours -see City Ramble D. L. Aug. 17 1711.

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King Edward the 3d with the Fall of MortimerMortimer, Earl of March (the Queen's paramour)= Williams: Lord Mountacute Mountfort: Edward the 3d Powell: Sir Thomas Delamore = Kynaston : Sir Robert Holland Hodgson: Earl of Leicester = Bowman: Earl of Exeter Sandford: Tarleton (Bishop of Hereford, and Chancellor of England)= Leigh Serjeant Eitherside-Nokes: Queen Mother

Mrs. Barry: Maria (niece to Eitherside, in love with Mountacute) = Mrs. Bracegirdle :-in the 5th act the Queen Mother signs an order for the King's confinement as a prisoner-this seems to be fiction— in other respects the play differs but little from the history-the author has added a comic underplot— the Chancellor is of an amorous disposition-the Serjeant pimps for him in hopes of preferment-he brings Maria to the Chancellor, and insists that she

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