generation of _Adam_ in the first of _Genesis_.' How far credence
may be given to anything of Brown's is of course a moot point, but
the above passage and much that follows would be witless and dull
unless there were some real suggestion of scandal. Moreover, it
cannot here be applied to Hoyle, whereas it very well fits
Ravenscroft. This letter which speaks of 'the lash of Mr. C----r'
must have been written no great time after the publication of Jeremy
Collier's _A Short View of the Immorality of the English Stage_
(March, 1698), probably in 1701-2. Ravenscroft's last play, _The
Italian Husband_, was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1697, and
he is supposed to have died a year or two later, which date exactly
suits the detail given by Brown. Ravenscroft's first play,
_Mamamouchi_, had been produced in 1672, and the 'an old poet' would
be understood.]

[Footnote 24: This occurrence is the subject of some lines in _The
Rump_ (1662): 'On the happy Memory of Alderman Hoyle that hang'd
himself.']

[Footnote 25: _The Muses Mercury_, December, 1707, refers to verses
made on Mrs. Behn 'and her very good friend, Mr. Hoyle'.]

[Footnote 26: My attention was drawn to these lines by Mr. Thorn
Drury, who was, indeed, the first to suggest that Hoyle is the
person aimed at. I have to thank him, moreover, for much valuable
information on this important point.]

[Footnote 27: cf. Luttrell's _Diary_, February, 1686-7, which
records that an indictment for misconduct was actually presented
against him at the Old Bailey, but the Grand Jury threw out the bill
and he was discharged. The person implicated in the charge against
Hoyle seems to have been a poulterer, cf. _A Faithful Catalogue of
our Most Eminent Ninnies_, said to have been written by the Earl of
Dorset in 1683, or (according to another edition of Rochester's
works in which it occurs) 1686. In any case the verses cannot be
earlier than 1687.
Which made the wiser Choice is now our Strife,
_Hoyle_ his he-mistress, or the Prince his wife:
Those traders sure will be beiov'd as well,
As all the dainty tender Birds they sell.
The 'Prince' is George Fitzroy, son of Charles II by the Duchess of
Cleveland, who was created Duke of Northumberland and married
Catherine, daughter of Robert Wheatley, a poulterer, of Bracknell,
Berks; and relict of Robert Lucy of Charlecote, Warwickshire.]

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