nty lines of
the Epilogue are only given in 4to 1681. All subsequent editions
omit them.

NOTES: CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

+Dedication+

p. 113 _The Duke._ James, Duke of York, for whom Mrs, Behn,
a thorough Tory, entertained sentiments of deepest loyalty. The
'absence', 'voluntary Exile', 'new Exiles', mentioned in the
Dedication all refer to James' withdrawal from England in 1679, at
the time of the seditious agitation to pass an illegal Exclusion
Bill. The Duke left on 4 March for Amsterdam, afterwards residing at
the Hague. In August he came back, Charles being very ill. Upon the
King's recovery he retired to Scotland 27 October. In March, 1682,
he paid a brief visit to the King, finally returning home June of
the same year.

p. 114. _young Cesar in the Field._ During the Commonwealth and his
first exile James had joined Turenne's army, 24 April, 1652, and was
frequently in the field. He distinguished himself by conspicuous
bravery. In 1656, at the wish of Charles, he joined the Spanish
army.

p. 114 _Some of Oliver's Commanders at Dunkirk._ During the Flanders
campaign of 1657, Reynolds, the commander of the English at Dunkirk,
sought and obtained an interview with James, whom he treated with
the most marked respect and honour. This was reported to Cromwell,
much to the Protector's chagrin and alarm.

p. 115. _City Pope._ An allusion to the exploits of Elkanah Settle,
who was so notorious at that time for violent Whiggism that in 1680
he had presided over the senseless city ceremony of 'Pope-burning'
on 17 November. This annual piece of ridiculous pageantry is smartly
described by Dryden in his Prologue to Southerne's _The Loyal
Brother_ (1682); and in the Epilogue to _Oedipus_, (1679), after
enumerating the attractions of the play, he ends--

We know not what you can desire or hope
To please you more, but burning of a Pope.

There are many contemporary references to Settle and his
'fireworks'. Otway, in _The Poet's Complaint_ (4to, 1680), speaks of
Rebellion cockering the silly rabble with 'November squibs and
burning pasteboard Popes', canto xi. Duke, in the Epilogue to the
same author's _The Atheist_ (1683), says that the poet never 'made
one rocket on Queen Bess's night'. In Scott's _Dryden_, Vol. VI
(1808) is given a cut representing the tom-fool procession of 1679,
in which an effigy of the murdered Sir Edmund Bur