y Godfrey had a
chief place. There were 'ingenious fireworks' and a bonfire.
A scurrilous broadside of the day, with regard to the shouting, says
that ''twas believed the echo ... reached Scotland [the Duke was
then residing in the North], France, and even Rome itself damping
them all with a dreadfull astonishment.' The stage at this juncture
of fierce political strife had become a veritable battle-ground of
parties, and some stir was caused by Settle's blatant, but not
ineffective, melodrama on the subject of that mythical dame _The
Female Prelate, being the History of the Life and Death of Pope
Joan_, produced at the Theatre Royal, 1680. This play itself is
often referred to, and there are other allusions to Pope Joan about
this time, e.g., in the Epilogue to Lee's _Caesar Borgia_ (1679),
where the author says a certain clique could not have been more
resolute to damn his play

Had he the Pope's Effigies meant to burn,
. . . . .
Nay, conjur'd up Pope Joan to please the age,
And had her breeches search'd upon the stage.

cf. also Mrs. Behn in her own Epilogue when she speaks of 'fat
Cardinals, Pope Joans, and Fryers'; and Lord Falkland's scoff in his
Prologue to Otway's _The Soldier's Fortune_ (1680):--

But a more pow'rful Saint enjoys ye now
. . . . .
The fairest Prelate of her time, and best.

Lord Falkland of course points at the play.

+Prologue+

p. 116 _lofty Tire._ The Upper Gallery, the price of admission to
which was one shilling. It was the cheapest part of the theatre, and
is often alluded to in Prologue and Epilogue, but generally with
abuse or sarcasm. Dryden, in his Prologue to Tate's _The Loyal
General_ (1680), caustically advises:--

Remove your benches, you apostate pit,
And take, above, twelve pennyworth of wit;
Go back to your dear dancing on the rope,
Or see what's worse, the Devil and the Pope.

+Dramatis Personae+

p. 117 _Harlequin, Willmore's Man._ Although no actor's name is
printed for Harlequin, the part was undoubtedly played by Shadwell's
brother-in-law, Tom Jevon, who, at the age of twenty-one, had joined
the company in 1673. Originally a dancing-master (Langbaine notes
his 'activity'), he became famous in low comedy and particularly for
his lithe and nimble Harlequins. In Otway's _Friendship in Fashion_
(1677) Malagene, a charact