g. Oh! Love_. Mr. Bullen, who includes this 'impassioned
song' in his _Musa Proterva: Love-Poems of the Restoration_ (1889), has
the following note: 'Did Mrs. Behn write these fine verses?... Henry
Playford, a well-known publisher of music, issued in the same year
[1687] the Fourth Book of _The Theatre of Music_, where "O Love, that
stronger art" appeared with the heading "The Song in Madam Bhen's last
New Play, sung by Mr. Bowman, set by Dr. John Blow." At the end of the
song Playford adds, "These words by Mr. Ousley." ... Mrs. Behn usually
acknowledged her obligations; but she may have been neglectful on the
present occasion. Ousley's claim cannot be lightly set aside.' There is
nothing to add to this, and we can only say that Aphra Behn had such
true lyric genius that 'Oh! Love that stronger art' is in no way beyond
her. A statement which neither disposes of nor invalidates Ousley's
claim based, as this is, upon such strong and definite evidence.

John Bowman (or Boman) who acted Bredwel had 'as a boy' joined the
Duke's Company about 1673. He was, says Cibber, in the days of Charles
II 'a Youth fam'd for his Voice', and he often sang before the King, no
indifferent judge of music. Bowman's name appears as Peter Santlow in
_The Counterfeit Bridegroom; or, the Defeated Widow_ (1677). He soon
became an actor of considerable merit, and created Tattle in _Love for
Love_ (1695). He is said to have remained on the stage for the
extraordinary period of sixty-five years, and to have played within a
few months of his death. Davies speaks highly of his acting, even in
extreme old age. Oldys (MS. note on Langbaine) refers to him as 'old
Mr. John Bowman'. Cibber, in his _Apology_ (1740), speaks of '_Boman_
the late Actor of venerable Memory'.

p. 234 _half Pike_. 'Now _Hist_. A small pike having a shaft of one half
the length of the full-sized one. There were two kinds; one, also called
a _spontoon_, formerly carried by infantry officers; the other, used on
ships for repelling boarders, a boarding-pike,'--_N.E.D_. which quotes
(inter alia) Massinger, &c., _Old Law_ (4to, 1656), Act iii, II:
'Here's a half-pike'; and Froger, _Voyages_ (1698): 'Their ordinary Arms
are the Hanger, the Sagary (assagai), which is a very light Half-Pike.'

p. 245 _Geometry_. A colloquial term for magic.

p. 247 _a Sirreverence under your Girdle_. 'To have an M under (or by)
the Girdle' was a proverbial expression = to have a courteous address by
usi