The Works of John Dryden: Plays: The Wild Gallant The Rival Ladies The Indian Queen, Volume VIII John Dryden UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS THE WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN General Editor H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR. Textual Editor VINTON A. DEARING VOLUME EIGHT EDITORS John Harrington Smith Dougald MacMillan TEXTUAL EDITOR Vinton A. Dearing ASSOCIATE EDITORS Samuel H. Monk Earl Miner VOLUME VIII The Works of John Dryden Plays THE WILD GALLANT THE RIVAL LADIES THE INDIAN QUEEN University of California Press Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 1965 by The Regents of the University of California ISBN: 0-520-00359-4 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-22633 Printed in the United States of America Third Printing, 1997 To the Memory of Edward Niles Hooker (1902-1957) This page intentionally left blank Preface After numerous delays, we offer the first volume of Dryden's plays in this edition. In the covering statements for the plays we have endeavored to present, as briefly as possible, such material as seemed pri- marily useful or necessary for a proper understanding of each as a piece of dramatic literature produced by Dryden at its date. Of course we have been heavily indebted to the findings of others and have tried to indicate this indebtedness so far as seemed feasible; when we have disagreed, we have tried to be explicit if the point seemed a material one, but many times have had to disagree silently. Our problem throughout was to use the available space to what seemed the best advantage; we had al- ways to be prepared to exclude, or things would very soon have got out of hand. For any errors, whether of omission or com- mission, judgment or fact, we ask the reader's indulgence. We could wish to have done more with the verse in the plays, but we hope that what is said will prove at least to be suggestive and will encourage the pursuit of this subject by others. We have tried to reserve the explanatory notes for the ex- plication of comparatively short passages. A few remarks of an appreciative nature have crept in, and matters of source have sometimes been treated here if attached to a specific passage; but in general, sources are treated in the headnotes to the plays. This policy has made the headnote to The Indian Queen run longer, perhaps, than it should, but at least the relevant material will be found there in one place, instead of scattered through the notes. Two other kinds of material which might have been presented piecemeal in the notes have instead been massed in essays of their own. What it seemed should be said about the plays in the theater will be found in a section entitled Staging, where, after some preliminaries, we offer conjectural scene plots for the plays; the upshot of these is to suggest that even at the very outset of his career Dryden was able to use the new type of staging with scenes with skill and success. The Actors contains our guesses as to how the plays were cast when first produced. We wish to make grateful acknowledgment to the following viii preface for contributions to the volume: Samuel H. Monk for the essay on, and a number of notes to, the dedication of The Rival Ladies; Earl Miner for most of the treatment of style in The Indian Queen; W. R. Keast for a number of notes bearing on the language of The Wild Gallant; and Hugh G. Dick for the notes on the astrological prologue to that play, and for most kindly reading the entire script of the Commentary and offering a number of valuable remarks. William S. Clark and Ned B. Allen, in the early stages of the project, furnished written mate- rials which were most useful to us but became assimilated and are not identifiable in the work as it now stands. We also wish to thank, for their interest and suggestions, John Harold Wil- son, William Klenz, Frank Harper Moore, Mrs. Gretchen Graf Jordan, Stefan A. Riesenfeld, James D. Sumner, and Frederick M. Carey; Kenneth Macgowan and William Melnitz; Emmett L. Avery, A. H. Scouten, and George Winchester Stone, Jr.; and the late Godfrey Davies. We are especially indebted to Vinton Bearing for his text, and to H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., for the many hours that he spent in going over our material (always to our profit) and for giving us our head on many points (sometimes, perhaps, against his bet- ter judgment). Most of all, however, we owe to Edward Hooker. The best things in the volume are due, either directly or in- directly, to his leadership and inspiration, and it was inevitable that we should dedicate to him. We are deeply grateful to the libraries in which we worked and were served by their ever-obliging staffs: the Folger Shake- speare Library, the Henry E. Huntington Memorial Library, and above all the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library of the University of California, Los Angeles. It is hard to imagine the volume coming into being without the Clark. Indispensable aid also came to us from other quarters. The University of California Press gave us Mrs. Grace H. Stimson, whose editorial labors helped so much to transform our type- script into a book. Our universities on several occasions freed us from teaching and supported the project with generous re- search grants, and we received financial assistance, also, from Preface ix the Carnegie Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Me- morial Foundation, and the Folger Shakespeare Library, With this volume we beg leave to announce our retirement as editors. For our successors we wish every reward that goes with the work, including that of learning to know Dryden bet- ter. We predict they will find that the better one knows him, the more one will admire and love him. At least it has been so with us. J. H. S. D. MacM. November 1961 This page intentionally left blank Contents The Wild Gallant 1 The Rival Ladies 93 The Indian Queen 181 Commentary 233 Staging 305 The Actors 317 The Operatic Indian Queen 323 Textual Notes 331 Index to the Commentary 371 This page intentionally left blank THE WILD GALLANT THE Wild Gallant: THE C O M E D Y. As it was Afted at the THEATRERORAL, BY HIS MAJESTIES SERVANTS. WRITTEN, By JOHN DRTDEN, Efq; In the SAVOY. Printed by tbo. Newcomb, for H. Hermgman, at the Blew-Ancbor, in the Lower-Walk of the New-Excbange. 1669. TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION (MACDONALD 72B) The Wild Gallant 3 PREFACE. T would be a great Impudence in Me to say much of a Comedy, which has had but indifferent success in the ac- I tion. I made the Town my Judges; and the greater part condemn'd it: After which I do not think it my Concernment to defend it, with the ordinary Zeal of a Poet for his decry'd Poem, though Corneille is more resolute in his Preface before his Pertharite, which was condemn'd more Universally than this: for he avowes boldly, That in spight of Censure his Play was well, and regularly written; which is more than I dare say 10 for mine. Yet it was receiv'd at Court; and was more than once the Divertisement of His Majesty, by His own Command. But I have more modesty than to ascribe that to my Merit, which was His particular Act of Grace. It was the first attempt I made in Dramatique Poetry; and, I find since, a very bold one, to be- gin with Comedy; which is the most difficult part of it. The Plot was not Originally my own: but so alter'd, by me (whether for the better or worse, I know not) that, whoever the Author was, he could not have challeng'd a Scene of it. I doubt not but you will see in it, the uncorrectness of a young Writer: which 20 is yet but a small excuse for him, who is so little amended since. The best Apology I can make for it, and the truest, is onely this; That you have since that time receiv'd with Applause, as bad, and as uncorrect Playes from other Men. 4 it:] ~ . Q1-4, F, D. [These and other sigla are identified in the Textual Notes.] 6 Poem, though] ~ . Though Q1-4, F, D. 4 The Wild Gallant PROLOGUE to the WILD GALLANT, as it was first Acted. it not strange, to hear a Poet say, He comes to ask you, how you like the Play? I s You have not seen it yet! alas 'tis true, But now your Love and Hatred judge, not You. And cruel Factions (brib'd by Interest) come, Not to weigh Merit, but to give their Doome: Our Poet therefore, jealous of th' Event, And (though much boldness takes) not confident, Has sent me, whither you, fair Ladies, too 10 Sometimes upon as small occasions goe, And from this Scheme, drawn for the hour and day, Bid me inquire the fortune of his Play. The Curtain drawn discovers two Astrologers; The Prologue is presented to them. First Astrol. reads. A Figure of the heavenly Bodies in their several Apartments, Feb. the jth. half an hour after three after Noon, from whence you are to judge the success of a new Play called the Wild Gallant. z. Astrol. Who must Judge of it, we, or these Gentlemen? We'l not meddle with it, so tell your Poet.