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Generally it was ill-tempered, and employed to inflict pain. And there was not even wit in most of the plays. It is hard to see what even the worst age could discover to laugh at in Shadwell's Libertine, the story of Don Juan told in English, and, in a sense, made the most of. Because of their nastiness, often combined with stupidity, the Restoration dramas will never be resurrected.
Father Holt applied it twice or thrice, when he caught the young scapegrace with a delightful wicked comedy of Mr. Shadwell's or Mr. Wycherley's under his pillow. These, when he took any, were my lord's favorite reading. But he was averse to much study, and, as his little page fancied, to much occupation of any sort.
Or dornick, a worsted or woollen fabric used for curtains, hangings and the like, so called from Tournai, where chiefly manufactured. cf. Shadwell's The Miser , Act i, I: 'a dornock carpet'. Also Wit and Drollery : Penelope to Ulysses: The Stools of Dornix which that you may know well Are certain stuffs Upholsterers use to sell. p. 202 Henry the Eighth.
12th. Up, and with Sir W. Batten and Sir W. Pen to St. James's by water, and there did our usual business with the Duke of Yorke. Thence I to Westminster, and there, spoke with Michell and Howlett, who tell me how their poor young ones are going to Shadwell's. The latter told me of the unkindness of the young man to his wife, which is now over, and I have promised to appear a counsellor to him.
In Shadwell's play of The Scowrers, an old rake thus boasts of his early exploits: "I knew the Hectors, and before them the Muns, and the Tityretu's; they were brave fellows indeed! In these days, a man could not go from the Rose Garden to the Piazza once, but he must venture his life twice, my dear Sir Willie."
The commentators upon "MacFlecknoe" have not made due use of one of Shadwell's habits, in illustration of the reason why a wreath of poppies was selected for the crown of its hero. The dramatist, Warburton informs us, was addicted to the use of opium, and, in fact, died of an overdose of that drug. Hence
Then, to be sure, he snatches the first ready cudgel, as in Shadwell's case, though even then there is something of the good-humor of conscious strength. Pope's provocation was too often the mere opportunity to say a biting thing, where he could do it safely. If his victim showed fight, he tried to smooth things over, as with Dennis.
Braggs had called in the morning, but, finding that her aunt Vashti was at chapel, he had followed her there, intending to return with her. But he had not been seen since the service, and had evidently returned to the Mission. But when she reached Deacon Shadwell's house she was received by Mrs. Shadwell only.
Shadwell's play of "The Woman Captain," 1680, is perhaps the last in which a regular fool is introduced; and even there, his master is made to say that the character was exploded on the stage. In real life, as was formerly stated, the professed fool was to be met with at a much later period, but the custom has long been obsolete.
To stum wine is to renew dead and insipid wine by mixing new wine with it and so raising a fresh fermentation. cf. p. 176 Grisons. Shadwell's The Volunteers , Act ii, sc. I: 'Sir Nich. I keep grisons, fellows out of livery, privately for nothing but to carry answers. p. 183 Laurence, Lord Hyde.
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