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Etherege at Constantinople

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Thomas H. Fujimura
Thomas H. Fujimura*
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Honolulu 14
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Extract

“Essays on the Court Wits as individuals, however well done,” John Harold Wilson observed a few years ago, “have always been somewhat unsatisfactory because of a natural tendency to treat the subject of the essay as a phenomenon taken bodily from his cultural environment.” Sir George Etherege has suffered as much as any other important Restoration writer from this critical failing of examining a literary figure outside the context of his own age. The result has been a totally attenuated picture of Etherege as a rather superficial rake; and this has been paralleled by an equally attenuated understanding of his plays. This critical failing is due in large part, I think, to the lack of information about his life.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , June 1956 , pp. 465 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1956

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References

1 The Court Wits of the Restoration (Princeton, 1948), p. v.

2 See, e.g., the studies of Restoration comedy by Bonamy Dobrée, John Palmer, and Henry Ten Eyck Perry.

3 See the several articles by Dorothy Foster in N&Q (1922, 1927, 1928), and in TLS (Feb. 1922, May 1928).

4 The Letterbook of Sir George Etherege, ed. Sybil Rosenfeld (London, 1928); MS. Letter-book II.

5 Letterbook, pp. 8–9; H. F. B. Brett-Smith, The Dramatic Works of Sir George Etherege (Oxford, 1927), i, xviii–xx; J. Isaacs, “Sir George Etherege at Constantinople,” TLS, 10 Nov. 1921, p. 734.

6 Sir Daniel Harvey received his appointment late in 1667.

7 Eleanore Boswell—“Sir George Etherege,” RES, vii (1931), 209—says the appointment as Gentleman of the Privy Chamber “was no doubt designed to give Etherege suitable standing as a member of Harvey's train.” But this is rather unlikely.

8 Thomas De Laune, Angliae Metropolis: or, The Present State of London (London, 1690), p. 102.

9 The lampoon is from an old MS. copy among the Earl of Arlington's papers, and is quoted by John Oldys, “George Etherege,” Biographia Britannica (London, 1750), iii,1844:

Eth'rege by Knight and Lords united club,

Pickled his Play, and Person in a Tub:

For Comical Revenge, the Lord thought fit

To have a single Trial of his Wit;

In which the Title, if well understood,

Does Shew, he wou'd write better if he cou'd:

But he and's Play have different mishaps;

One's purg'd to cure, t'other to get more claps.

His meagre face did his bad fate foretell;

That, like himself ‘twou'd not be count'nanc‘d well:

Instead of sense, he welcomes you with sound;

For his Fee-simple was two hundred pound:

Yet let us not at this great bounty scoff;

He's the first Fire-ship e'er was well paid off.

Ovid to Pontus sent, for too much Wit;

Eth'rege to Turkey, for the want of it.

10 “The Turky Company payes … his Secretary for Merchant affayrs two Hundred Pound a year. … ”—Sir Thomas Baines to Lady Conway, 19 Dec. 1672; in Conway Letters, The Correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Henry More, and Their Friends, 1642–1684, ed. Marjorie Hope Nicolson (New Haven, 1930), p. 367. According to Etherege, the company paid the secretary 600 lion dollars (Letterbook, p. 115).

11 G. F. Abbott, Under the Turk in Constantinople: A Record of Sir John Finch's Embassy 1674–1681 (London, 1920), p. 7. Lion dollars were Dutch coins bearing the figure of a lion, and were in circulation throughout the Turkish empire, since the Turks had adopted them.

12 Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy (London, 1937), xxxvi (1669–70), 153.

13 C.S.P., Venice (London, 1939), xxxvii (1671–72), 57–58. Pietro Mocenigo, “An Account of England,” 1671.

14 Ibid., xxxvi, 153; xxxvii, 57–58. Abbott, p. 397: Sir John Chardin, in 1691, estimated the export trade with Turkey to be between £500,000 and £600,000 a year, a quarter of the total exports of the kingdom.

15 Roger North, The Lives of … Francis North, Baron Guilford … Sir Dudley North … and Dr. John North (London, 1826), ii, 368.

16 Abbott, pp. 7–8.

17 Paul Ricaut, The History of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire (London, 1686), p. 167.

18 Letlerbook, p. 125.

19 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, November 1667 to September 1668 (London, 1893), viii, 103; Isaacs (n. 5, above).

20 C.S.P., Venice (London, 1935), xxxv, 230, 266; A. C. A. Brett, Charles II and His Court (London, 1910), p. 252; Gilbert Burnett, History of His Own Time (Oxford, 1833), i, 182.

21 Abbott, p. 7.

22 Samuel Pepys, Diary, 29 July 1667; 7 Aug. 1667.

23 C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 229.

24 Denis de la Haye, Sieur de Ventelet, the French ambassador, at an audience with the Vizier on 8 January, after an altercation, was struck several times and beaten, and then imprisoned for four days; he was saved from a worse fate only by Winchelsea's intervention.

25 C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 234–236.

26 Pepys, 20 Oct. 1667. In an amateur performance of The Indian Emperor at Whitehall by the ladies, the Duke of Monmouth, and others, Capt. O'Bryan excelled above all, for he not only “spoke and did well, but, above all things, did dance most incomparably” (Pepys, 14 Jan. 1667/68). Again, at a funeral, O'Bryan pulled some amusing ballads out of his pocket for Pepys to read; and they, as well as other young commanders plus the rake Thomas Killigrew, were very merry together (Pepys, 15 May 1668).

27 C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 229, 237.

28 C.S.P., Dom., viii, 431, 498.

29 Ibid., p. 431.

30 Sir John Finch had a “family” of about 32, including 2 pages and 12 footmen in livery, plus a chaplain and a secretary (Conway Letters, pp. 367–368).

31 C.S.P., Dom., October 1668 to December 1669 (London, 1894), ix, 455. From Constantinople the Earl passed into Syria, and then travelled homeward to England.

32 Ibid., pp. 149, 489. The Countess had Mrs. Corey of the King's Company impersonate Lady Harvey in the character of Doll Common in The Alchemist. Lady Harvey had Mrs. Corey imprisoned, but the Countess had her released, to reappear on the stage in the same character. Lady Harvey then provided people to hiss her and throw oranges at her. Pepys, 15 Jan. 1668/69; 16 Jan. 1668/69.

33 C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 237–238.

34 C.S.P., Dont., viii, 535, 565. Perhaps the ship had to put back again; see C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 245.

35 C.S.P., Dom., viii, 542, 546, 548,551. Perhaps the ship had to put in at Portsmouth; see ibid., 557.

36 C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 278. John Covel, chaplain to Sir Daniel, left the Downs on 21 Sept. 1670, and arrived at Cadiz on 11 Oct. 1670—Extracts from the Diaries of Dr. John Covel, 1670–1679 (in Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant, ed. James Theodore Bent, London, 1893), pp. 101, 105.

37 The Algerians complained that the acting governor, Lt.-Col. Henry Norwood, had refused water to their ships, fired on them, and detained their boats; they asked for the appointment of a new governor. C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 249, 271.

38 Ibid., pp. 244, 262, 322; xxxvi, 7.

39 North, II, 320.

40 C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 244, 262, 322; xxxvi, 7.

41 North, ii, 343–347; C.S.P., Dam., ix, 101.

42 Brett-Smith, i, xix. Covel travelled the distance in 3 months, leaving the Downs on 21 Sept., Cadiz on 11 Oct., reaching Smyrna on 23 Nov., and arriving in Constantinople on 31 Dec—Covel, pp. 101–144.

43 Mémoires du Sieur de la Croix (Paris, 1684), i, 170–173. The Sieur de la Croix was secretary to the French ambassador, the Marquis de Nointel, who arrived at Constantinople in Oct. 1670.

44 The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Worthy Montagu (London, 1837), i, 420–421; Albert Vandal, Les Voyages du Marquis de Nointel (Paris, 1900), p. 69; Abbott, p. 35.

45 Alexander Pallis, In the Days of the Janissaries (London, 1951), p. 74; Mémoires, i, 128–133; Abbott, p. 35.

46 Pallis, pp. 75–76, 55–56; Mémoires, i, 205–206.

47 Conway Letters, p. 368.

48 Mémoires, i, 174.

49 Ibid., i, 162–163; Montagu, ii, 3–4.

50 Isaacs; North, iii, 36–37; C.S.P., Venice, xxxv, 221.

51 C.S.P., Dom., ix, 101, 351, 398; C.S.P., Venice, xxxvi, 45.

52 William Perwich, The Despatches of William Perwich English Agent in Paris 1669–1677, Camden Series (London, 1903), p. 8; C.S.P., Venice, xxxvi, 54–55.

53 C.S.P., Dom., viii, 576; C.S.P., Venice, xxxvi, 43–44.

54 C.S.P., Dom., ix, 477. A letter of 31 May 1669 from the Levant Company to Sir Daniel Harvey acknowledges receipt of letters written in Dec. 1668 and Feb. 1668/69, the last from Constantinople—C.S.P., Dom., ix, 349.

55 C.S.P., Venice, xxxvi, 123; Conway Letters, p. 367.

56 Sir John Finch in 1675 took along his embassy staff, servants, and a number of merchants. There were 120 horsemen, 55 baggage-wagons, 3 led horses, a coach-and-six with postillions, a coach-and-four for the Chief Dragoman, a double litter canopied with fine wrought cloth and carried by 4 mules for Sir John and his friend (Abbott, p. 89).

57 Ibid., p. 177.

58 Letterbook, p. 405; Perwich, pp. 77–78.

59 Letterbook, pp. 405–406.

60 Ibid., pp. 406–407. Cf. Abbott's estimate of Kara Mustafa, and his opinion that Etherege's judgment of the Caimacham was truer than the superficial estimate by the consul at Smyrna, Paul Ricaut (p. 194). See also Abbott, p. 207.

61 My account of Sir Daniel Harvey's audience with the Grand Signor is based in part on the accounts of audiences granted other ambassors; in general, the ceremonies were always the same. In a letter of 31 Jan. 1669/70 to Arlington, Harvey says, “I was received by ye Grand Signior according to ye custome of this Court…” (quoted in Abbott, p. 395). Cf. Abbott (pp. 139–146) on the audience of Sir John Finch; also Covel (pp. 257–266) on the same audience. Sieur de la Croix (pp. 56–80) gives an account of Nointel's audience. See also Dudley North's audience with the Grand Signor (ii, 417–418).

62 Covel, pp. 196, 264.

63 Letterbook, p. 406.

64 Harvey's letter to Arlington (Abbott, p. 395).

65 Letterbook, pp. 406–407.

66 Caimacham's letter to Charles II from Salonika; quoted in Covel, p. 151.

67 Lelterbook, p. 407.

68 The letter is undated; it was received at Whitehall on 3 May 1670.

69 Letterbook, pp. 405–408. “The one letter from him on Turkish affairs and personalities preserved at the Public Record Office makes us wish for more: a better informed or better written document does not exist in all the Turkey State Papers” (Abbott, p. 385).

70 Quoted in Brett-Smith, i, xx.

71 North, ii, 361. The plague was also quite common during the hot summer months; in 1670, it visited Aleppo, causing many deaths among the English factors (C.S.P., Dom., 1670, London, 1895, x, 412).

72 C.S.P., Venice, xxxvi, 232; Letterbook, pp. 407–408.

73 C.S.P., Dom., x, 414; Letterbook, p. 431.

74 C.S.P., Fewice, xxxvi, 232; Mémoires, i, 28, 35–36.

75 Vandal, pp. ix–x, 39, 40–41,43; Abbott, p. 70; Mémoires, 1,38.

76 Covel, p. 144.

77 After Etherege's departure, apparently John Newman became secretary; for when Sir Daniel died in Aug. 1672, Newman was his temporary successor (Isaacs). Sir John Finch received the appointment to the embassy at Constantinople to succeed Harvey.

78 Letter from W. Perwich in Paris, 1 May 1671; quoted in Brett-Smith, i, xx.