<\/p>\n
The centuries fall away. We live to see
\nEngland merry after war\u2019s murd\u2019rous spree.
\nFoul Cromwell\u2019s head rots on a spike. Hail Charles!
\nYour regal smile supplants a tyrant\u2019s snarls.
\nReligious hatred drove bloody strife;
\nHeresy, so-called, could cost you your life.
\nNow toleration is starting to show,
\nA tender plant needing nurture to grow.<\/p>\n
Theatres open that Cromwell shut down,
\nPretty witty Nell Gwyn is toast of the town.
\nNobs in the balcony, plebs in the pit,
\nShout scathing abuse at plays without wit.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m Aphra Behn. Of origins obscure,
\nI register nobility\u2019s allure.
\nThey have their share of fops and dunderheads,
\nAnd hop am\u2019rously twixt plebeian beds.<\/p>\n
Such license corrupts, while benefits bring.
\nLord Rochester is favoured by the king,
\nOne day plays \u201croaring lad,\u201d that clod of fashion.
\nNext writes, uncensored, with wit and passion.<\/p>\n
He was my lover, teacher; still my friend.
\nMy plays and poems tribute I extend.
\nHis death will murder no small part of me,
\nThe other part keep joyful memory.<\/p>\n
Our play begins with some playful playing,
\nMy play The Rover is in the making.
\nIts hero Willmore, Rochester inspired.
\nHis mistress plays the part his passion fired.
\n
\n <\/p>\n
Rochester\u2019s Apartment in Whitehall (royal) Palace. Aphra Behn and Elizabeth Barry arrive.<\/em><\/p>\n BAPTISTE: Please come in ladies. His lordship will join you shortly.<\/p>\n Sounds from adjacent room of retching followed by a groan. Behn and Barry look at each other with concerned expressions. Rochester enters patting mouth with cloth.<\/em><\/p>\n ROCHESTER (cheerily): Good day, ladies.<\/p>\n BEHN\/BARRY: Good day. BEHN: You are unwell?<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: What? No. Just a passing case of French revenge. I lost the battle with a filthy claret last night. Baptiste, be sure to complain to the vintner and let him know we\u2019ll take our business elsewhere if he persists in poisoning us.<\/p>\n BAPTISTE: Yes, sir.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: So Aphra, you bring copies of your latest play The Rover. I\u2019m eager to see it. The tattle is that I inspired the character of its hero, Willmore, a dashing cavalier.<\/p>\n BEHN: True. Dear, mad Willmore \u2026<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: Courtesy requires that I declare myself much honoured, but caution suggests that I defer that declaration until I\u2019ve read the play.<\/p>\n BEHN: You put caution over courtesy now? Hmm. An unwelcome reversal. Willmore is a brisk young lover. No caution there.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: I regret that brisk is no longer part of my repertoire, ma\u2019am.<\/p>\n BEHN: Well no matter. I\u2019d be obliged if you would read Willmore\u2019s lines anyway so we can rehearse Mrs Barry in hers. She\u2019s cast as Hellena, a young maiden of a yearning disposition. It will be like old times for you both, the master and the pupil.<\/p>\n BARRY (giddily): Yes, he once had me read a part fifty times. By the time he declared himself satisfied, I\u2019d quite forgotten who I was.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER (aside): Thereby removing an annoying distraction.<\/p>\n BARRY: I have some questions about the play, Aphra.<\/p>\n BEHN: Yes, Elizabeth?<\/p>\n BARRY: It\u2019s set at the time of the civil war between the cavaliers and the roundheads, is it not?<\/p>\n BEHN: Approximately.<\/p>\n BARRY: Then why does the action take place in Naples? If Willmore is such a brave cavalier, why isn\u2019t he in England battling the roundheads?<\/p>\n BEHN: He\u2019s depressed about having to forfeit his estate.<\/p>\n BARRY: Why isn\u2019t he fighting to get it back?<\/p>\n ROCHESTER (patronizingly): If I may, Elizabeth, I believe Aphra is exercising what those of her craft call dramatic licence.<\/p>\n BEHN: That is indeed the case. Erotic passions bubble and boil over under the blazing Mediterranean sun. The imagined sound of Mount Vesuvius throbbing away in the background enhances the effect. The tension between the carnal temptations and the savage retributions of Neapolitan society lends extreme danger to the lovers\u2019 liaisons. The play would not have the same feeling to it if the mise-en-scene were, say, Worcestershire.<\/p>\n Will Fanshawe arrives<\/em><\/p>\n FANSHAWE: Did I hear the words Ewotic Passions?<\/p>\n BEHN: Indeed you did, Will. They appear to excite you \u2013 which is curious. Because the love darts Eros throws at your command would scarcely prick a plum pudding, let alone arouse passion in the objects of your fickle desire.<\/p>\n FANSHAWE: You are too cwuel ma\u2019am.<\/p>\n BEHN: Better the cruelty of a friend than the world\u2019s indifference, Will. But I confess I have you at a disadvantage. It\u2019s scarcely passed mid-day, far too early for you to appear in society. You\u2019re violating your usual daytime routine, which, I\u2019m told on reliable authority, consists of writing billets-doux, composing madrigals, adjusting your cravat, and rehearsing the languid motion of foppery. And yet\/<\/p>\n ROCHESTER (interrupting, as Elizabeth looks agitated): The play Aphra, let us not forget the play!<\/p>\n BEHN: Ah yes, the play. Will, I beg you remove yourself. You distract me. Shall we begin? (hands scripts to Barry and Rochester). Please start with the passage I have marked.<\/p>\n Exit Fanshawe muttering<\/em><\/p>\n ROCHESTER [WILLMORE]: Very well. (clears throat): I have a world of Love in store \u2013 Wou\u2019d you be so good natur\u2019d, and take some of it off my hands.<\/p>\n BARRY [HELLENA]: Why \u2013 I could be inclin\u2019d that way \u2013 but for a foolish vow I am going to make \u2013 to die a maid.<\/p>\n WILLMORE: Then thou art damn\u2019d without redemption; and as I am a good Christian, I ought in charity to divert so wicked a design \u2013 therefore prithee dear Creature, let me know quickly when and where I shall begin to set a helping hand to so good a work.<\/p>\n BAPTISTE (enters, interrupts): This large sack of soot has just been delivered, sir.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: Send it to the laboratory, Baptise. Sorry. Pray continue Hellena.<\/p>\n HELLENA (swooningly): If you should prevail with my tender heart (as I begin to fear you will, for you have horrible loving eyes) there will be difficulty in it that you\u2019ll hardly undergo for my sake.<\/p>\n BEHN (sighing, aside): Much work to be done, I fear.<\/p>\n WILLMORE: Faith, child, I have been bred in dangers, and wear a sword that has been employ\u2019d in a worse cause, than for a handsome kind woman \u2013 name the danger \u2013 let it be any thing but a long siege, and I\u2019ll undertake.<\/p>\n BAPTISTE (enters): This two-gallon jug of dog piss has just arrived.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER (irritated): Yes, yes. Send it to the laboratory, too. My profound apologies, ladies. Hellena, go on please.<\/p>\n HELLENA: Can you storm?<\/p>\n WILLMORE: Oh, most furiously.<\/p>\n HELLENA: What think you of a nunnery wall? For he who wins me, must gain that first.<\/p>\n WILLMORE: A nun! Oh how I love thee for\u2019t. there\u2019s no sinner like a young saint \u2013 nay, now there\u2019s no denying me: the old law had no curse (to a woman) like dying a maid; witness Jeptha\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n HELLANA: A very good text this, if well handled; and I perceive Father Captain you would impose no severe penance on her who was inclined to console herself before she took Holy Orders.<\/p>\n WILLMORE: If she be young and handsome.<\/p>\n BAPTISTE (carrying a gaudy gown and a vizard): Are these the items, you\u2019re planning to wear, sir?<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: Yes, yes. Leave them here. And my dear Baptiste, if you persist in interrupting, we\u2019ll be obliged to give you a role in Mrs Behn\u2019s play.<\/p>\n BAPTISTE: Mon dieu. Include me out, please. With your lordship\u2019s permission, I shall disappear for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: We would be most grateful.<\/p>\n BARRY (coyly): Bye, Baptiste.<\/p>\n Exit Baptiste<\/p>\n BEHN: Why the gaudy robe, John?<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: Oh, just a newly fashionable item of after supper wear. A mere frippery.<\/p>\n BEHN (picking up the vizard and briefly putting it over her face): And you plan to sport the vizard after supper too? It seems the costumes of the masque ball have now invaded the household. This remarkable turn in domestic fashion had entirely eluded me.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER (laughing nervously): Fashions change so fast, don\u2019t they? The absurdity<\/p>\n of it all. You are fortunate, Aphra. Fashion makes no burdensome demands on you. You happily occupy that liberated space that stands apart from convention. And from that vantage point you can spy freely on the follies of the world.<\/p>\n BEHN: That sounds dangerously like a compliment. But after all our years of friendship, I still don\u2019t know when you\u2019re being serious or not.<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: I speak candidly. (sighs) It\u2019s the burden of the satirist to be always suspected of irony. (holds forehead).<\/p>\n BEHN: You\u2019re tired; your eyes are heavy-lidded\u2026<\/p>\n ROCHESTER: No doubt the effect of reading your powerful script, ma\u2019am. You have a remarkable gift for the torrid.<\/p>\n BEHN: Ah, hah. The candour it seems was short lived. Your irony is a like a demon, always lurking, ready to invade plain speech. But let\u2019s err on the side of caution. Given what seems to be your fragile state of health, it would not be prudent to continue with the reading. We\u2019ll do that another day when you\u2019re feeling sufficiently robust to withstand the torrid. Farewell, dear Willmore. Come, Hellena\u2026 (to no-one in particular) Since when did \u201ctorrid\u201d become a noun anyway? My lord Rochester has a gift for using language cleverly, while abusing it shamelessly.<\/p>\n Exeunt Behn and Barry. Rochester clasps his head again.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lord Rochester is Dying: A Comedy<\/strong><\/p>\n Prologue: Aphra Behn<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n The centuries fall away. We live to see
\nEngland merry after war\u2019s murd\u2019rous spree.
\nFoul Cromwell\u2019s head rots on a spike. Hail Charles!
\nYour regal smile supplants a tyrant\u2019s snarls.
\nReligious hatred drove bloody strife;
\nHeresy, so-called, could cost you your life.
\nNow toleration is starting to show,
\nA tender plant needing nurture to grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3086,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2292\/revisions\/3086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}