Editorial Notes to Mariana Starke's The Sword of Peace

by Jeffrey N. Cox

"gold mores": for "mohur," standard gold coin of India struck under the Mogul dynasty of the 16th century and later used as the name of the coin struck under British rule that was equal to 15 rupees. (back)

"Colman": George Colman the Elder, author and manager of the Haymarket theater that performed Starke's play. (back)

"David Northcote": Starke suggests he is a "real" character; it is unclear whether he is meant to be a positive portrait of Warren Hastings, under attack at the time in Parliament or whether Northcote represents, say, Cornwallis, brought in after the campaign against Hastings had begun. (back)

"Botoph lane": "Botolph Lane," street in London named after a vanished church, St. Botolph Billingsgate. (back)

"dog days": period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in England. (back)

"Margate in the hoy": Margate is a coast resort on the isle of Thanet visited by Keats; a hoy is a small vessel, usually rigged as a sloop, employed in carrying passengers and goods short distances along the seacoast. (back)

"all winter time": the trial of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal, opened before the House of Lords in Westminster Hall on 13 February 1788; it lasted thirty five days that year and ultimately went on for seven years. (back)

"wooden sword, like Harlequin's": reference to the wooden sword (sometimes a bat) carried by Harlequin in the Boxing-Day Pantomime and used to transform objects magically. (back)

"Telephus": son of Heracles and Auge who opposed the Greeks on their way to Troy and was wounded by Achilles; the wound would not heal until Telephus made his way to the Greek camp and asked Achilles to cure him with the rust of the spear that gave the wound, for an oracle had pronounced that the wounder should be the healer. (back)

"Mr. Baddeley": Robert Baddeley (1733-1794), an actor who from 1763 played at Drury Lane and then the Haymarket in low comedy roles, specializing in national types—Swiss, German, French. (back)

"Mr. Williamson": James Brown Williamson (d. 1802), actor and manager, who played a wide variety of roles in Edinburgh and in the summers at the Haymarket; he pursued ventures in Hamburg and Boston. (back)

"Mr. Palmer": John "Plausible Jack" Palmer (1744-1798), singer would-be manager (his attempt to open the Royalty Theatre in the summer of 1787 was crushed by the patent theatres royal), and popular and versatile broad comedian who performed in the summers at the Haymarket with his brother. (back)

"Mr. R. Palmer": Robert L. Palmer (1757-1817), dancer, singer, and broad comedian in his brother's mold but not as successful. Thomas Bellamy in the London Theatres (1795) said of him, "When vulgar manners are portrayed to view, / Who gives the picture with a touch more true." (back)

"Mr Bannister, Jun.": John Bannister (1760-1836), comedian, son of Charles Bannister, who played such roles as Inkle in Colman's Inkle and Yarico, Belcour in The West Indian, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. (back)

"Mr. Burton": John Burton (d. 1797?), an actor born about 1749; as the son of Drury Lane actor Edmund Burton, he started on the stage in 1762, playing at the Haymarket in the summers; he was a utility actor, of whom Bellamy in the London Theatres (1795) wrote, "BURTON, in humble station, ne'er offends, / Burton is modest, there his virtue lies;/ Burton be modest still and keep thy friends." (back)

"Miss Farren": Elizabeth Farren, later Countess of Derby (1762-1829), one of the most famous actresses and singers of her day; she was a favorite at Drury Lane from 1778 until her retirement in 1797, performing at the Haymarket in the summers; she was best known for playing fine ladies in comedy. (back)

"Mrs Whitfield": Mrs. John Whitfield, Mary, neÈ Lane (d. 1795), actress, singer, and wife of John Whitfield, known for playing haughty types in comedy. (back)

"Mrs. Poussin": performed as Isabella Pearce, then Mrs. Joseph Poussin (fl 1760-1791), an actress, singer, dancer; this was one of the few original roles for this utility actress. (back)

"Mrs. Edwin": Mrs John Edwin, Sarah, née Walmsey (d. 1794), a minor actress and singer of little talent, she lived for twenty years with the prominent comedian John Edwin, but they never married; their ultimate separation was painful. (back)

"Miss Brangin": Rhoda Brangin, later Mrs. James Spriggs (fl. 1779-1791), actress of small comic roles, who found some better parts at the Haymarket. (back)

"in India, on the Coast of Coromandel": the Coromandel coast is the south-east coast of India, around Madras, stretching 400 miles from Point Calimere to the mouth of the Kistna. (back)

"blue-cast, or half-cast": presumably a reference to her darker skin color, the result of her British father having married an Indian woman. (back)

"female Sancho": perhaps a companion to Charlotte Lennox's Female Quixote (1752). (back)

"Resident": could mean the representative of the Governor-General at an important native court (this was how it was used after Warren Hastings' organization of the Civil Service) or the chief of an East India Company's commercial establishment in a province. (back)

"congee cap": a starched night-cap; congee is the water in which rice has been boiled and was used as starch. (back)

"Banyan": or banian, a loose gown or jacket of flannel worn in India and derived from the dress of traders from the province of Guzerat. With his banyan and congee cap, the Resident is dressed in his "Indian" clothes. (back)

"factory": an establishment for traders doing business in a foreign country; a merchant company's trading station. (back)

"Mazaga": perhaps "Mazagong," a suburb of Bombay containing a large Portuguese population; it seems too distant from "Madraspatanam," the older name for Madras. (back)

"servant out of livery": a servant who may wear plain clothes. (back)

"Seapoys": Indian natives in military service for a European power, particularly the British. (back)

"Gentoo": a non-Mohammedan inhabitant of Hindustan, a Hindu. (back)

"tallow chandler": a maker or seller of candles. (back)

"St. Mary Axe": street named after a church built before 1197 and suppressed in 1565; in 18th and 19th centuries, this street was largely residential street. Dickens puts Fledeby's money lending business, Pubsey and Co, on St. Mary Axe in Our Mutual Friend. (back)

"St. Giles's": St. Giles Highstreet, named for an earlier leper colony and ending in St. Giles Circus. (back)

"Gentleman Usher": an officer at a court or household of a dignitary whose job it is to walk before a person of high rank. (back)

"sword-knot": a ribbon or tassel tied to the hilt of a sword;,now ornamental but originally a thong attaching the hilt to the wrist. (back)

"cross'd the line": journeyed across the equator. (back)

"Colour of Yarico": reference to Inkle's lover, presumably in Inkle and Yarico by George Colman the Younger, the son of Starke's producer; in that play, Yarico appears to be a native American, but elsewhere—as in Mrs. Weddell's play included here—she is African. (back)

"Miss Bronze": there is a slim possibility here of an allusion to Elizabeth Rosina Clements, a servant to the Royal Academy sculptor Joseph Nollekens who was known as "Black Bet" but also among artists as "Bronze." Clements, however, was an elderly servant of African descent and free. (back)

"Bunbury stile": in the style of Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811), a well-known but amateur caricaturist of the period. (back)

"Spadille": the ace of spades in ombre and quadrille. (back)

"Manille": the second best trump or honor in ombre and quadrille. (back)

"Basto": the ace of clubs in ombre and quadrille. (back)

"volle": vole, the winning of all the tricks in a deal. (back)

"St. James's": the court in London. (back)

"Oxford road": one of London's oldest roads (from at least Roman times), called the "Road to Oxford," then "Tyburn Way" (for the gallows), then "Oxford Street," after the 2nd Earl of Oxford purchased land alongside the road in 1713. (back)

"hooker": hookah, a smoking pipe having a tube passing through an urn of water that cools the smoke. (back)

"lud": "Lord." (back)

"Tippoo Saib": Tipu Sultan of Mysore, enemy of English power in India and ally of France, ultimately defeated by Wellesley in 1799. (back)

"Zounds": "God's Wounds." (back)

"Bramins": Brahmin, a member of the highest Hindu caste. (back)

"Written by George Colman, Jun. Esq": George Colman the Younger, author of Inkle and Yarico and of The Africans. (back)

"wig . . . tory": play on the names of the two political parties in Parliament. (back)

"Train Bands": groups training for military service of some kind. (back)

"carte and tierce": in piquet, carte is a hand without a face-card; in other games a no-trump hand; tierce is a sequence of three cards of the same suit. (back)