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350

NOTES AND QUERIES

September 1999

the alleged animosity of Swift to ' the memory

of William the Thir d'. There is little sup porting

evidence

for

this animosity,

but

Swift's 'letter'

to Pope of 10 Ja nu ary 1721 is suggestive of the

extent to w hich his views had changed substan-

tially since, some three decades earlier, he had

penned

his 'Ode to

King William,

On His

Successes

in

Ireland':

As

to

what

is

called

a

Revolution-principle,

my opinion was this; That whenever those

evils which usually attend and follow a vio-

lent change of government, were not in

probability so pernicious as the grievances

we suffer under

a

present power, then

the

publick good will justify such a R evolution;

and this I took to have been the Case in the

Prince of Orange's expedit ion, although in

the consequences

it

produced some very bad

effects, which are likely to stick long enough

by us. [italics mine]

5

This 'letter', never sent, was clearly intended

for publication (it was published by Faulkner

in 1741) and if Swift was prepared to mention

publicly the 'very bad effects' of William's

Glorious Revolution then the sentiments

ascribed

to

him 'when

in the

company

of

his

intimates' do not seem p articula rly surprising.

Indeed the 'Anecdote'', in this case, can be read

as

a

useful piece of supplementary biographical

information.

Beyond this, unfortunately, it is not possible

to go. The supplier of the 'Anecdote' was

clearly familiar with information, or a tradition

of information, close to Swift, and may have

possessed copies

of

some

of

Swift 's unpub-

lished verse. There seems no good reason to

d o u b t his information, or, by extension, his

attribution of the 'paraphrase ' to Swift. Sim-

ilarly there is no reason to doubt the extem-

poraneous nature

of

the verse,

nor

tha t Swift

had the ability

to

turn

it

thus.

DAVID CHANDLER

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

5

The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, ed. Harold Wil-

liams,

5 vols (Oxford, 1963-5), II, 372.

ADIEU THE DELIGHTS OF TH E

STAGE : AN ANTI-METHO DIST

SONG OF 1746

O N 24 Nov emb er 1746, John Rich a ppeared

on the stage of Covent G arden Theatre as

Harlequin in Lewis Theobald's Rape of Pro-

serpine; or, the Birth and Adventures

of

Harle-

quin. Rich

had

frequently acted

in the

role

of

Harlequin for the previous three decades and

had performed in Theobald 's Rape a number

of times in the 1745-6 season alone. Yet this

performance of the afterpiece was to be differ-

ent, as the following extract from the advertise-

ment indicates: 'Also The Rape of Proserpine.

With an addit ional Com ic Scene. H arleq uin -

Lun; the other parts as usual'.

1

The addit ional

scene contained 'Adieu the Delights of the

Stage' ,

a new

anti-Methodist song composed

by 'Lun' (which was Rich's stage name when

he performed as Harleq uin). Rich ad ded the

musical lampoon primarily for domestic rea-

sons,

most notably because his wife had

recently becom e

a

member of the new Metho d-

ist movement. This musical attack, which has

received little scholarly attention,

2

thus pro-

vides evidence on eighteenth-century theatre

history, the early growth of Methodism and

anti-Methodism,

and the

comp lex roles

of

women in the Georgian period.

John Rich (1692-1761) holds a secure place

in the history of the English theatre.

3

He took

' Arth ur H. Scouten

(ed.),

The London Stage . . . Pan 3:

1729-1747, 2 vols (Carbondale, 111., 1961), II, 1265. This is

presumably a direct quo tation from a contemporary advert-

isement, but Scouten does not give the source.

2

Numerous writers have referred

to

the song

in

passing;

see,

for

instanc e, 'Ch arles W esley

and the

Theatrical

W o m a n ' , in J. B. W akeley, Anecdotes of the Wesleys: Illus-

trative of Their C haracter and Personal History (New York,

1869),

369-70. Note that R[ichard] Butterworth, 'Mrs.

Rich', Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society,

1

(1897-98),

58,

provides

a

fairly accurate transcription

of

the song, but his version has not been quoted, or even cited,

in the standard works in the field. For examples of works

that mention the existence of the song but fail to make use of

Butterw orth's transcription (or the original m anuscript), see

Albert M . Lyles, Methodism Mocked: The Satiric Reaction to

Methodism in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1960), 17;

Frederick C. Gill, Charles Wesley, the First Methodist (New

York, 1964), 120-1.

3

See entry in Philip H. HighfiU Jr, Kalman A. Burnim,

and Edward A. Langhans, A

Biographical Dictionary

of

Actors,

Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers Other

Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800, 16 vols (Carbon dale,

111., 1973-93), XII, 337-53, which corrects many of the errors

found in C. F[eU]

S[mhh],

'Rich, John (16827-1761)', DNB.

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5

NOTES AND QUERIES

September 1999

country, at Cowley near Uxbridge in Middle-

sex, and they kept their own coach to transport

themselves and their guests between Cowley

and the Infernal Wen.

10

The transforming

power of Methodism had clearly achieved

another triumph in the person of Priscilla Rich.

John Rich was less easily influenced. Even

Charles Wesley expressed some misgivings

about the unequally yoked pair in a journal

entry that described his visit to the Riches in

1745:

'I dined at Mrs. R's. The family con-

cealed their fright tolerably well. Mr. R.

behaved with great civility. I foresee the

storm my visit will bring upon him.' In the

spring of 1746, Wesley records that while

riding to Brentford 'with our sisters Davey,

Alcroft, and Rich, our coach broke down',

11

and Priscilla Rich probably joined Charles

Wesley on other occasions during 1745 and

1746.

It was also during this period that Pris-

cilla Rich lost a child in infancy, an event that

inspired Charles Wesley to compose two

hymns of mourning ( 'On the Death of a

Child' and 'On the Death of Miss R.', the

latter set to the tune 'Cowley'). Obviously,

Priscilla Rich occupied an important place in

Charles Wesley's circle of religious friends

during the mid-1740s.

12

One can only speculate on the thoughts and

feelings of John Rich regarding the conduct of

his new wife with this enthusiastic, unmarried

field preacher. It seems safe to conclude that

Rich's announcement and public performance

of the anti-Methodist song was the climax of a

domestic tug-of-war. He performed the song

on 24 and 26 November, that is, on the days

before and after the Riches' second wedding

anniversary. On 27 November, a distressed

Priscilla wrote to Charles Wesley: 'the enclos'd

is a copy of a Song Mr Rich has sung in a new

scene added to one of his old entertainments in

10

An engraving entitled G arden Scene at Mr. Rich's V illa

at Cowley

is reproduced in Richard Butterworth, 'From the

Green-Room to the Class-Room',

Wesleyan-Methodist

Magazine,

cxx (1897), 336.

11

The Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley. M.A.,

ed .

Thomas Jackson, 2 vols (London, 1849), I, 407, 410-11.

For additional discussion of the Riches, see Jackson, Th e

Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A.,

2 vols (Lon don,

1841), 1,432-5.

12

B utterworth, 'Gree n-R oom ', 339. The text of 'On the

Death of a Child' can be found in

The Poetical Works of

John and Charles Wesley,

ed. G. Osborn, 13 vols (London,

1868-72), IV, 245-6.

the character of Harlequin Preacher to con-

vince the town he is not a Methodist. Oh; pray

for him that he may be a Christian indeed and

then he will be no more concern'd about what

he is cal 'd. ' T he song she jotte d d own con tains

many of the familiar anti-Methodist themes of

the day.

13

[1]

Adieu the Delights of the Stage

My Barrow and rare Mellow Pears

Poor Lun is reforming the Age

By psa'lm singing preaching & prayers

His Harlequin Coat thrown aside -

To the Band and the Gown must give place

And his Warnings go forth far & Wide

To Convert Covent Garden to Grace

2

Tis Godliness only is gain

That lasting contentment best yields

And what the poor Stage tries in Vain

May be done on a Stool in Moorfields

The Scenes that [were rais'd] for [the Muse]

Shall fill you with sanctify'd Qua lms

The Boxes be turn'd into Pews

And the Musick play nothing but psalms

3

Precisely at Six it begins

My Flock shall go edify'd hence

your Methodist takes all your Sins

So with em he takes but your pence

Come Brethren and Sisters attend

I'll open your Eyes to new Light

Be warn'd by the Voice of a Friend

And crow'd to my preaching each Night

The performance of the song was un-

doubtedly suffused with humorous gestures

and intonations. One can imagine, for example,

that not all the 'Mellow Pears' Harlequin ad-

dressed were in his barrow and that the word

'psa'lm' could have been stretched to more

than one syllable with any number of vocal

13

John Rylands University Library of Manchester [here-

after JRULM], DDWES 2/13-14, Priscilla Rich to [Charles

Wesley],

London, 27 Nov. 1746, with enclosure. The song is

written entirely on fo. 14. Reproduced by courtesy of the

Director and University Librarian, the John Rylands Uni-

versity Library of Manchester. I would also like to thank the

Archives Committee of the Methodist Church for their

permission to publish this work. Mrs Rich's apparent inten-

tion was to indent every second line, and that format has

consequently been adopted here. With the exception of the

dash at the end of verse 1, line 5, there is no end-of-the-line

punctuation. The initial letter of every line is in upper case

with the exception of verse 3, line 3. Verse 2, line 5 is torn

and partially illegible, but this seems to be the most plausible

reading of the mutilated words. Butterworth's version of the

line in 'Mrs. Rich', 58, reads as follows: "The scenes that

years [past could amuse]' . Butterworth's transcription of the

song alters the punctuation, capitalization, and indentations

found in the original manuscript.

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September 1999

NOTES AND QUERIES

353

devices (extended falsetto would be especially

effective). Converting the infamously immoral

Covent Garden ' to Grace' must have seemed a

laughable impossibility to any theatre audience

of the period. Moorfields was the scene of

much outdoor preaching by the Methodists

but was also the location of Bedlam, the infa-

mous lunatic asylum. The irony of preaching

'Godliness' as the only 'gain' and then taking

peop le's pence was a theme comm only found in

contemporary anti-Methodist l i terature. So

too was licentiousness. The fact tha t the 'B reth-

ren and Sisters' should seek the Methodist

'New Light' in the evening was undoubtedly

meant to suggest the existence of immoral

behaviour among the converts. As Harlequin

turns preacher, in other words, the 'Delights of

the Stage' yield to the pleasures - spiritual or

otherwise - that could be obtained at nocturnal

Methodist meetings.

14

While Priscilla's letter has served to preserve

the song, her intention was to lament its per-

formance and seek consolation from her spir-

itual mentor. She had had some deep (though

unspecified) spiritual experiences but was wary

of revealing them to others. As she wrote to

Charles Wesley: 'Oh; think what it is to be

Oblig'd to Conceal this from the Eys [sic] of

those that know n othin g of these things but call

it all Madness.' If the song can be accepted as

evidence on this point, Priscilla's husband was

probably among those in the latter category.

She states that Wesley's letter (to which she is

replying and which is apparently not extant)

'gave me Great comfort, and at a time I had

much need of it', perhaps a reference to the

death of her infant daughter. It is not surpris-

ing that Priscilla Rich's friendship with Charles

Wesley, based on shared religious views, their

mutual love of music, and their sympathetic

regard for one another, endured for decades. In

1749,

Wesley spent the afternoon at her house

in Cowley to hear 'some New Tunes played

over'. He wrote to his wife Sarah in 1753 that

'Mrs Rich sends her sincere Love '. In 1766 and

14

The Progress of Methodism in Bristol: or, the Methodist

Unmask'd by

'an Imprtial Hand' (Bristol, 1743), 22-3, refers

to an religious lovefeast held at night that included 'pious

Sisters, Wives, and Misses' and male adherents who 'greet

them, well, with holy Kisses'.

1767,

Mrs Rich was inviting Charles Wesley Jr

to hear oratorio performances in London.

1 5

A further intention of Priscilla's 27 Novem-

ber letter was to bemoan the spiritual state of

her husband. She refers to him as 'my poor

Partner who I fear has in a Great Measure

Stifl 'd the Convictions god Gave him'. Com-

menting on all her woes, she vows that with

God's grace, 'I still hope to Conquer all the

enemys [sic] of my Soul'. Wesley's epistolary

response to this letter is no t extan t, bu t he once

again reacted to a crisis in the Rich family by

writing a hymn. Entitled 'For a Persecuting

Husband' , i t is narrated by a woman who

addresses Jesus about her unsympathetic hus-

band. She achieves a dramatic climax with her

questions in the third verse:

Still mine eyes for him o'er flow

Whom Thyself hast join'd to me:

Partner of my weal and woe,

Can I his destruction see?

See his soul insensible

Madly rushing down to hell?

16

Wesley, in sum, responded to John Rich's

humorous song with a serious evangelical

riposte in which the persecuting husband is

headed not for an evening religious gathering

with 'brethren and sisters' but rather for an

eternal 'Adieu' in the dark underworld with the

damned.

Powerful support from Charles Wesley

helped Priscilla Rich to achieve victory over

at least one of her 'enemys'. The available

documentation indicates that her husband

sang his new anti-Methodist song only three

times, that is, in the two performances before

Priscilla wrote her letter and once again on

2 December. Four days letter, he 'Paid Mrs La

Font for her 3 nights in The Rape of Proserpine

15s.', a nd The Rape was not performed again at

Covent Garden for the next thirteen years.

17

This circumstantial evidence from the theatre

can be supplemented by a considerable a mo unt

of anecdotal testimony, some of i t anon ym ous.

15

JRULM, DDCW 5/19, Wesley to [Sarah Gwynne, later

Mrs. Charles Wesley], Shoreham, Kent, [14 Jan. 1749]; ibid.

6/38, Wesley to [Sarah W esley], Lo ndo n, 1 M ay 1753; ibid,

same to same, London, 9 Aug. 1766; ibid. 1/58, Wesley to

Samuel Lloyd, Bristol 13-14 Feb. 1767. Charles's daughter

Sarah (see n. 9) states that Priscilla 'retained her affection to

my Father and Mother during her long life' .

" John and Charles Wesley,

Poetical Works,

VII, 153-4.

17

Scouten,

London Stage,

II, 1268-9.

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354 NOTES AND QUERIES

September 1999

Already in 1747 a pamphlet was claiming that

John Rich 'is now like the lost Sheep that is

found: He hath now turn'd the Brothel into a

Temple, and he kneeleth to pray where he hath

kneel'd heretofore to — ' .'

8

Harlequin Method-

ist, an illustrated broadside that was being sold

in 1750 makes much the same suggestion with-

out naming

the

Riches.

It

shows Harlequin

standing on a stool preaching in a theatrical

setting meant to represent Mo orfields. Bedlam

is depicted on the backdrop . At Harlequin's

feet sits a mid dle-aged devotee with folded

hands. The accompanying verse reads in par t :

No Players I'll have but are Saints,

No rakehelly, swaggering Bullies,

No Whores that use Washes and Paints

To draw

in

their vile carnal Cullies.

My women inspired shall be,

My Men

fit for

Martyrs

to

die,

Most holy

in

ev'ry Degree,

A nd

chaste,

like my Deary and

I.

Although this anonymous sheet makes no

explicit references, it seems plausible to suggest

that Harlequin and his 'Deary' were meant to

satirize John and Priscilla Rich.

19

Many associated with the Lo ndo n literary

and theatrical worlds likewise noted the

changes caused by the introduction of Method-

ism into the Rich household. In Roderick

Random

(1748), Tobias Smollett pillories

John Rich

in the

character

Mr

Vandal,

a

theatre manager. According to Smollett, this

impressario's head, 'which was not naturally

very clear, had been disordered with supersti-

t ion, and . . . he laboured under the tyranny of

a wife, and the terrors of hell fire at the same

time'.

2 0

The actor and theatrical producer Tate

Wilkinson dwells on the paradox of an actor

and theatre owner being married to a Method-

ist devotee.

18

A

Letter

to a

Certain Patentee

(1747), quoted in High-

fill,

Biographical Dictionary,

XII, 347.

19

Harlequin Methodist:

To the

Tune of.

An

Old Woman

Cloathed in Grey

(n.p., n.d.); Thelma Niklaus,

Harlequin or

The Rise and Fall

of

a Bergamask Rogue

(London, 1956),

154-5. There appears to be no evidence to support the

contention that this print appeared

in 'c. 1763',

which

is

the date given in Frederick G eorge Stephens and Mary

Dorothy George,

Catalogue

of

Political and Personal Satires

.

. .in

the British Museum,

11 vols (Lo ndo n, 1870-1954), IV,

330-1 ,

no. 4092. Stephens does not even mention the Riches

but instead asserts that

'it

is probable that this satire may be

associated with' the actor-playwright Samuel Foote.

20

Tobias Smollett,

The Adventures of Roderick Random,

2

vols (London, 1748), II, 298-9.

M r s . Rich was a Methodist , - not tha t I

mention it as a recommendation, or that she

was a better Christian for bowing at the

shrine of Nonsense and Hypocrisy. . . .

[The Methodists '] composit ion is gloom,

melancholy, envy, and spleen; cheerfulness

is seldom observed to dawn on their cou nte-

nances. Notwithstanding their boasted

inspirations, if Method ist preachers had a

little reflection, what must they think of

daring to pronounce every theatre the devil 's

house , and all the players the devil's chil-

dren

21

The young Covent Garden actress George

Anne Bellamy was warmly greeted at Cowley

by John Rich on one occasion but was received

rather more coolly by Priscilla. B ellamy's sub -

sequent comment echoes

the

emphasis

on

Methodists ' greed found in. 'Adieu the

Delights' and other sources: 'This lady,

having been converted to Methodism, now

t hought of nothing but praying and accumu-

lating wealth for herself and her spouse. For

those good people seldom neglect that grand

concern, however they may censure such

worldly wisdom in the unconverted. '

2 2

The

available evidence, in sum, points to the con-

clusion that Priscilla's Methodism had won out

over John's anti-Methodism soon after his

performances of the anti-M ethodist song and

that her influence over him, at least in religious

matters, remained strong for most of the

remaining fifteen years of his life.

The existence of 'Adieu the D elights of th e

Stage' suggests the need for a reassessment of

the vicissitudes of anti-Methodism on the Eng-

lish stage. This need is all the more apparent

because neither the song nor anti-Methodism

in the theatre has been much noticed by critics.

21

Tate Wilkinson,

Memoirs

of His Own

Life,

4 vols

(York, 1790), III,

3-4.

22

George Anne Bellamy, An

Apology

for the

Life

of

George Anne Bellamy: La te of Covent-Garden Theatre, 6

vols, 3rd edn

(Lo ndo n, 1785),

I,

197-8.

The

threat

to the

British government posed by the Forty-Five may have

increased public anxiety about challenges

to

patriarchy

in

a variety of contexts. For insights into this broader topic, see

Henry Fielding's anti-Methodist work, The

Female

Hus-

band:

or, the

Surprising History

of

Mrs. Mary, alias

Mr.

George Hamilton

(London, 1746); and the satiric print, The

Female Volunteer, or, An Attempt to Make our men Stand

(1746), discussed

in

Herbert M. Atherton,

Political Prints in

the Age

of

Hogarth:

A

Study

of

the Ideographic Representa-

tion

of

Politics

(Oxford, 1974), 272.

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September 1999

NOTES AND QUERIES

355

In his major book-length study of anti-

Methodism, Albert Lyles refers briefly to M rs

Rich and the song. Yet he misdates her letter

and does not seem to know that she was Joh n

Rich's wife. Moreover, he makes no attempt to

assess the wider significance of the episode.

23

While not mentioning the so ng specifically,

T .

B.

Shepherd emphasizes

the

influence

of

Priscilla: 'After 1770, the anti-M etho dis t refer-

ences on the stage seem to have become much

fewer. This may have been due in par t to the

friendship of Charles W esley with M rs. R ich

[and various others] . . ., but it was also d ue to

the growing prestige of John Wesley.'

24

There

are potential problems with Shepherd's chro-

nology, however, since 'after 1770' John Rich

was dead, and Priscilla was no longe r actively

involved in the London theatrical world. These

difficulties may result from Shepherd's appar-

ent ignorance of the song, its context, and its

importance. Seizing upon this, Terrence

McGovern cites Rich's song as evidence

against Shepherd: The satirical attitu de of

Rich expressed in the song gives little support

to T. B. Sheph erd's contention that Mrs. R ich's

involvement with Charles Wesley may have

helped to quiet criticism of the Methodist on

the stage after 1770.'

25

In other words, Mc-

Govern concludes that the existence of the

song serves to disprove the influence of Pris-

cilla Rich on her husband 's ant i-Methodist

prejudices. He doe s seem to realize that the

song provoked a strong and ultimately success-

ful counterattack by Priscilla.

It is now possible to move bey ond these

problematic analyses and suggest th at there

were at least four phases in the career of anti-

Methodism

on the

English stage.

In the

first,

from 1739 to 1746, the phenom enon was evi-

dent, if not prominent , in London and the

provinces. Thomas Cooke's Mournful Nuptials

(written in 1739 but not performed until 1743)

contains an anti-Method ist epilogue that actu-

ally makes reference to 'Whitefield Ha rle-

quin' .

2 6

Thomas Este 's Methodism Display'd

23

Lyles,

Methodism Mocked, 17.

24

T. B.

Shepherd,

Methodism

and the

Literature

of

the

Eighteenth Century

(Lon don , 1940), 200.

25

Terrence Xavier McGovern, "The Methodist Revival

an d

the

British S tage' (P h.D . dissertation, University

of

Georgia, 1978), 297 n. 17.

26

[Thomas] Cooke,

The Mournful Nuptials,

or

Love

the

Cure of ail Woes

(London, 1739), 71-2. See the discussion by

was performed in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in

1743 despite the om inous collapse of the

stage during a performance.

27

The Mock-

Preacher (1739) contains a statement to the

effect that it had been performed both in the

Metropolis and by strolling players in the

country, but this claim may have been spuri-

ous.

28

In

the second p has e, from 1746

to

1760,

the influence of Priscilla Rich over her husband

helped to assure that the influence of anti-

Methodism on the Lo ndo n stage was m uted.

There is likewise no evidence of anti-

Methodism on the provincial stage during

this period, the country perhaps taking its cue

from the Metropolis.

The floodgates were opened in the third

phase beginning with the production of

Samuel Foote 's The Minor at Drury Lane

Theatre

in

1760. John Rich died

in the

next

year (he was buried close to his second wife),

and Priscilla appears to have played a dimin-

ished role in the affairs of the theatre beginning

around this time. Indeed, there were even

product ions of a pirated version of the anti-

Methodist

Minor at

Covent Garden

in the

1760s, some of them moun ted a short time

before the death of John Rich.

29

The fourth

phase began around 1770 and witnessed the

gradual decline of anti-Methodism in the E ng-

lish theatre an d its virtual disappe arance by the

B uckr oyd in N i cho l a s Lyons

a n d

Pe t e r B uckr o yd ,

' T w o

A nt i - Me t hod i s t Pub l i ca t i ons ' ,

Proceedings

of the

Wesley

Historical Society, xxx i x ( 1973- 4 ) , 44 - 7 .

27

T h o m a s E s t e , Methodism Display'd: A Farce of One Ac t

(Newcastle-upon-Tyne, [1744]). Further information on this

work can be found in John Wesley,

Journal,

III, 3-4 (2 Nov.

1743);

and Leo Hughes, 'Trick Upon Trick; or, Methodism

Display'd', Studies

in

English,

xxix (1950),

51-61.

In her

27 Nov. 1746 letter to C harles W esley, Priscilla Rich refers to

her husband's performance of Ha rlequin Preacher in 'one of

his old entertainments ' , but the portrayal may not have been

explicitly anti-Me thodist. It could have satirized flambo yant

or pretentious Church

of

England clerics like John 'Or ator '

Henley (who was also a target of Hog arth's graphic satires).

See Graham Midgley,

The Life

of

Orator Henley

(Oxford,

1973).

28

The

Mock-Preacher:

A

Satyrico-Comical-Allegorical

Farce

(Lo ndon , 1739), title page; Mc Gove rn, 'Method ist

Revival ' , 314-17.

29

Wilkinson,

Memoirs,

III , 3,

15-31;

George Winchester

Stone (ed.),

The London Stage .

. .

Part 4: 1747-1776,

3 vols

(Carbondale, Illinois, 1962), II, 827, 902, 913, and

passim.

T.

B.

Shepherd

(in

'Methodis ts

and the

Theatre

in the

Eighteenth Century',

Proceedings

of

the Wesley H istorical

Society,

xxi (1937-8), 6), states that Foote 'had some fears

about its production' because of Mrs Rich.

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356

NOTES AND QUERIES

September 1999

end of George Il l 's reign. Neither the qua rrel

over the 1746 song nor Priscilla's Me thod ist

faith probably had much impact on the the-

atrical events of this half century, pace Shep-

herd. Instead,

the

death

of

the most popular

target of the anti-Methodists, George White-

field (1714-70), the grow ing respectability of

the remaining Methodist leaders (noted

by

Shepherd and many others), the rising socio-

econom ic status

of

Method ist laypeople,

30

and

the increasing acceptance of evangelical doc-

trines must be considered as the most import-

ant changes that helped

to rid the

English

theatre of its overt anti-M ethod ist bigotry.

'Adieu the Delights of the Stag e' thu s belies

its modest appearance and has significance

for

scholars in a number of fields. Among other

things,

it

sheds light

on a

genre

of

anti-Meth-

odism (popu lar songs and b allads) that has n ot

received much scholarly attention. Moreover,

the song and the events following its composi-

tion and performance furnish a basis for re-

evaluating the protracted career of anti-Meth-

odism on the English stage and provide

insights into a neglected but intriguing skirmish

in what

has

been called

the

'struggle

for the

breeches' . Indeed, in her recent boo k of tha t

title,

An na C lark actually uses Priscilla Rich as

an example. Clark,

a

historian, states that

'by

the early nineteenth century, wives

of

prosper-

ous artisans and tradesmen were moving out of

business activities, and the [diminished] role of

women in M ethodism reflected this chan ge'.

According

to

Clark,

an

instance

of

this

occurred when 'London Methodist Mrs. Rich

gave u p her acting career'.

31

Priscilla Rich does

not seem

to

provide

a

good illustration

for

Clark's generalizations. Her retirem ent from

acting

in the 1740s

occurred soon after

the

start of her Me thodist experiences and furn-

ished an early indication of her influence over

her husband. Then, during

the

succeeding

decade and a half, she had a significant

imp act on the English stage (especially thro ugh

her efforts to stifle anti-Methodism), and she

simultaneously gained prominence in the

30

Cl ive D. Fie ld , ' T h e Socia l Com posi t ion of Engl i sh

Methodism to 1830:

A

Mem b er s h i p A na l ys i s ', Bulletin of the

John Rylands University Library of Manchester, lxxvi (199 4),

153-78.

31

Anna Clark, The Struggle for the Breeches: Gender and

the Making of the British Working Class (Berkeley, 1995),

98-9.

Methodist movement.

To be

sure,

as

Clark

indicates, the dom estic sph ere p rovided a

quiet redoubt for many Methodist women.

Yet Priscilla Rich's reaction

to

'Adieu

the

Delights of the Stage' sh ows tha t at least for

some eighteenth-century women, the home

could also be transform ed into an effective

and influential command centre.

ROBERT GLEN

University of New Haven

INSIGNIA VIRALIA

N

THE MEM OIRS O F

M RTINUS SCRIBLERUS

CHAPTER I I I

of

the Scriblerus Memoirs lam-

poons Dr Woodward 's pr ide

in

his supposedly

ancient shield.

1

In it, Dr

Cornelius mentions

The curious Prominence at the belly of tha t

figure, which some taking for the Cuspis of a

sword, denominated

a

Roman soldier;

others accounting the Insignia Viralia, pro-

nounced to be o ne of th e Dii Termini.

. . ?

The meaning here

has

remained obscure;

Kerby-Miller in his notes (209) could only say

that 'the point of the jest is not clear', and

Levine (246) drop ped this passage from the text

he discussed. There do exist formal Latin

phrases like 'decemvirali potestate',

3

but 'vir-

alia' by itself is a nonce-word that can only

mean 'pertaining to a m an'. Th us the passage is

just

a

learned bawdy joke.

The

'Marks

of

Manhood' resembling a spear-point standing

out from the belly naturally suggest one of th e

ithyphallic watchman deities.

WILLIAM C. WATERHOUSE

The Pennsylvania State University

' J. M. Levine, Dr. Woodward's Shield: History, Science,

and Satire in Augustan England (Berkeley, 1977), 238-52.

2

C. Kerby-Miller (ed.), The Memoirs of the Extraordinary

Life. Works, and Discoveries of Marlinus Scriblerus (New

Haven, 1950), 104.

3

Cornelius Nepos, Vitae, Lysander, ii.

FIELDING S LATIN POE M:

A CORRECTION

I N an admirable article on a Latin poem in

Henry Fielding's Journey from This W orld to

the Next {N Q, ccxl (1995), 63-6), Barry

Baldwin noted that

I had

wrongly emended

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