Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/96

Vanbrugh in quarto as ‘The Provok'd Wife: a Comedy as it is acted at the New Theatre in Little Lincoln's Inn Fields, by the Author of a New Comedy call'd the Relapse;’ again 1709, 1710, 1743, 1770; a French translation, ‘La femme poussée à bout,’ appeared in ‘Mélange curieux des meilleures pièces attribuées à Mr. de Saint-Evremond,’ Amsterdam, 1726, i. 235). Sir John Brute was afterwards one of Garrick's great parts (cf. Zoffany's fine picture of him in this rôle at the Garrick Club).

Two such plays as the ‘Relapse’ and the ‘Provok'd Wife’ supplied Jeremy Collier with unrivalled material for his philippic against the stage, and the ‘Short View,’ upon its appearance in March 1698, contained not only frequent allusions to Vanbrugh, but a detailed analysis of the contents of the ‘Relapse’ (chap. v.). On 8 June appeared Vanbrugh's ‘Short Vindication of the Relapse and the Provok'd Wife from Immorality and Profaneness.’ Though it contains a few strokes of wit, the rejoinder proved even more futile than Congreve's.

An interval followed in Vanbrugh's dramatic activity. His next contribution to the theatre was an alteration (from verse to prose, to suit the taste of the day) of Beaumont and Fletcher's ‘Pilgrim,’ which was produced at Drury Lane to celebrate the advent of ‘a new century’ (25 March 1700). On the third night Dryden took his ‘last benefit,’ contributing a prologue and epilogue which were spoken by Colley Cibber, and testify to the unfailing vigour of the veteran. The association would seem to point to a fraternal amity between Dryden and one of his most brilliant successors. The adaptation witnessed the triumph (in the rôle of Alinda) of Anne Oldfield [q. v.], who owed to Vanbrugh this first chance of recommending herself to the public (see, ed. Scott, viii. 439–64; , Hist. of Stage, 1749, p. 201; , Nance Oldfield, 1899). Next of Vanbrugh's pieces appeared the ‘False Friend,’ produced at Drury Lane at the end of January 1702, and published in February without the author's name (London, 4to; ‘Friendship à la Mode: a Comedy of two acts altered from Sir John Vanbrugh,’ appeared at Dublin, 1766, 8vo). The ‘False Friend’ is a free rendering of Le Sage's ‘Traître puni,’ which is itself a version of Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla's ‘La Traicion busca el castigo.’ The fact that Vanbrugh repairs some of the ‘cuts’ made by Le Sage points to his knowledge of the original (perhaps in the literal translation into French published at the Hague in 1700). In the prologue the author speaks of gradually abating the immorality which had been charged against contemporary plays, but he addresses himself to the task in the most cautious fashion.

Vanbrugh had already laid two of the three best French playwrights of his time under contribution. In his ‘Country House,’ a farce produced at Drury Lane on 16 June 1705 (and probably earlier), he levied a first tax upon a third, Carton Dancourt, the ‘Teniers of French comedy,’ whose ‘Maison de campagne’ had appeared on 27 Jan. 1688 (Vanbrugh's farce was published anonymously, London, 12mo, 1715; reprinted as ‘La Maison Rustique,’ 1740; what is apparently an eighteenth-century adaptation forms Addit. MS. 25959). Again, in the ‘Confederacy,’ the most vivacious of Vanbrugh's pieces, and perhaps of English prose comedies before Sheridan, he closely followed Dancourt's ‘Les Bourgeoises à la mode’ (1692). ‘The Confederacy’ was given on 30 Oct. 1705 at the new theatre built by Vanbrugh in the Haymarket, and printed as ‘by the Author of the Relapse’ on 15 Nov. (‘The Confederacy. As it is acted at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket,’ reprinted 1735). Richard Estcourt adapted the same piece of Dancourt in ‘The Fair Example’ (first printed in 1706), but he managed to miss the characteristic excellencies of the original, whereas Vanbrugh in his adaptation surpassed them in every direction (note especially the advantage of Brass over Dancourt's ‘Frontin’). That in spite of the strength of the cast, including Dogget, Booth, Barry, Porter, and Bracegirdle, the ‘Confederacy’ should have had a run of barely a week, must be attributed mainly to the notorious acoustic defects of the theatre. The public, too, may have been to some extent shocked by a play which has been described as the lowest in point of morality to which English comedy ever sank.

In the meantime Vanbrugh had collaborated with Congreve and Walsh in the version of Molière's ‘Monsieur de Pourceaugnac’ produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 30 March 1704 under the title of ‘Squire Trelooby’ (originally performed in 1670, Molière's play had already been extensively ‘borrowed from’ by Ravenscroft in his ‘Careless Lovers’ of 1673). The translation, printed at the end of April 1704, differed considerably from the acted play, and was disowned by the collaborators. It was modified again by John Ralph prior to its reproduction and republication as ‘The Cornish Squire: a Comedy,’ in 1734 (see, iii. 409; and , Bibl. Cornub. ii. 820; , Congreve, p. 148).

Before the close of 1705 Vanbrugh secured