Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/97

 the co-operation of Betterton in another adaptation from Molière (the early ‘Dépit Amoureux’ of 1653, which was in its turn derived from ‘L' Interesse’ of Nicolò Secchi). The English version, entitled ‘The Mistake,’ was represented for the first time on 27 Dec. 1705 at the Haymarket, and was played six times consecutively. It was published without the author's name by Tonson in January 1706 (‘The Mistake. A Comedy as it is acted at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket,’ London, 4to). A greatly abbreviated version, entitled ‘Lovers' Quarrels; or like Master, like Man,’ was produced at Covent Garden on 11 Feb. 1790, and is attributed to the actor Thomas King [q. v.], who took the part of Sancho (printed in London Stage, 1824, vol. iii.; cf., vi. 600). Vanbrugh's version was printed in 1893 among the ‘Plays from Molière by English Dramatists’ (Sir Hundred Books, No. 61).

There are signs of hasty workmanship in ‘The Mistake’ (especially in the last two acts), and henceforth, as his architectural work became more and more engrossing, Vanbrugh's dramatic career was stifled. His sole remaining drama, ‘The Journey to London,’ which promised to be second to none of his comedies, was left (at his death in 1726) in a fragmentary condition. Colley Cibber undertook to complete and recast the fragment. The result was a comedy which long remained a great favourite with the playgoing public. It was first produced at Drury Lane on 10 Jan. 1728 (running twenty-eight nights) under Cibber's title, ‘The Provok'd Husband,’ and was published at the end of the month. Simultaneously was published Vanbrugh's original fragment, ‘A Journey to London. Being part of a Comedy written by the late Sir John Vanbrugh, Knight. And printed after his own copy. Which (since his Decease) has been made an Intire Play, By Mr. Cibber, And call'd The Provok'd Husband’ (London, 1728, 8vo). The fragment and the entire play appeared side by side in the editions of 1735 and 1776. A French translation, ‘Le mari poussé à bout,’ was published at London and at Lausanne (1761 and 1783, 8vo). Joseph Hunter in his ‘Chorus Vatum’ (Addit. MS. 24493, f. 194) records a tradition that in his delineation of the Wronghead family Vanbrugh intended to ridicule some of his wife's north-country relatives.

The early stages of Vanbrugh's architectural career are obscure. His first employer of note appears to have been the Earl of Carlisle, for whom he commenced a mansion upon the site of the old castle of Henderskelfe in 1701. The result was Castle Howard, which with its splendid south facade, 323 feet long, remains, in spite of incongruous additions, one of the finest examples of the Corinthian renaissance in England. The main building was not completed until 1714, but in the meantime, as a token of his approbation, Carlisle, who during the minority of the Duke of Norfolk was the acting earl-marshal of England, promised Vanbrugh the lucrative appointment of Clarenceux king-at-arms. As it was necessary by the rules of the college that a king-at-arms should have passed through the grade of herald, Vanbrugh on 21 June 1703 was appointed to the obsolete post of Carlisle herald; he was promoted Clarenceux by patent dated 29 March 1704. As Vanbrugh was not only a stranger, but was known to take a humorously sceptical view of the importance of heraldic functions (which he had publicly ridiculed in his comedy of ‘Æsop’), his appointment was not popular. More particularly Gregory King [q. v.], the senior pursuivant, was the injured man, and he ‘persuaded some other heralds to join with him in a petition against the Lord Marshalls power, but the Council unanimously supported’ Lord Carlisle (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep., App. ix. 97). Further, in 1710, when there was a rumour that Clarenceux was about to receive a reversionary grant of the office of Garter, King wrote in alarm to Harley to deprecate such an act of injustice (, Herald and Genealogist, vii. 113; Addit. MS. 9011, ff. 346 seq.; Harl. MS. 7525, f. 40;, Coll. of Arms, p. 204). Once appointed, however, Vanbrugh was a frequent attendant at the college, and in 1706 he carried out with credit Queen Anne's commission to convey the insignia of the order of the Garter to Prince George of Hanover (Instructions in Addit. MS. 6321, f. 59; cf., Memorials, 1841, p. cxxiii).

Meanwhile, in June 1702, Vanbrugh had succeeded William Talman [q. v.] in the comptrollership of the board of works at 8s. 8d. a day. In 1703 he built a house at Whitton Hall, near Hounslow (still standing, though much altered), for Sir Godfrey Kneller, who was, like himself, a member of the Kit-Cat Club. In the same year he wrote to his friend and correspondent Jacob Tonson [q. v.] that he had negotiated the purchase of the site for a new theatre, to be called the Queen's in honour of Anne. ‘The ground is the second stable yard going up the Haymarket; I give 2,000l. for it’ (the present Her Majesty's is the fourth theatre on this site). While the building was going on, Vanbrugh was annoyed by a reverberation of