The False Count: or, A New Way to Play an Old Game

By Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn was a prolific and well established writer but facts about her remain scant and difficult to confirm. What can safely be said though is that Aphra Behn is now regarded as a key English playwright and a major figure in Restoration theatre. Aphra was born into the rising tensions to the English Civil War. Obviously a time of much division and difficulty as the King and Parliament, and their respective forces, came ever closer to conflict. There are claims she was a spy, that she travelled abroad, possibly as far as Surinam. By 1664 her marriage was over (though by death or separation is not known but presumably the former as it occurred in the year of their marriage) and she now used Mrs Behn as her professional name. Aphra now moved towards pursuing a more sustainable and substantial career and began work for the King's Company and the Duke's Company players as a scribe. Previously her only writing had been poetry but now she would become a playwright. Her first, “The Forc’d Marriage”, was staged in 1670, followed by “The Amorous Prince” (1671). After her third play, “The Dutch Lover”, Aphra had a three year lull in her writing career. Again it is speculated that she went travelling again, possibly once again as a spy. After this sojourn her writing moves towards comic works, which prove commercially more successful. Her most popular works included “The Rover” and “Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister” (1684–87). With her growing reputation Aphra became friends with many of the most notable writers of the day. This is The Age of Dryden and his literary dominance. From the mid 1680’s Aphra’s health began to decline. This was exacerbated by her continual state of debt and descent into poverty. Aphra Behn died on April 16th 1689, and is buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on her tombstone reads: "Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality." She was quoted as stating that she had led a "life dedicated to pleasure and poetry."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Jun 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781785438387

Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was one of the first Englishwomen to earn a living from writing. She was a playwright, poet, translator, and fiction writer during the Restoration era. Behn’s plays and writing were well-received by the public, but she often found herself in legal trouble or being judged harshly because critics did not like that she was a successful woman. Behn remained a strong advocate for herself, and argued that women should have the same education opportunities as men, paving the way for more women to become writers.

Book preview

The False Count by Aphra Behn

or, A New Way to Play an Old Game.

Aphra Behn was a prolific and well established writer but facts about her remain scant and difficult to confirm. What can safely be said though is that Aphra Behn is now regarded as a key English playwright and a major figure in Restoration theatre

Aphra was born into the rising tensions to the English Civil War. Obviously a time of much division and difficulty as the King and Parliament, and their respective forces, came ever closer to conflict.

There are claims she was a spy, that she travelled abroad, possibly as far as Surinam. 

By 1664 her marriage was over (though by death or separation is not known but presumably the former as it occurred in the year of their marriage) and she now used Mrs Behn as her professional name.   

Aphra now moved towards pursuing a more sustainable and substantial career and began work for the King's Company and the Duke's Company players as a scribe.

Previously her only writing had been poetry but now she would become a playwright. Her first, The Forc’d Marriage, was staged in 1670, followed by The Amorous Prince (1671). After her third play, The Dutch Lover, Aphra had a three year lull in her writing career. Again it is speculated that she went travelling again, possibly once again as a spy.

After this sojourn her writing moves towards comic works, which prove commercially more successful. Her most popular works included The Rover and Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684–87).

With her growing reputation Aphra became friends with many of the most notable writers of the day. This is The Age of Dryden and his literary dominance.

From the mid 1680’s Aphra’s health began to decline.  This was exacerbated by her continual state of debt and descent into poverty.

Aphra Behn died on April 16th 1689, and is buried in the East Cloister of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on her tombstone reads: Here lies a Proof that Wit can never be Defence enough against Mortality. She was quoted as stating that she had led a life dedicated to pleasure and poetry.

Index of Contents

ARGUMENT

SOURCE

THEATRICAL HISTORY

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

MEN

WOMEN

THE FALSE COUNT: or, A New Way to play an old Game

PROLOGUE

ACT I

SCENE I - The Street

SCENE II - A Chamber

ACT II

SCENE I - A Chamber

SCENE II - Changes to the Street

SCENE III - The Inside of the House

ACT III

SCENE I - Don Carlos' House

SCENE II - Francisco's House

ACT IV

SCENE I.

SCENE II - A Garden

ACT V

SCENE I - A Garden

EPILOGUE

APHRA BEHN – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

APHRA BEHN – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE DORSET SQUARE THEATRE – A SHORT HISTORY

ARGUMENT

Don Carlos, Governor of Cadiz, who has been contracted to Julia, now married to a rich old churl, Francisco, in order to gain her, mans a galley, which has been captured from the Turks, with some forty or fifty attendants disguised as ferocious Ottomans; and whilst she, her husband and a party of friends are taking a pleasure trip in a yacht, they are suddenly boarded and all made prisoners by the supposed corsairs, who carry them off to a country villa a few miles from the town belonging to Carlos' friend, Antonio, which, however, they are firmly convinc'd is a palace inhabited by the Great Turk himself. Here Carlos appears, dressed as the Sultan, with much pomp, and Francisco, overwhelmed with terror, speedily relinquishes Julia to his captor. In order to punish her for her intolerable arrogance, Isabella, Francisco's daughter by his former wife, who is designed to wed Antonio, is introduced to a chimney-sweep, Guiliom, masquerading as a noble of high degree. She forthwith strikes up a match with the False Count, leaving Antonio free to marry Clara, Julia's sister, whom he loves. No sooner, however, has the knot been securely tied than Guiliom, appearing in his sooty rags and with smutched face, publicly demands and humiliates his haughty bride. The trick of the feigned Turks is discovered by the arrival at the villa of Baltazer, Julia's father. Don Carlos, however, claims his mistress by reason of his former contract, which is perforce allowed.

SOURCE

Guiliom, masquerading as a Count, is of course directly derived from Les Précieuses Ridicules, first performed 18 November, 1659, and Isabella is a close copy of Cathos and Magdelon. Flecknoe had already adapted Molière in The Damoiselles à la Mode, unacted (4to 1667); and seven years later than Mrs. Behn, Shadwell, in his fine comedy, Bury Fair (1689), drew largely from the same source. His mock noble is a French peruke-maker, La Roch, who marries Lady Fantast's affected daughter. Miller, in his The Man of Taste; or, The Guardian (1735), blended the same plot with L'Ecole des Maris. The stratagem of the feigned Turkish ship capturing the yacht is a happy extension of a hint from the famous galley scene (Que diable allait-il faire à cette galère?), Act ii, 7, Les Fourberies de Scapin. This, however, is not original with Molière, being entirely borrowed from Le Pédant Joué, Act ii, 4, of Cyrano de Bergerac (1654). What is practically a translation of Les Fourberies de Scapin by Otway, was produced at the Duke's Theatre in 1677, and in the same year Ravenscroft included a great part of it in his Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a Schoolboy, Bravo, Merchant, and Magician.

In the Epilogue Mrs. Behn asserts that she wrote The False Count with ease in something less than a week. This may be a pardonable exaggeration; but there are certainly distinct marks of haste in the composition of the play. In Act iii, I, she evidently intended Francisco and his party to be seized as they were returning home by sea, at the end of the act she arranges their sea trip as an excursion on a yacht.

THEATRICAL HISTORY

The False Count; or, A New Way to Play an Old Game was produced at the Duke's Theatre, Dorset Garden, in the autumn of 1682, not later than the end of October. An excellent rattling farce, it seems to have kept the stage at intervals for some twenty years. On 11 August, 1715, there was a revival at Lincoln's Inn Fields. It is billed as 'not acted ten years'. Spiller played Guiliom, Mrs. Moor Isabella, and Mrs. Thurmond Julia. There is no further record of its performance.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

MEN

Don Carlos, Governour of Cadiz, young and rich, in love with Julia     

Antonio, a Merchant, young and rich. Friend to Carlos, in love with Clara, but promis'd to Isabella   

Francisco, old and rich, Husband to Julia, and Father to Isabella     

Baltazer, Father to Julia and Clara         

Sebastian, Father to Antonio                     

Guzman, Gentlemen to Carlos                   

Guiliom, a Chimney-Sweeper; the False Count  

Two overgrown Pages to the False Count

A little Page to the False Count

Petro, Cashier to Antonio

Page to Don Carlos

Captain of a Gally

Two Seamen

Lopez, Servant to Baltazer

Several disguis'd like Turks

WOMEN

Julia, Wife to Francisco, young and handsom, in love with Carlos          

Clara, Sister to Julia, in love with Antonio     

Isabella, Daughter to Francisco; proud, vain and foolish, despising all Men under the degree of Quality, and falls in love with Guiliom                    

Jacinta, Woman to Julia                            

Wife to Petro

Dancers, Singers, &c

THE FALSE COUNT: or, A New Way to play an old Game.

PROLOGUE

Spoken by Mr. Smith.

Know all ye Whigs and Tories of the Pit,

(Ye furious Guelphs and Gibelins of Wit,

Who for the Cause, and Crimes of Forty One

So furiously maintain the Quarrel on)

Our Author, as you'll find it writ in Story,

Has hitherto been a most wicked Tory;

But now, to th'joy o'th' Brethren be it spoken,

Our Sister's vain mistaken Eyes are open;

And wisely valuing her dear Interest now,

All-powerful Whigs, converted is to you.

'Twas long she did maintain the Royal Cause,

Argu'd, disputed, rail'd with great Applause;

Writ Madrigals and Doggerel on the Times,

And charg'd you all with your Fore-fathers Crimes;

Nay, confidently swore no Plot was true,

But that so slily carried on by you:

Raised horrid Scandals on you, hellish Stories,

In Conventicles how you eat young Tories;

As Jew did heretofore eat Christian Suckling;

And brought an Odium on your pious Gutling: