The whole intimacy of the two, gentle Sovereign and fiery subject, is nothing more or less than a curious play, wherein Anne takes the role of Queen (unwillingly enough, poor thing, for she was born to be bourgeoise) and the Duchess assumes the leading part.
Unfortunate "Mrs.Morley"![B] You have a weary time of it, trying to act up to royalty when you would be so much happier as a middle-class housewife, and, perhaps, you have never been more bored than you are to-day in viewing "Sir Courtly Nice." Nor can the performance be as delightful as it might otherwise prove to her of Marlborough; 'tis but a few months since her son, the Marquis of Blandford, had ended in small-pox a career which promised to carry on the greatness of his house.
[Footnote A: "Sir Courtly Nice; or, It Cannot be," was from the pen of John Crown.

In dedicating it to the Duke of Ormond, as can be seen in the original publication of the piece ("London, Printed by H.H.

Jun.
for R.Bently, in Russell street, Covent Garden, and Jos.

Hindmarsh, at the Golden-Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, MDCLXXXV").

The author says: "This comedy was Written by the Sacred Command of our late Most Excellent King, of ever blessed and beloved Memory (Charles II.).