Даниэль Дефо - Roxana

Well, but Sister, says the Captain’s wife , tell my Lady about the Ball, that’s the best of all the Story; and of Roxana’s dancing in a fine Outlandish [342] Outlandish : foreign. Dress.

That’s one of the brightest Parts of her Story indeed, says the Girl ; the Case was this: We had Balls and Meetings in her Ladyship’s Apartments, every Week almost; but one time my Lady invited all the Nobles to come such a time, and she wou’d give them a Ball ; and there was a vast Crowd indeed, says she .

I think you said, the KING was there, Sister, didn’t you?

No, Madam, says she , that was the second time, when they said the KING had heard how finely the Turkish Lady danc’d, and that he was there to see her; but the KING, if His Majesty was there, came disguis’d.

That is what they call Incog. says my Friend the QUAKER; thou can’st not think the KING wou’d disguise himself; yes, says the Girl , it was so, he did not come in Publick, with his Guards, but we all knew which was the KING, well enough; that is to say , which they said was the KING.

Well, says the Captain’s Wife , about the Turkish Dress; pray let us hear that: Why, says she, my Lady sat in a fine little Drawing-Room, which open’d into the Great Room, and where she receiv’d the Compliments of the Company; and when the Dancing began, a great Lord, says she, I forget who they call’d him , (but he was a very great Lord or Duke, I don’t know which) took her out, and danc’d with her; but after a-while, my Lady on a sudden shut the Drawing-Room, and run up-stairs with her Woman, Mrs. Amy , and tho’ she did not stay long, ( for I suppose she had contriv’d it all before-hand ) she came down dress’d in the strangest Figure that ever I saw in my Life; but it was exceeding fine.

Here she went on to describe the Dress, as I have done already; but did it so exactly, that I was surpriz’d at the Manner of her telling it; there was not a Circumstance of it left out.

I was now under a new Perplexity; for this young Slut gave so compleat an Account of every-thing in the Dress, that my Friend the QUAKER colour’d at it, and look’d two or three times at me, to see if I did not do so too; for ( as she told me afterwards ) she immediately perceiv’d it was the same Dress that she had seen me have on, as I have said before : However, as she saw I took no Notice of it, she kept her Thoughts private to herself; and I did so too, as well as I cou’d.

I put in two or three times, that she had a good Memory, that cou’d be so particular in every Part of such a thing.

O Madam! says she , we that were Servants, stood by ourselves in a Corner, but so, as we cou’d see more than some Strangers; besides, says she , it was all our Conversation for several Days in the Family, and what one did not observe, another did: Why, says I to her , this was no Persian Dress; only, I suppose , your Lady was some French Comedian, [343] Comedian : an actress, originally in comedies. The practice of employing actresses in the female roles (formerly taken by boys) was introduced from France with the revival of the theatres at the Restoration. Actresses had a reputation for sexual immorality, and several of them, including Nell Gwynn, became well-known courtesans. that is to say , a Stage Amazon, [344] a Stage Amazon : Roxana disparagingly suggests that any woman prepared to act on stage was behaving in an unfeminine way. that put on a counterfeit Dress to please the Company, such as they us’d in the Play of Tamerlane, [345] the Play of Tamerlane : Roxana appears to confuse Nicholas Rowe’s Tamerlane (1701) with Racine’s Bajazet (1672), a play about the Turkish sultan of that name and a sultaness, Roxane. It was known to English audiences of Defoe’s day in Charles Johnson’s adaption, The Sultaness , performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1717. Rowe’s play has a Bajazet but not a Roxana. at Paris , or some such.

No indeed, Madam, says she, I assure you , my Lady was no Actress; she was a fine modest Lady, fit to be a Princess; every-body said, If she was a Mistress, she was fit to be a Mistress to none but the KING; and they talk’d her up for the KING, as if it had really been so: Besides, Madam, says she , my Lady danc’d a Turkish Dance, all the Lords and Gentry said it was so; and one of them swore, he had seen it danc’d in Turkey himself , so that it cou’d not come from the Theatre at Paris ; and then the Name Roxana, says she , was a Turkish Name.

Well, said I , but that was not your Lady’s Name, I suppose .

No, no, Madam, said she , I know that; I know my Lady’s Name and Family very well; Roxana was not her name, that’s, true indeed.

Here she run me a-ground again; for I durst not ask her what was Roxana’s real Name, lest she had really dealt with the Devil, and had boldly given my own Name in for Answer: So that I was still more and more afraid that the Girl had really gotten the Secret somewhere or other; tho’ I cou’d not imagine neither, how that cou’d be.

In a word , I was sick of the Discourse, and endeavour’d many ways to put an End to it, but it was impossible; for the Captain’s Wife, who call’d her Sister , prompted her, and press’d her to tell it, most ignorantly thinking, that it wou’d be a pleasant Tale to all of us.

Two or three times the QUAKER put in, That this Lady Roxana had a good Stock of Assurance; and that ’twas likely, if she had been in Turkey , she had liv’d with, or been kept by, some Great Bassa [346] Bassa : an obsolete form of bashaw or pasha , a Turkish grandee. there: But still she wou’d break-in upon all such Discourse, and fly-out into the most extravagant Praises of her Mistress, the fam’d Roxana : I run her down, as some scandalous Woman; that it was not possible to be otherwise; but she wou’d not hear of it; her Lady was a Person of such and such Qualifications; that nothing but an Angel was like her, to be sure ; and yet, after all she cou’d say , her own Account brought her down to this, That, in short , her Lady kept little less than a Gaming-Ordinary; [347] a Gaming-Ordinary : a gambling house which provided food. or, as it wou’d be call’d in the Times since that , an Assembly for Gallantry and Play.

All this while I was very uneasie, as I said before , and yet the whole Story went off again without any Discovery, only that I seem’d a little concern’d, that she shou’d liken me to this gay Lady, whose Character I pretended to run down very much, even upon the foot of [348] upon the foot of : on the basis of her own Relation.

But I was not at the End of my Mortifications yet neither; for now my innocent QUAKER threw out an unhappy Expression, which put me upon the Tenters [349] upon the Tenters : The modern phrase is ‘on tenterhooks’, meaning to make someone painfully anxious. Tenter hooks are the nails on the upper and lower rails of the frame, or tenter, used in the manufacture of cloth to prevent shrinking. again: Says she to me , This Lady’s Habit, I fancy , is just such a-one as thine , by the Description of it; and then turning to the Captain’s Wife , says she, I fancy , my Friend has a finer Turkish or Persian Dress, a great-deal: O! says the Girl , ’tis impossible to be finer; my Lady’s, says she , was all cover’d with Gold, and Diamonds; her Hair and Head-Dress, I forgot the Name they gave it, said she , shone like the Stars, there was so many Jewels in it.