Notes to the Introduction
1Six Plays, written by Mr. Mountfort (London, 1720), 2 volumes. All references to plays other than “Dr. Faustus” are taken from this collection.
2 The substance of my account of Mountfort’s life and work is based on Albert S. Borgman, The Life and Death of William Mountfort (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935).
3 An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, ed. B. R. S. Fone (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1968), p. 117.
4 Charles Gildon, The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets (London, [1698?]), p. 102.
5 (London, 1702), p. 17.
6 Essays of John Dryden, ed. W. P. Ker (New York: Russell & Russell, 1900; rpt. 1961), I, 135-136.
7 English Literature of the Late Seventeenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 132.
8 The first edition, page 5, omits the period at the end of 1. 23 and the speech prefix “Meph.” for 1. 24. These are correctly added in the second edition (1720).
9 The London Stage 1660-1800, Part I: 1660-1700, ed. W. Van Lennep (Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1965), 342.
10 (London, 1675), p. 25.
11 Borgman outlines the changes Mountfort made in his source; see pp. 35ff and Appendix A.
12 A Century of English Farce (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956), pp. 165-166.