ABSTRACT
The dramatis personae of The Sullen Lovers includes Sir Positive At-All, a caricature of Sir Robert Howard, and the poet Ninny, a caricature of the Hon. Edward Howard, brother of Sir Robert, and author of Nos 78, 79, 84, and 89, below. In Act I, Sir Positive is reported as confiding to the hero Stanford his discovery of ‘two Plays, that betwixt you and I have a great deal of Wit in e’m; Those are, the Silent Woman, and the Scornful Lady [by Beaumont and Fletcher]— And if I understand any thing in the World, there’s Wit enough, in both those, to make one good Play, If I had the management of e’m’ (p. 6). In Act V, Sir Positive quotes Catiline to Ninny: ‘I’le plow up rocks steep as the Alps in dust, and lave the Tyrrhene Waters into Clouds (as my friend Cateline sayes)’; Ninny responds by quoting Hotspur from Henry IV, Part 1: ‘I’le pluck bright honour from the pale fac’d Moon (as my friend Hot-spur sayes)’ (p. 72 (really p. 80)).
