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author: www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> 2025-12-03 13:54:13 -0800
committer: www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> 2025-12-03 13:54:13 -0800
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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta charset="UTF-8">
+<title>The Druriad | Project Gutenberg</title>
+<link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
+<style>
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+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77394 ***</div>
+<h1 class="align_c">
+<span class='fontp8'><span class='lspb'>THE</span></span><br>
+<span class='l175'><span class='lspf'>DRURIAD</span>:</span>
+</h1>
+<p class="align_c lh1p7">
+<span class='fontp8'><span class='lspb'>OR</span></span><br>
+<span class='l15'><span class='lspc'>STRICTURES</span></span><br>
+<span class='fontp8'><span class='lspb'>ON THE</span></span><br>
+<span class='lspc'>PRINCIPAL PERFORMERS</span><br>
+<span class='fontp8'><span class='lspb'>OF</span></span><br>
+<span class='bfont'>Drury-Lane Theatre:</span><br>
+<i><span class='lspc'>A SATIRICAL POEM</span>:</i><br>
+<span class='fontp9'>WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.</span>
+</p>
+<hr class='dline hrw_33 margemtb'>
+<div class='poetry_container fontp8'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>“<i>Cuncti adsint, meritæque expectent præmia palmæ:</i></p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c'>* * * * * * * *</p>
+<p class='verse'>“<i>Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine habetur.</i>”&#8288;⸺<span class="small-caps">Virg.</span></p>
+</div></div>
+<hr class='dline hrw_33 margemtb'>
+<div class='pad_left'>
+<p class='fontp8'>
+“My lord, I will use them according to their deserts.”&#8288;—</p>
+<p class='fontp8 mt1x5'>
+“Godsbodikins, man, better! Use every man after his desert, and who shall
+escape whipping?&#8288;—Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they
+deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.”&#8288;⸺<span class="small-caps">Shakespear.</span></p>
+</div>
+<hr class='dline hrw_33 margemtb'>
+<p class='fontp8 align_c'>
+<i>LONDON</i>:</p>
+<p class='fontp8 align_c'>
+<span class='lspz'><span class="small-caps">Printed for W. J. and J. Richardson, under the Royal Exchange.</span></span></p>
+<p class='align_c one_space'>
+<span class="topline">1798.</span></p>
+<hr class='dline hrw_95 margemtb x-ebookmaker-drop'>
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class='nobreak'>
+<span class='l12'><span class='lspb'>ADVERTISEMENT</span>.</span>
+</h2></div>
+<div class="icenter margtb_1">
+<img src="images/i_002.png" class="imw_10" alt="Decorative Image.">
+</div>
+<p class='two_space drop-cap'>
+I Cannot think the subject of the following
+Poem ill chosen, whatever faults there may
+be in the manner of its execution. As some
+kingdoms are found to be influenced by the
+good or bad qualities of the sovereign, so the
+theatres of this country may be considered as
+instruments by which virtue or vice may be
+equally propagated: they are universally frequented;
+for, who is so high as not to honour
+them with an occasional visit, and who is so low
+as not to deem himself an expert judge of theatrical
+merit? That this merit is on the wane,
+I fear, cannot be denied; and I think one of
+the causes may be traced to that laxity of morals
+which pervades all ranks of people. The
+time was when a vicious or foolish character,
+among his brethren behind the curtain, would
+have been more dreaded, by an actor of genius,
+than the hisses of the multitude before it. “Fuit
+<span class='pagenum'>iv</span>ista quondam in hac republica virtus, ut viri
+fortes acrioribus suppliciis civem perniciosum
+quàm acerbessimum hostem coercerent.” Cicero.
+</p>
+<p>
+If it be allowed that an actor cannot do complete
+justice to his part unless he feel all the
+energy which the character is supposed to feel;
+or if, in other words, moral sensations and the
+glow of conscious virtue enhance the player’s
+powers; surely those powers must be impaired,
+if not totally annihilated, by debauchery and
+habitual intoxication; an observation not totally
+useless to those who, however they may
+slight virtue for virtue’s sake, will yet adhere to
+her when, like a modern heiress, she brings an
+ample fortune to increase her attractions.
+</p>
+<p>
+I have only to declare that I commit this
+Poem to the press blinded by no partiality and
+influenced by no unworthy motives; that my
+pages are stained with no private scandal, and
+that, whatever may be the fate of the Poem, I
+shall never blush at an undertaking which has
+for its object the praise of the meritorious and
+the ridicule of the undeserving.
+</p>
+<hr class='dline hrw_95 margemtb x-ebookmaker-drop'>
+<div class="chapter"><span class='pagenum'>1</span>
+<h2 class='nobreak'>
+<span class='fontp9'><span class='lspb'>THE</span></span><br>
+<span class='l15'><span class='lspd'>DRURIAD</span><span class='lspd'>, </span>&amp;c.</span>
+</h2></div>
+<div class="icenter margtb_1">
+<img src="images/i_002.png" class="imw_10" alt="Decorative Image.">
+</div>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<p class='align_c two_space'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'><span class='font2p'>L</span><span class='toupper lspa'>et</span> loftier poets tune their martial lays,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And sing the patriot’s or the hero’s praise;</p>
+<p class='verse'>For casual fare, like hackney-coachmen, ply,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Blame where they can, and, where they cannot,&#8288;—lie:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Each Pasquin now may lash his empty brother,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or, like thin spiders, prey upon each other:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Snug in my shell, I shun their watchful fury,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Laugh at them all, and sing the praise of Drury;</p>
+<p class='verse'>My careless Muse now hovers round her walls,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And lifts her dome yet higher than St. Paul’s.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Friend.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>A wretched simile! of Eastern hue,</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Tis neither gaudy, elegant, or new;</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>2</span>Would you be all that ere poor bard desir’d,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Be read by parsons, by the fair admir’d,</p>
+<p class='verse'>To love and Laura tune th’enervate lyre,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Let hot-press’d paper<a href='#fn_1' id='fnb_1' class='fn_anchor'>[1]</a> glow with am’rous fire;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Ambrosial flow’rs<a href='#fn_2' id='fnb_2' class='fn_anchor'>[2]</a> twine round your mood and tense,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And labour’d nothings take the place of sense.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>I’m all alive! Muse, plume your tow’ring wings,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Hush’d be the winds when charming Florio sings.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Friend.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>3</span>The fragrant morn&#8288;—</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'><span class='invisible'>The fragrant morn&#8288;—</span>Nay, now your pow’r I doubt,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Each worthless sonnet&#8288;—</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Friend.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'><span class='invisible'>Each worthless sonnet&#8288;—</span>Prithee hear me out.</p>
+<p class='verse'>The fragrant morn her rosy blushes spreads,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And o’er the land a dewy influence sheds,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Scarce has the sun emerg’d from ocean’s tide,</p>
+<p class='verse'>His beams yet sleeping on yon mountain’s side,</p>
+<p class='verse'>All nature wakes, life breathes in ev’ry gale,</p>
+<p class='verse'>The insect-tribe spread forth the mimic sail,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Aërial songsters chaunt the vocal lay,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Sport on the wing, and hail returning day.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Siste, viator! let me set you right,</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Tis not the day! I hail returning night:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Through lamp and link-boys take my devious way,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Streets, carts, and “Bill, your honour!” to the play.</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>4</span>There point my quill, “shoot folly as it flies,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And catch the living manners as they rise.”<a href='#fn_3' id='fnb_3' class='fn_anchor'>[3]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Sooner shall Gallia cease her hostile fury,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Sooner shall mighty George frequent old Drury,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In modern bosoms virtuous ardour burn,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or loan-contractors zealous patriots turn,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Than I forego the critic’s choicest food,</p>
+<p class='verse'>To lash the worthless and to praise the good.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Friend.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>But who art thou who thus presum’st to wield</p>
+<p class='verse'>The weighty arms of Churchill in the field?</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>In life’s low vale, I mean not to aspire</p>
+<p class='verse'>To Churchill’s honours and poetic fire,</p>
+<p class='verse'>But merely to divert an idle hour,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Of Drury’s host to ascertain the pow’r;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And, with a candid, not ill-judging, spirit,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Award their different degrees of merit.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Friend.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>5</span>But why alone on Drury “wag your tongue?”<a href='#fn_4' id='fnb_4' class='fn_anchor'>[4]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Why Covent-Garden’s actors leave unsung?</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Know, with buffoons I cannot condescend</p>
+<p class='verse'>My page to tarnish and my time to spend:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Crawford, in age, though not in wisdom, grey,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Attempts in vain th’allotted part to play;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Though Abington spreads out her wrinkled arms,</p>
+<p class='verse'>The Widow Belmour now has lost her charms.</p>
+<p class='verse'>O tasteless age, in folly how mature,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Such mad perversion tamely to endure;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Haste, venerable pair, and leave the stage,</p>
+<p class='verse'>For “beads and prayer-books are the toys of age.”</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>A royal edict issues from the throne,</p>
+<p class='verse'>O! say what brilliant spectacle is shewn?</p>
+<p class='verse'>What constellation sheds its brilliant ray?</p>
+<p class='verse'>Quick is the Georgium Sidus of the play!</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>6</span>By Reynolds taught,<a href='#fn_5' id='fnb_5' class='fn_anchor'>[5]</a> see Lewis frisk and climb,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And Follett’s carrots<a href='#fn_6' id='fnb_6' class='fn_anchor'>[6]</a> grace the pantomime.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Friend.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>If Covent-Garden’s virtues are unknown,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Adopt the reigning mode, and praise your own;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Warton, in Pope, presents us nothing new,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Pert Boswell brings all Johnson to our view,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In quarto see the man of star and ribbon</p>
+<p class='verse'>Sedately usher in the works of Gibbon;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Erskine, self-fancy’d scourger of the throne,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Now pleads his client’s cause, and now his own.</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>7</span>Holman plays Hotspur: Shakespear, with a groan,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Sees Percy, and scarce knows him for his own!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Think you for foreign benefit they strive?</p>
+<p class='verse'>Shakespear is dead, but Holman is alive;<a href='#fn_7' id='fnb_7' class='fn_anchor'>[7]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Self prompts the player, self fills the tedious page,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Alike or in the closet or the stage.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Enough of this! proceed we to our song,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Attend my lays, and tell me where I’m wrong;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Hither, my muse, thy wand’ring flight restrain,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Perch on my quill, and sing of Drury-Lane.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Siddons,<a href='#fn_8' id='fnb_8' class='fn_anchor'>[8]</a> great mistress of each magic art,</p>
+<p class='verse'>To raise contending passions in the heart,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>8</span>When wretched Shore, depress’d with grief and pain,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Calls upon death, her last resource, in vain;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or when, unaw’d by conscience or by fear,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Macbeth drives on her impious mad career,</p>
+<p class='verse'>When horrid dreams at length her guilt reveal,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And on her hand she shews the bloody seal;</p>
+<p class='verse'>When poor Cordelia, after wars alarms,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Expires with anguish in her father’s arms;</p>
+<p class='verse'>In Beverley’s distress and piercing moans;</p>
+<p class='verse'>In Isabella’s shrieks and dying groans;</p>
+<p class='verse'>O Siddons! thou alone the soul can’st thrill,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And melt us down, like Circe, to thy will.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>When Shakespear bids contending passions wage,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Love, hatred, jealousy, remorse, and rage,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>9</span>Or paints the madness of the noble Dane;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or fell ambition of the Highland thane;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or Richard urges on his blood-stain’d course,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And madly cries “My kingdom for a horse!”</p>
+<p class='verse'>Kemble,<a href='#fn_9' id='fnb_9' class='fn_anchor'>[9]</a> in scenes like these, can nobly soar,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And make e’en Garrick’s loss be felt no more.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Next Jordan<a href='#fn_10' id='fnb_10' class='fn_anchor'>[10]</a> comes, Thalia’s fav’rite child,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And charms with naïveté and humour wild;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Miss Peggy, Prissy Tomboy, or Miss Prue,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Oh! who can play so charmingly, so true?</p>
+<p class='verse'>But, in the name of ev’ry thing that’s strange,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Why suffer her in Farren’s walk to range?</p>
+<p class='verse'>Why call her Lady Teazle, Lady Belle?</p>
+<p class='verse'>Still it is Jordan finely dress’d&#8288;—as Nell.</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>10</span>Farren had reach’d the summit of renown,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And who like her shall charm the partial town?</p>
+<p class='verse'>Ah! who shall now portray the modish wife,</p>
+<p class='verse'>When will another Farren spring to life!</p>
+<p class='verse'>But Lady Teazle, Lady Townly too,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Bisarre, and Estifania,&#8288;—all adieu!</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Decamp<a href='#fn_11' id='fnb_11' class='fn_anchor'>[11]</a> approaches! born to tread the stage,</p>
+<p class='verse'>At once the pride and pleasure of the age;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Whether in tragic stole or comic vest,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In each her pow’rs superior are confess’d;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And when she warbles Ariel’s plaintive airs,</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Tis like the music of the tuneful spheres;</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>11</span>In ev’ry scene new beauties stand confess’d,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And the last character is still the best.</p>
+<p class='verse'>But, oh! what pen with equal skill can trace</p>
+<p class='verse'>Th’expressive passions varying in her face?</p>
+<p class='verse'>A face uniting elegance and ease,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Prompt to delight, and emulous to please,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Still changing as the vary’d passions move,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And sure in all to fix esteem and love.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Ye erring critics! will ye still deplore</p>
+<p class='verse'>That wit is fled and genius is no more?</p>
+<p class='verse'>That modern acting no more boasts the art</p>
+<p class='verse'>“To raise the genius and to mend the heart?”</p>
+<p class='verse'>Attend submissive to the voice of truth,</p>
+<p class='verse'>For, see, array’d in all the pride of youth,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Unconscious of her own pre-eminence,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In graceful action, and in native sense,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Decamp approaches! Envy hides her head,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And foul Detraction sinks among the dead!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Each charm’d spectator instant homage pays,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And all is lost in universal praise.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>The tragic Muse, by various evils cross’d,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Some future day, shall mourn her Siddons lost!</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>12</span>Yet one remains, and critics must confess,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Powell shall serve to make that loss the less;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Expressive beauties mantle in her face;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Yet is her gaudy action void of grace.</p>
+<p class='verse'>But, when she paints Almeria’s tender woes,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Each sympathetic heart with pity glows;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Nay more, would she discard the tricks of art,</p>
+<p class='verse'>The outspread arms, shrill voice, and measur’d start;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Would she converse in nature’s artless strain,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Nor deign to walk in imitation’s train;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Her native pow’rs would fairest fame engage,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And a new Siddons might adorn the stage.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Old Churchill spoke in terms of warmest praise</p>
+<p class='verse'>Of Pope, the lively, in her youthful days:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Though sixty summers o’er her head have flown,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Thalia claims this fav’rite for her own:</p>
+<p class='verse'>In Alscrip, Malaprop, and Mistress Page,</p>
+<p class='verse'>She stands without a rival on the stage;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And of her lasting charms, so wide the scope,</p>
+<p class='verse'>All the domestic virtues shine in Pope!</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Palmer’s rough tones no sympathy impart,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>13</span>Yet the man walks majestic through his part;</p>
+<p class='verse'>His voice, his action, and his person, good,</p>
+<p class='verse'>His author always clearly understood;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Firm as the Trojan chief, of form divine,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Whose mother-goddess made his temples shine;</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Twas his, (but not in our degen’rate days,)</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Twas his to mix the myrtle with the bays;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Through five long acts alert and gay to dance,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And realize the fictions of romance.</p>
+<p class='verse'>But now, alas! those fairy scenes are fled,</p>
+<p class='verse'>The myrtle, and the bays, both droop the head!</p>
+<p class='verse'>In modern scenes solicitous to please,</p>
+<p class='verse'>He acts the gentleman with studious ease;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And in some parts I see both sense and spirit,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In Stukely and Iago sterling merit,</p>
+<p class='verse'>With genuine Nature strive:&#8288;—one part remains</p>
+<p class='verse'>To crown his merit and reward his pains.</p>
+<p class='verse'>See Packer, whom his dress in vain disguises,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Seems half-seas over ere the curtain rises;</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>14</span>Tott’ring beneath the weight of plumes and age,</p>
+<p class='verse'>He speaks <i>memento mori</i> to the stage.<a href='#fn_12' id='fnb_12' class='fn_anchor'>[12]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Haste, Palmer! haste! disrobe the royal knave,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Assert your claims, and Drury’s credit save;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Study the part, make Claudius all your own,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And drive the driv’ller from the Danish throne.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Old King,<a href='#fn_13' id='fnb_13' class='fn_anchor'>[13]</a> with ev’ry requisite to please,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Strong sense, dry humour, wit, and comic ease,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Unrivall’d reigns, on Drury’s classic boards,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In crusty crabbed sires and testy lords.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>See Charles,<a href='#fn_14' id='fnb_14' class='fn_anchor'>[14]</a> a brother of the Kemble race,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>15</span>With youthful figure and expressive face,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In ardent Malcolm admiration draws,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And claims in luckless Barnwell loud applause;</p>
+<p class='verse'>He, urging onward in the path of fame,</p>
+<p class='verse'>The native honours of his house to claim,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Shall gain the steep ascent, by Siddons led,</p>
+<p class='verse'>While wreaths of living laurel grace his head.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Wroughton’s<a href='#fn_15' id='fnb_15' class='fn_anchor'>[15]</a> a useful player and a just,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And faithful to his manageric trust,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>16</span>In some few characters, to give his due,</p>
+<p class='verse'>He acts with feeling and with judgement too.</p>
+<p class='verse'>What pity then to see the man presume</p>
+<p class='verse'>To torture and burlesque poor Captain Plume!</p>
+<p class='verse'>“And never was a story of more woe,”</p>
+<p class='verse'>Than Wroughton croaking love-sick Romeo.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>With shaggy wig, stiff knees, and lengthen’d stride,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Pedantic tone, and arms expanded wide,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Unmeaning emphasis, theatric roar,</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Tis an automaton, or Barrymore!<a href='#fn_16' id='fnb_16' class='fn_anchor'>[16]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Dramatic Proteus! who, strange to tell!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Plays ev’ry thing by turns, and nothing well!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Long has he stood, nor chang’d his first degree,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Fix’d at the freezing point of apathy;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And much I fear, that time, which, join’d with sense,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Exalts true genius into excellence,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Will ne’er promote the man, whose sole renown</p>
+<p class='verse'>Heads a banditti or assaults a town.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Suett comes next:&#8288;—alas! and “Woe is me!</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>17</span>“T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see!”</p>
+<p class='verse'>In some low scenes of Colman’s motley stuff,<a href='#fn_17' id='fnb_17' class='fn_anchor'>[17]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Suett is sometimes laughable enough;</p>
+<p class='verse'>But genuine humour, comic wit, and grace,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Are chang’d by him to mum’ry and grimace.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Poor Foresight, skill’d in astrologic lore,</p>
+<p class='verse'>When Parsons died, you fell to rise no more!</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>18</span>For ever clos’d, Burgoyne, is thy chaste page,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And Gripe and Moneytrap must quit the stage.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>With figure neat, and pretty lifeless face,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Goodall, alas! appears of stoic race!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Nor joy, nor grief, affect her lifeless frame,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Inanimate and gentle, mild and tame:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Yet, would she call expression to her aid,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Speak up, and cry, with Kecksey, “Who’s afraid?”<a href='#fn_18' id='fnb_18' class='fn_anchor'>[18]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Her Rosalind would charm, and, in her cause,</p>
+<p class='verse'>All Drury’s dome might ring with loud applause.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>When Bannister in Walter’s part appears,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Who can deny the tributary tears?</p>
+<p class='verse'>And, of his real merits, not to baulk ye,</p>
+<p class='verse'>He’s excellent in Gubbins, Scrub, and Gawkey:</p>
+<p class='verse'>But when, forgetting nature, form, and make,</p>
+<p class='verse'>He tries t’assume the gentleman and rake;</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>19</span>Or when in Tom with lively Lewis vies;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Heav’ns! how disgusting to our ears and eyes!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Yet few comedians, of the present age,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Appear so well, acquainted with the stage;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And, spite of ev’ry fault, the truth to own,</p>
+<p class='verse'>He has the art of pleasing all the town.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>When Shakespear’s magic Tempest awes the soul,</p>
+<p class='verse'>When light’nings dart, waves dash, and thunders roll;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Let beauteous Miller, diffident and fair,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Assume Miranda’s wild angelic air:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Pale with affright, she bends beneath the storm,</p>
+<p class='verse'>While the rude winds unveil her lovely form;</p>
+<p class='verse'>“Poor souls! they perish!” cries the maid distress’d,</p>
+<p class='verse'>“Poor souls! they perish!” echoes ev’ry breast.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Dowton, in Cumberland’s romantic Jew,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Portrays with feeling what the author drew;</p>
+<p class='verse'>In Scrub, or grave-digger, might gain renown:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Why are the corners of his mouth drawn down?</p>
+<p class='verse'>When merit fails, and nature’s sober grace,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Buffoonery but ill supplies their place.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Packer aspires to Denmark’s regal chair,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>20</span>“O Hamlet! what a falling off was there!”</p>
+<p class='verse'>Palmer’s the king for Gertrude’s bridal feast,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And Packer,&#8288;—he should play the churlish priest.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>When vulgar Heidelberg assumes her airs,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Deaf to her brother’s threats, her niece’s tears,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Wallcott comes forth, with squabby shape and mien,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Equal to Mesdames Hopkins, Webb, and Green.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>O popular applause! how short thy date!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Crouch sinks beneath the hand of time and fate!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Hard is the task the slight remains to trace</p>
+<p class='verse'>Of what was Phillips’ elegance and grace.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Old Bannister, in tones of deepest bass,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In Caliban displays his ugly face;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And critics must allow, upon the whole,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Some share of merit to his Mother Cole;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Then let him pass, the social bowl allow,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Applauded once, we well may suffer now.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>With lisping voice, and action full of bustle,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In Fribble shines the Margate hero Russell;</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>21</span>In Sparkish decent, and in Surface mean,<a href='#fn_19' id='fnb_19' class='fn_anchor'>[19]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>The worst Sir Lucius that the stage has seen!</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>O mortals! vain and wayward, ever prone</p>
+<p class='verse'>To vilify all merit but your own;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Deaf to reproof, to public sarcasms blind,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Ye quit the proper sphere by fate assign’d:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Each stripling risks some daring enterprize,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And, giant-like, would rush into the skies.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>The youth, whose pow’rs are neither good nor bad,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In humble merit’s sober mantle clad;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Whose mighty task extends to “Good, my liege!”</p>
+<p class='verse'>Secure or in a chorus or a siege;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Whose modest tongue, unknown to wisdom’s lore,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Speaks what his author wrote, and speaks no more;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Who marks the present hour, recalls the past,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And makes each night a critic on the last;</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>22</span>Him shall applauses greet where numbers pour,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Wentworth or Davis, Webb or Phillimore.</p>
+<p class='verse'>But, when I see some forward youngster stalk,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Smit with the rage of tragedy and talk,</p>
+<p class='verse'>O’erleap each fence of modesty and fear,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And boldly mount to Shakespear’s radiant sphere,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Indignant, then, I spurn compassion’s call;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Contempt and laughter wait upon his fall:</p>
+<p class='verse'>The hapless elf lies humbled in the dust,</p>
+<p class='verse'>While scoffing crowds confess the sentence just.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>But, hark! a plaintive voice amid the gale,</p>
+<p class='verse'>In numbers sweet, breathes out a tender tale;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Sure ’tis some minstrel of the fairy band,</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Tis more than mortal!&#8288;—No, ’tis little Bland.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>With voice mellifluous, though somewhat weak,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And often husky, view the warbler Leak.</p>
+<p class='verse'>On Margaretta’s simple artless lays</p>
+<p class='verse'>She builds a monument of lasting praise;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And, oh! ’twould melt the sternest heart to pity</p>
+<p class='verse'>To hear her sing her “lowly plaintive ditty.”</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>See Biggs, a candidate for London fame,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>23</span>In Drury’s annals now records her name:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Dauntless she enters on the classic ground,</p>
+<p class='verse'>With universal praise and plaudits crown’d.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Aikin, with feeling and good sense endu’d,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Can act the parent prudent, firm, and good;</p>
+<p class='verse'>The British merchant, gen’rous, open, just;</p>
+<p class='verse'>And the old steward, faithful to his trust.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Patient and simple, Drury’s weakest tool,</p>
+<p class='verse'>With too much folly e’en to play the fool;</p>
+<p class='verse'>With awkward form, and vague quiescent face,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Wretched buffoonery, and low grimace;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Lo! Wathen tumbles in, by folly led,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And quick compulsive gravity of head.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Alas, alas! poor shifting weather-cock!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Why didst thou change the halberd for the sock?</p>
+<p class='verse'>Thy lagging purse and wit could ill afford</p>
+<p class='verse'>The festive joys of Wargrave and her lord!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Small bounds divide the idler and the player;</p>
+<p class='verse'>The soldier turns an actor in despair.</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>24</span>See lovely Rose, whom circling crowds adore,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Ne’er felt for Bullock half the shame before.<a href='#fn_20' id='fnb_20' class='fn_anchor'>[20]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>Heav’ns, what a contrast! View the motley feast;</p>
+<p class='verse'>’Tis Pan and Venus, beauty and the beast.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Not Farquhar’s wit could force thy friends to stay,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Though Dibdin’s song ek’d out the murder’d play.</p>
+<p class='verse'>While shows like these can Britain’s care engage,</p>
+<p class='verse'>I spurn such folly, and renounce the stage;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Calm and remote, neglect the passing scene,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Nor quit my roof for Wathen and the spleen.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Who has not oft beguil’d his ev’ning hours,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Charm’d with the melody of Kelly’s pow’rs?</p>
+<p class='verse'>Aided by him, still Arne enchants the town,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And Kelly adds new gems to Handel’s crown.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Oft have we heard, well pleas’d, yet mourn’d the while,</p>
+<p class='verse'>His tones melodious, but his action vile:</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>25</span>Our eyes must weep at what our ears rejoice;</p>
+<p class='verse'>So spare the man, in pity to his voice!</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Bob Palmer can a drunken story tell,</p>
+<p class='verse'>His Jeremy and Trip are passing well;</p>
+<p class='verse'>But, for the airy fops of Farquhar’s age,</p>
+<p class='verse'>When will another Dodd adorn the stage?</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>For Hollingsworth we have not far to look,<a href='#fn_21' id='fnb_21' class='fn_anchor'>[21]</a></p>
+<p class='verse'>What is the part he plays?&#8288;—Oh! Jacob Cook!</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Badd’ley, thy loss must Drury still deplore,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Thy Moses set the audience in a roar:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Now Wewitzer the usurer assumes,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And struts a magpie in the peacock’s plumes.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>In Mellon’s face what gay good humour lies,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>26</span>How archly roll her sparkling gipsy eyes!</p>
+<p class='verse'>And when their fire she darts in Lydia Languish,</p>
+<p class='verse'>O lovely nymph! I cry, assuage my anguish!</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Sedgwick, in Woodley, stands to public view,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or the brave captain of a smuggling crew:</p>
+<p class='verse'>And Dignum’s voice harmonious, soft, and clear,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Though far from pow’rful, charms the list’ning ear.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>For walking gentlemen, and trailing lords,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Grac’d with becoming paucity of words;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or, for the bleeding captain in Macbeth,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Who talks of honour, murder, scars, and death;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Or of conspirators to make a cluster;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Holland and Caulfield here may well pass muster.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Maddocks and Phillimore, ye brilliant pair!</p>
+<p class='verse'>Let Banquo’s bloody murder be your care:</p>
+<p class='verse'>While Trueman cries, aghast, in fearful mood,</p>
+<p class='verse'>“Methought, my lord, I saw a moving wood!”</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Let black-ey’d Heard, and Stuart tattling fast,</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>27</span>Of vixen chambermaids divide the cast:</p>
+<p class='verse'>And Tidswell tall, with Booth, the ancient crone,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Lead in the queen, or stand behind the throne.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Friend.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Enough! enough! now let the curtain fall,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Here cease your song, and bid good night to all.</p>
+</div>
+<p class='align_c mt1x5'><span class="small-caps">Author.</span></p>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>The Muse now rests, her purpos’d labours o’er,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Safe from her toil, and landed on the shore:</p>
+<p class='verse'>Each actor view’d in Fancy’s magic glass,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Walks o’er her page like royal Banquo’s race.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Oh! would kind Fate, like his, her offspring bless,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Exalt with favour, and with smiles caress,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Her moral page should circling crowds delight,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And added vigour aid her tow’ring flight.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1_4'>Genius of Shakespear, from thy heav’nly sphere,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Look down with pity on thy vot’ries here:</p>
+<p class='verse'><span class='pagenum'>28</span>See pantomimic jargon, ev’ry season,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Usurp the place of common sense and reason.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Some rising poet, O great Bard! inspire,</p>
+<p class='verse'>With one bright spark of thy immortal fire,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Reclaim the taste of this degen’rate age,</p>
+<p class='verse'>And reign once more triumphant o’er the stage.</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+<hr class='hrw_90 margemtb'>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_1'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_1'>[1]</a> See this absurd and pernicious custom well ridiculed in “The Pursuits of Literature.”
+A work which strongly and properly reprobates the practice of those, whose learning,
+“like a rich armour worn in heat of day,” only serves to encumber the wearer. It is not
+our business to criticize the temper or motives of the author of that elaborate performance.
+He may possibly, to use the words of a modern poet, be “shrouded in a mist of moral
+spleen;” or he may be influenced by the purest intentions. The work is of extensive
+utility; and, as such, is entitled to our thanks.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_2'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_2'>[2]</a> Such is the <i>celestial</i> phrase of Henry James Pye, Esq. “O’er June’s ambrosial
+flow’rs.”&#8288;—This gentleman in his ardent devotion to the Muses seems totally to have forgotten
+the Graces; else, why the pompous repetition of the same turgid compound epithets
+that encumber without adorning his odes? We acknowledge that Poet Laureates are placed
+in a dangerous situation; like the pictures hung up in the Forum, they are exposed to the
+indiscriminate criticism of the multitude. Cibber, smarting under the lash of Pope, says
+“a lick at the Laureate” has ever been the fashion. I am sorry to observe, that the present
+bard cannot claim an exemption. I would recommend to his observation the following
+lines of Pope, speaking of Blackmore:
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>What, like Sir Richard, rumbling rough and hoarse,</p>
+<p class='verse'>With arms, and George, and Brunswick, crowd the verse;</p>
+<p class='verse'>Burst, with tremendous din, your ears asunder,</p>
+<p class='verse'>With gun, drum, trumpet, blunderbuss, and thunder.</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_3'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_3'>[3]</a> Pope.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_4'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_4'>[4]</a> Hamlet.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_5'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_5'>[5]</a> By Reynolds taught.&#8288;—The speaking pantomimes of this gentleman, called by courtesy
+comedies, are at present generally known; but, as in all probability they will be soon
+forgotten, it was thought necessary to mention them here.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_6'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_6'>[6]</a> As posterity may be puzzled to understand the meaning of these words, know, all
+men, by these presents, that the joke consists in Mr. Follett, the clown, coming forward
+and sitting down in the front of the stage, with a basket containing three or four immense
+carrots; which, assisted by some intro-susceptive power in the vegetable, he has the appearance
+of devouring whole, to the great delight of the British audience.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Indocti stolidique et depugnare parati</p>
+<p class='verse'>Si discordet eques, media inter carmina poscunt</p>
+<p class='verse'>Aut <i>ursum</i>, aut <i>pugiles</i>; hic nam plebecula gaudet.</p>
+<p class='verse'>Verum equitis quoque jam migravit ab <i>aure</i> voluptas</p>
+<p class='verse'>Omnis ad <i>incertos oculos</i>, et gaudia vana.</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_7'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_7'>[7]</a> <i>Holman.</i>&#8288;—This is one of those actors who should receive a hint to pay more attention
+to their author and less to themselves. Cibber wrote as well as acted for the stage, and
+succeeded: Holman has written too; but, “haud passibus æquis!”
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Scribimus indocti doctique.&#8288;—<span class="small-caps">Hor.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_8'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_8'>[8]</a> The great and unrivalled talents of this lady in tragedy are such as would justly subject
+us to the imputation of vanity and folly, were we to attempt to enumerate them. With
+such a distinguished favourite of Melpomene before our eyes, it is painful to think that
+tragedy should be in this nation overlooked and neglected, as is evinced by the cold manner
+in which the productions of our best dramatic writers are received upon the stage, though
+aided by the magic powers of her, who carries us into whatever regions the fiction of the
+poet places in our view.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Ut magus; et modo me Thebis modo ponit Athenis.&#8288;—<span class="small-caps">Hor.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+<p>
+Let not poets any longer arrogate immortality to their works, when we see the productions
+of Dryden, Otway, Southern, and even Shakespear himself, placed upon the shelf:
+And for what? To please the taste of a public, vitiated by the unseemly trash, issuing from
+the pen of O’Keefe, Reynolds, Morton, &amp;c. &amp;c.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Whose happy arts attention can command</p>
+<p class='verse'>When fancy flags, and sense is at a stand.&#8288;—<span class="small-caps">Pope.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_9'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_9'>[9]</a> We think it sufficient to observe of this gentleman, (whose talents as an actor are too
+well known to require commendation here,) that his Coriolanus and Macbeth are noble
+instances of his powers, and that he has brought Hamlet to the achme of perfection.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_10'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_10'>[10]</a> Who, that has witnessed the admiral efforts of Mrs. Jordan in low comedy, does not
+regret to see her attempt such parts as Lady Teazle and Estifania? After these extraordinary
+undertakings, we shall soon expect to see Mr. Bannister, jun. in Richard III. and
+Mr. Suett in Beverley or Macbeth. As Mrs. Amlet says in the Confederacy, “We are all
+for appearing above what we are, and that is what ruins every body.”
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_11'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_11'>[11]</a> The satirist, averse to exhibiting scenes of folly, fixes with delight on beauty and excellence:
+as the traveller, weary of the uniformity of a dusky heath, wanders with joy
+over fertile plains and enamelled meadows. Seldom have we received more various and
+rational pleasure than from the truly excellent performances of Miss Decamp. With a
+face well adapted to express the sentiments of the soul, an elegant and graceful person,
+appropriate action, and a knowledge of her author’s meaning, which good understanding
+alone can give, this young lady bids fair to obtain general and unrivalled approbation.
+But, as the human mind, however variously gifted by nature, has still some single object in
+which it is peculiarly fated to figure, some cast of character which is exclusively its province,
+we would strongly recommend it to this young lady to study Mrs. Jordan’s comic characters,
+without meaning to preclude her from those occasional variations, which no one can
+undergo with more justice and versatility than herself.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>“Reddere personæ scit convenientia cuique.”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_12'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_12'>[12]</a> It is surprising that the Manager should remain ignorant of the most important part
+of his office, namely, an appropriate distribution of parts. Packer, some thirty years ago,
+might have been a tolerable actor; but surely he has had time to “strut and fret his hour
+upon the stage,” and should now be “heard no more.” The character of the Danish
+usurper, in his hands, is deprived of all its interest, by losing that crafty, yet daring, villany
+which Shakespear intended to portray. The fine soliloquy, “O my offence is rank!” &amp;c.
+is entirely omitted, in pity, we suppose, to this old man’s infirmities: but, it is time to inform
+Mr. Packer, that, when he attempts parts like these, “O my offence is rank!” would be
+no improper exclamation.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_13'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_13'>[13]</a> In the veteran King we see an actor of sterling excellence and merit. He possesses
+real humour unadulterated with buffoonery; a most rare quality in the present state of the
+stage! But “Vitæ summa brevis, spem nos vetat inchoare longam.” Mr. King’s infirmities
+are now growing fast upon him;
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>&#8288;⸺&#8288;⸺&#8288;⸺&#8288;⸺&#8288;⸺“His way of life</p>
+<p class='verse'>Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf!”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+<p class='noindent'>
+And it is with infinite regret that we look forward to the time when he shall retire from
+that stage, of which he has so long been a distinguished ornament.</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_14'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_14'>[14]</a> Mr. Charles Kemble’s powers are daily expanding into excellence; and we look
+forward with pleasure to the future eminence of this young actor.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way,</p>
+<p class='verse'>Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate.&#8288;—<span class="small-caps">Gray.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_15'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_15'>[15]</a> The power of managers to obtrude themselves upon the public in what characters
+they please must often be abused, by laying them open to the attacks of vanity; while,
+from their high situation in the theatre, we presume the real truth is not likely to offend
+their ears. The humorous author of the Connoisseur hints at a reverend bishop, who kept
+his chaplains in a state of such extreme servility, that it was their custom to ask him at the
+conclusion of every deal at whist what his lordship would please to have for trumps?
+Mr. Wroughton may not perhaps be so highly pampered as the above-mentioned bishop,
+but it was thought necessary to enlarge upon the frequent absurdity of his conduct, that
+future managers may profit by his evil example.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>“Bonum est fugienda aspicere alieno in malo.”&#8288;—<span class="small-caps">Publ. Syr.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_16'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_16'>[16]</a> Barrymore is one of those personages, to make use of Pope’s words, “Who never
+changed his principles or wig.”&#8288;—As his action and voice are uniform, so is his wig; as
+his gigantic method of uttering trivial sentiments is uniform, so is his wig: pity the wig is
+not a better one!
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_17'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_17'>[17]</a> The dramatic productions of Mr. Colman have a real claim to the title of motley.
+As a proof of this assertion, we beg leave to refer our readers to the Mountaineers and the
+Iron Chest, in both of which plays are lines not unworthy of a Congreve or a Rowe;
+but these are debased most miserably by others, which are beneath the notice of criticism.
+Upon the whole, it appears, that the genius of this gentleman is happily adapted to the
+size of his theatre:
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam</p>
+<p class='verse'>Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas</p>
+<p class='verse'>Undique collatis membris; aut turpitur atrum</p>
+<p class='verse'>Desinat in piscem mulier fermosa superne</p>
+<p class='verse'>Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici?&#8288;—<span class="small-caps">Hor.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+<p>
+It may be worth inquiry, why the public should permit the performance of the Iron
+Chest at the Haymarket, after the decided sentence pronounced upon it at Drury-Lane; as
+it must be obvious to the most ignorant spectator, that the play was cast with much greater
+force at the last-mentioned theatre; for, while we respect the talents of Mr. Elliston, we
+hold it something like blasphemy to place him in competition with Mr. Kemble, the first
+tragedian of the age; and how must the broad farcical humour of Fawcett suffer in comparison
+with the acting of the late excellent Dodd! Perhaps it may be urged, that Fawcett
+stood next to Dodd in the personification of such characters as Adam Winterton: if so,
+it must certainly be, as Virgil expresses it, “Proximus, sed longo intervallo.”
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_18'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_18'>[18]</a> We wish that Mrs. Goodall would avail herself of our friendly hints; she might certainly
+become an actress of some merit: at present she gives us an idea of a well-constructed
+automaton.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_19'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_19'>[19]</a> Strange that so few actors can play the gentleman!&#8288;—As to Mr. Russell,&#8288;—but it
+would be a waste of time to expatiate on his demerits. All our astonishment is to think
+that he should <i>attempt</i> such characters as Charles Surface; especially as the excellence of
+Smith is still fresh in the minds of the public.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>&#8288;⸺&#8288;⸺&#8288;—Quid enim contendat hirundo</p>
+<p class='verse'>Cycnis?<span class='invisible'>&#8288;⸺Quid enim contendat hirundo</span><span class="small-caps">Lucret.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_20'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_20'>[20]</a> The part of Bullock was performed, by Mr. Wathen, not for the public benefit, but
+his own. The good nature of a British audience was never better exemplified than in the
+above instance.&#8288;—Surely there never was such an age of toleration!&#8288;—Dibdin’s song of the
+<i>Waggoner</i> was also sung by our hero, to exhibit his talents in another point of view. To
+say the execution was intolerable is far from sufficient, and yet we have neither time nor
+patience to say more.&#8288;—All was hushed! for, at least half the audience was asleep.
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='verse'>Somno positi sub nocte silenti</p>
+<p class='verse'>Lenibant curas et corda oblita laborum.&#8288;—<span class="small-caps">Virg.</span></p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<div class='footnote' id='fn_21'>
+<p>
+<a href='#fnb_21'>[21]</a> We are astonished to see this man figuring away in such characters as the Baron
+of Oakland, Mr. Hardy, and Sir Francis Wronghead.&#8288;—When will managers learn
+their duty to the public? and when distinguish between unaffected humour and unnatural
+buffoonery?&#8288;—To Hollingsworth we may apply the lines of Peter Pindar:
+</p>
+<div class='poetry_container'>
+<div class='poetry'>
+<div class='stanza'>
+<p class='ind_1'>“Of acting I have seen enough,</p>
+<p class='ind_1'>“Most vile, most execrable, stuff;</p>
+<p class='verse'>“But none so bad as thine, I vow to God!”</p>
+</div>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+<p class='two_space align_c'>
+THE END.</p>
+<div class='tnote'>
+<p class="align_c space_after">
+Transcriber’s Notes
+</p>
+<p>
+New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
+</p>
+<p>
+The original text used the long s. This has been changed to the regular s.
+</p>
+<p>
+The footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the book.
+</p>
+<p>
+A few obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Archaic and irregular spellings have been retained.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77394 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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author	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2025-12-03 13:54:13 -0800
committer	www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org>	2025-12-03 13:54:13 -0800
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