To fill our stage with scaffolds, or to fright

Our wives with rapes, repeated thrice a night;

NOTES.

own vanity, or the forwardness of their injudicious friends.

* And more perhaps than Jerningham can do.— No; Mr. Jerningham has lately written a Tragedy and a Farce; both extremely well spoken of by the Reviewers, and both-gone to the " pastry-cooks."

I thought I understood something of faces; but I must read my Lavater over again I find. That a gentleman with the "physiognomie d'un mouton qui " rêve," should suddenly start forth a new Tyrtæus, and pour a dreadful note thro' a cracked war-trump, amazes me-Well, FRONTI NULLA FIDES shall henceforth be my motto!

In the pride of his heart Mr. J. has taken the instrument from his mouth, and given me a smart stroke on the head with it: this is fair,

Cædimus, inque vicem præbemus crura sagittis.

He has also levelled a deadly blow at a gentleman, who most assuredly never dreamed of having our Drawcansir for an antagonist: this, though not quite so fair, is not altogether unprecedented;

An eagle towering in his pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawked at !

JUDGES Not such as self-created, sit

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On that TREMENDOUS BENCH✶ which skirts the pit,

NOTES.

There is a trait of scholarship in Mr. Jerningnam's last poem, which should not be overlooked; more especially as it is the only one. Having occasion to mention "Agave and her infant," he subjoins the following explanation: "Alluding to Agave, who in "6 a delirium slew her child. See Ovid." No, I'll take Mr. Jerningham's word for it, though I had twenty Ovids before me.

* When this was written, (which was while the Opera House was used for plays) the "learned jus"ticers" here enumerated, together with others not yet taken, were accustomed to flock nightly to this BENCH, from which the unlettered vulgar were always scornfully repelled with an ΟΥΔΕΙΣ ΑΜΟΥΣΟΣ.

I have not heard whether the New Theatre be possessed of such a one: I think not; for critics are no more gregarious than spiders. Like them, they might do great things in concert, but, like them too, they usually end with devouring one another.

+ See his "Peace, Ignominy, and Destruction," page 15.

Where idle Thespis nods, while Arno dreams
Of Nereids "purling in ambrosial streams;"
Where Este in rapture cons fantastic airs,
"Old Pistol new-reviv'd" in Topham stares,
And Boswell, aping with preposterous pride
Johnson's worst frailties, rolls from side to side,
His heavy head from hour to hour erects,
Affects the fool, and is what he affects +
JUDGES of truth and sense, yet more demand:
That art to nature lend a helping hand!

40

45

NOTES.

Arno.-The dreams of this gentleman, which continue to make their appearance in the Oracle, under the name of Thespis, are not always of Nereids. He dreamed one night that Mr. Pope played Posthumus with less spirit than usual; and it was Mr. Johnson singing Grammachre! Another night, that the Mourning Bride might have been better cast, and lo! it was the Comedy of Errors that was played!!!

This was rather unfortunate: but the reader must have already observed, from the strange occupations of these "self-created judges" (which I have faithfully described) that, sleeping or waking, they were attentive to every thing but what passed before their eyes.

+ Pauper videri Cotta vult, et est pauper!

That fables well devised, be simply told,
Correct if new, and probable if old.

When Mason leads Elfrida forth to view, Adorn'd with virtues which she never knew,

50

I feel for every tear; while borne along
By the full tide of unresisted song,

I stop not to inquire if all be just,

But take her goodness, as her grief, on trust;

'Till calm reflection checks me, and I see

55

The heroine as she was, and ought to be,

A bold, bad woman, wading to the throne

Thro' seas of blood, and crimes till then unknown:

Then, then I hate the magic that deceived,

And blush to think how fondly I believed.*

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NOTES.

you

*Mr. Parsons' note on this passage is-" Did "BELIEVE! Could you possibly be so ignorant?"Even so. But I humbly conceive Mr. Mason, who seduced my unsuspecting youth, is equally culpable with myself. There is also one William Shakspeare, who, I am ready to take my oath, is a notorious offender in this way; having led not only me, but divers others, into the most gross and ridiculous errors; making us laugh, cry, and I know not what,

Not so, when Atheling,* made in some strange plot The hero of a day that knew him not,

Struts from the field his enemy had won,

On stately stilts, exulting and undone !

Here I can only pity, only smile;

Where not one grace, one elegance of style,

65

NOTES.

for persons whom we ought to have known to be mere non entities.

But Mr. Parsons has happily obtained an obdurate and impassible head: let him, therefore, "give God "thanks, and make no boast of it." He is a wise and a wary reader, and follows the most judicious Bottom, who, having like himself, too much sagacity to be imposed upon by a feigned character, was laudably anxious to undeceive the world. "No," quoth he, "let him thrust his face through the lion's neck, and say, If you think I come hither as a lion, it were "pity of my life—no, I am no such thing: I am a man, as other men are ;-and then, indeed, let him "name his name, and tell them plainly that he is "SNUG the joiner."

* Atheling. See the "Battle of Hastings." A tragedy in which Mr. Cumberland has contrived with matchless dexterity, to introduce every absurdity of every kind.

G