Beneath the load of mimicry may groan,
And find that Nature's errors are my own.
Shadows behind of Foote and Woodward came;
Wilkinson this, Obrien was that name.
Strange to relate, but wonderfully true,

410

That even shadows have their shadows too!
With not a single comic power endued,
The first a mere mere mimic's mimic stood;
The last, by Nature form'd to please, who shews,
In Jonson's Stephen, which way genius grows, 416
Self quite put off, affects with too much art
To put on Woodward in each mangled part,
Adopts his shrug, his wink, his stare; nay, more,
His voice, and croaks; for Woodward croak'd
before.

420

410 William Obrien was originally a fencing-master, and made his first appearance as an actor at Drury Lane Theatre in 1758, in the part of Captain Brazen. After continuing on the stage six years, he married Lady Susan Strangeways, daughter to the Earl of Ilchester, and soon after went over to America, where he enjoyed a profitable post under governHe wrote an unsuccessful comedy called the Duel, a farce still on the acting list, called Cross Purposes, and another entitled, A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed.

ment.

414 Wilkinson appears to have made a more favourable impression on the poet, if we are to give credit to the following anecdote in that Actor's diary: "On 20th August, 1763, I acted Bayes in the Rehearsal, my imitation of Holland in the following lines,

'How strange a captive am I grown of late,
Shall I accuse my love or blame my hate;

My love I cannot, that is too divine,

And against fate what mortal dares repine'

had such an effect, that Mr. Churchill, who sat in a balcony

When a dull copier simple grace neglects,
And rests his imitation in defects,

We readily forgive; but such vile arts
Are double guilt in men of real parts.

By Nature form'd in her perversest mood,
With no one requisite of art endued,

430

Next Jackson came.-Observe that settled glare,
Which better speaks a puppet than a player;
List to that voice-did ever Discord hear
Sounds so well fitted to her untuned ear?
When to enforce some very tender part,
The right hand sleeps by instinct on the heart,
His soul, of every other thought bereft,

Is anxious only where to place the left;

435

He sobs and pants to soothe his weeping spouse,

with Lucy Cooper, after laughing to a very violent degree, most vociferously encored the speech, which was echoed by the whole voice of the theatre, and complied with by me of course with great pleasure. Mr. Churchill said, that he was convinced I was not a mimic's mimic, for the imitations were palpably my own. He also encored my mock hornpipe, which was a resemblance of the manner of stage dancing." It was no great credit to Churchill to have been thus associated with Lucy Cooper, the celebrated courtezan, who had been the object of Bolingbroke's infatuated passion, and to whom he addressed the beautiful lines commencing,

Dear thoughtless Clara, to my verse attend,

Believe for once thy lover and thy friend.

427 Jackson afterwards had the chief management of the Theatre Royal at Edinburgh; he was a native of Westmoreland, and though possessed of a good person and some judg ment, was a very indifferent performer, owing to the disadvantages of a harsh voice and provincial accent. He was the author of three tragedies.

To soothe his weeping mother, turns and bows:
Awkward, embarrass'd, stiff, without the skill
Of moving gracefully, or standing still,
One leg, as if suspicious of his brother,
Desirous seems to run away from t'other.

Some errors, handed down from age to age,
Plead custom's force, and still possess the stage.
That's vile-should we a parent's fault adore,
And err, because our fathers err'd before?
If, inattentive to the author's mind,
Some actors made the jest they could not find,
If by low tricks they marr'd fair Nature's mieu,
And blurr'd the graces of the simple scene,
Shall we, if reason rightly is employ'd,
Not see their faults, or seeing, not avoid?
When Falstaff stands detected in a lie,
Why, without meaning, rolls Love's glassy eye?

440

445

450

441 Of these errors none can be more offensive than the very general one of substituting the for thy, adopted by actors of every grade. It is a vicious pronunciation for which there is no pretence either in sound or elegance and sometimes oc casions an ambiguous sense highly distressing to a correct ear.

452 James Love, an actor and dramatic writer. He was educated at Westminster, from thence went to Cambridge, and while there wrote a Pamphlet called "Yes, they are, what then?" in answer to one called "Are these things so?" Sir Robert Walpole sent Love £100 as a gratuity for this seasonable reply. His real name was Dance, and the memory of his father, the surveyor to the city of London, will be coeval with the ponderous edifice which he erected for the residence of the chief magistrate of the metropolis. He was a performer on Drury Lane stage, and excelled in the character of Falstaff. He wrote Pamela, a comedy, and some other pieces. He died in 1774.

Why! There's no cause at least no cause we

know

It was the fashion twenty years ago.

Fashion-a word which knaves and fools may use, Their knavery and folly to excuse.

To copy beauties, forfeits all pretence

To fame-to copy faults, is want of sense.
Yet (though in some particulars he fails,
Some few particulars, where mode prevails)
If in these hallow'd times, when sober, sad,
All gentlemen are melancholy mad,

When 'tis not deem'd so great a crime by half
To violate a vestal as to laugh,

Rude mirth may hope presumptuous to engage An act of toleration for the stage,

436

460

And courtiers will, like reasonable creatures, Suspend vain fashion, and unscrew their features, Old Falstaff, play'd by Love, shall please once more, And humour set the audience in a roar.

470

Actors I've seen, and of no vulgar name, Who, being from one part possess'd of fame, Whether they are to laugh, cry, whine, or bawl, Still introduce that favourite part in all.

462 This fashionable mania seems equally to have raged in Jonson's time, who makes Master Stephen determine upon being melancholy and gentlemanlike. Congreve very appro priately puts the following speech in the mouth of Lord Froth, in his comedy of the Double Dealer, which has been echoed by Lord Chesterfield: "There is nothing more unbecoming a man of quality than to laugh:-it is such a vulgar expres sion of the passions!-every body can laugh."

476

Here, Love, be cautious-ne'er be thou betray'd
To call in that wag Falstaff's dangerous aid:
Like Goths of old, howe'er he seems a friend,
He'll seize that throne you wish him to defend.
In a peculiar mould by Humour cast,
For Falstaff framed-himself the first and last-
He stands aloof from all-maintains his state, 481
And scorns, like Scotsmen, to assimilate.
Vain all disguise-too plain we see the trick,
Though th knight wears the weeds of Dominic,
And Boniface disgraced, betrays the smack,
In anno Domini, of Falstaff's sack.

485

Arms cross'd, brows bent, eyes fix'd, feet march-
ing slow,

A band of malcontents with spleen o'erflow ;
Wrapt in conceit's impenetrable fog,
Which Pride, like Phoebus, draws from every bog,
They curse the managers, and curse the town
Whose partial favour keeps such merit down.

But if some man, more hardy than the rest, Should dare attack these gnatlings in their nest, At once they rise with impotence of rage,

484 Dryden's Spanish Friar.

485 The jovial landlord in Farquhar's Beaux Stratagem. 487 Lips busy and eyes fix'd, foot falling slow,

Arms hanging idly down, hands clasp'd below.

COWPER.

491

495

498-512 These lines were added in the second edition, in consequence of the language adopted by some of the actors, and by their advocates the Critical Reviewers, on the first appearance of the poem.