Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

While gay Thalia's luckless votary, Lambe,*
As he himself was damn'd, shall try to damn.
Known be thy name, unbounded be thy sway!
Thy HOLLAND's banquets shall each toil repay;
While grateful Britain yields the praise she owes,
TO HOLLAND'S hirelings, and to Learning's foes.
Yet mark one caution, ere thy next review
Spread its light wings of Saffron and of Blue,
Beware lest blundering BROUGHAM destroy the sale,
Turn beef to bannocks, cauliflowers to kail.”
Thus having said, the kilted goddess kist
Her son, and vanished in Scottish mist.‡

Illustrious HOLLAND! hard would be his lot
His hirelings mention'd, and himself forgot!
HOLLAND, with HENRY PETTY at his back,
The whipper-in and huntsman of the pack.
Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House,
Where Scotchmen feed, and critics may carouse.

*The honourable G. Lambe reviewed “Beresford's Miseries,” and is moreover author of a farce, enacted with much applause at the priory, Stanmore; and damned with great expedition at the late theatre, Covent-Garden. It was entitled "Whistle for it."

Mr. Brougham, in No. XXV. of the Edinburgh Review, throughout the article concerning Don Pedro de Cevallos, has displayed more politics than policy: many of the worthy burgesses of Edinburgh being so incensed at the infamous principles it evinces, as to have withdrawn their subscriptions.

It seems that Mr. Brougham is not a Pict, as I supposed, but a Borderer; and his name is pronounced Broom from Trent to Tay.-So be it.

I ought to apologize to the worthy deities, for introducing a new goddess with short petticoats to their notice: but, alas! what was to be done? I could not say Caledonia's Genius, it being well known there is no genius to be found from Clackmannan to Caithness; yet without supernatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved! The national "Kelpies," &c. are too unpoetical, and the "Brownies" and "gude neighbours," (spirits of a good disposition) refused to extricate him. A goddess, therefore, has been called for the purpose, and great ought to be the gratitude of Jeffrey, seeing it is the only communication he ever held, or is likely to hold, with any thing heavenly.

Long, long beneath that hospitable roof,
Shall Grub-street dine, while duns are kept aloof.
See honest HALLAM lay aside his fork,
Resume his pen, review his lordship's work,
And grateful to the founder of the feast,
Declare his landlord can translate, at least!*
Dunedin! view thy children with delight,
They write for food, and feed because they write:
And lest, when heated with the unusual grape,
Some glowing thoughts should to the press escape,
And tinge with red the female reader's cheek,
My lady skims the cream of each critique;
Breathes o'er the page her purity of soul,
Reforms each error and refines the whole.†
Now to the drama turn-oh! motley sight!
What precious scenes the wondering eyes invite!
Puns and a prince within a barrel pent,‡
And DIBDIN's nonsense yield complete content,
Tho' now,
thank heaven! the Rosciomania's o'er,
And full-grown actors are endur'd once more;
Yet, what avails their vain attempts to please,
While British critics suffer scenes like these?

While REYNOLDS vents his "dammes," "poohs," and "zounds,"

And common place, and common sense confounds?

* Lordship H. has translated some specimens of Lope de Vega, inserted in his Life of the author: both are bepraised by his disinterested guests.

† Certain it is, her ladyship is suspected of having displayed her matchless wit in the Edinburgh Review: however that may be, we know, frem good authority, that the manuscripts are submitted to her perusal-no doubt for correction.

In the melo-drame of Tekeli, that heroic prince is clapt into a barrel, on the stage, a new asylum for distressed heroes.

§ All these are favourite expressions of Mr. R. and prominent in his comes dies, living and defunct.

While KENNY'S World just suffer'd to proceed,
Proclaims the audience very kind indeed?
And BEAUMONT's pilfer'd Caratach affords
A tragedy complete in all but words?*

Who but must mourn, while these are all the rage,
The degradation of our vaunted stage?

Heavens! is all sense of shame, and talent gone?
Have we no living bard of merit?-none?
Awake GEORGE COLMAN, CUMBERLAND awake!
Ring the alarm bell, let Folly quake!
Oh, SHERIDAN! if aught can move thy pen,
Let Comedy resume her throne again,
Abjure the mummery of German sehools,
Leave new Pizarros to translating fools;
Give as thy last memorial to the age,

One classic drama, and reform the stage.

Gods! o'er those boards shall Folly rear her head
Where GARRICK trod, and KEMBLE lives to tread?
On those shall Farce display Buffoonery's mask;
And Hook conceal his heroes in a cask?
Shall sapient managers new scenes produce
From CHERRY, SKEFFINGTON, and Mother Goose?
While SHAKSPEARE, OTWAY, MASSINGER, forgot,
On stalls must moulder, or in closets rot?
Lo! with what pomp the daily prints proclaim
The rival candidates for Attic fame!

In grim array though LEWIS' spectres rise,
Still SKEFFINGTON and GOOSE divide the prize.
And sure great SKEFFINGTON must claim our praise,
For skirtless coasts, and skeletons of plays,

* Mr. T. Sheridan, the new manager of Drury-Lane Theatre, stripped the Tragedy of Bonduca of the Dialogue, and exhibited the scenes as the specta cle of Caractacus.-Was this worthy of his sire? or of himself?

Renown'd alike; whose genius ne'er confines
Her flight to garnish GREENWOOD's gay designs;*
Nor sleeps with "Sleeping Beauties," but anon
In five facetious acts comes thundering on,†
While poor John Bull, bewilder'd with the scene,
Stares, wondering what the devil it can mean;
But as some hands applaud, a venal few!
Rather than sleep, why, John applauds it too.
Such are we now, ah! wherefore should we turn
To what our fathers were, unless to mourn?
Degenerate Britons! are ye dead to shame,
Or, kind to dulness, do you fear to blame?
Well may the nobles of our present race
Watch each distortion of a NALDI's face;
Well may they smile on Italy's buffoons,
And worship CATALANI's pantaloons,‡
Since their own drama yields no fairer trace
Of wit than puns, of humour than grimace.
Then let AUSONIA, skill'd in every art
To soften manners, but corrupt the heart,
Pour her exotic follies o'er the town,

To sanction Vice, and hunt Decorum down:
Let wedded strumpets languish o'er Deshayes,
And bless the promise which his form displays;

* Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury-Lane Theatre,-as such, Mr. S. is much indebted to him.

† Mr. S. is the illustrious author of "The Sleeping Beauty," and some comedies, particularly “Maids and Bachelors:" Baculaurii baculo, magis quam. lauro, digni.

‡ Naldi and Catalani require little notice,-for the visage of the one, and the salary of the other, will enable us long to recollect these amusing vaga. bonds; besides, we are still black and blue from the squeeze on the first night of the lady's appearance in trowsers.

[blocks in formation]

While GAYTON bounds before the enraptur'd looks
Of hoary marquises and stripling dukes:

Let high-born lechers eye the lively PRESLE
Twirl her light limbs that spurn the needless veil ;
Let ANGIOLINI bare her breast of snow,

Wave the white arm and point the pliant toe;

COLLINI trill her love-inspiring song,

Strain her fair neck and charm the listening throng!
Raise not your scythe, suppressors of our vice!
Reforming saints! too delicately nice!

By whose decrees, our sinful souls to save,
No Sunday tankards foam, no barbers shave;
And beer undrawn and beards unmown display
Your holy reverence for the Sabbath-day.
Or, hail at once the patron and the pile

Of vice and folly, GREVILLE and ARGYLE !*
Where yon proud palace, Fashion's hallow'd fane,
Spreads wide her portals for the motley train,
Behold the new PETRONIUS† of the day,
The arbiter of pleasure and of play!

* To prevent any blunder, such as mistaking a street for a man, I beg leave to state, that it is the institution, and not the duke of that name, which is here alluded to.

A gentleman, with whom I am slightly acquainted, lost, in the Argyle Rooms, several thousand pounds, at backgammon; it is but justice to the manager in this instance, to say that some degree of disapprobation was manifested; but why are the implements of gaming allowed in a place devoted to the society of both sexes? A pleasant thing for the wives and daughters of those who are blest or curst with such connexions, to hear the billiard tables rattling in one room, and the dice in another! That this is the case I myself can testify, as a late unworthy member of an institution which materially affects the morals of the higher orders, while the lower may not even move to the sound of a tabor and fiddle without a chance of indictment for riotous behaviour.

Petro

hid

rbiter elegantiarum" to Nero, " and a very pretty fellow in

reve's Old Bachelor saith.

« AnteriorContinuar »