Aukward, embarrafs'd, ftiff, without the skill
Of moving gracefully, or ftanding still;
One leg, as if fufpicious of his brother, t
Defirous feems to run away from t'other.

Some errors, handed down from age to age,
Plead cuftom's force, and ftill poffefs the stage...
That's vile-Should we a parent's faults adore ;
And err, because our fathers err'd before!
If, inattentive to the author's mind,

440

445

Some actors made the jeft they could not find ;;

If by low tricks they marr'd fair Nature's mien,
And blurr'd the graces of the fimple scene;
Shall we, if reafon rightly is employ'd,
Not fee their faults; or, feeing, not avoid?

450

When Falstaff stands detected in a lye,

Why, without meaning, rolls Love's glaffy eye?

Why there's no caufe-at least, no cause we know

It was the fashion twenty years ago.

Fashion! a word which knaves and fools may use,

455

Their knavery and folly to excuse.

To copy beauties, forfeits all pretence

To fame; to copy faults, is want of sense.
Yet (tho' in fome particulars he fails,

Some few particulars, where mode prevails)
If in these hallow'd times, when fober, fad,

460

All gentlemen are melancholy mad; i

When 'tis not deem'd fo great a crime, by half,
To violate a veftal, as to laugh;

Rude mirth may hope prefumpt'ous to engage

465

An act of toleration for the ftage;

And courtiers will, like reasonable creatures,

Sufpend vain fashion, and unscrew their features

Old Falstaff, play'd by Love, shall please once more,
And humour fet the audience in a roar.

470

Actors I've feen, and of no vulgar name,

Who being from one part poffefs'd of fame,

Whether

Whether they are to laugh, cry, whine, or bawl,
Still introduce that fav'rite part in all.

Here, Love, be cautious-ne'er be thou betray'd
To call in that wag Falstaff's dang❜rous 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 caft,

475

For Falstaff fram'd-himself the first and laft-
He ftands aloof from all-maintains his ftate,
And scorns, like Scotfmen, to affimilate.

480

Vain all disguise-too plain we see the trick,

Tho' the knight wears the weeds of Dominick ;

And Boniface, difgrac'd, betrays the fmack,

485

In ANNO DOMINE, of Falstaff's fack.

Arms crofs'd, brows bent, eyes fix'd, feet marching flow,
A band of malcontents with spleen o'erflow;

Wrapt in conceit's impenetrable fog,

Which pride, like Phœbus, draws from ev'ry bog,
They curfe the managers, and curfe the town,

490

Whose partial favour keeps fuch merit down.

But if fome man, more hardy than the rest, Should dare attack thefe gnatlings in their neft, At once they rife with impotence of rage,

495

Whet their small stings, and buzz about the stage. • "Tis breach of privilege!-Shall any dare

To arm fatirick truth against a play'r?

< Prescriptive rights we plead, time out of mind; Actors, unlash'd themselves, may lash mankind.' What! fhall Opinion, then, of Nature free,

500

And lib'ral as the vagrant air, agree

To ruft in chains like these, impos'd by things

Which, less than nothing, ape the pride of kings?
No-tho' half poets with half players join,

505

To curfe the freedom of each honeft line;
Tho' rage and malice dim their faded cheek,
What the Muse freely thinks, fhe'll freely speak;

With just disdain of ev'ry paltry fneer,
Stranger alike to flattery and fear, 7
In purpose fix'd, and to herself a rule, i
Publick contempt fhall wait the publick fool.

Auftin would always gliften in French filks; Ackman would Norris be and Packer, Wilks; For who, like Ackman, can with humour please?.. Who can, like Packer, charm with sprightly cafe ?)

Higher than all the rest, see Bransby strut, at rows obu

A mighty Gulliver in Lilliput !.

Ludicrous Nature! which at once could show

A man so very high, so very low.

510

515

520

If I forget thee, Blakes, or if I fay

Aught hurtful, may I never see thee play!

Let criticks, with a fupercilious air,
Decry thy various merit, and declare..
Frenchman is ftill at top-but fcorn that rage,
Which, in attacking thee, attacks the age.
French follies, univerfally embrac'd, -

At once provoke our mirth, and form our taste.

Long from a nation ever hardly us'd,

At random cenfur'd, wantonly abus'd,

हूँ

Have Britons drawn their sport; with partial view
Form'd gen'ral notions from the rascal few;
Condemn'd a people, as for vices known,

Which, from their country banish'd, feek our own.

535

At length, howe'er, the flavish chain is broke,

And Senfe, awaken'd, feorns her ancient yoke :
Taught by thee, Moody, we now learn to raise
Mirth from their foibles, from their virtues praife.

Next came the legion which our fummer Bayes

From alleys here and there contriv'd to raise,

540

Flufh'd with vaft hopes, and certain to fucceed,

With wits who cannot write, and scarce can read.

Vet'rans no more support the rotten cause,

No more from Elliot's worth they reap applauses.

Each

Each on himself, determines to rely;
Be Yates difbanded, and let Elliot fly.
Never did play'rs fo well an 'authör fit,

345

To Nature dead, and foes declar'd to wit.

So loud each tongue, fo empty was each head,
So much they talk'd, fo very little faid,
So wond'rous dull, and yet fo wond'rous vain,
At once fo willing and unfit to reign,
That Reafon fwore, nor would the oath recal,
Their mighty master's foul inform'd them all.
As one with various disappointments fad,
Whom dulness only kept from being mad,
Apart from all the reft great Murphy came
Common to fools and wits the rage of fame.

550

555

What tho' the fons of Nonfenfe hail him Sire,
Auditor, Author, Manager, and Squire?

560

His reftlefs foul's ambition ftops not there;
To make his triumphs perfect, dub him Play'r.
In perfon tall, a figure form'd to please,
If fymmetry could charm, depriv'd of ease:
When motionless he ftands, we all approve;
What pity 'tis the thing was made to move!

His voice, in one dull, deep, unvary'd found,
Seems to break forth from caverns under ground;
From hollow cheft the low fepulchral note
Unwilling heaves, and ftruggles in his throat.

Could authors butcher'd give an actor grace,

All muft to him refign the foremost place.
When he attempts, in fome one fav'rite part,
To ape the feelings of a manly heart,
His honeft features the difguife defy,
And his face loudly gives his tongue the lye.

565

570

575

Still in extremes, he knows no happy mean,

Or raving mad, or ftupidly ferene:

In cold-wrought scenes the lifeless actor flags;
In paffion, tears the paffion into rags.

580 Can

Can none remember? Yes, I know all muft,
When in the Moor he ground his teeth to dust,
When o'er the stage he Folly's standard bore,
Whilft Common Sense stood trembling at the door.

How few are found with real talents blefs'd!
Fewer with Nature's gifts contented rest.
Man from his fphere eccentrick starts astray;
All hunt for fame, but most mistake the way.
Bred at St. Omer's to the fhuffling trade,
The hopeful youth a Jefuit might have made,
With various readings ftor'd his empty fcull,
Learn'd without fenfe, and venerably dull;
Or at fome banker's defk, like many more,
Content to tell that two and two make four,
His name had stood in city annals fair,
And prudent dulness mark'd him for a may'r.

2

What then could tempt thee, in a critick age,
Such blooming hopes to forfeit on a stage?
Could it be worth thy wondrous waste of pains,
To publish to the world thy lack of brains?
Or might not Reason e'en to thee have shown,
Thy greatest praise had been, to live unknown?
Yet let not vanity like thine despair;
Fortune makes Folly her peculiar care.

585

590

595

600

A vacant throne high-plac'd in Smithfield view, To facred Dulness and her first-born due,

605

Thither with hafte in happy hour repair,

Thy birth-right claim, nor fear a rival there;

Shuter himself shall own thy jufter claim,

And venal Ledgers puff their Murphy's name;

610

Whilft Vaughan or Dapper, call him which you will,

Shall blow the trumpet, and give out the bill.

There rule fecure from criticks and from fenfe,

Nor once fhall Genius rife to give offence;
Eternal peace shall bless the happy fhore,
And little factions break thy reft no more.

615

From