Note 10a — II. THE BABY’S DEBUT. [5a]

A “Phoenix” was perhaps excusable. The first theatre in Drury Lane was called “The Cock-pit or Phoenix Theatre.” Whitbread himself wrote an address, it is said, for the occasion; like the others, it had of course a Phoenix. “But Whitbread,” said Sheridan, “made more of the bird than any of them; he entered into particulars, and described its wings, beak, tail, &c.; in short, it was a poulterer’s description of a Phoenix.”