Note 1 — DRAMATIC CENSOR.
Reading edition
Johnson’s Idler, No. 25.
2.
What we hear With weaker passion will affect the heart Than when the faithful eye beholds the part. —Francis.
3. Dr. Johnson.
4. By Lord Mansfield in the King’s Bench, in the case of Macklin against Sparks, Miles, Reddish, and others.
5. The audience, whenever an individual hisses against the sense of the house, always silence the offender by crying, “there’s a goose in the pit (or wherever it is) turn him out,” and if he persists they expel him by force. It is to be hoped our audiences would follow the example. It is frequently necessary.
6. Dr. Johnson.
7. See Johnson’s Life of Dryden.
8. See the Duett between Rosabelle and L’Eclair, Act. III, scene I, page 16.
9. The Sporting Magazine for one.
10. He might have added gouging, as practised in the southern States of this Union.
11. In the melo-drama of Tekeli, that heroic prince is clapt into a barrel on the stage: a new asylum for distressed heroes!
12. All these are favourite expressions of Mr. R. and prominent in his comedies, living and defunct.
13. Mr. T. Sheridan, the new manager of Drury Lane Theatre, stripped the tragedy of Bonduca of the Dialogue, and exhibited the scenes as the spectacle of Caractacus. Was this worthy of his sire, or of himself?
14.
Oh, wonder-working Lewis! monk, or bard, Who fain would make Parnassus a church-yard! Lo! wreaths of yew, not laurel, bind thy brow, Thy Muse a sprite, Apollo’s sexton thou! Whether on ancient tombs thou tak’st thy stand, By gibbering spectres hail’d, thy kindred band; Or tracest chaste descriptions on thy page, To please the females of our modest age. All hail, M. P.!A from whose infernal brain Thin sheeted phantoms glide, a grisly train; At whose command, “grim women” throng in crowds, And kings of fire, of water, and of clouds, With “small gray men,” “wild yagers,” and what not, To crown with honour thee and Walter Scott: Again, all hail! if tales like thine may please, BSt. Luke’s alone can vanquish the disease; Even Satan’s self with thee might dread to dwell, And in thy skull discern a deeper hell.
A. See a poem to Mr. Lewis, in the Statesman, supposed to be written by Mr. Jekyll.
B. St. Luke’s is an hospital for lunatics in London. Editor of the Mirror.
15. Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury Lane Theatre—as such, Mr. S. is much indebted to him.
16. Mr. S. is the illustrious author of the “Sleeping Beauty” and some Comedies, particularly “Maids and Bachelors.” Baculaurii Baculo magis quam lauro digni.
17. 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 vagabonds; besides, we are still black and blue from the squeeze on the first night of the lady’s appearance in trowsers.
18. Damme, pooh, zounds, &c.
19. “Authors have lived and still live who write for what they call fame!—For my part I write for more substantial food—beef and mutton are the objects of my ambition.”—Reynold’s Preface to Begone Dull Care.
20. One of Mr. Colman’s witty characters in the Africans.