| Citation |
BC.770.041
6-9 Apr 1770:1163 (186)
Anecdotes and Repartees chiefly collected from the French. .
. Pradon was to Corneille and Racine, what Dennis was to
Pope and Dryden; but not content with criticism, he would
entertain the public by writing for the stage, and he had
credit enough to be damned. One day, a piece of his being
to be brought on, he went with a friend to the pitt incog,
muffled up, and by his advice furnished with a cat-call.
The first act provoked a general hiss: Pradon trembling
with rage and indignation, was upon the point of betraying
himself; when his friend shewed him the vanity of all
attempts of applause or remonstrance, and withal the danger
of being know, so effectually, that he persuaded him to
produce his cat-call, and to join the rest. He yielded with
reluctance; but soon was so annimated with the uproar of the
house, and the triumphant hiss, which swept words and actors
before it, that he even exceeded the most violent of his
enemies: he happened to be next to a mousquetaire, who with
a stern look asked the cause of his rage, and bid him to be
quiet: "for, says he, the piece is good, and disliked only
by the cannaille, the author being a man of parts, and a
favourite at court." Sir, replies Pradon, I conceive that I
may judge of things for myself, and act accordingly: the
piece is detestable, and I shall hiss on."
"Will you?" says the mousquetaire, and without further
ceremony snatching off the poet's hat and wig, threw them on
the stage: Pradon gives him a slap on the face, upon which
the other breaks his head with the pommel of his sword, and
kicks him out of the house; and poor Pradon is obliged to
submit to the surgeon, for hissing himself.
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