| Citation |
NYWJ.739.017
2 Jul 1739:11 (290)
There is no species of affectation that has been more
expos'd and ridicul'd than fopperies in dress, speech and
behaviour, plays, satires, essays abound with instances of
characters serv'd up for the publick entertainment for being
distinguish'd only by absurdities of that class: But among
all the different kinds of coxcombs that are the growth of
our fertile soil, and which have been successively made the
load of wit and humour, to the best of my remembrance, the
learned coxcomb has hitherto escap'd. [60 more lines, then:]
At the opera or play-house, one would think no body had a
right to acquit or condemn but he; before the curtain draws
up, he gathers alittle circle about him to hear his skill in
cirticism, his long acquaintance with the stage, and a short
history of the numberless pieces, that, the ghosts in the
"What'd ye call it", owe their deaths to him; talks of
Handel as his right hand man, Pope by his Christian name,
and speaks of Shakespear as a good, pretty writer,
considering the times he liv'd in. --After the performance
is begun, he draws the eyes of the whole circle upon him by
his obstreperous outcries and self sufficient behaviour; if
the actors displease him, he has no mercy on the poet; if
the poet, he is as inexorable to the actors; and if the
audience don't take their cues wholly and solely from him,
he damns them all. . . [68 more lines]
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