| Citation |
RAG.780.025
27 Jan 1780:21,22 (248)
From the Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement.
The Man of Genius.
A man of genius, whom we shall name Tom Cygnet, arrived in
town in a stage coach. I myself saw him alight in Gray's
Inn Lane. The muse of Mitylene was not more tender than his
own; the song of Musaeus not more soft. . . [5 paragraphs of
exploits]
He judged it now to be time to inquire among the professed
patrons of the muses. He went to Drury-Lane Theatre, and
there found the manager, to whom he announced himself as a
man of genius. "A--a--a--a--a-man of genius are you? Hum-
I--I--I have no employment for a man of genius at this time,
un--un--un--unless you could do a job. I--I want the
tragedy of Richard the Third turned into a farce and a
procession in it. Could you do that? No, Sir, (answered
Tom) my veneration for Shakespeare is too great to suffer me
to attempt it--" "you could not?-- Why then, porter, shew
the gen-tle-man down the stairs."
He arrives at Covent-Garden, and sees the manager, who
asks him if he knows any thing about pantomimes? Yes,
(replied Tom) I can write concerning the ancient pantomime.
"Ay, said the manager, but can you invent the modern." No.
"O then I have no business for you. I doubt not that you
have learning enough, but here we have no use for learning."
. . . [5 paragraphs on other attempts to find employment]
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