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The following is a catalogue of his perform

ances.

1. Tafe, a comedy of two acts, acted at Drury-Lane, 8vo. 1752. This piece and its profits were given by its author to Mr. Worfdale the painter, who acted the part of Lady Pentweazle in it with great applaufe. The general' intention of it is, to point out the numerous impofitions that perfons of fortune and fashion daily fuffer in the purfuit of what is called taste, or a love of Vertù, from the tricks and confederacies of painters, auctioneers, medal dealers, &c. and to fhew the abfurdity of placing an ineftimable value on, and giving immenfe prices for a parcel of maimed bufts, crazed pictures, and inexplicable coins, only because they have the mere name and appearance of antiquity, while the more perfect and really valuable performances of the most capital artists of our own age and country, if known to be such, are totally despised and neglected, and the artifts themselves fuffered to pass through life unnoticed and difcouraged. Thefe points our author has in this farce set forth in a very just, and at the fame time in a very humorous light; but whether the generality of the audience did not relish, or perhaps did not understand this refined fatire, or that, understanding it, they were fo wedded to the

infatuation

infatuation of being impofed upon, that they were unwilling to subscribe to the justice of it, are points we cannot determine; but it met. with fome oppofition for a night or two, and during the whole run of it, which was not a long one, it found at beft but a cold and diftafteful reception.

2. The Englishman in Paris, a comedy of two acts, 8vo. 1753, performed at Covent-Garden theatre. This piece met with great fuccefs; its first appearance was for Macklin's benefit, when that performer acted the part of Buck, and Mifs Macklin Lucinda, which feemed written entirely to give her an opportunity of displaying her various qualifications of mufic, finging, and dancing, in all which fhe obtained univerfal applaufe. The author himfelf afterwards repeatedly performed the part of Buck; yet it is difficult to fay, which of the two did the cha racter the greatelt juftice. This piece feems defigned to expofe the abfurdity of fending our youth abroad, to catch the vices and follies of our neigbouring.nations; yet there is fomewhat of an inconfiftency in the portrait of the Englifhman, that fcarcely renders the execution anfwerable to the intention. This little comedy was imagined to be a burlefque on M. de Boiffy's François à Londres. On a comparifon, however, there

there does not appear to be the slightest refemblance.

3. The Knights, a comedy of two acts, 8vo. 1754. This piece made its firft appearance at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, about the year 1747, and at that time terminated with a droll concert of vocal mufic between two cats, in burlesque of the Italian comic operas. As this, however, was only temporary, the author, to adapt it more properly to dramatic tafle, and render it a more perfect farce, has wound up a conclufion for it, which however, even as it now ftands, is fcarcely fo conclufive or fo natural as it could be wifhed; but this fault is amply made amends for by its poffeffing, in the highest degree, a much more effential excellence of comedy, which is great ftrength of character, and the moft accurate and lively colouring of nature. His two knights, Sir Penurious Trifle, and Sir Gregory Gazette, the first of which has the ftrongest paffion for perpetually entertaining his friends with a parcel of tale, trite, infignificant stories, and the latter, who is poffeffed with a moft insatiable thirft for news, without even capacity fufficient to comprehend the full meaning of the most familiar paragraph in a public journal, are very strongly painted. The firft of them received additional life from the admirable execution of the author

in his representation of the character, in which indeed it has been reported, that he mimicked the manners of a certain gentleman in the weft of England; and the other feems to have afforded a hint to Mr. Murphy in his Upholsterer, to expatiate ftill more largely on this extravagant and abfurd kind of folly. His other characters Tim and Mifs Suck, with the fcene of courtfhip introduced between them, though not abfolutely new in the firft conception, yet are managed after a new manner, and always give great entertainment in their reprefentation. It was afterwards acted at Drury-Lane.

4. The Englishman returned from Paris, a comedy of two acts, 8vo. 1756. Afted at Covent-Garden. This is a fequel to The Englishman in Paris, wherein the Englishman, who before was a brute, is now become a coxcomb; from being abfurdly averfe to every thing foreign, he is grown into a deteftation of every thing domeftic; and rejects the very woman, now poffeffed of every advantage, whom he before was rufhing headlong into marriage with, when deftitute of any. This piece is much more dramatic and complete than the other, and has a greater variety of characters in it, two more especially, Crab and Macruthen, which are finely drawn; but the circumflance of the

catastrophe

catastrophe being brought about by Lucinda's pretending to have poifoned Sir John Buck in a dish of tea, is taken from Mrs. Centlivre's Artifice.

5. The Author, a comedy of two acts, 8vo. 1757. A&ted at Drury-Lane. This piece was written only for the fake of affording to the writer of it an opportunity of exerting his talents of mimickry, at the expence of a gentleman of family and fortune, Mr. Aprice, whose particularities of character, although entirely inoffenfive, were rendered the butt of public ridicule in the part of Cadwallader. The eager fondnefs which the world ever fhew to perfonal flander, added to the inimitable humour of this writer and performer in the reprefentation, for fome time, brought crowded houfes to it; till at length the resemblance appearing too ftrong, and the ridicule too pungent, not to be seen and felt by the gentleman thus pointed out, occafioned an application for the fuppreffion of the piece, which was therefore forbidden to be any more performed.

6. The Diverfions of the Morning, a farce, acted at Drury-Lane in 1768, but not printed. This was partly compiled from Tafte and Mr. Whitehead's Fatal Conftancy.

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