being obliged to leave my Church for a Fortnight; when the following Converfation, as near as I can remember, paffed between us: if it does not make you fmile, I can only fay, your Lordship's rifible Muscles are not fo pliant as they used to be. Curate.

Mr. Hyour Servant.

I fuppofe, Mr. H, you can guess my Errand; I am going out of Town To-morrow, and fhall want a Supply, and withal, Mafter H-—, I come to inform you, I fhall commence from this Day both Agent and Patient, and intend to hire and to be hired: fo, as I am likely to be a pretty conftant Dealer, and am befides an old Acquaintance, hope you will give me the Turn of the Scale: fo put me down in your Lift immediately.

Mr. H[pulling out the Lift.

It fhall be done, Sir: and a moft refpectable Lift it is, I affure you; I have juft got a fresh Cargo of Scotch Divines, piping hot from Edinburgh; befides the old Corps-my Collection ends with--let me fee---fourteen School-Mafters, five Doctors of Divinity, (pray, my Lord mind the Climax) two Reviewers, three political Writers, two Bible-makers, and a K-'s C-n.

Curate.

All Men of Erudition, I fuppofe.
Mr. H

Excellent Scholars, charming Preachers, I affure you: but, entre nous, not one of them worth Sixpence in the World---but to your Business.

Curate.

Aye, Mr. H—, I must have good Voice for Wednesdays and Fridays, and one of your best Ora

S 2

tors

260

LETTER TO A BISHOP.

tors for Sunday next: you know, my Congregation is a little delicate.

Mr. H

Aye; more nice than wife perhaps---but let us look fharp---here's Parfon Rawbones, one of my Athletic, able-bodied Divines, it is not long fince he knock'd down a Clerk in the Desk for interrupting him in the Middle of a Prayer; this, you know, fhew'd a good Spirit, and keeps up the Dignity of the Cloth but I doubt whether he'll do for you; for he's a North country Man, and has got the Burr in his Throat; he'll never pass at your End of the Town: I fhall fport him, however, at a Day-lecture, or an early Sacrament.

Curate.

You are fo facetious Mr. H-, but pray find me out fomebody, for I am in Hafte.

Mr. H

If you had wanted a Brawler for a Charity Sermon, I could have help'd you to the best Beggar in England, an Errant Pick-pocket for the Middle Ifle; beats your D's and W- -'s out of the Pit, a Doctor of Divinity too, and a Juftice of Peace; but he won't do for you, for the Dog's over Head and Ears in Debt, and durft not ftir out on a Week-day for Fear of the Bum-bailiffs; but--here I have him for you---the quickest Reader in England: I'll bet my Stackhouse's Bible to a CommonPrayer Book, he gives Dr. Drawl to the Te-Deum, and overtakes him before he comes to the Thankf giving! O, he's a rare Hand at a Collect; but, remember, if he preaches, you must furnish him with the Paraphernalia; for he's but just got upon the Lift, and has not Money enough yet to purchafe Canonicals.

Curate.

O, we can equip him with them, but what's his Price?

Mr.

[whispers.

Mr. H Why, you would not offer him lefs thanfor the Sake of your Brethren, for your own Sake. Let me tell you, Sir, I am one of the beft Friends to the inferior Clergy, and have done more for them, (and that's a bold Word) than the whole Bench of B-p's. I believe I may fafely fay, I have raised the Price of Lungs at least Cent. per Cent: I knew the Time, and fo did you, when a well cafflock'd Divine was glad to read Prayers, and on a Holiday too, for Twelve-pence; Old C- - never had more in his Life; now, Sir, I never let a Tit go out of my Stable, (you'll pardon my Jocularity) under five Shillings.--My Friend Hwas running on in this unmerciful Manner, and would, for aught I know, have talked to this Time, if I had not stopp'd him fhort, pretended immediate Business, paid my Earneft, and took my Leave: not a little chagrin'd, you may imagine, at the contemptuous Kindness he expreffed for the Cloth, and the degrading Familiarity with which he treated that Function to which your Lordship, equally with myself, has the Honour to belong.

To fay the Truth-But this must be deferred, with many other Confiderations, to another Letter; my Wife having just now broke into my Study to remind me, that I have a Sermon to finish before Ten, To-morrow, which will scarce give me Time to fubscribe myself,

( 262 )

CRITICAL REFLECTIONS

ON THE OLD

ENGLISH DRAMATICK WRITERS.

I

SIR,

To DAVID GARRICK, Efq.

T is not unnatural to imagine that, on the first Glance of your Eye over the Advertisement of a new Pamphlet, addreffed to yourself, you are apt to feel fome little Emotion; that you beflow more than ordinary Attention on the Title, as it ftands in the News-Paper, and take Notice of the Name of the Publisher.---Is it Compliment or Abuse?---One of these being determined, you are perhaps eager to be fatisfied, whether fome coarse Hand has laid on Encomiums with a Trowel, or fome more elegantWriter(fuch as the Author of The Actor for Inftance) has done Credit to himself and you by his Panegyrick; or,, on the other Hand, whether any offended Genius has employed thofe Talents against you, which he is ambitious of exercising in the Service of your Theatre; or fome common Scribe has taken your Character, as he would that of any other Man or Woman, or Minifter, or the King, if he durft, as a popular Topick of Scan

dal.

Be not alarmed on the prefent Occafion; nor, with that Consciousness of your own Merit, fo natural to the Celebrated and Eminent, indulge yourfelf in an Acquiefcence with the Juftice of ten thoufand fine Things, which you may fuppofe ready to

be faid to you. No private Satire or Panegyrick, but the general Good of the Republick of Letters, and of the Drama in particular, is intended. Though Praife and Difpraife ftand ready on each Side, like the Veffels of Good and Evil on the Right and Left Hand of Jupiter, I do not mean to dip into either: Or, if I do, it fhall be, like the Pagan Godhead himself, to mingle a due Proportion of each. Sometimes, perhaps, I may find Fault, and fometimes beftow Commendation: But you must not expect to hear of the Quickness of your Conception, the Juftice of your Execution, the Expreffion of your Eye, the Harmony of your Voice, or the Variety and Excellency of your Deportment; nor fhall you be malicioufly informed, that you are fhorter than Barry, leaner than Quin, and lefs a Favourite of the Upper Gallery than Woodward or Shuter.

The following Pages are deftined to contain a Vindication of the Works of Maflinger, one of our old Dramatick Writers, who very feldom falls much beneath Shakespeare himself, and fometimes almoft rifes to a proud Rivalfhip of his chiefeft Excellencies. They are meant too as a laudable, though faint, Attempt to rescue these admirable Pieces from the too general Neglect which they now labour under, and to recommend them to the Notice of the Publick. To whom then can fuch an Effay be more properly inferibed than to you, whom that Publick feems to have appointed, as its chief Arbiter Deliciarum, to prefide over the Amusements of the Theatre?-But there is alfo, by the bye, a private Reafon for addreffing you. Your honeft Friend Davies, who, as is faid of the provident Comedian in Holland, fpends his Hours of Vacation from the Theatre in his Shop, is too well acquainted with the Efficacy of your Name at the Top of a Play-Bill, to omit an Opportunity of prefixing it to a new Publication, hoping it may prove a Charm

to