seat and making three very profound
obeisances to the company, commenced his "At Home" with a series of
imitations, in which he personated a Turk from Aleppo, the Yorkshire or
Calabria of the East. This Oriental John Trot, is represented as setting
out on his journey to see the world and make his fortune; and with this
intent visits various places. On one occasion, being mistaken for a
Pasha in disguise, he is every where feasted, and treated with the most
respectful attention, until the real truth being discovered, he is
bastinadoed, spit upon, plucked by the beard, and, in short, maltreated
in a thousand different ways. At last he finds his way to Stamboul, and
manages to obtain an interview with his Sublime Highness; after which he
visits England, France, &c., and on his way back is taken by a pirate,
who carries him to the coast of Africa. During this compulsatory voyage,
he describes himself as affected with the most horrible sea sickness;
and here his representation of a person labouring under that detestable
malady was so accurate, that I almost fancied myself again in the
cockpit of the Actaeon, and all the terrors of the voyage across the
Adriatic arose fresh to my imagination. After many other adventures, he
returns safe to [Sidenote: INGENIOUS MIMICRY.] Aleppo, his native city,
no richer than he set out; but, like the monkey who had seen the world,
"full of wise saws," and strange assertions. His hairbreadth escapes,
the unlucky scrapes he gets into, the blunders he is incessantly
committing from his imperfect knowledge of the languages of the various
nations among whom he is thrown, the continual equivoque and play upon
words, his absurd misconceptions of the orders he receives, his
buffetings, bastinadoes, feasts, imprisonments, and escapes, the odd
satirical remarks elicited by the different objects, places, and strange
fashions he encounters,--all afforded opportunities to the ingenious
mimic for displaying the versatility of his powers. The changes, too, of
voice, manner, look, gesture, suitable to the various characters he
assumed, were infinitely ludicrous and entertaining. In this respect he
was little, if at all, inferior, to his mirth-inspiring brother of the
Adelphi; in proof of which, I need only state, that, though utterly
unacquainted with his language, and enabled to follow the thread of the
story only by the hurried explanations of Hodgson, I sat listening and
laughing with the greatest satisfa