FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   >>  
e note preceding this), i. 126-127, or the Limited Edition of _Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763_, McGraw-Hill and Heinemann, 1951, p. 101. Hume protested vigorously, though with good humor, at this breach of confidence, and Boswell wrote a flippant reply (LJ, pp. 206-207, 208-209).] [Footnote C: (P. 20) "... her Punishment was reserved for the Farce, which for that Purpose was, contrary to Custom, added to the Play." Stock plays were always followed by an afterpiece, but the afterpiece was in most cases omitted during the first run of a new play. For example, Mrs. Sheridan's _Discovery_ opened 3 February 1763 and ran for ten nights before an afterpiece was added. The afterpieces presented with _Elvira_ up to 27 January were as follows: 19 January, _The Male Coquette_ (Garrick); 20 January, _High Life Below Stairs_ (Townley); 21 January, _Old Maid_ (Murphy); 22 January, _Catharine and Petruchio_ (Garrick's adaptation of Shakespeare's _Taming of the Shrew_); 24 January, _High Life Below Stairs_; 26 January, _Catharine and Petruchio_; 27 January, _Edgar and Emmeline_ (Hawkesworth). But Mrs. Pritchard, who played the Queen in _Elvira_, seems not to have appeared in any of these afterpieces, and no one of them contains a queen (Dougald MacMillan, _Drury Lane Calendar_, 1747-1776, Clarendon Press, 1938, pp. 94, 217, 239, 260, 282, 297). Furthermore, if the jest could be understood only with reference to a particular farce, that farce would surely have been named. This is no doubt a case where less is meant than meets the ear. The authors are merely saying that Mallet's play is badly constructed, and is so ridiculous generally that no one will know when the tragedy ends and the farce begins.] [Footnote D: (P. 21) "Though in general this Tragedy is colder than the most extreme Parts of _Nova Zembla_ ..." This is perhaps the only passage in _Critical Strictures_ that can be attributed with certainty to one of the three authors. The remark is Dempster's, and had been made some time before Elvira was presented; in fact, he had applied it originally to Johnson's _Irene_. See LJ, pp. 69, 306.] [Footnote E: (P. 22) "... a Simile of a Bundle of Twigs formed into a Rod ... Mr. _Malloch_'s original Profession ..." Garrick's epilogue to _Elvira_ contains the following lines: A single critick will not frown, look big, Harmless and pliant as a single twig, But crouded _here_ they change, and 'tis not odd, For tw
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   >>  



Top keywords:

January

 
Elvira
 

Footnote

 

afterpiece

 

Garrick

 

Catharine

 
Petruchio
 

afterpieces

 

presented

 
Stairs

authors

 
Boswell
 

single

 

generally

 
Furthermore
 
reference
 
understood
 

tragedy

 

Mallet

 
constructed

ridiculous

 

surely

 

passage

 

Malloch

 

original

 

Profession

 

epilogue

 
Simile
 

Bundle

 

formed


change
 
crouded
 
critick
 

pliant

 

Harmless

 
Zembla
 
Strictures
 

Critical

 

extreme

 

begins


Though

 
general
 

colder

 

Tragedy

 

attributed

 

applied

 

originally

 
Johnson
 

certainty

 
remark