is no allusion to "Marriage a la
Mode" in the "Rehearsal." But surely the whimsical distress of Prince
Prettyman, "sometimes a fisher's son, sometimes a prince," is precisely
that of Leonidas, who is first introduced as the son of a shepherd;
secondly, discovered to be the son of an unlawful king called Polydamas;
thirdly, proved anew to be the son of the shepherd, and finally proved
to be the son of neither of them, but of the lawful king, Theogenes.
Besides, the author of the "Key to the Rehearsal" points out a parallel
between the revolution of state in the farce, and that by which
Leonidas, after being carried off to execution, on a sudden snatches a
sword from one of the guards, proclaims himself rightful king, and,
without more ceremony, deposes the powerful and jealous usurper, who had
sentenced him to death.

[12] Spence's "Anecdotes," quoted by Mr. Malone, vol. i. p. 106.

[13] "I answered not the 'Rehearsal,' because I knew the author sat to
himself when he drew the picture, and was the very Bayes of his own
farce; because also I knew, that my betters were more concerned than I
was in that satire; and, lastly, because Mr. Smith and Mr. Johnson, the
main pillars of it, were two such languishing gentlemen in their
conversation, that I could liken them to nothing but to their own
relations, those noble characters of men of wit and pleasure about the
town."--_Dedication to Juvenal_.

[14] The pains which Dryden bestowed on the character of Zimri, and the
esteem in which he held it, is evident from his quoting it as the
master-piece of his own satire. "The character of Zimri in my 'Absalom'
is, in my opinion, worth the whole poem: it is not bloody, but it is
ridiculous enough; and he, for him it was intended, was too witty to
resent it as an injury. If I had railed, I might have suffered for it
justly; but I managed my own work more happily, perhaps more
dexterously. I avoided the mention of great crimes, and applied myself
to the representing of blind-sides, and little extravagancies; to which,
the wittier a man is, he is generally the more obnoxious. It succeeded
as I wished; the jest went round, and he was laughed at in his turn who
began the frolic."

[15] In one of Cibber's moods of alteration, he combined the comic
scenes of these two plays into a comedy entitled, "The Comical Lovers."

[16]
"You are changed too, and your pretence to see
Is but a nobler name for charity;
Your own provisions furni