d Advertisements, have Summoned You together this Night to hear a
Public Examination of several Public Nusances, My Scene I have laid in
the Common Theatre, which is my usual place of exposing those Knaves and
Fools, who despise the Moral-- and those who are too great or too Subtle
for the common Law, and as my whole design is new, I hope You, my
Gracious Patrons, will not be Offended if I Assigne you a part in this
Pasquinade, which is this,-- You are to Act as a Chorus to the whole.
When you behold a Fool pleasantly exposed You are to laugh, if you
please, not else;-- When a Knave is Satyrized with Spirit & Wit, You are
to Applaud;-- and when Pasquin is dull you are to explode, which I
Suppose will be the Chief of Your Part. But, before I Enter upon my
Office of Public Censor, give me leave Gracious Patrons, as is my
Custom, whenever I come, to give a short Sketch of my Character and
Practice. I am known throughout the Globe, have been Caress'd in most of
the Courts, lock'd up in most Prisons in Europe. The dexterity of my
Flattery has introduced me to the Tables of the First Dons in Madrid one
Day, and, the boldness of my Satyr, into the Inquisition next. I have
Revel'd with the Princes of the Blood, and have made all Paris laugh at
my Wit over Night, and, have had the Honour of being in the Bastile the
next Morning. indeed I fared but indifferently in Holland; for, all that
my Flattery, or Satyr, my Ridicule or my Wit, cou'd procure me there,
was an Appartment in the Rasp House. At length, most Gracious and
Indulgent Britons, I am arrived in this Great Metropolis! this Magazine
of all the World! this Nurse of Trade! this Region of Liberty! this
School of Arts and Sciences! This Universal Rendevouz of all the
Monsters produced by wagish Nature & fantastick Art, here Panopticons,
Microcosms, Bears, Badgers, Lyons, Leapords, Tygers, Panthers, Ostriches
and Unicorns,-- Giants, dwarfs, Hermorphradites and Conjurers, Statemen,
Nostrums, Patriots and Corncutters! Quacks, Turks, Enthusiasts, and Fire
Eaters. Mother Midnights, Termagants, Clare Market, and Robin Hood
Orators, Drury Lane Journals, Inspectors, Fools, and Drawcansirs, dayly
Tax the Public by Virtue of the Strangeness the Monstrosity or delicacy
of their Nature or Genius, And hither I am come, knowing you were fond
of Monsters, To exhibit Mine, the newest & I hope the greatest Monster
of them all, for the Public is a common Bank, upon which every Genius
and every