, it was natural for them to take the opportunity
of the intervals between the acts, to express their opinion of the
players, and of their respective parts. Sir Roger hearing a cluster of
them praise Orestes, struck in with them, and told them, that he thought
his friend Pylades was a very sensible man; as they were afterwards
applauding Pyrrhus, Sir Roger put in a second time: "And let me tell
you," says he, "though he speaks but little, I like the old fellow in
whiskers as well as any of them." Captain Sentry seeing two or three
wags, who sat near us, lean with an attentive ear towards Sir Roger, and
fearing lest they should smoke[181] the Knight, plucked him by the elbow,
and whispered something in his ear, that lasted till the opening of the
fifth act. The Knight was wonderfully attentive to the account which
Orestes gives of Pyrrhus his death, and at the conclusion of it, told me
it was such a bloody piece of work, that he was glad it was not done upon
the stage. Seeing afterwards Orestes in his raving fit, he grew more than
ordinary serious, and took occasion to moralise (in his way) upon an evil
conscience, adding, that _Orestes, in his madness, looked as if he saw
something_.

As we were the first that came into the house, so we were the last that
went out of it; being resolved to have a clear passage for our old
friend, whom we did not care to venture among the justling of the crowd.
Sir Roger went out fully satisfied with his entertainment, and we guarded
him to his lodging in the same manner that we brought him to the
play-house; being highly pleased, for my own part, not only with the
performance of the excellent piece which had been presented, but with the
satisfaction which it had given to the old man.

L.

FOOTNOTES:

[174] _New tragedy._ _The Distressed Mother_, by Ambrose Phillips.

[175] _Mohocks._ Gangs of rowdies who roamed the streets at night and
assaulted passers-by. See _Spectator_, NO. 324

[176] _Put on._ Put on speed.

[177] _Seasoned with humanity._ Tempered with kindliness.

[178] _Pyrrhus._ Son of Achilles, to whom Hector's widow, Andromache,
had fallen as his share of the plunder of Troy.

[179] _Pyrrhus his._ This use is due to a wrong idea that the possessive
termination is an abbreviation of _his_.

[180] _Astyanax._ Son of Hector and Andromache (and subject of one of
the most touching passages in Homer).

[181] _Smoke._ A slang word, equivalent to the modern _rag_.