that ever
bore that character, but have also descended, and spoke on the stage
as the Bold Thunderer in 'The Rehearsal.' When they got me down thus
low, they thought fit to degrade me further, and make me a ghost. I
was contented with this for these last two winters; but they carry
their tyranny still further, and not satisfied that I am banished from
above ground, they have given me to understand that I am wholly to
depart from their dominions, and taken from me even my subterraneous
employment." He concludes with a petition that his services may be
engaged for the performance of a new opera to be called "The
Expedition of Alexander," the scheme of which had been set forth in an
earlier "Spectator," and that if the author of that work "thinks fit
to use firearms, as other authors have done, in the time of Alexander,
I may be a cannon against Porus; or else provide for me in the burning
of Persepolis, or what other method you shall think fit."

In 1714, Addison wrote: "I look upon the playhouse as a world within
itself. They have lately furnished the middle region of it with a new
set of meteors in order to give the sublime to many modern tragedies.
I was there last winter at the first rehearsal of the new thunder,
which is much more deep and sonorous than any hitherto made use of.
They have a Salmoneus behind the scenes, who plays it off with great
success. Their lightnings are made to flash more briskly than
heretofore; their clouds are also better furbelowed and more
voluminous; not to mention a violent storm locked up in a great chest
that is designed for 'The Tempest.' They are also provided with a
dozen showers of snow, which, as I am informed, are the plays of many
unsuccessful poets, artificially cut and shredded for that vise." In
an earlier "Spectator" he had written: "I have often known a bell
introduced into several tragedies with good effect, and have seen the
whole assembly in a very great alarm all the while it has been
ringing." Pope has his mention in "The Dunciad" of the same artifice:

With horns and trumpets now to madness swell.
Now sink in sorrow with a tolling bell;
Such happy arts attention can command,
When fancy flags and sense is at a stand.

The notion of storing lightning in a bottle for use when required
seems to have been frequently reverted to by the authors of the last
century as a means of entertaining the public. Thus a writer in "The
World," in 1754, makes no doub